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Posted: 6/27/2004 4:51:53 PM EDT
[#1]
If I were you, I'd go to Best Buy and Compusa and check out
which ones have the best picture quality and features you want. See them with your own eyes. Plasma tvs still suffer from screen burn-in somewhat, and the contrast isn't as good as a CRT tv. I've read here that the best bang for your buck are LCD projector tvs. |
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Posted: 6/27/2004 4:53:21 PM EDT
[#2]
Ask Paul the mod.
He has his shit in one sock as far as TV's go. 
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Posted: 6/27/2004 5:46:35 PM EDT
[#3]
Go LCD projection over a plasma. You'll hear a lot of different opinions on them, but unless you spend some serious cash on a plasma, they don't look very good.
Also, checkout places like Ultimate Electronics, and other high end video stores. They are much more likely to bargain with you. I've worked for Best Buy and Circuit City(both were a waste of life...), and the managers at those stores generally don't allow the sales people to play with the price unless you're buying a lot of shit at once(TV and other A/V gear). ETA: Look into DLPs too. Samsung has some sexy DLP TVs. DLPs and Projection LCDs aren't thin like plasmas, but they are about half the depth of a standard projection TV and generally speaking look much better because of the technology used. |
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Posted: 6/27/2004 5:53:36 PM EDT
[#4]
Well geez from the post's title i thought this was a fund raiser. I broke out my wallet and clicked.Nevermind then............... This is how i would buy a flat screen TV ......" Hey honey we NEED a flat screen TV in the living room, PLEEEEASE" then i would hand the guy my credit card and take it home in my truck.Seems easy
Honestly i don't shit about them. If i push power and it comes on, i'm happy.  J |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 7:35:46 PM EDT
[#5]
Go to AVSForum ...loads of info and a lot of helpful people over there.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 7:48:45 PM EDT
[#6]
Don't buy a plasma unless you're willing to accept the fact you'll probably be buying a new one in about 6 years. The plasma doesn't last long. I'd give it a little bit more time and end up buying a DLP when the price drops. TI makes the DLP chips. Currently they run the process on 6 inch wafers which is really old technology and doesn't give a decent yield, hence the price. They are on the verge of qualifying the DLP process on 8 inch and 12 inch machines which will significantly reduce the price of DLP products.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 7:59:18 PM EDT
[#7]
LCD is way more reliable than plasma.
My LCD works great and has an awesome picture. Plasmas get hotter than a FA pencil barrel. |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:01:03 PM EDT
[#8]
Is that budget realistic? I haven't shopped around much, but the last time I checked the best bargain was the Gateway, and it was $3k back then.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:01:52 PM EDT
[#9]
I asked Paul too. He said to wait a few months and they will get cheaper. The plasma TVs will not last as long as the LCDs.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:18:36 PM EDT
[#10]
LCD or DLP wiht your budget. DLP is the best quality any how. Not flat but something like 16" deep so not huge and 50" good clear picture.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:23:46 PM EDT
[#11]
Best bang per buck is DLP, plasma picture is not as good. More of a gee whiz factor and too expensive. New generation plasma monitors will be out in a couple years.
I go to HDTVoice.com friendly and informative site |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:24:05 PM EDT
[#12]
I had the same dilemna....but the sales guy actually pointed me out to a projector.
For under $1000, I have a 60" screen, theatre like experience, and bought a couple extra speakers to put around my living room. Sure beats the $3k plasma's we were looking at, and now I have an extra $2k set aside for a few post 9/13 toy acquisitions!
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:26:41 PM EDT
[#13]
OK, another opinion...
Plasma looks great in the showroom, but starts to fade badly after a couple of years. Also, despite claims to the contrary, it suffers image burn, as anyone will see at the major airports that adopted them for gate announcements. LCD projection systems suffer from very crapy contrast, and all but the best suffer from poor viewing angles. The best thing out there is the DLP (Digital Light Projector). Smaller units (42 inches) are in the price range you are looking at, but they are generally $500 to $1000 more than LCDs. |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:32:42 PM EDT
[#14]
I have shit in both socks thanks.
LCD is better than plasma - burn-in is a major problem especially if you tend to stay on just a few channels - the "bug" burns in. They bruise meaning if you bump the screen it's forever. They don't have as high a contrast ratio - the blacks aren't as black. The colors are a bit off too. Beware that the LCD screens are sold with a certain "acceptable" level of dead pixels - find out what the number is from the store you're buying just in case. You'll want to use your video camera to count them - point it at a white piece of paper and look - then use a black one to detect any LCD's stuck on. The new thin rear screen projection TV's using DLP (digital light panels) have me excited. There is about 5% of the population that sees a rainbow effect while watching a DLP. They've got a great contrast ratio and pretty good color. Nothing beats a CRT television. They're huge, their heavy, but they do perform great. |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:34:24 PM EDT
[#15]
PS: beware side-by-side tests as stores have been known to tweak sets to look better or worse than the one without the higher mark-up
 Give me five minutes and I can make the best monitor in the store look like crap and the worst one look great. |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:40:45 PM EDT
[#16]
FYI if you meander Best Buy or Circuit City to see how the sets perform keep in mind the "whizzes" they have working there. They often just plug whatever crap wires they have to whatever crap programming they have on. The **ultimate** best place I've found so far outside of a specialty store by me is... Sears. They actually dialed in the sets they have for the best picture. Second up would be Circuit City, where I gawked for a long time once when they had Trading Spaces in HD and Genevieve and Paige had some quality screen time. Lastly is Best Buy, where not only do they not usually care about the sets themselves, but the noise level in there is often quite distracting during the decision making process (irritates the crap out of me when some idiot decides he has to blast some booty shaking rhythms at full volume... it seems to happen every time)
I'm in the market soon for a larger screen TV myself. This has been good reading. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a DLP set when I am! |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:44:56 PM EDT
[#17]
Thats what I am going, DLP baby sexy but still a mans tv. And great color, Pic I found 
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:47:56 PM EDT
[#18]
Store displays are hard to judge a picture by because none of them are anywhere close to being calibrated properly. They are either in blowtorch mode(too much contrast, color, brightness) or some crappy default mode (movie, soft, sharp). I would seriously bring in a test DVD and calibrate the screens as best as possible. You can always go into service mode to do any final tweaking.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:50:28 PM EDT
[#19]
+1 for Sears having their TV's shitting in a sock, or whatever the phrase earlier was. The HD pictures on almost every TV there is amazing. |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 8:52:37 PM EDT
[#20]
using advice I received here and other research I did, I ended up going with Sony XBR34" widescreen CRT, and it's impressive. When I get some extra cash I will have a tech come out and tweak it. I did some preliminary tweaking myself using the AVIA disc, but it can get even better. Plus my last sony CRT television lasted 13 years. only drawback is it is one heavy mofo, but it's not like I carry the thing around.
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Posted: 8/28/2004 9:02:55 PM EDT
[#21]
In a few years OLED/PLED will probably take over the market .
Right now though LCD is a better choice , others have already posted many reasons why , but here is another . Depending on size, Plasma TV's can suck up 300-800 watts of juice . Where LCD's are usually in the 20-50 watt range . |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 9:51:07 PM EDT
[#22]
+1 on the rear projection plasma/LCD TVs as the best bang for the buck
+1 on taking your business to Sears. Support your local Sears - they actually hire knowledgeable sales people, and have been one of the most supportive of their guardsmen / reservists. If you are worried about Best Buy having a better price - don't. Sears will meet anyone else's price (so I guess it couldn't hurt to shop at those other places to see what prices they have). |
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Posted: 8/28/2004 10:56:35 PM EDT
[#23]
pretty much what has been said is spot on,
But IMO unless its hot or you have a friend that can get you one at a nice discount. Your going to have a next to impossible time finding a HD plasma or lcd of that size for $2300 The sticker on my 26" toshiba lcd was 3K  thankfully i convinced my nephue to use his employee discount and got it for $2027  Anyway i feel i should tell you somthing that many a college kid slacking at BB or CC dosn't know. Many of the HD sets on the market today are "HD capable" but not neccesarily "HD ready". Meaning you may have to purchase seperately ($400 or so) a converter to allow you HD capable set to show a HDTV signal especially if you have a direct tv. Some of the ultra new sets come with this gadget built in $$$$$ But many of the ones already being sold everywhere do not. I found this out the hard way |
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Posted: 8/29/2004 7:19:17 AM EDT
[#24]
Hmmm. I will ask this here because there are some knowledgeable people ...
I have a Toshiba 35" TV. It's been good for movies, nice and sharp, and it has component inputs for a great picture... but when I watch my most beloved sport, hockey, two of the networks I watch it on (ABC being the worst culprit, FOXsports almost as bad, and that's where the majority of the games are) the picture of the ice is so bright that it causes a brownish "bruise" call it on the lower right quadrant of the screen - and if I don't change the channel or adjust the brightness, it progresses to purple. I HATE this-- I have looked it up online and the best I can come up with is to either 1: always turn the TV on from the set itself (not the remote) so it "degausses" the screen (this may or may not help I've discovered) or 2: buy a degaussing rig and do it manually (but there is no guarantee it will help for the life of the set). Any ideas? TIA. |
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