Need help picking a TV
 

So the wife and I are looking at buying a new tv. We have a couple choices and now we are trying to decide. What would you guys go with, either a Samsung 50" 720p Plasma or a Mitsubishi 60" 1080p DLP. Space isn't a issue and the price is within $200 of each other. What option would you guys pick.

Id take a panasonic plasma over samsung anyday. Better displays. However, the samsungs arent exactly garbage either.

I would definatly get plasma or LCD over DLP unless you have plenty of room.

of the two, i'd def take the samsung.

samsung is the only way i would of went if they sold them here at the base...fuckers wouldnt even ship me a 46" LCD last year. so i bought a hitachi 1200 dollar 42" plasma 1080p it ranked 9 out of 10 on the asian c-net back then.

just get something wtih 120 hz and 1080p to make it worth your while. DLP's are excellent because they are relatively CHEAP but they eat up more space. my friend she just bought a 56" DLP for 900 bucks so deals are out there.

remember plasmas reflect light thats the only downside i see with them but its all personal preference.

http://myparkinglot.files.wordpress....bishi-logo.jpg



FTMFW!!!!



hahhaha

... they do?

i have 2 of them, never noticed anything of the sort.

Mitsubishi

My family has a 64'' Mitsubishi 1080p DLP in our basement and we've had it for quite a while and have never had a problem. If I were to give it a rating it'd be a 8.5 out of 10 (only because it's just a little TOO long and sticks out from our wall a bit).

they all come with anti-reflective coating so its minimized...but at certain times of the day i see reflections. i prefer my plasma over teh LCD i have in my room that fucking LCD is bright as hell but its 2 years old.

if light reflection is an issue, LG came out with a new TV that adjusts to light.

anywho, DLP's are cheaper to fix (most of the time) because of that light bulb that is usually the prob.
But, LCD's will typically last longer but are more expensive.

I'd do more research and get better options, IMO. :)

I saw that on Sunday, that's sweet as hell..

thats what i thought ! ive always hated hated having to get up from a movie and block the top side of the window that isn't covered by the curtains.

and no, lifting the curtains isnt an option as the top of the window is an arch....:P

hehe

prolly the best thing about my house is these things. metal curtains to keep zie germans out!

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thats cool! but uh, fix your roof!

haha

why r ppl voting for 720p over 1080p??? and DLP is better than plasma any day!

LOL thats not my place. i just did a quick search

but you said "my house"...:confused:

shit someone just bought this for 900
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i meant it more as a general statement...I.E "my house has something like these".

ahhh.... gotcha! lol anywho, office depot was selling some supercheap plasmas the other day...wonder if theyre still there...

I used to work there...I can tell you first hand don't buy from them. The managers (at least at my store) handled electronics of all sorts very poorly. I reported them to the corporate offices and then quit. If I were buying a tv it'd be either at circuit city or best buy.

Well, idk about the store near me, but I'd too, would rather buy a TV from BestBuy or any other place that specializes in electronics.

Yeah. They're entire mail-in rebate thing is a total scam too...a little less than 75% of mail-in rebates work.

Really? I've never tried sending a mail-in rebate for the fact that it's a process that takes too long.

yeah it's supposed to take 6-8 weeks. And most associates are really poorly trained on how to explain the process. What parts of the receipt to mail-in and whatnot...

hmph...good thing i've never cared much for that type of thing, then! heh

Yes, always stay with instant rebates if possible. If you ever do choose to go the mail-in rebate route, ask an associate (who you think is legit) and ask them about all of the things that could go wrong with their rebate, and weigh your options. Most mail-ins are made to be compicated though...they want to be sure that you jump through hoops before you can even think about seeing a penny back.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that at Office Depot most mail-ins are returned by gift card. So you're getting money back, but it's restricted to the Office Depot store, and occasionally partnering companies.

if you can actually sit there and look at 2 TV's and tell me which is 720p and 1080p, ill eat my honda.

on paper it is a decent difference, but in real life it has to be a pretty big tv and you have to be sitting awfully close to tell a difference.

hell, my Plasma in my bedroom is 480P EDTV and the one in my livingroom is 720p. i cant tell a difference unless i really get up there. once you go past 720p you are really looking at a major point of diminishing returns.

my view on it is dont pay more for 1080p, but if it has 1080p, why not.

as for DLP better than plasma? Have you actually seena plasma Tv? lol.... i mean sure if you dont mind looking at hotspots and such, and dont mind haaving a giant as tv taking up a bunch of yer living room. My parents have a DLP and the pic is fantastic when viewed dead on, but father off-axis viewing really suffers. especially on the vertical axis. You can watch plasma and LCD fine even when 80 degrees off axis.

personally i dont think anything out there beats LCD and Plasma for all they have to offer when it comes to performance, price, space savings, etc.

I've worked in home theater retail for three years now and I can personally tell you that Plasmas in general are so much better that DLPs. DLPs are easy to fix sure, if all you have to do is replace the bulb, but anything past that and you're ripped out the butt, same on plasmas so you can't use that fact.

As Jack just stated plasmas have a much better viewing angle, and as for the glare it only matters if you have low sitting lamps or if the tv is on the opposite side of the room from a window.

People always say with plasmas they won't last long or you'll get the all-dreaded burn-in, but these newer plasmas are just as good as LCDs their only downfall being power usage and heat. The 720p and 1080 doesn't play a factor unless you're watching dvds, and only then does it matter if you have a blu-ray player or not.

IMO I'd say to get the Samsung.

funny, i tend to look at LCD's and say they are finally getting just as good as plasmas.

lol

LCD's finally have a decent refresh rate and dont have that motion blur that plagued them for so long. Not to mention a historically shitty contrast ratio and terrible black levels. However those have both been just about resolved as well. Plasma has been better than LCD in my view for a while. LCD is finally catching up. ;)

PRESENT COMPANY EXCLUDED of course, but ive always had the impression that in the stores they jack up the color and contrast on the LCD's to make them brighter and more vivid, and put them in better viewing locations than the plasma's and lower the contrast and color on the plasmas to make them look worse.

after all, LCD's are more expencive. Better commission on a $3,000 LCD than a $2,000 Plasma that performs better.... and thats the only reason i can come up with that everyone seems to think LCD looks better than plasma with thier lousy black levels and slow refresh rates. lol.

My brother in law mistook my TV for an LCD claiming he can tell cause a shitty plasma cant look that good.

As with current technology especially the last generation or two, they are pretty much neck to neck, the price different is almost non existant, i think that plasma will eventually go away because they are heavier and require more power.

Wouldnt 1080p be better than 720p? I think dlp will last longer than plazma?

samsung LCD... i don't like plasma.

Yeah 1080p is better, but to be honest like Jack said you'd have to be sitting right next to a HUGE tv to notice. And even then, it's not a big difference. As for which one will last longer, I'm not sure. They would probably last a similar amount of time if well maintained.

plasmas hold a half life of about 60,000 hours. meaning thier display will be half as bright as new after 60,000 hours of watching it.

So, if you are a hardcore TV junkie, and watch tv 10 hours a day every day it will last 16.5 years before its half life.

Most DLPs rate thier bulb life around 1000-2000 hours. You can probably squeese 3,000 hours, and you will pay roughly 200 bucks for a new bulb.

That means if you watch both the plasma and the DLP for 60,000 hours the DLP will cost you an additional $4,000 worth of bulbs by the 60,000 hour mark, and that is a best case scenario.

and yah, 1080p is definatly better than 720p, but honestly unless you have a 52+ screen and sit 6 feet away from it you wont be able to tell a difference unless you have eyesight sharper than most f-16 fighter pilots.

Thats why my general advice on the 1080p vs 720p is dont worry about it. If the TV you get is 1080p all the better, but spending an extra $300-500 on the 1080p model vs the 720p model is a total waste of money.

Just curious, any reason for that?

for the past 6-7 years plasma has outperformed LCD in refresh rates (no motion blue) better contrast ratios, the ability to hit darker levels of black, larger screen sizes, they are less expencive, the plasma phosphor creates more lifelike colors, better off-axis viewing...

LCD weighs less and uses a little less energy... thats really about it..

this latest generation of LCD's has overcome many of thier deficiencies...

as for screen burn-in on plasma, ive never had an issue with either of mine, i played out 80 hours worth of gameplay on Lost Oddessy a few months back, 3-4 hours a day for weeks straight and never had any burn in... in fact, i dont think i have ever seen a plasma actually get burn-in

dont get me wrong, ive seen Samsung LCD's and they are fantastic TV's, if it were me i would go with a Sharp LCD because they are a bit ahead of the game in the LCD production..


not trying to pick an arguement really, just that statement really deserves a good reason behind it.

personally i think you have seen too many LCD's with thier color jacked way up sitting next to plasmas with thier color reduced so the salesman can convince you to spend more money on the more expencive LCD.

lol...

I don't know where you're getting your facts from on the "jacking up of LCDs versus plasmas" because I work as a senior in home theater at best buy and we do no such thing. Many people like you said believe LCDs are better simply because of all of the rumors that have been spread around. It's never really been who has caught up to one or the other, because both have their pros and cons. But, in this new generation of flat-screens both are on equal playing fields IMO. At our store we personally sell more plasmas than LCDs and DLPs combined because of the deeper blacks, and generally the $100 the consumer might save. We don't, however, try to sell LCDs versus plasmas just because they're more expensive. As a store we make just as much profit off of a LCD as we do a plasma, so you can't say that we're doing this just for profits.

Plasmas generally look better in a dim lit situation, or complete darkness, and since our store is VERY brightly lit maybe this is whats causing you to see a major difference between the two in other places.

Lol... wow, hey re-read my post where i said "present company excluded" i wasnt suggesting YOU did that, but it IS done. Dont believe me? Go pick a random home theater store, or maybe a citcut city since best buy is so obviously above such tactics and open that little door you see on the front bottom of the TV, then go into menu, options, display options, and take a look at the settings.

I was not suggesting you do this and if that is how it came across i apologize, but i have seen first hand where the LCD sitting next to the plasma is set on "VIVID" and the plasma has the contrast and color are knocked down to 1/4

I saw this, several years back when i used to be an advid poster on Audiogon.com which is a high end audio site where several salesmen have admitted to doing as much in order to get the larger commission. It was a thread that was started about how to buy an HDTV and what to look out for.

Im not saying all salesmen are crooks, but they are not all saints either, and it doesent matter if bestbuy goes with such tactics or not, that doesent mean other stores do not.

once again, present company excluded, but i have never been even remotely impressed with the level of knowledge from the salespeople at any of the circut citys or bestbuys or ultimate electronics ive been to, more often than not thier information is incorrect about the model they are referring to, or they dont know much about it, or they are trying to push me into buying something else that i am not looking for. Hell, last time i went TV shopping about a year back, the salesman tried to get me out of buying a Panasonic 42in Plasma Tv and into a Samsung LCD and actually had the nerve to try to tell me that plasmas need to be "Recharged" every few years.

Granted, it is nowhere as bad as car salesmen, and i understand they are trying to make a living, but such shorthanded tactics are common and anyone who doubts this is completly niave.

that said, i havent been in your store, but before i got into mustangs i was into high end audio and home theater was my hobby, most of the brands you would never see at a best buy, and i dont think i have ever met a salesmen who knew even half of what i know unless im going into a mrick&mortar high end audiophile botique. When i get a hobby i become somewhat obsessive into learning everything about it because hobbys are expencive and i want to make sure im making the right decision. That way i dont find myself investing tons of money into Tice Clocks and Shaki Stones. lol.

i heard that i can remember many times i was looking at stuff at a big name electronic store and was curious about a product so started asking "what does this do? what's this for?" and the sales guy was more confused about the product than i was.

When it comes to plasma TV's:

Panasonic > *

My family has a 50" plasma panasonic 1080p, 42" plasma panasonic 1080i, 26" LCD panasonic. Then I have a 32" lcd hdtv panasonic at my place

^^ hell yeah.

Panasonic makes the best plasma displays hands down. :D

I have a 42in EDTV in the bedroom and a 42in 720p in the living room.

Ive always been impressed with panasonics build quality and reliability. Next time i buy a TV (probably not for a few years) im definatly gonna go with a 50in 1080p, and it sure as hell will be plasma.

i think sharp edges out Panasonic in the LCD department though

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

Hey jack take a look at this. It's a chart thats supposed to tell you what distance you need to sit to see the differences between all the resolutions. It seems pretty good but I honestly have never done any side by side comparisons between the different resolutions so it could be total bullshit too.

thats an interesting chart and i wouldnt be suprised if it is correct

like i said, dont get me wrong, if the TV you are looking at is 1080P then awesome! However, if you are looking at a 720P and realize you could pay 300 extra for 1080p, dont bother.

per the chart, at a distance of 15 feet, you would have to have a screen size LARGER than 75 inches to start noticing a difference between 720p and 1080p

wow, didn't realize there would be so much discussion when I brought up a thread about tvs. Well we didn't actually get a new tv. Wife figured we really didn't need a new one at the moment, but I'm still working on her. I have to say, I have a 42" 720p Samsung DLP now and think the picture is fantastic. High Def looks awesome. You are always gonna have people argue that Plasma's look better than LCDs and then LCDs look better than Plasmas and so on. I think they all have there ups and downs and there isnt truley one perfect tv. When all is said and done, if the tv is setup properly they all look great. A lot of it comes down to space issues and so on. I have room for either a big DLP or a flat panel. The new DLPs aren't all that big these days. That 60" I was talking about only weighs 64lbs, and is like 14" deep. Anywho, I'm sure discussions can go on for days about this, but I just wanted to see people's opinions and apprently it's 50/50.

I also wouldn't consider being a senior at Best Buy as being the most knowledgable when it comes to electronics. No offense, but I've seen some of the people that work there and have talked with them. My friend is a supervisor at one and ended up getting himself a Samsung LCD which looks awesome. Everyone will always have their own opinions.

Thanks for the input though. So carry on.