new TV advice?

[Niner National]

I too am buying a TV very soon -- so I am looking at them too & doing all the research.

Tensor -- The 120hz rate I heard was vital for watching football is that not true?

I don't think it is and there are many reviews from tech sites that say the same thing. CNET is particularly skeptical about it.

One thing I have noticed though is the 120hz televisions sometimes have unnatural looking movement. The way the 120hz works is it predicts what the frame would be if there was a frame in between the two frames in a 60hz television, so its sometimes a little off I guess. People sometimes look like they're almost in a fast forward motion. It's not that big a deal though.

I have watched countless football and basketball games on a 60hz television at work and a 120hz television and they both have occasional motion blur, but it is so rare its not worth the additional money in my opinion. If you can find a television for 100$ or so more with 120hz, that's probably worth it, but I wouldn't spend 2-500 more for 120hz.

LCD's are just inherently more slow than Plasmas because the LCD pixels open and close and have a back light that lets light pass through when open. The Plasma's pixels are essentially 1 or 2 million (depending on 720p or 1080p) tiny lightbulbs. A good analogy is if you are trying to let light into a room, which is faster: turning the blinds to let in light (LCD) or flipping on a light switch (Plasma)? The lights of a plasma can change much faster than the opening and closing of LCD pixels.

The reflection issues are severely overstated as well. I have a 6x8 foot window in my bedroom which is probably only about 11x12. I have a plasma sitting right across from my window and have no issues as long as the blinds are closed. Pretty much all of the plasmas have anti-glare filtration on the screens to cut down on glare. LCD's reflect nearly as much with the exception of Sharps. The Samsung 650, 750, and 850 all reflect much worse than any plasma does.

[Guest]

Tensor deserves a big fat commission.

[hmsmike]

I don't think it is and there are many reviews from tech sites that say the same thing. CNET is particularly skeptical about it.

One thing I have noticed though is the 120hz televisions sometimes have unnatural looking movement. The way the 120hz works is it predicts what the frame would be if there was a frame in between the two frames in a 60hz television, so its sometimes a little off I guess. People sometimes look like they're almost in a fast forward motion. It's not that big a deal though.

I have watched countless football and basketball games on a 60hz television at work and a 120hz television and they both have occasional motion blur, but it is so rare its not worth the additional money in my opinion. If you can find a television for 100$ or so more with 120hz, that's probably worth it, but I wouldn't spend 2-500 more for 120hz.

LCD's are just inherently more slow than Plasmas because the LCD pixels open and close and have a back light that lets light pass through when open. The Plasma's pixels are essentially 1 or 2 million (depending on 720p or 1080p) tiny lightbulbs. A good analogy is if you are trying to let light into a room, which is faster: turning the blinds to let in light (LCD) or flipping on a light switch (Plasma)? The lights of a plasma can change much faster than the opening and closing of LCD pixels.

The reflection issues are severely overstated as well. I have a 6x8 foot window in my bedroom which is probably only about 11x12. I have a plasma sitting right across from my window and have no issues as long as the blinds are closed. Pretty much all of the plasmas have anti-glare filtration on the screens to cut down on glare. LCD's reflect nearly as much with the exception of Sharps. The Samsung 650, 750, and 850 all reflect much worse than any plasma does.

Ok I feel better about the 60 hz models but my problem is light reflection. The room it is going in has so many freaking windows!! :willy_nilly:

That is how I convinced my wife on the TV purchase because my rear projection 52" HD set is hell to see in the day and it would be better suited for my downstairs that is much darker. So it is "must" that I get something that can stand up to a well lit room.

Any advice when shopping?? :confused:

THANKS! :smilewinkgrin:

[Niner National]

Sharp has by far the best screens for dealing with light. You can pick up a 120hz 46" sharp at sears right now for 1399.99. I think the 52" is 1699.99.

[Panthro]

Dude....

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05775018000P?adCell=A3

[GRWatcher]

My son has a 42" Samsung 1080p LCD and loves it. I have a smaller LG 720 LCD and love it. He has HDTV and I don't, yet ($). But I need to tell you that SDTV looks much sharper on my LG than on his Samsung. Not every channel is in HD. You need to decide what is important to you, read reviews and, even if you buy from Amazon, go look at them. My old Sony Trinitron was dying a slow but sure death and I decided a good SD picture and a good picture when viewed from an angle (I have a small living room & we can't all be right in front of the tv) were important. And, yes, listen to Tensor and save money for a warranty.

Happy shopping!!!! :driving:

[Niner National]

Warranties are definitely a good idea. It wouldn't be quite as important if everyone had the 2 years parts AND labor that LG has. Everyone else has 1 year parts and 90 days labor. Labor is going to be close to 100 dollars per hour and if they have to replace a screen, it will cost you much more than just buying a television. The screen on a 52" samsung 650/750/850 is over 4500 dollars. You can buy two new one 650's for that price sometimes.

[shinner]

Plasmas honestly scare me. They look nice, but that whole IR (image retention) / burn in is def NOT a thing of the past.

I know two people that have plasmas who have suffer from burn in. That's why I stuck with a LCD again.

Don't let anyone tell you that LCDs don't suffer from burn-in....if I can dig up some pics I took at a job site, I'll post 'em. Hope I still have them....accidentally formatted one of the drives on my laptop and lost a lot of stuff.

[Niner National]

Plasmas honestly scare me. They look nice, but that whole IR (image retention) / burn in is def NOT a thing of the past.

I know two people that have plasmas who have suffer from burn in. That's why I stuck with a LCD again.

burn in and image retention are different things. Burn in never goes away, image retention will fade away in a matter of seconds to sometimes a few hours in extreme cases.

[Kevin Greene]

Have a Vizio 42" LCD that rocks. $800 from Costco and they double the manufacturers warranty to boot. Had a Panasonic Plasma over 3 years before that, great TV.

Don't think there is a better AV forum than here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

[cptx]

i'm really having a hard time deciding between the samsung LCD and the samsung plasma that I saw at best buy yesterday.. the picture on the lcd was great, the picture on the plasma was awesome... just worried about the video game burn in that i hear about.

thats the only thing keeping me from buying the plasma.

the sony bravias looked pretty damn nice to me, too.

decisions, decisions.

this is harder than I thought.

[Niner National]

unless you plan on having marathon gaming sessions, you shouldn't really be concerned with burn in. You may have some slight retention that will fade away quickly once you get some motion back on that part of the screen.

[Ga Cat Fan]

What does anyone think about this TV? I have been considering getting it. I've looked at it for awhile in the stores on different occasions, and it has just as good a picture as the Sonys or Sharps or Samsungs, IMO. The only thing I am not wild about is the red trim, but it's not a big deal. Even the wife likes the TV, which is.

http://us.lge.com/products/model/detail/tv|audio|video_lcd%20flat%20panel__47LG70.jhtml

[Niner National]

Very nice set. It's LG's best model I believe. It's 40000:1 contrast ratio is among the highest for LCD's. The Sony Bravia XBR6 and Samsung 650/750/850 are the only ones I know of that are higher and they are only 50,000:1 so its not a substantial difference.