Television sets, what to get

[jimmyj]

We need to buy a new TV and I know bupkuss about them. LCD, Plasma, LED, what the heck is the difference?

I read some online reviews and stuff and I gather that Plasma is the best with LCD next and LED last. That said, I don't want to get plasma because apparently they burn in. Or, is it all blah blah blah.

Any advice from the TBN members?

 

[/pine]

it depends on your budget...

on the low end it is hard to beat the Visio's...great sets for minimal dollars

on the upper end the new LED screens have the best picture far and away...

 

[catfishdaddyengineering]

I don't know where you read that plasma is first and LED is last, but that is backwards. Plasma will burn the image to the screen, and it uses beaucoup energy even when it is turned off. LED in my opinion is the clearest, and it also uses the least energy. The only thing with LED for now is the price. They cost the most now, but in six months the price will drop in half.

 

[brin]

I don't know where you read that plasma is first and LED is last, but that is backwards. Plasma will burn the image to the screen, and it uses beaucoup energy even when it is turned off. LED in my opinion is the clearest, and it also uses the least energy. The only thing with LED for now is the price. They cost the most now, but in six months the price will drop in half.

We have had a plasma tv for 5 yrs. now ..it has been great...no burned image on the screen...in fact we bought the extended warranty and never needed it. It has sat on our mantle above the fireplace for all 5 yrs..When Plasmas first came out they did not know much aobut them and there were a lot of what has turned out to be myths about them..Our experience has been great ....:thumbsup:

 

[jinjimbob]

Panasonic and Pioneer plasma tvs are the best around.

LCDs tvs are slightly cheaper for a reason.

LED is the new buzz word in tvs, where in fact an LED TV is in fact a LCD tv that uses LEDs for back lighting, or in worse cases, side lighting.

A plasma tv is back lit by 2073600 lights. (its individual pixel)

You'd be lucky to get a LCD tv that is backlit for more than a few dozen lights.

LCD (LED and other types) suffer from banding, they all do.

Plasma tvs do not burn in any more than any other kind of tv.

The latest plasma tvs use the same or less energy than LCDs. Look for the EnergyStar rating, it will tell you what they use.

Just trying to clear up misinformation here.

 

[Bird]

I don't know anything about TVs either, but in April, 2008, we bought a 40" Samsung LCD HDTV for the living room and a 22" Insignia (Best Buy's house brand) LCD HDTV for the bedroom. The bedroom TV is only used occasionally and usually for short periods of time; never over 2 hours. The living room TV is turned on and left on from the time my wife gets out of bed in the morning until she goes back to bed at night, whether anyone is in the living room or even in the house. The Samsung got very very slow about warming up and coming on, so we had a service man out who replaced two capacitors and fixed it in February of this year. This is one time I had bought the extended warranty and at least broke even since that one service call and repair would have cost almost exactly what I paid for the in home extended warranty. So far, we're happy with these.

 

[brin]

Panasonic and Pioneer plasma tvs are the best around.

LCDs tvs are slightly cheaper for a reason.

LED is the new buzz word in tvs, where in fact an LED TV is in fact a LCD tv that uses LEDs for back lighting, or in worse cases, side lighting.

A plasma tv is back lit by 2073600 lights. (its individual pixel)

You'd be lucky to get a LCD tv that is backlit for more than a few dozen lights.

LCD (LED and other types) suffer from banding, they all do.

Plasma tvs do not burn in any more than any other kind of tv.

The latest plasma tvs use the same or less energy than LCDs. Look for the EnergyStar rating, it will tell you what they use.

Just trying to clear up misinformation here.

Our Plasma TV is a Panasonic...so that may be one reason we have had no problems based on what you posted...I sure could have saved by not buying the extended warranty... The Plasmas are thinner than the others and that is what we wanted.

 

[rekees4300]

Any advice from the TBN members?

Sony is the John Deere of TVs. :thumbsup:

 

[Transit]

I don't know anything about TVs either, but in April, 2008, we bought a 40" Samsung LCD HDTV for the living room and a 22" Insignia (Best Buy's house brand) LCD HDTV for the bedroom. The bedroom TV is only used occasionally and usually for short periods of time; never over 2 hours. The living room TV is turned on and left on from the time my wife gets out of bed in the morning until she goes back to bed at night, whether anyone is in the living room or even in the house. The Samsung got very very slow about warming up and coming on, so we had a service man out who replaced two capacitors and fixed it in February of this year. This is one time I had bought the extended warranty and at least broke even since that one service call and repair would have cost almost exactly what I paid for the in home extended warranty. So far, we're happy with these.

Now i know why there is an energy shortage. Hummm.....on second though, maybe it keeps the little woman out of the mall spending $$$$.:laughing::laughing:

 

[jinman]

We have this Samsung and love it. I don't have it attached to my broadband internet yet, but I'll probably do that this year. I've plugged my thumb drive USB chip into the USB port and viewed pictures full-screen. It's pretty darn awesome. I love the crisp presentation and watching Blu-ray movies on this set.

 

[Thomas]

Fifth year w/ Sharp HD...no problems.

 

[Alan L.]

I don't know where you read that plasma is first and LED is last, but that is backwards. Plasma will burn the image to the screen, and it uses beaucoup energy even when it is turned off. LED in my opinion is the clearest, and it also uses the least energy. The only thing with LED for now is the price. They cost the most now, but in six months the price will drop in half.

My understanding is that the plasmas are not near as susceptible to burn in as they used to be. Mine is 3 years old and has not had any problems with burn in, and I haven't seen an LCD yet that has as good a picture but hard to tell my house vs the store. The LCDs seem artificial and fake to me, and also some of the lower end models are jerky with sports. I have both and the plasma is by far the better TV. To be fair the plasma is 50" and the LCD is 26" and Panasonic vs Westinghouse. Both are 720p TVs, 1080ps are main stream now.

I can see where there can be a glare problem with plasma depending on the room its in. Mine is not a problem - there is one particular window we pull the shade on, otherwise its fine.

Don't know anything about LED tvs. I think bottom line you need see them side by side and decide which looks the best to you.

 

[deepNdirt]

when comparing the Plasma to the LCD before making up our minds, I did not like the glossy screen of the plasma, I could see reflection of what was behind me, I thought perhaps could have been the lighting in the store causing the reflection, But while over at a friends house watching his plasma I could still see reflections of objects in the room,
even though the picture was good quality on plasma I could not deal with the reflection thing, so I purchased an LCD.... the LCD while watching up close can see small blurs around the images although when watching it from a normal viewing distance of 8-12 ft away looks much clearer and sharper,.....
during the time of researching/comparing I also found out the Plasma are energy hogs and also heat up more so then the LCD do, Not to bank on this but I was told that the Plasma TV's were going to be eliminated due to their energy consumption, actually I have been noticing the past several months many retailers are marking down their plasma TV's while the LCD are maintaining their value,....... could well be something to the story of the Plasma's fading out

 

[magicheater]

Purchased a Samsung 40" recently, after trying an LG. Really like it, have not tried the internet features yet but the picture is great even when not in HD.

 

[alchemysa]

when comparing the Plasma to the LCD before making up our minds, I did not like the glossy screen of the plasma, I could see reflection of what was behind me

The refection issue was very important to me too. The Plasmas seem to reflect like a mirror. Our rooms have large windows and the reflection of sunlight on the walls would have driven me crazy. So we bought an LG LCD and are pretty satisfied.

One thing that really disappoints me however is the sound delay on HD channels. HD is great for watching sport and most movies but I simply can't watch the news or interviews in HD. Have to switch to 'low def' for those.

Is the sound delay a problem in the U.S. too?

 

[/pine]

...1080ps are main stream now.

even though most larger (above 26") Flat panel TVs are 1080P capable...unless you are watching a blu-ray disk you are not really seeing 1080p resolution quality

The highest res. you will get from any broadcast (over the air/w/antenna) is 1080i and even that is rare...even the cable companies can not afford the bandwidth required to broadcast in 1080p...from what I am told this is not something that will change any time soon...

 

[Alan L.]

even though most larger (above 26") Flat panel TVs are 1080P capable...unless you are watching a blu-ray disk you are not really seeing 1080p resolution quality

The highest res. you will get from any broadcast (over the air/w/antenna) is 1080i and even that is rare...even the cable companies can not afford the bandwidth required to broadcast in 1080p...from what I am told this is not something that will change any time soon...

We have a blueray and it looks fabulous even on our 720p TV.

I have not noticed any kind of sound delay HD at all. My problem is that I have difficulty understanding any dialog on modern programming. Put an old John Wayne movie in there though and I have no trouble at all.

 

[Bird]

Is the sound delay a problem in the U.S. too?

If there's any sound delay, I didn't know it.

 

[deepNdirt]

I think the sound delay may come from the connections being made to the TV, either from sat. receiver, cable box, or digital converter, I have 4 choices of input on our Vizio, and note the sound quality of each connection, I have both the coax and A/V ( RCA ) connections hooked up and I choose the AV over the standard coax, the picture doesn't seem to differ although a big difference in sound quality this is from a D S R. I hope to some day get a Hi-def receiver that will have the HDMI hookup :thumbsup:

 

[orezok]

Sony is the John Deere of TVs. :thumbsup:

I don't think a GREEN TV would look very good in my living room!