Considering purchasing a new tv in '05

ShaidarHaran

ShaidarHaran

New member
I think '05 will be the year I make the plunge into the HD world, and was wondering which technologies (and which tvs specifically) offer the best bang for the buck? I do prefer major name brand consumer electronics, so please no off-brands. I dunno if I want LCD, plasma, CRT, DLP, rear or front projection. I probably won't be buying for at least another 4-5 months until I can save up the money to get something worth my while. Budget will be in the $3000 range.
So, whaddya think? I'm a fan of Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Sony having owned CE devices (including tvs) by all of the above but am not opposed to another major brand such as Hitachi, Phillips, RCA, Samsung, LG, or others. Which technology do people find to provide the best picture? Which lasts the longest? Which has the lowest total cost of ownership (i.e. maintenance). What native resolution should I go for? Does a 1080i tv display 720p content accurately, or is the image upscaled to fit the screen and thus loses quality? Are there any new technologies coming out this year that I should perhaps wait for?
Thanks in advance
 
No more TVs for me. When our 'lil 35" screen dies, we'll replace it w/ a projector. :drool:
 
In my view, nothing beats a plasma or LCD. But i dont know much about TV's, sure others can help you out, and what screen size u after?
 
Lupine said:
No more TVs for me. When our 'lil 35" screen dies, we'll replace it w/ a projector. :drool:
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Lucky you. My apartment's too small for a projector, not only that but I can't think of a place to put the projector itself anyway even if I had a wall large enough (and free of obstructions) to display an image.
 
ShaidarHaran said:
Lucky you. My apartment's too small for a projector, not only that but I can't think of a place to put the projector itself anyway even if I had a wall large enough (and free of obstructions) to display an image.
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We used a projector for our presentations in India this month, and I messed around with it some in my hotel room near the beginning.

From that experience, I would say that there is a lot of flexibility regarding room size etc. I was running it perhaps 7-10' from the wall and achieved a decent size picture (as opposed to 20-30' at the meetings, wherein we ended up with perhaps a 15-20'' wide image). As to projector placement, I plan to build a custom box and mount it to the ceiling.
 
MysticKiller said:
In my view, nothing beats a plasma or LCD. But i dont know much about TV's, sure others can help you out, and what screen size u after?
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I'm not too sure on the screen size, actually. Really anything 30" and up would be fine. Obviously the bigger the picture the better but I would prefer to get the best mix of quality & size for my money. If that means going with a 30" LCD as opposed to a 52" DLP then that's fine with me.
 
Lupine said:
We used a projector for our presentations in India this month, and I messed around with it some in my hotel room near the beginning.

From that experience, I would say that there is a lot of flexibility regarding room size etc. I was running it perhaps 7-10' from the wall and achieved a decent size picture (as opposed to 20-30' at the meetings, wherein we ended up with perhaps a 15-20'' wide image). As to projector placement, I plan to build a custom box and mount it to the ceiling.
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I'm sure I could figure somewhere to put a projector if I tried hard enough but my apartment's small. The longest straight section of wall is no bigger than 6 feet, and it's got an armoire in front of it which has nowhere else to go. All other walls also have objects in front of or on them so I really don't have anywhere to project an image. Again, I wouldn't mind going with a projector - I just don't have the space to utilize one to its fullest.
 
As far as standard screens, I would be cautious about choosing a plasma solution. My understanding is that they suffer from the same burn-in tendencies that we used to deal w/ in CRTs.
 
Lupine said:
As far as standard screens, I would be cautious about choosing a plasma solution. My understanding is that they suffer from the same burn-in tendencies that we used to deal w/ in CRTs.
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Thanks for the heads-up. I should've mentioned that I will be playing games on the tv, watching DVDs, and watching HD as well as SD content so image burn-in is a definite no-no.
 
you can fit a projector in almost any room look at my example...where as a normal big tv would in no way manage to fit in here.

room.jpg
 
The nicer/newer plasmas don't have nearly the issue with burn-in that older/cheaper ones do. You definitely don't want leave a still image on one all day every day, but hours at a time doesn't cause even the slightest after-image let alone burn-in.
 
kyleb said:
The nicer/newer plasmas don't have nearly the issue with burn-in that older/cheaper ones do. You definitely don't want leave a still image on one all day every day, but hours at a time doesn't cause even the slightest after-image let alone burn-in.
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I wrote plasmas off because of that when I first looked at the technology several years ago. Good to know that the technology is advancing. Would suck to spend that much $$$ and get screwd by burn-in.
 
Don't understand the fascination with Plasma myself.. maybe its the cool sounding name or the fact that they were the first widely available large flat screen.

It has the poorest image quallity of those listed and by far the lowest life expectancy. 25-30k hours for the Plasma vrs 60-80k hours for an LCD or CRT. Its not hard to find these numbers right from the manufacturers. That said 25-30k hours is a lot of TV watching ;).

Most(all?) LCD or Plasma displays do not run at a native HDTV resolution so some up or downscaling is going to happen. I wouldn't worry about it though the scalers work pretty well now.
Most(but not all) CRTs up convert 720p to 1080i.

Edit:
I have seen a few LG plasmas that give a 60k MTBF but with sony/samsung/zenith & others only giving 30k rating I'm not sure I would trust LG.
 
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I've been using a newer gen plasma for 5 months now, playing hours on hours of xbox (including a week long 20+ day halo2 fest). Including games that have bright static displays. And I havn't had any burn in. But also, I've turned down some of the brigtness and contrast too so its not super overly bright. (which is a big cause for burn in).

Unless you're really careless, burn in for newer plasmas are nearly non exsisint from what I read. Its just one of these "myths" that has been keeped alive from it's older "first" gen technolgy.
 
Most nicer plasmas these days claim 60k hours half-life, I'm not sure I buy that but even the old 30k hour ones give you 8 hours a day every day for over 10 years and even a good CRT tube will quite possably go tits up by then.

As for image quality, I suppose it is subjective but I'd take a higher quality ED plasma over a 720p DLP or flat panel LCD anyday. The DIL-As are the only thing I found on par with a good plasma, but it is hard to overlook the reliablity issues those.
 
Working in the television industry (work for UPN), I get to see alot of the new technologies and I've owned a HDTV for over a year now. With that said, everyone has a different opinion, and it normally leans towards what they own.

Here's what I'd suggest:

If you're going to be playing any of the console machines (XBox, PS2), I'd suggest getting a fixed-pixel display, since most of these have a native resolution of 1280x720 (720p). LCD, plasma, DLP, LCOS, and some front-projectors are FPDs.

If you have no interest in console gaming, only PC gaming, I'd suggest getting a CRT display, either direct-view or front-rear projection. These tend to have a native resolution of 1920x1080 (1080i). Some will directly allow a 720p signal and upconvert to 1080i, others won't (has to be done in the STB).

An ISF calibrated CRT-RPTV still has the best HD-picture as of now. The downfalls to CRT-RPTVs are, 1. Their convergence tends to drift, so you have to make adjustments every few months, no biggie though....2. An ISF calibration will run you from $400-$800, which is good for 2-3 years.

FPDs don't require any messing with convergence, which is kinda nice.

If you gave me $3000 to spend on a new HDTV, it would be a toss up between a Mits DLP, or a Mits RPTV. The RPTV is a lot cheaper than the DLP, so I'd spend that extra cash on a X850 XT PE, since gaming really needs to be played at 1776x1000 (or 1920x1080).
 
I just shopped around for a TV in the same pricerange a few months back and wound up with this.

taz291819 said:
If you're going to be playing any of the console machines (XBox, PS2), I'd suggest getting a fixed-pixel display, since most of these have a native resolution of 1280x720 (720p). LCD, plasma, DLP, LCOS, and some front-projectors are FPDs.
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Why would you recomend a 720p display for console games when the vast majority of such games are 480p?
 
kyleb said:
Why would you recomend a 720p display for console games when the vast majority of such games are 480p?
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Because the few games that are offered in HD are 720p, not 1080i. For example, most Mits CRT-RPTVs won't accept a 720p signal, only 480i, 480p, 540p, and 1080i. To play a 720p console game on it would require a scaler, which costs more than an Xbox and PS2 combined.
 
My brother got an Avent 27" Pure Flat HDTV from K-mart where he also works. For a little over 400, this TV rocks. And the style is slick. They had the 30" Widescreen version on sale for $650, hundreds of dollars cheaper than the name brands. And if you think, just because it's a name brand TV, it will last longer, think again. My 36" Sony trinatron kicked the bucket only 6 years after we bought it, the S-video input went black and white a few months after we bought it.

I have no clue if the sale is still on, but it's a realy good TV. Be aware that CRT TVs can be quite heavy, so If you plan to get a 30" + CRT, get some help to carry it.
 
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