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HDTV Recommendations

E

Elaineofshalott2

Member
I am looking for a HDTV for my bedroom. I am a little unsure which features are worth paying for and which are not.
This is what I know I am looking for.

Budget: About $450
Size: Preferred size is 37 inch would be willing to look in the 32-40 inch range
Attached Devices: XBox 360, PS3, Wii
Uses: Gaming, Blu-ray & DVD watching, Amazon streaming.
Distance from TV: Head of the Bed 12 feet, Chair 7 feet.

Any particular features or brands I should be looking for?
 
If you have a costco membership, I would check there. Their TVs have 2 year warranties and are usually reasonably priced. If you have a Frys nearby, they tend to have TVs on sale advertised in their online ad. You can go to a local bestbuy or sears to look at TVs and decide what looks best to you (be aware that most TVs will be set way too bright to provide a WOW factor so don't judge them by brightness)

since your PS3 can play bluray/amazon/etc you don't really need any wi-fi/internet features

in your price range, you don't have the budget to be picky about brand unless you go with a 32"

in your budget you can find several 42" 720p plasmas (>40" 🙁 but not by much) these will likely be your best bet for gaming/blurays/etc
Plasmas will provide the best picture quality in your price range, and at 7-12ft the difference between 720p and 1080p won't be easily noticeable
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

if you want an LED TV (lower power, lighter if wall mounting, may have uneven backlight, good resolution for a computer display if you want to use it for that), this TV is cheap at the moment, but I can't find anything on input lag
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=T001-3900
 
Last edited:
I've heard that plasmas are best for gaming but I am concerned about the weight. A 30lb LCD I could move on my own with a bit of effort, A 55 lb plasma means calling my brother every time I decide to move the TV a couple of feet. Yes, I am one of those people who rearranges the furniture at least twice a year.

I could probably come up with another $100 for the budget but only if I was convinced I was getting a significant jump in quality. I am also planning on upgrading to an XBox Slim for the wifi and I would be willing to put that off a month if it meant a significant difference in TV quality.

Is it important to get an LED vs a regular LCD? I did take a brief look at the store and I didn't think the lower end LEDs looked any better than the regular LCDs. It seemed like you needed to about double my budget before the LEDs looked better but that could have been a function of the store lighting.

It is a little frustrating. I had a particular 37 inch set all picked out. It had lots of great reviews as being higher quality than the other TVs in it's price range. I got my spring bonus and went on Amazon to purchase it and found that the 2011 model had been discontinued and the manufacturer had stripped a lot of the good features out of the 2012 model.
 
Gaming - LED LCD screen makes colors really pop.
Movies - Plasma, as you aren't ever going to get richer blacks from any LCD screen, important for those black bars.
 
fralexandr said:
If you have a costco membership, I would check there. Their TVs have 2 year warranties and are usually reasonably priced. If you have a Frys nearby, they tend to have TVs on sale advertised in their online ad. You can go to a local bestbuy or sears to look at TVs and decide what looks best to you (be aware that most TVs will be set way too bright to provide a WOW factor so don't judge them by brightness)

since your PS3 can play bluray/amazon/etc you don't really need any wi-fi/internet features

in your price range, you don't have the budget to be picky about brand unless you go with a 32"

in your budget you can find several 42" 720p plasmas (>40" 🙁 but not by much) these will likely be your best bet for gaming/blurays/etc
Plasmas will provide the best picture quality in your price range, and at 7-12ft the difference between 720p and 1080p won't be easily noticeable
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

if you want an LED TV (lower power, lighter if wall mounting, may have uneven backlight, good resolution for a computer display if you want to use it for that), this TV is cheap at the moment, but I can't find anything on input lag
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=T001-3900
Click to expand...

I endorse this 100%.
 
In the old days before "LCD" and "LED," long, long, long ago . . . Certain "name brands" appeared, like Sony. The earlier Sony analog TVs had a stunning affect on people, and it spread. Many would simply gravitate to the brand as a rule-of-thumb. Certainly, I was no different. . . .

The two biggest makers of HDTVs, according to wikipedia, are LG and Samsung. There are other makes, to include the Sony Bravia line, Vizio . . . probably Westinghouse, Toshiba . . . etc. . .. etc.

For the bedroom, it seems that the 32" 16:9 size is a common fit. Maybe it depends on the expected eye-distance from the screen, but people have various tastes. My elderly mom doesn't want more than a 32" for the bedroom or a 24" to 26" for the den.

From my own empirics, it just seems that either the stores or the manufacturers (and not sure which) are marketing to the popularity of larger screens. So I found the field for 24" to 26" a bit more sparse with less to choose from.

I'd recently posted here about our decision to buy a 24" Sansui LED-LCD 1080p unit for the den. The price of that unit and others like Toshiba (in the $180 to $240 range) seemed so small that I didn't grade it on "viewing angle." But the unit's viewing angle just covered every spot in the den from which the screen is likely to be seen. So it didn't matter.

The verdict or prevailing consensus follow this history: Sansui had competed with Sony and others for high-end audio systems. They had a "reputation." They had, during the 1980s, owned Nakamichi. Then, things changed with the company when they off-shored production to China and chose to target wider, less-affluent buyer groups. So this is an experiment for us that could cost us $200 in less time than we'd like, or serve as a reliable HDTV for a den where "smaller is better" -- and for a long, long time.

Also, you probably might find the 720p offerings to be just as worthwhile. The difference between 720p and 1080p is not considered a major decision-factor. Instead, the available scan(?) refresh(?) frequencies of 60Hz, 120Hz and 240Hz offered even better definition or "vibrance," but if the input is 60Hz, the only improvement with a 120Hz HDTV depends on how the unit artificially extrapolates data to fill in the gaps. And even that is considered of minor value except to "purists" and "videophiles."

So for that, I'd put as much weight in some other factors - for instance, the number and types of input and output ports, RJ-45 and wireless network ports, primitive ability to make its own recordings to a USB hard-disk --- that sort of thing.

It depends as much on what you want, as it does on the size, resolution and other factors.

Since I've been looking around a lot for having two TV purchases over a span of 7 months, I'll say that I think you could probably find a very nice LED-LCD 32" for the $450. Just take some time and look all over the web . . . . We bought the Sansui at Walmart, but that's not the big-box store I'd most recommend.
 
led is just the backlight, and marketing, the cheapest "netbook" has had "led" backlights for the longest time, and the cheapest ugliest ipad knock off as well...the panel quality and technology is what matters. 42" plasmas don't weigh much. its the weight distribution that makes them easy to carry since all the weight is next to your body.

with viewing angle/distance limitations, there aren't that many ways to rearrange a room and still maintain optimal hdtv positioning anyways. you may as well consider hanging it on the wall and remove it from the equation
 
0roo0roo said:
with viewing angle/distance limitations, there aren't that many ways to rearrange a room and still maintain optimal hdtv positioning anyways. you may as well consider hanging it on the wall and remove it from the equation
Click to expand...

I'm less trying to optimize my hdtv positioning than my storage space. I'm not a huge videophile, remember I had my PS3 and XBox hooked up to a SDTV before. I want to be able to watch movies from my bed or play games from my chair. I want to be able to read the text in games like Tropico without getting up and putting my nose to the TV. I don't want a set that is almost certain to die 3 days past warranty or with any visual problems that will be a constant annoyance like significantly uneven lighting or people who look green (literally).
 
elaineofshalott said:
I'm less trying to optimize my hdtv positioning than my storage space. I'm not a huge videophile, remember I had my PS3 and XBox hooked up to a SDTV before. I want to be able to watch movies from my bed or play games from my chair. I want to be able to read the text in games like Tropico without getting up and putting my nose to the TV. I don't want a set that is almost certain to die 3 days past warranty or with any visual problems that will be a constant annoyance like significantly uneven lighting or people who look green (literally).
Click to expand...

Here's your TV.

http://www.amazon.com/LG-42PT350-42-...8169087&sr=1-1
 
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