Bleg: TeeVees
I was looking at getting a new one for the den. Criteria: flatscreen, wall-mounted, 55 inches or larger, and wireless internet ready.
Then I started looking at TeeVees and there are about eleventy billion different kinds (LCD, LED, 3D, DLP, Plasma, etc.). I have a plasma upstairs and am plenty happy with it. But the old big screen downstairs from circa 1999 is on its last legs.
What say you?
June 16th, 2011 at 10:17 am
I’m in the same boat Uncle, so looking forward to peoples thought.
62 inch served me well for 15 plus years.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:19 am
LED isn’t. It’s just another version of LCD with LED backlighting. It’s still the best version of LCD mind you. Real LED TV’s are still below 20 inches in size, if there are even any on the market at the moment. That being said, go with either the LED LCD or a plasma. As for 3D, Unless you play something like GT5 on a regular basis it’s really not worth the money increase.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:25 am
Yeah, but 3d is one of those things I think I might regret not having in 3 years.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:36 am
After a ton of research, I went with a Samsung Plasma. Has a ton of features that reduce possibility of screen burn-in and has served my family well for over 2 years. As soon as LED or OLED gets larger, go with that.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:39 am
i actually have a samsung upstairs.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Buy a Samsung LED. Skip the 3D because right now you have to have a pair of $150 glasses for everyone to watch.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Look for the best price on any of the available HD technologies. I just bought a 46″ last night due to a lightening strike (also got the dryer and modem). After watching my friends TVs and staring at the models and talking with the sales staff and reading Consumer Reports…. to the human eye, there really is not a perceptable difference between the various HD technologies. If it is HD, get the best price.
There are still individuals that will tell you analog recording is so much better than digital. Honestly, I could tell the difference immediately when the technology broke but have since lost the distinction.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:44 am
One experienced note… if you get LED/LCD, in a dark room, you can see the corners MUCH brighter when the screen is supposed to be black. this is from the LEDs’ lights crossing paths. Once it has been seen, it cannot be unseen.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:53 am
Whatever you buy, get the extended warranty. 2 years ago we bought a 50″ Samsung Plasma (at that time, rated one of the best) and the screen crapped the bed after 14 months. If it weren’t for the “Black Tie Protection Program” we got from Best Buy, we’d have been screwed. We ended up getting another Samsung, a 58″ Plasma for basically the same price since they look to give you a comparable unit to what you previously had (not dollar-for-dollar reimbursement), and the units become obsolete after about a year.
The repair man told me that even though you’re paying top dollar for these TV’s, they’re basically “throw-aways” after a few years because they’re just not build to withstand the use they take now-a-days. They didn’t even make the part we needed to fix the old unit and it was only 14 months old.
But I digress, i like the picture quality of the Plasma units. Truer color and not as much noise as LCD, IMO. UNtil they make 3D TV’s you can view without wearing those god awful glasses, i’m sticking with Plasma.
June 16th, 2011 at 10:57 am
Bought an LCD flatscreen at Costco for cheap, but it’s only 42″ – the Toshiba had the best looking HD picture.
It works because we have a lot of light coming in from all directions, even at night. But anything bigger would take-over the house.
The best 3D is by Bang & Olufson, the 85″ BeoVision 4 and costs as much as a house – a thousand dollars an inch.
Frankly I want TV to be TV and flat, a window to another world, not a doorway with a welcome mat and a delivery man standing there ringing the doorbell, not some 3-D immersion/experience/relationship – or with goddam glasses – I already wear glasses, I can’t have three damn sets on my nose.
June 16th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Sony Bravia is the only way to go. Since almost every input is NOT HD 1080p quality, (DVDs, games, video cameras, most channels, etc) you need a good image processor. Get the XBR if you can afford it. I’ve been using my KDLV2500 for over 4 years as a computer monitor/HDPC. 1:1 pixel quality, excellent for playing BluRays and I’ve never ever had a problem. “warranties” are a waste of money.
3D is bullshit. Don’t waste your money on that. Look, bluray has been around for 5+ years and how much do you actually watch those? 3D is less of an improvement than those and it’s a huge gimmick.
June 16th, 2011 at 11:19 am
Molon Labe is right, TV sets are throwaways. In fact they’re obsolete by the time they hit the store shelves.
There’s about a three-to-four year lag between actual design & features pipeline implementation and the production cycle, and by the time they get to Retail the Mfgs’ already written-off X-amount of loss.
June 16th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Remember to get your cables and wall mounting hardware from monoprice.com. All the big box stores sell vastly overpriced cables and accessories, usually of lesser quality, in comparison to monoprice. Do I sound like an ad?
June 16th, 2011 at 11:42 am
I just picked up a 55″ 3D Vizio LED (xvt3d554sv) and couldn’t be happier. Also, I’d second fucema on Monoprice. Their HDMI and audio cables are as good or better than any big-box store and insanely cheaper.
June 16th, 2011 at 11:58 am
I’m in the same boat with a dying family room TV. With the tech and pricing changing daily it’s hard to decide when to buy. I’m leaning toward the Sony XBR in a 50+ inch. I have a smaller Sony Bravia that’s 3 1/2 years old and it’s probably on 8+ hours a day. No problems at all (Except for the remote that was lost for two years, kids!). Not sure 3D is worth the money yet but if I found the right deal I might go for it. At a minimum go with LCD with LED backlighting.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
The three top brands right now in terms of quality, Are the Sharp Aquos line, the Panasonic Viera line, and the Sony Bravia line. Samsung is in fourth. The overall quality difference between them is very small, but there can be big differences within a single brands model line up. Read the specs carefully.
LED is nice, the primary factors being the backlights are slightly more color accurate, slightly more responsive, have slightly better actual contrast ratios (deeper blacks), and they last longer before the backlights dim. That said, nonLED are fine too.
Anything 120hz or faster, which is almost all current generation, and all LED is fine. 240hz may be a tiny improvement if you watch a lot of sports, racing, or play a lot of video games… but not much. 600hz is a gimic.
Plasma is basically dead at this point except in certain specialty display and really huge displays. If offers very few advantages over the current generation of LCD displays.
No TV has anything remotely resembling a good image processor. If you want good image processing, run it through a home theater receiver first. The Aquos, Viera, and Bravia all have acceptable image processing.
No TV has anything remotely resembling good speakers either.
Right now the sweet spot on price are 47″ and 52″. 56″ pays a price premium.
Again, internet is not a feature you want to depnd on being good, internal to the TV. You’re going to keep the TV far longer than you keep your other components. If it’s there great, but honestly, you shouldn’t care much, because over the life of the TV standards are going to change a half dozen times.
Get the internet built into your blueray player, PS3, or receiver; something that has net upgradeable firmware.
Don’t bother with 3D, it’s an expensive scam at this point.
Dont worry too much about inputs if you’re going to have a receiver in front of it (which I STRONGLY recommend). If not, get as many hdmi as you can, plus at least one composite and one component.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Ditto fucema. We needed a HDI/HDMI adapter. $40 at Best Buy, $4 off the internet (shipping free).
June 16th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I should note, the Bravia XBRs have the better image processing, not the lower Bravias.
Oh and I have an Aquos and a Viera (a 52″ and a 47″).
hmm… Yeah one more thing. Buy from Costco if you can. Instead of the manufacturers extended warranty, they give you a free three year exchange warranty on TV’s.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
How about you get rid of the old TV and not buy a new one?
Save money AND have more time to actually do stuff.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
I have 3. Our 42″ Westinghouse LCD is okay.
The 50″ Samsung Plasma is better – the dark colors are spectacular.
The biggie is a Mitsubishi 72″ DLP. It is built into a closet so it is flat against the wall. We had it professionally calibrated which I recommend. It is stunning – all the Mitsu DLP are 3D ready. Sooner or later I’ll drop the cash on the 3D kit and glasses.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
What Molon Labe said. Just be careful with Samsung. Be prepared to chuck it if you have a problem. They have terrible product support and iffy customer service. I have been through three of their products (TV, Blu Ray DVD, and smart phone) and they all are glitchy in some way at some point. Their attitude seems to be “well, buy the newer version” and mine is “well, not a new one of yours”. The screen crap out Molon Labe mentioned was a KNOWN problem with their capacitors that went unaddressed. Mine went south around 18 months, but was a $100 handyman fix for me (wear insulated gloves when messing with capacitors!) that could have meant spending $300 having it fixed or just buying a new one. I’m a fan of plasma as well.
June 16th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Hell, the only TV I own was made in 1983.
June 16th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Well, all this furniture down there would look silly facing an empty spot.
June 16th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
fucema – +1 for monoprice!
June 16th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Panasonic Plasma TC-P65VT30 (new for 2011) is the best HDTV on the market in both 2D & 3D picture quality.
It is the 65 inch model and currently about $4200 or so. A little on the pricey side, but the best usually is…
June 16th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
I have always (intentionally) lagged about two years behind the curve on electronics. I have a 65″ Mitsubishi DLP I got used for $500 (the lamps had just been replaced, so it’s good for a couple more years at least). Even with our bright Cali sun, it’s awesome. Darker picture than a plasma/LED, but not so bad we mind. And the acreage is spectacular, especially with HD. It’s 3D capable, too.
My other two TVs are 40″ Mitsu tubes (!!) I got for a couple hundred bucks. They weigh several hundred pounds each. Beautiful pictures, but we’ll be replacing them eventually as they are bulky.
Don’t buy new electronics, man! It’s not worth it! Craigslist is your friend!
That being said, when buying new I look at what the sports bars have. Samsung seems the sports-bar flat-panel of choice out here.
June 16th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
One thing to remember about plasma vs LCD/LED: Plasma has a better picture quality (for the same quality tv) but only if there are minimal other light sources. If the room has windows, go with LCD/LED.
Also, if you have an HH Gregg nearby, check them out. Theirs is the only extended warranty worth a crap. Bought a 46″ from them with the warranty. My dogs knocked the tv over and shattered it. HH Gregg replaced it no questions asked.
Regards,
Pol
June 16th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
3D is bullshit (especially if you haven’t tested it to see if you’re in the large set of people it gives a headache to), honestly.
120hz is basically bullshit without 3D (especially if your inputs don’t support scan rates that fast, and most of ’em don’t seem to).
If it was me, I’d go with an LCD/LED, but plasmas should be just fine.
DLP isn’t the force it used to be, and lamp replacement is also bullshit, but if you get a good price (say on a nice used one), they’re okay.
Basically, I suppose my advice boils down to “look on the cheap half by ignoring those pseudo-features, and get any half-respected brand”. Nobody in the big names makes a bad monitor.
Then spend some of the money you saved on a nice box to drive it; all you really need the “TV” to do these days is display a video signal, is how I see it. You should be doing switching, audio processing, and any upconversion from non-HD sources in dedicated separate hardware.
(I have a Sony now-obsolete DH-710, I think is the model, and like it, but other brands are Just As Good.)
(Also, Chris is right about Costco. Good prices and good replacement. I got my Visio 40″ there.)
June 16th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
I ended up with a Samsung LCD.
June 16th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Go to newegg.com and look around. Chat with them about the specs. They are great with service and prices.
June 16th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
“Anything 120hz or faster, which is almost all current generation, and all LED is fine. 240hz may be a tiny improvement if you watch a lot of sports, racing, or play a lot of video games… but not much. 600hz is a gimic.”
Honestly, anything over 120Hz is probably a gimic. There are very few video sources above 60 Hz. Blu-ray is mostly 24Hz with a handful of 60Hz. HDTV mostly tops out at 60 Hz with handful of 120Hz. If you’re viewing higher frame rates than those, it’s because your input stream is getting interpolated out to hell and back. But hey all that interpolation sure makes your brain think the picture is gliding around on rails.
Find out what retailers operate decent repair shops in house. When my 42″ Philips died 2 months after the warrantee expired, I found out that the only TV repair shop near me that could work on it is Geek Squad at Best Buy. All the old mom and pop repair shops have been gradually going away since TVs went to board-based hardware architectures almost two decades ago. I bought my next TV with the good warrantee at Best Buy because it gives me the best deal on Geek Squad when it breaks.
June 16th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
1) Any TV that costs $2000-$2500 this year, will be available next year for $1500 or less. If you’re comfortable with that kind of depreciation, feel free to look at the high-end stuff. The companies come out with new “features” to add to the high-end, and slide everything else down the price points. This year’s high-end = next year’s mid-price = 2 year’s dirt cheap. I tend to go with the “dirt cheap” option (last TV purchase was a 42″ 720p plasma for $400) as I do not care to be on the cutting edge, just want good size and picture quality for the money.
2) Any TV that you can buy today is light-years ahead of any TV made 10 years ago. If you have been happy with the 10-year-old TV until now, you will be more than happy with the cheapest TV you can buy today that meets your size requirements.
3) Look at the off-brands. There are only a few companies in the world that make LCD or plasma panels. Often the whole TV (not just the panel) comes from the same assembly line as the name-brand models. My aforementioned $400 42″ plasma is an Insignia (Best Buy house brand) that is 100% made by Samsung — look at the input layout on the back, the remote control, the buttons on the front bezel — they barely made any effort to differentiate it from the Samsung-branded sets. But mine was 25% cheaper and came with a 2-year warranty rather than the 1-year warranty that a Samsung would have carried. Buy with an Amex and get an extra year of warranty for free.
4) Agreed with Chris Byrne about running everything through a receiver. If you have a $1500 TV budget, and you don’t yet have a receiver and speakers, spend $500 on the receiver, $500 on speakers, and $500 on the TV. The receiver will handle all the image processing, switching, and upscaling; all your TV needs is a single HDMI input.
5) Agreed on monoprice.com for HDMI cables (any cables at all, for that matter) and wall-mounts.
June 16th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
About a week ago I had the same dilemma and wound up buying a LG 55LV500 (55″ LED/LCD) w/wireless from Amazon. They had it for $300 less than I could find it anywhere else (locally or otherwise) and shipping was free. I have a smaller LG LCD TV and several LG Blu-Ray players and haven’t had any issues with them… plus I like the on screen interface better than most other manufacturers.
I also got the wall mount from Amazon for $25 and it is great. HDMI cables are a fraction of the cost online vs buying them locally.
I stay away from Samsung as I have three different friends who have had HDMI port failures on their Samsung plasma TVs and there is no economical way to have them repaired.
June 16th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
I would just say to stay away from Olevia. They use a nonstandard remote protocol, so universal remotes won’t work with them. (Can’t make my TiVo remote turn it on and off, for example.) Beyond stuff like that, LCD tvs are a commodity. Make sure it has the right inputs and not a ton of bad reviews online.
June 16th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
LCD if you plan on doing double duty as a PC monitor or Game monitor.
DLP and Plasma have screen burn issues that are increased by game and program menu items.
June 16th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
<< Consumer electronics tech – I work on these 😉
Samsung. Panels are great, the only issue you'll ever have is the capacitors in the power supply. 1.50 ea, usually 4 of them and if you can solder you can fix them yourself. Vizio and Insignia are both manufactured by either Samsung or LG depending on the model. They may not be assembled in a Samsung plant, but they have samsung boards.
The HDMI issue Gun Blobber mentioned is seen in all mfr's sets, I just had a Pioneer home theater receiver in with a dead HDMI input. Tip – make sure your satellite receiver / cable box is properly grounded. (I grounded all my units together with some 18ga wire daisy chained to each chassis, and a 12ga solid copper around to the house ground at the meter box.) DO NOT hot plug HDMI cables. Make sure all units are off, connect your cables, then power up. The transport IC's for HDMI are hella static sensitive. A 10v spike will pop the IC, so be careful.
If I were buying a new set today, LED backlight LCD would be what I'd get. I hate DLP, cost of ownership is high due to $250 bulb changes every year. Plasma still has burn-in issues.
And PLEASE do not do what one of my customers at Pickwick did – mounted the LCD in a cubby above the fireplace. Gas logs. Heat. He cooked the poor thing to death! Cool = long life.
June 16th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
What’s T.V. ?????
June 17th, 2011 at 5:25 am
Large CRT crapped out just before the move. Talked Mrs. Drang into looking at big screens–the IRS was very generous this year when it came to giving us our own money back.
Made the choice by the simple process of walking up and down the aisles (and aisles and aisles) at Costco and checking for the best picture.
And the winnah was…
Vizio 55″240 MHz, 1080p, non-3D.
Better picture than the Sonys, Panasonics, Sharps, LGs, or Samsungs. Decent price. Ethernet and wireless intert00bz, 5 HDMI, VGA, composite and component. The built-in internet “gadgets” include Netflix, I’ve been catching up on Top Gear (in HiDef!) back to 2002. (The Netflix on this is NOT the full catalog of streaming Netflix programming, but includes a healthy dose of vids the kids.)
Other i-net gadgets include Facespace & Twitter–useless to me–and some other streaming video services, including one that a metric buttload of “So bad they’re good” movies.
Hooked Mrs. Drang’s old laptop up to it, we’ve been using Google Earth on the big screen to plot our vacation to Kauai this summer.
We’re happy enough with it to spring for HD programming on the sat TV.
June 17th, 2011 at 10:48 am
Ask gun guys tech questions and I suppose the answers above make sense. With the exception of Chris, most everyone is either being very subjective or misunderstanding marketing points.
-Skip 3D
-Buy LED buy make CERTAIN it’s “localized” otherwise it’s just a gimmick, avoid “edge lit”, same as a tube
-Skip looking too much into inputs and plan on buying a receiver, all the tv needs is one hdmi
-Buy one size up bigger than you think you want – always
-120 or 240hz does have some technical merits but be sure to turn OFF “smooth motion” or whatever they are calling soap opera mode now
-Avoid plasma, compared to LCD it was always a cheaper tech, it’s near death now
-if you ever think you’re going to sell it plan on 10-25% return MAX
-Costco would be my pick
But I’m an EE so what do I know?
June 17th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
We went w/ a Mitsubishi 60″ DLP. Lots of bang for the buck replaceable lamp if it craps out. Takes ~3 min to warm up when you turn it on, but the picture is awesome. Would have gone w/ a larger size, but didn’t have the room, the 65″ was only ~$50 more. They go up to 92″.
Also look at the laser TVs, they are still $$$$ but WOW!
June 18th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Have you considered a projector? Some of the new ones have a 20,000 hour lamp life.