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Help me buy an HDTV
Beck
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, I really want an HDTV, and I've tried to do this a few times now, but ended up returning the damn things for various reasons. I've tried to educate myself but, I find it hard to find honest and accurate comments on televisions, either people are trying to defend what they've purchased or, they don't see what I see. It's driving me crazy. Anyway, I have a laundry list of questions, and I appreciate anyone who's willing to take a look at them.
1. I want to use it as a computer monitor. So I'm going to stay around 30 inches (32 would probably be perfect). I was going to try to use a DVI to HDMI converter cable. Is this a bad idea? Or can I sell my 24" Monitor after I buy my new set?
2. I hate motion blur something fierce, I don't see the point in owning an HDTV unless it's HD all the time. I have returned 2 TVs and gone through a ton of hassle to do so because I can't stand it when movies pan and the screen darkens and blurs so much that I can't see any details. How much would I have to spend to avoid this problem? Would 240hz help me avoid this blurring, or do I only need to look at response time? I can accept that I'll probably never be able to eliminate the problem sticking with an LCD HDTV, but I don't want it to be extremely noticeable.
3. Is it a bad time to buy a TV right now? I'm not in any kind of rush, but I don't know how TVs are . . . When new things come out, stuff like that. I might just try and get an idea of what I want, and wait for a sale if anyone knows a good website for that.
4. UIs are definitely important to me, what brands are good? I liked the Sony Bravia set I had for a while because XMB is pretty well designed, and hated my old LG because it was difficult to do anything except change channels.
I reckon those are the biggest questions I have. Also, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, if you know of something that would fit the bill. Thanks in advanced.
1. I want to use it as a computer monitor. So I'm going to stay around 30 inches (32 would probably be perfect). I was going to try to use a DVI to HDMI converter cable. Is this a bad idea? Or can I sell my 24" Monitor after I buy my new set?
2. I hate motion blur something fierce, I don't see the point in owning an HDTV unless it's HD all the time. I have returned 2 TVs and gone through a ton of hassle to do so because I can't stand it when movies pan and the screen darkens and blurs so much that I can't see any details. How much would I have to spend to avoid this problem? Would 240hz help me avoid this blurring, or do I only need to look at response time? I can accept that I'll probably never be able to eliminate the problem sticking with an LCD HDTV, but I don't want it to be extremely noticeable.
3. Is it a bad time to buy a TV right now? I'm not in any kind of rush, but I don't know how TVs are . . . When new things come out, stuff like that. I might just try and get an idea of what I want, and wait for a sale if anyone knows a good website for that.
4. UIs are definitely important to me, what brands are good? I liked the Sony Bravia set I had for a while because XMB is pretty well designed, and hated my old LG because it was difficult to do anything except change channels.
I reckon those are the biggest questions I have. Also, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, if you know of something that would fit the bill. Thanks in advanced.
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
Beck on
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2 - Just turn off that True Motion crap. It's what causes the weird freaky look.
3 - It's always a bad time to buy because something new will be just around the corner or a week after you buy it, it'll go on sale.
PS3 over HDMI, both blu-ray movies and games had the same problem. It was really noticable in games, moving the camera in Resident Evil 5, for example (even slowly), darkened the whole picture, and features were lost in the blur.
Currently LEDS are the higher end model tvs available through retail, but they're roughly comparable to current mid to high end plasmas.
But you don't have to spend a boat load to get what you're looking for, op, like has been said, just disable that tru motion crapola, and you should be sitting pretty.
As far as buying a TV at this time of the year, all the new models come out March through May. At a retailer, you may be able to buy a display model at a discount if you wanted.
Considering your problems with LCD's, OP, why wouldn't you consider a plasma? Burn in is supposed to have been mostly addressed with newer technology and, I believe, Panasonic even warrants it to some degree. The blurriness that bothers you about LCDs would be non-existant and the half life of the phosphors or whatever that work in a plasma have been treated to extend their life to about that of an LCD TV as well.
I used to get a little irritated with my TV for the same reasons that you do. But I've worked at an electronics store for a bit now and while newer sets have a slightly better picture it isn't as big of a difference as you'd expect considering my TV is now 2 years old. It's just part of owning an LCD.
On the Plasma front, I would go for that if they came in smaller sizes, but since the screen will be pretty close to my face, I don't want to go passed 32". 600hz sounds amazing, though, and once I go for a real tv I'll probably do that but, my suite is pretty small and I'm single right now so, I feel all right just sticking with a smaller LCD TV.
I will go with a dual link DVI cable. Thanks for the heads up on that.
Thank you again, I'll start hunting for deals.
Oh I had one more question, as far as television UIs go, which ones are nicest? I was just going to buy a Bravia on account of XMB but, a couple Samsungs are at a pretty good price right now and I wouldn't mind saving some money if I don't have to sacrifice a convenient UI.
It's this box that connects to the back of the tv, connects to an HDMI port, and hooks into the XMB and is just completely transparent for the user.
I saw the units at the Sony outlet store near me, I thought that was a really clever idea.
Then the first few people say "Turn of that TrueMotion crap" or some such thing. I'm wondering if everyone's talking about the same thing...say what you will about TrueMotion, but blurring is absolutely not something you should be seeing with it on. TrueMotion and all other related technologies is designed to insert frames to create perfectly smooth motion in what otherwise might have been a blur. So when the OP says he has a problem with blurring, I would think he's had some other issue than TrueMotion. If had come in here and said "man everything looks like a soap opera" or "does this make sense guys? my tv looks unnaturally real" than yea I'd say that's what he's talking about. (Edit: I bolded the text that is DEFINITELY out-of-line with the complaints you should have against TrueMotion stuff)
Also, #4 -- You will never find honest opinions on UI you can trust with only a few exceptionally good and bad UIs. For TVs, I would strongly recommend discounting your UI preference at first and pick a TV based upon more objective factors like picture, size, and price. Once you've settled down on a couple models based on those factors, go to the store and try out their UI and see which is the most tolerable. I don't know how important this is to you but no matter how much you like XMB I can't imagine it's worth it to you to pay the incredible premiums Sony tends to charge.
Second edit: I'm finding it really hard to not crack jokes that the game used to diagnose dark and blurry pictures is Resident Evil 5
PSN: TheScrublet
It is a common misconception, one plasma tv manufacturers are not inclined to correct, that the 600Hz should be compared 1-to-1 to LCD 120/240. They are not comparable, and the 600 definitely should not be construed to mean "plasmas have 5 times the motion resolution of LCDs". It has to do with the differences in driving plasma phosphors with voltage versus the phase shifting that goes on with LCDs.
PSN: TheScrublet
Buy Panasonic or Samsung.