Buying new TV...HELP

[SharonCC]

Our projection TV gave up last night. We did some shopping, and I'm a bit confused...well, actually a lot confused. We have narrowed the choice between a 51 inch Samsung model no...PN51D450(720p) or a 50 inch Samsung model no PN50C540(1080p). According to what I'm told, 1080p is not yet available in Canada. The 1080p is one inch smaller, and $200 more expensive. We watch a little TV at night, no gaming. We rent an occassional movie...Which TV should we choose?

Does anyone know when 1080p will be availabe in Canada...

 

[Mac]

If you aren't watching blue rays or HD cable then the 1080p is meaningless.

 

[Chornbro]

I JUST went through this... ended up with a 51" Samsung Plasma... HERE

Here's a quick little how-to....

Select your screen size. This depends on the size of the room and your personal preference. You can also find "screen size calculators" on the internet with a quick search. This will help you determine the best size tv based on your room size and how far you'll be sitting from the screen.

Select screen type. There are 3 main types... LCD, LED-LCD, and Plasma.

I love Plasmas. They last just as long as the other screen types and have the best-looking picture. Plasmas are also a lot cheaper than LED-LCD and LCD. Only drawback to a plasma is that the screen is highly reflective and they're not as bright. If your TV has a lot of natural light, you'll get a lot of glare off your plasma... if you have a dimly-lit/dark room or mainly watch at night, Plasma is for you.

LCDs are less reflective and brighter than Plasmas. They are good for brighter rooms. They're a little more expensive than Plasma. One of the problems with LED/LCD is called "motion judder" . Look for the hertz-rating of an LED/LCD TV. 60hz is standard and can make quick-moving images appear choppy. To counteract this, manufacturers make TVs with hertz-ratings of 120 and 240... but, the higher the hertz, the more expensive the TV!

LED-LCDs are the most expensive, newest, and brightest. These have the same motion problems that regular LCDs have... especially with bigger-sized TVs. Anything over 40" should have a 120 hertz refresh rate... anything over 50 should (my opinion) be at 240hz. These TVs are very expensive, but the pictures are beautiful. Not as beautiful as a Plasma (my opinion), but close to plasma-quality... and able to be used in a bright room.

I was recently shopping for TVs, and I completely ruled out 720p. It's old technology. a 1080p is just about standard these days, and all new devices (blu-ray players, cable boxes, DVD players, game consoles, etc) are geared toward 1080p resolution. Unless you're on a very tight budget, don't get a 720p TV! Screen size also comes into play here... for smaller TVs (40" and lower) 720p looks ok... but anything bigger and it looks rough...

A little more about 1080p... very few devices can output a TRUE 1080p signal... blu-ray players and gaming consoles are the only ones I know of. Cable/Satellite companies currently broadcast in 1080i because of bandwidth issues. 1080i is definitely better quality than 720p... so if your cable company is broadcasting a 1080i signal to your 720p TV, your TV will dumb-down the picture... and it wont look as good as it could. Buying a 1080p TV will also keep your investment more future-proof. If you ever decide to get a Blu-ray player, you can use it to it's fullest potential with a 1080p TV.

To shave a few bucks off of your purchase... most MFRs make several different versions of the "same" TV. 51" plasma for example... you can get one with Internet, with wireless internet, with 3d-ready capability... or without! If you dont care about internet/wireless internet or 3d-ready, then find the model that doesnt have that stuff and it'll save you a few hundred bucks!

The 51" Plasma I got was $900... Other 51" Samsung Plasma models with internet/wireless internet and 3d-ready... are $1400-2000!!!

Hope that helps!

 

[SharonCC]

Thank you so much!
We made the decision to get the 51 inch Plasma...1080p...but when they checked they had only the 720p. We have three stores who sell electronics in town, and all were the same. Didn't want to go out of town, as my daughter was due home for a few days so...
We bought a Samsung 46inch LED 1080p...the picture is incredible!

 

[Chornbro]

Thank you so much!
We made the decision to get the 51 inch Plasma...1080p...but when they checked they had only the 720p. We have three stores who sell electronics in town, and all were the same. Didn't want to go out of town, as my daughter was due home for a few days so...
We bought a Samsung 46inch LED 1080p...the picture is incredible!

AWESOME! LEDs are gorgeous... in a brighter room, there is really no substitute. Whats the Hz-rating on it? I really, really hope my posting was helpful!

 

[SharonCC]

Your post was VERY helpful!!!
It's 120Hz...is that bad or good. LOL! Actually, I did check that out before purchasing. Our TV is by a window, and the LED is working out well in that situation...Thanks again!

 

[Chornbro]

Your post was VERY helpful!!!
It's 120Hz...is that bad or good. LOL! Actually, I did check that out before purchasing. Our TV is by a window, and the LED is working out well in that situation...Thanks again!

120hz should be fine with a 46" screen. Anything bigger than 50" and I'd say you need 240 hz... so you're golden! Your motion should be very smooth... even when watching sports/action flicks.

Really glad I could help. You made a fantastic investment... enjoy!

 

[DaveP]

You have lots of trade-offs to make when buying a new TV. As Chornbro said, the technology is progressing so rapidly that there are multiple technologies on sale at once. Plasma is the oldest (still ahead of rear projection) then LCD (liquid crystal), followed by LED (light emitting diode).

LED is the latest and greatest. Even laptops are moving from LCD to LED screens. Then there's resolution and scanning method. The i in 1080i means interlaced. Interlacing is the technology used in old cathode ray screens (glass tube) The TV scanned every other line and then came back and scanned the ones it skipped the first time. This reduced flicker in 30hz scan rate TVs. If they had scanned all at once from top to bottom, you would see flicker.

1080p is progressive scan, but at a higher scan rate than 1080i. 1080i is better, but you may have older peripherals such as DVD players or your cable/satellite receiver. My old DVD player does 720p. Most of what I watch is 1080i because that is the highest level my Dish Network HD DVR box can deliver.

I got into big screen TV in 1991 with a Mitsubishi 52" rear projection TV. It lasted for 12 years, which got us up to 2003. When it came time to replace the old 52", I wanted to buy something cheap to get us buy until flat screens matured and the price came down. At that time, a 32" plasma was $5000! So, we bought a new 65" Mitsubishi 1080i and later a surround type entertainment center to make it look built-in.

Once the new 65" Mitsubishi dies (now 9 years old), we will either go to LED or a 1080p liquid crystal projector with a 100" screen. These are getting better and cheaper but what do you do with the huge wall unit when you go to the 100" screen? The 65" has died once and it turned out to be an IC chip on the vertical board. I troubleshot it, ordered the hybrid video module and repaired the video board myself. That was several years ago and it is still going strong. I cleaned the optics while I had it apart and performed a video convergence setup on it and it looks like new again.

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[mistinthewoods]

I rewarded myself with a new TV back in February to celebrate one year tobacco free. I researched for months and ended up with a 47" LG internet ready LED. 4 million to one contrast ratio on this sucker, just like a plasma and it's about an inch thick.
I can stream Netflix, Vudu, Youtube, etc. on it. Hey, what's $1400.00 as long as you can watch "Baby monkey riding on a pig" over and over again.