What kind of HDTV do you have and what made you buy it?

[blindtiger]

47" LG LED. I love it. found a good deal on it online, went and looked at the tv at a store to make sure i liked it. my brother and i both ended up with one.

 

[Jtd6628]

A 32" insignia 720hd it was $350 the week after christmas last year best deal ever!

Sent from my iPad2 using HB Talk

 

[Pumbaa]

I dont . . . cripes I'm sitting here watching the same TV I bought back in 1994

 

[lschiavo]

50" Bravia. Gift for our family last Xmas. The picture is excellent. Viewing angle is not an issue at least in our living room. Great picture. I love the built in streaming although some of the menus are better on the ps3. The USB input is awesome. I can put pictures or video on a flash drive and watch with the family. Nice feature. I know this one has a higher rrefresh rate than others I have watched but I really don't notice a difference.

I had to measure...its 55. I can't say anything bad about the bravia. Flawless for nearly a year so far. Ours came with a "free" PS3.

 

[passedpawn]

59" Samsung plasma. 3D. Very cool. I love samsung glass. Audio on these tvs are fantastic too (I have it wired through my 7-speaker surround, but the tv still sound great without that.

This tv has a fairly competent media streamer. You can pull video from any DLNA appliance (PC, NAS). Supports many video/audio codecs. Oh yea, great pic too. Hard to touch the dark level on a plasma (LCDs fail here, even the LED backlights).

Many built in apps (netflix, pandora, hulu, many many more) means you can plug ethernet into the back of the tv and don't need a box. I think it has built-in wifi too, but my house is networked - no wireless here.

 

[mredge73]

My thoughts on TV purchasing:

Search out deals on the internet for TVs. Don't let the displays fool you, the stores will put a cheaper TV next to more expensive one to convince you to buy the more expensive one. Usually you can take a quick look at the back and see why the picture quality it different, one will be on RCAs and the other will be on an HDMI.

The best time to buy is Black Friday and the week before the Super Bowl, that is when you will get your best deals.

If you budget allows, buy a LED back lit TV. It will have a much longer life and a higher contrast ratio.

Contrast Ratio Does matter, higher the better.

Refresh rate is a gimmick, your local movie theater runs at a refresh rate of 48hz or 72hz.
Your old tube ran at 96hz or lower.

Name brand TVs and Non-Name brand TVs share most of the same parts.
Nearly all new LCD panels (all brands) are made by Samsung in Korea.

Screen Resolution makes the biggest difference in picture quality, 1080P is the current standard. Blue-Ray is 1080P, Xbox360 is 720P, Wide Screen DVD is 480P, Standard DVD is 1080i, the first HD sets were 480i. Don't buy a 720P TV over $500.

Sound may be the biggest difference in most modern TV sets.

3D is very cool, but I would wait a few years for everything else to catch up before taking the plunge.

Plasma use them most energy, are susceptible to burn in, are very heavy (real glass), and have the best true to life colors.
LCD consume little energy and do not burn in, now you can choose your back light (LED or Florescent). LED is by far superior; it draws less power, has a long life, and is dimable (improves contrast ratio).

 

[danorocks17]

Vizio. cheap and made in california. I've had it for almost 2 years and I love it

 

[bobz32]

Last TV I bought was a Samsung 46" 1080p LCD TV, 60hz. This was a few years back. I would never buy a TV in a Best Buy/ hhgregg, etc... horribly overpriced. Even Black Friday deals now aren't really deals.

Check out dealnews.com or slickdeals.net or any deal site for a good one. Compare the model to reviews on Amazon and other sites, and you are good to go. I still think 3D is a gimmick and not worth the money until it is standardized / glasses free, but whatever people care for.

 

[MetallHed]

I just bought a LED 32" Westinghouse for 259. Should be here this week so I'll follow up on picture. I know you wanted a 40"+ but I thought someone that is watching this thread could also gather info/opinions for a purchase.

My few cents is that if you're buying something under 40, don't get hung up on 720/1080p unless you're running blu-ray/PS3. Besides, at that small size, you won't notice a difference. From all that I've researched, TV stations (including HD channels) broadcast in 720p, so a 1080p TV (with no blu-ray/PS3) won't give you any benifits over a 720p.

Plasmas are for dark rooms with tiny or no windows. They're cheap, yes, because they're on their way out. Why waste money on a brand new TV that will automatically put you in the obsolete category?

Good luck!

 

[passedpawn]

Plasmas are for dark rooms with tiny or no windows. They're cheap, yes, because they're on their way out. Why waste money on a brand new TV that will automatically put you in the obsolete category?

Good luck!

They are not cheap, and they are superior to LCDs in most categories. They do not suffer from burn-in any more than most other technologies (although they once did). They are not going away any time soon, but it's true that LCDs are much more popular (because they are cheap). Plasma's might very well go away at some point, despite their superiority.

I'm sure the misinformation here will pile up, and I'm not going to further stand in the way of it. But if you want to make an informed decision, please visit a good forum like www.avsforum.com and make your own educated decision.

I wouldn't trust any homebrewing advice in that forum, because duh it's a av forum

 

[MetallHed]

They are not cheap, and they are superior to LCDs in most categories. They do not suffer from burn-in any more than most other technologies (although they once did). They are not going away any time soon, but it's true that LCDs are much more popular (because they are cheap). Plasma's might very well go away at some point, despite their superiority.

I'm sure the misinformation here will pile up, and I'm not going to further stand in the way of it. But if you want to make an informed decision, please visit a good forum like www.avsforum.com and make your own educated decision.

I wouldn't trust any homebrewing advice in that forum, because duh it's a av forum

Sure.

I'm just going by what I've seen while shopping in stores and comparing side by side, and also from what I've watched for longer lengths of time (parents have an LCD and my buddy has a plasma, both of which I've sat and watched for some time). There's really no point in arguing with you or anyone else on the subject. Compare numbers all day if you'd like but everyone has a different set of senses and point of view.

I checked out that forum, and I bookmarked it, because I think it'd be helpful for me in the future. But, like any forum just like this one, they have a wave of people supporting one thing and another wave supporting another. It's just like everything else; to each their own.

Do your own research and pick what you think is best.

 

[Homercidal]

46" Samsung. Couple of years old. Still awesome. Love 1808P!

 

[DarkPhyre]

1.) Contrast Ratio Does matter, higher the better.

2.) Refresh rate is a gimmick, your local movie theater runs at a refresh rate of 48hz or 72hz.

3.) Your old tube ran at 96hz or lower.

1.) Very true, except there are no standards. Some companies go from dark to light then back to dark again (making their ratio larger then what it should be). plus there is no standard on how long the set has to make the transition. Also, Response time nullifies a high contrast ratio as the set won't be able to transition between the colors fast enough.
So, as with anything else, don't let one factor make your choice.

2.) Movie theaters project their image so the 'display' screen is small, while the projected image is large. the smaller the image the less need for fast refresh rate. I believe they are still film as well, so the image isn't being 'drawn' its projected.

3.) You old tv was at best 480I which is interlaced, meaning every other line is drawn per pass, meaning it only drew 240 per pass, on a 32" or less tv its easy to keep the image clean.
New sets are progressive, meaning they draw every line per pass, at 1080 resolution too, on top of that, they are drawing for normally at least 42" sets. How quickly it draws a new image is very important and hardly a gimmick.
If you don't watch action movies/watch sports/play video games refresh rates won't matter much, otherwise, higher the better.

 

[wildwest450]

65" Mitsubishi and 42" Sony, love them both. i've had 4 Sony's in the past with zero problems.

If you believe refresh rate doesn't matter, don't bother watching sports or anything with quick motion.


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[GilaMinumBeer]

67", DLP, 240Hz, and 55", LCD, 120Hz. Both Samsung. Neither are 3D ready but both are capable.

Chosen based on price point.

 

[copyright1997]

Sure.

I'm just going by what I've seen while shopping in stores and comparing side by side, and also from what I've watched for longer lengths of time (parents have an LCD and my buddy has a plasma, both of which I've sat and watched for some time). There's really no point in arguing with you or anyone else on the subject. Compare numbers all day if you'd like but everyone has a different set of senses and point of view.

I checked out that forum, and I bookmarked it, because I think it'd be helpful for me in the future. But, like any forum just like this one, they have a wave of people supporting one thing and another wave supporting another. It's just like everything else; to each their own.

Do your own research and pick what you think is best.

And so the Plasma vs LCD debate rages on. As you said, do your own research and pick what you think is best. The issue with this (as I pointed out in an earlier post) is that viewing in a store doesn't show you which is better because of the lighting in the store and settings/calibration of the TV. Also, plasmas (as well as LCD) vary in quality. I humbly believe that calibration is important.

It's interesting that here we are in 2011, and yet the best picture quality HDTV might be one from way back in 2008. Here's an article that talks about the (long gone) Pioneer Kuros. I was able to see one in action in a high end audio/video store and it was simply fantastic.

Again, for brewing advise come here, for audio/video, go to avsforum.com.

Just to beat that dead horse, I have both a Panasonic Plasma and a decent brand LCD. The LCD is nice, the Pany is awesome. Just sayin.