Samsung DLP is the way to go. 3 years and still going on one bulb. 61" TV, 1080p
Wait WAIT
Save some money.
I think so too, but jpinard has already said he’s spooked by the cost of the bulbs. Me, I think they are a much better value, but, because they have mechanical parts, the risk is higher.
Edit: That said, I’m thinking of buying another – you can get 60+ inch sets, which is practically impossible outside DLP.
A lot of people really don’t appreciate the importance of having a truly theater-sized display, but it makes a huge difference. Look at this calculator to get a good sense of the right size for your room.
We have a 61" TV right now that we sit eight feet away from, which is only a little on the small side (it’s just above SMPTE’s recommended minimum size but well below THX recommendations), and it’s vastly more cinematic than those little YouTube-like affairs, where people hang a 42" LCD 20 feet away.
(This is actually kind of a concern of mine for the future, though. We’re going to be moving to a bigger house at some point, where we’ll probably have a less cramped living room and may be sitting, say, 13’ away from the TV. At which distance we’ll need about a 100" screen just to subtend the same arc, which means front projection and light control and all that foofaraw…)
Havent used this site personally, but they do have some good deals…
Sharp 1080p 37" is 999 at costco
in the event of shipping damage or dead pixels or even failure down the road, return hassle on something physically large as this from a dotcom is bad.
costco has 2 year coverage, no hassle at the warehouse.
My friend just bought a 1080 47" HP LCD at Costco for $999. The included media player is neat, but I didn’t have the heart to tell them the colors were way off.
I told them to just get a Panasonic, even an older 720p one (budget is tight and they mostly watch dvds/sdtv).
Plasma! The only advantage I’ll concede is that LCDs don’t suck as much as they did 5 years ago, and they are good if you watch TV at 1 PM with open windows.
Eeek. Now I’m really confused. So If I go ahead and think about DLP, who’s reliable? Samsung is really that good? Honestly I’m not sure we’d have room for a 65" DLP. Is DLP color and viewing as good as Plasma? Is it better than LCD?
I was all set to make my purchase from an on-line site… but that worries me now. With a good on-line vender I would have thought they’d taken into consideration the risk of shipping damage etc.
So, I keep hearing that plasmas:
- Don’t have the burn-in problem any more
- Some models have anti-glare now so you don’t have to watch them in a pitch black room (glare off the screen is my pet peeve, since my wife insists on either having lights on in the room at night, or windows open during the day.
Can someone point me at a specific model that represents point #2? Because I’d like to check it out in person.
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online is fine but it really depends on who you buy from. onecall has a very good reputation, they use shock sensors on the box which you visually inspect before the delivery truck even leaves. Though most big box retail places (best buy, frys, circuit city) will match that sharp price if you just talk to a manager. It really isn’t that hard of a price to get.
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Projection = major suckage in vertical viewing angle, bad during the day if you have LOTS of windows (which I do). That and bulbs (even the LED based light engines only have 20,000 hr life) is why I won’t ever buy a rear projection. A front projector in a room where you control light for MASSIVE sizes does sound interesting to me though but that’s not something I’d use for everyday TV watching.
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They are cheap and big though. My father in law has a 56" DLP samsung and it’s not bad but he controls lighting a lot. Just don’t stand up and walk around and expect to see anything on the screen.
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Input latency. The amount of time it takes to process the video can hurt some twich games. As in you do something on the control pad and there is noticeable lag before you see the effect on the screen (think geometry wars). Most music rhythm games let you compensate for this.
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moving parts!
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Plasma. For those that have one I have a few questions:
- break in period. I know there are dvd’s specific for this but you have to be careful with what you watch in the first 100hrs or something like that? Is this still something that you have to do with plasma?
- image retention (NOT BURN in). It’s not permanent but I hear it does happen. You watch a lot of SD content (pillar box) and you will see those black vertical bars until you watch enough 16:9 content to erase them. Does this still happen a lot?
- static/hud elements in video games. Does this also have image retention implications?
- glare but it seems plasma has gone a long way in this department. Again, depends how well you can control lighting and your viewing habbits (some people like to watch TV in daylight with blinds open and such).
See, there is no perfect display technology. Everything has it’s postivies and negatives. A lot depends on what is important to you. I’ll take LCD with it’s very mature technology but loses out to plasma in color and contrast. For me LCD looks good enough.
Thank you Aragon. I’m heading off to Best Buy to “look” at what they, and will come back and order from Onecall through Amazon I think.
I’d love to see the answers to the questions Aragon just posted too.
My DLP Rear Projection has no viewing loss from the sides.
20,000 hours is roughly 833 STRAIGHT days.
I use my DLP for game reviews for all types of games with no noticeable effect.
Seriously though, if you want to waste a ton of money on a smaller TV for no real reason then go right ahead.
Edit: for completeness sakes, please buy a Sony so that the bad idea purchase can be complete.
pssst… Costco!
have a panasonic 42" 1080p with the anti-glare coating. yes it does the job, but it’s still a little annjoying… instead of being able to see the lamp clearly in the TV screen, it’s more of a “blob”
I’ve seen some image retention, but only when I’m say playing a PS3 game with a HUD - and I then turn off my TV. the image is lightly there. I haven’t see any issue with changing what I’m viewing, and seeing any type of image retention. That being said, how many games do you play and not change to an inventory screen or map screen from time to time.
the Panny I have has a “just” aspect. which skews 4:3 content to 16:9. This is how we often watch standard content - rarely are we watching standard def content with pillar boxes on the sides.
finally I didn’t hear/read much about the break in period, aside from the fact that there are some people that feel that a plasma is more likely to have image rentention/damage during the first 100 hours or so.
I was just ultra careful not to leave a DVD/BR paused, or a game with a HUD running for an excessive period of time for the first month or two.
And as far as the electric cost… Yea it does gobble up a bit of electricity, you can feel it in the heat that is generated off the face of the TV - annoying in the summer, fringe benefit for the winter :)
So I went to Best Buy and I literally felt like I had to come home and shower. For people who are not paid on commision they have a wicked high-pressure sales sleeze factor. For instance…
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What’s up with this Geek Squad calibration crap? $300 !!! The guy tells me it’s expensive because they bring out a $10,000 machine and it takes 2 hours to do and no one can do it without this magic machine.
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The DLP sets looked really nice and I can understand the “theatre” aspect. But someday (maybe in a year or two) I might get a used XBox 360 and I’d be playing it from the floor not the couch. Would a DLP set not be a viable option then?
I looked at the LCD’s and they do appear a bit more washed out and blurry vs. DLP & Plasma.
Jason McMaster - If I went with DLP from Costco (they’re cheaper than Best Buy & Cicruit City right?) - what model would you suggest?
Talisker… I’ve never been to Costco. I looked at their site on-line and I must have been looking in the wrong place? All I see is:
- 3 - 1080P Plasma’s
- 13 - 1080P LCD’s
- Only 5 total DLP’s - all way beyond my price range.
The in-store selection is usually pretty different from what’s on the website. But, yeah, they don’t have as big a selection as BB – but, they don’t annoy you while you’re looking around, their added warranty rocks, etc etc etc.
Hit the one over by Rivertown, and go see a movie or something at the Cinemark afterwards, so you’re killing two birds with one trip :)
Hm, well CostCo leaves an interesting question. I went with Amazon for mine (as I do most things). Let me look at what they have.