Buying a new TV :)

So I've decided as an outlet for some of my recent stress, I'm going to get one of those fancy LCD tv's to play xbox 360 on, and move my 19inch old schooler to the bedroom.

HOWEVER, I've come to a quick realization that I know nothing about what I'm buying and don't know how to tell what a good set is. I'm loyal to dell, so that's narrowing it down a little bit.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/category.asp...626&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

looks like these are my options, I was wondering if any of you tech-guys could help me out

I personally don't care for LCD's except for their mountability/portability.

If space is a concern, but you still have room for a piece of furniture to set it on, I would look into something like a 42"ish LCD projection. Not very large or deep, and very light.

Currently own a Sony Grand Wega 50" 3LCD Model KDF-50E2000 (720p/1080i) and its awesome.

Buy a big one and wall mount that beast.

monoprice.com is your friend, Don't buy 400 dollar wall mounts from best buy when you can get the same thing for 50 bucks from monoprice. I'm wall mounting a 42" plasma, and a 42" lcd in my new house with their products.

They are like the Oznium of home theater/networking/ and some computer stuff.

If your looking for LCD, Sony and Samsung are the best IMO. But dont buy something until you go and see it for yourself. seriously, even if you dont buy it from a store, go check it out and see what you like.

Take a look at some of the Westinghouse TVs. I know a lot of gamers that swear by them.

Also, Sony does make an amazing Grand Wega TV. My roommate had the smaller 42" and it was pretty sweet.

Just recently bought a 42" Sharp Aquos LCD. We had been shopping for a Plasma or LCD for about 6 months doing research on the response time, pixels, picture quality, etc. Seen this one and my girlfriend and I both finally agreed on it.

I guess I didn't say what I had.


42" Samsung Plasma, freaking awesome and is my primary gaming screen at the moment, the picture is the best I have ever seen.

42" Philips LCD, freaking good and will be my primary gaming screen in my new house (in my man loft, yep MAN LOFT!).

i've heard great things about westinghouse as well

If your gonna buy one, definitely get a plasma (you can do research and compare the plasma and lcd, but plasma has the better picture)

It looks like the going size for gamers is a 42inch

For plasma brands, the best is pioneer hands down.... i vote samsung (b/c thats what i have) next, but like i said, i've heard great things about westinghouse. You wanna make sure you have enough inputs and outputs as well. (i think mine has 2 component, 2 rca, hdmi, vga, s-video)

justin wrote:

I personally don't care for LCD's except for their mountability/portability. If space is a concern, but you still have room for a piece of furniture to set it on, I would look into something like a 42"ish LCD projection. Not very large or deep, and very light. Currently own a Sony Grand Wega 50" 3LCD Model KDF-50E2000 (720p/1080i) and its awesome.

If you're planning on playing FPS games on the TV don't get a projection screen. I have a 50" LCD projection that my 360 was on and it caused lag. It wasn't really noticeable on most games. When playing FPS games (like Halo) it was very noticable because timing is so important. Other than that I love my LCD projection TV. It's great for everything except gaming. I just brought this up because you said you wanted to play your 360 on it.

jol102001 wrote:

If your gonna buy one, definitely get a plasma (you can do research and compare the plasma and lcd, but plasma has the better picture)

I used to believe that Plasma was better and was not going to be convinced to change! I didn't like the "ghosting" that LCD TVs had. Until I researched it some more and found that Plasma can have an easier image burn-in then a CRT monitor (use it our main TV for our Nintendo Wii with 2 kids under 12), then I noticed that the Plasma TVs had a more washed-out picture then the high-end LCD TVs, and as long as you find an LCD with a fast response time, you don't get the "ghosting" effect anymore and a really clear picture.
Our 42" Sharp Aquos looks amazing, and the 46" and 52" are supposed to be even better quality and faster (but the 46" was about $1200 more!).

Never had a problem with lag. I don't game a lot, but I am pretty picky about my stuff. Would have gone back if there was an issue. Have seen that complaint before though...

May just be model specific? What brand/model is it?

I have a 32" Westinghouse LCD and I enjoy it. I haven't had the joy of experiencing any HD programming on it yet, but it looks great as a second monitor.

I have a 50" DLP....would like an LCD but a little more expensive...mines a 1080 and works great....was 1299.99 through crutchfield.com on sale....if you want I can look at some stuff through Direct Buy.com and see what they are going for

I bought a 36" Olevia from CC for $500 and love is. Supports up to 1080i and as a built in HD tuner.

bang for your buck = westing house and Vizio!

i would say vizio, my parents bought their plasma off the vizio website, they got free shipping and didnt pay tax! and it was shipped from california. I'm not sure if they still do that but its a good deal especially not paying tax on an item like that.

Wow, congratulations on the new tv! I can't wait to see photos of it all hooked up.

This is the perfect oportunity to install some cool LED Ribbon Strips behind the tv. Giving a vibrant glow to your new media center!

http://www.oznium.com/led-ribbon
And of course we've got the AC-adapters too.

Okay i sold TV's for a year and a half and stopped selling about 5 months ago. If you want a good TV dont buy a walmart brand (Westinghouse, vizio, olivia, magnavox, or any other mutt. sorry if i offend anyone but if you look side by side its huge differents.

Good deals at sears right now if you get a 40" or larger you get a extra $150 off 50" on up $250 off.

the 360 needs a 1080p tv to support it to its full use. Cheaper way to go for 1080p is projection as some people said the sony 3lcd tv's lag with is true, but sony also has a tv called the SXRD which is faster mirror reaction, has smaller pixels, brighter colors, and is 1080p. I love this TV. Other wise more expensive is plasmas they don't lag nearly as much as a LCD flat panel does. but to get 1080p it is a jump in price. Good plazma tv's are #1 Panasonic (i have this in the new 50") other wise Hitachi, and samsung. If you want a cheap 1080p for good price and okay performance look at toshiba DLP projection.

As far as LCD's go they are excessively expensive for 40" on up and have more of a lag problem than any others.

IMO 50" sony SXRD 1080p($1399), Pansonic 50" 1080I($1249), or 42" Panasonic 1080p ($1249)

those prices are at sears with the $150 or $250 discount

pontiac4evr_14 wrote:

sony 3lcd tv's lag with is true

Hard proof?

Not because I don't believe you, as I have heard of the problem between display/audio lag (which wouldn't really affect the ability to game properly).

There also seems to be a problem that I can find that looks like lag due to a scaling problem (say if native res is 720p - but someone sets it to 1080i), which I could see causing a problem. Not really the TV's fault, rather the users.

I have to disagree with your suggestion of a Tosh DLP. We bought one first off, and it was a pile of garbage (priced similarly to your suggested range). Was impossible to look at, had horrible rainbow effect.

Regardless, I have never experienced this, and own the TV in question. As stated before, I am picky about my stuff, so I guess I want to know, really, what proof there is of this problem, and what TV sets it affects?

I love the LG Tv's

We have a 37 and 32 inch at the Shack, the 37 is $1099 plus tax, not sure about the price of the 32" though.

I really like them, they look great, but I don't have much experience with TV's, so take my opinion for what it's worth.

well, once again, i wanted to purchase from that list, if anyone has insight from the ones listed there..main reason is i'd like to put it on my dell card with 12 months no interest, rather than pay cash, use one of my other cards, or inquire for more credit.

and phil, i'll def hook some led's up
i may throw my extra inferno kit under the couch/chair too

Of those I'm a big fan of the "Bravia" ready TV's, I've seen a couple of the DVD players that harness the Bravia feature, it's so cool. Yet again, no experience here.

I would go with the Aquos or the Bravia. That narrows it down a little.

When looking at buying my olevia i compared it to other tv's in the $500 price range and at the time it had the best picture IMO of anything in that price range. The picture quality is great and it can also double as a monitor if i want it too.

xracer000 wrote:

jol102001 wrote: If your gonna buy one, definitely get a plasma (you can do research and compare the plasma and lcd, but plasma has the better picture) I used to believe that Plasma was better and was not going to be convinced to change! I didn't like the "ghosting" that LCD TVs had. Until I researched it some more and found that Plasma can have an easier image burn-in then a CRT monitor (use it our main TV for our Nintendo Wii with 2 kids under 12), then I noticed that the Plasma TVs had a more washed-out picture then the high-end LCD TVs, and as long as you find an LCD with a fast response time, you don't get the "ghosting" effect anymore and a really clear picture. Our 42" Sharp Aquos looks amazing, and the 46" and 52" are supposed to be even better quality and faster (but the 46" was about $1200 more!).

Pioneer plasma is the best about the 'ghosting', but that's just it..... that's all it is now-a-days on plasmas, is ghosting. They don't 'burn' like they used to. I used to play 6 hours of a game that had a compass on the whole time and when I would switch over to cable it would clear up within the first 5-10 mins. Also, it depends on how your settings are set. If you have it on 'dynamic' (contrast all the way up) then it will ghost faster. If you think you have a burn then put it on a white screen or a static screen for as long as it takes to go away.

jol102001 wrote:

that's all it is now-a-days on plasmas, is ghosting. They don't 'burn' like they used to. I used to play 6 hours of a game that had a compass on the whole time and when I would switch over to cable it would clear up within the first 5-10 mins. Also, it depends on how your settings are set. If you have it on 'dynamic' (contrast all the way up) then it will ghost faster. If you think you have a burn then put it on a white screen or a static screen for as long as it takes to go away.

I remember playing six hours or more with you in COD3! The compass lol

I play games with static images all the time on my plasma, and any ghosting clears up after watching a few minutes of tv. Once, I was playing madden all night and the EA logo in the bottom left was stuck on pretty good, but a white screen would have fixed it.

I used JScreenfix (downloadable dvd utility) and got rid of it way faster.

I think most plasmas come with a white screen feature for ghosting. But plasmas (and maybe lcds) have break in periods.

Jared, our plasmas have a few different built in tools, white screen, and where it goes through the colors. I've never had a big ghosting problem on my plasma or lcd.

When these started coming out ghosting and burn in was a problem, but not so much anymore.

ordered my sony bravia 40" last night and its already shipped and on the way!

KDL-40S3000
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Bravia-KDL-40S3000-7...cs&qid=1194313419&sr=8-1