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In the market for a 55"+ LED HDTV, but having some issues.

C

CausticDuality

Junior Member
Basically, I have my eye on this TV:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+...&skuId=2670115

It's a 55" Samsung LED HDTV with a bundled Blu-Ray player, wireless connectivity, support for Pandora and Netflix, a great picture, and plenty of ports -- and all for $1600 or so.

My question: Are there any better deals than this right now? And, furthermore, is there a way I can do this without needing to go through Best Buy? I really don't trust those guys, especially where delivery is concerned. :O
 
It's an OK, edge lit LED LCD. You can however get it cheaper at Amazon ($1379) and then just pick out whatever BD player you want (I wouldn't recommend a Samsung BD player though).
 
If I were to go LCD, it would be a Sony HX929. Best LCD currently available, however quite a bit more expensive than the Samsung you are looking at.

As for a BD player, Panasonic and Sony have some decent players for about $200.
 
CausticDuality said:
I'm really just looking for a good LED TV (yeah I know they're technically still LCD, but they have different backlighting)
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That TV is a perfectly fine TV.

Hate to be "that guy", but is there anything in your viewing environment that precludes a plasma set? There are some really good plasmas (with better PQ than this D6000) at that size and price.
 
Looks like a good TV but I'm really gunning for something at least 55" -- I also don't really need a 3D TV, either. Standard 2D's fine with me, haha.

At any rate, what are your guys' thoughts on LED vs. Plasma?
 
CausticDuality said:
But don't plasmas run hotter, use more power, suffer from glare, and have burn-in issues?
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The first two are true. The second two aren't really issues any more. The advantages are better black levels and motion resolution (and lower prices for the same size).

Edit: To reply to your general question, LED does have its uses. If the room you are planning to watch in has a lot of ambient light and you watch a lot of TV during the day, you should get an LED since they are generally much brighter than plasmas. Some people also prefer the "crispness" and increased color saturation of LED images. The problems with LED sets are that black levels aren't as deep as plasma, which reduces contrast and hides a lot of detail in dark scenes, and the backlight uniformity, which means that certain parts of the image will be slightly brighter than others. I personally have a hard time seeing uniformity issues while watching content, but some people are sensitive to it.
 
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CausticDuality said:
But don't plasmas run hotter, use more power, suffer from glare, and have burn-in issues?
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Newer plasmas run much cooler than previous generations and use a little more power than LCDs. If you are concerned about about a higher electric bill, don't worry about it. It's negligible. And factor in an LCD that will perform as good a plasma like a Panasonic GT30 will cost you considerably more, so those energy saving dollars won't be realized for probably about 10 years down the road. As for glare, most nice LCDs now have a glossy screen so their glare would be equal or worse than a plasma. And burn-in is pretty much a thing of the past with plasmas now, however IR (image retention) is still an issue, less so on Panasonic plasmas though.

Overall, it is really hard for an LCD to beat a good plasma, especially at the price point you are looking at. And if I were looking for a display today, it would definitely be a plasma.
 
CausticDuality said:
Why are LED TV's priced higher? Production costs or is there an actual quality difference at the higher ends?
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A combination of production costs and higher demand, but not quality. All well-respected HT reviewers that I know of say that a good plasma is better than any edge-lit LED TV.
 
CausticDuality said:
Looks like a good TV but I'm really gunning for something at least 55" -- I also don't really need a 3D TV, either. Standard 2D's fine with me, haha.

At any rate, what are your guys' thoughts on LED vs. Plasma?
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If you want a great 2D display (LCD or plasma) it WILL come with 3D. If you don't want to use the 3D feature, you don't have to.
 
What about plasmas versus backlit LED's?

And image retention is still a pretty scary thing to me, but I also don't know how likely it is to occur or why it occurs (I assume just leaving it on too long with a static image).

In general I don't buy to buy a plasma and find that the windows off to the right glare the picture and cause reflection problems.
 
CausticDuality said:
What about plasmas versus backlit LED's?

And image retention is still a pretty scary thing to me, but I also don't know how likely it is to occur or why it occurs (I assume just leaving it on too long with a static image).

In general I don't buy to buy a plasma and find that the windows off to the right glare the picture and cause reflection problems.
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Most do not experience IR on Panasonic plasmas, and even if they do, it goes away pretty quickly. I really wouldn't worry about it.

If you want a LED back-lit LCD, you'll have to pay for it. The cheaper "LED TVs" are edge-lit. The Sony HX929 is back-lit and arguably the best LCD on the market, however it comes at a premium. But if you are dead set on an LCD, that would be the one to get.
 
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Based on what you guys are saying and what I'm reading elsewhere on the net, I'm strongly considering plasmas now. That slickdeals link looks pretty epic.

Are there any other killer 55"+ plasmas?
 
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Basically deciding now between

Panasonic VIERA TC-P55ST30 55-Inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV

and

Panasonic VIERA TC-P55GT30 55-Inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV
 
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The ST has one less HDMI port, no THX mode, and to me the bezel on it doesn't look as good as the GT series, however, $325 for those features isn't really worth it.
 
thegimp03 said:
The ST has one less HDMI port, no THX mode, and to me the bezel on it doesn't look as good as the GT series, however, $325 for those features isn't really worth it.
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The GT does have a somewhat better black level, but it also has some flaws that the videophile nerds get all up in arms about (I won't detail them here, but you can find out more at AVS if you want). Rumors abound of a firmware that's going to fix these issues, but that's all speculation at this point.

I think the ST30 is a good choice, especially for the money.
 
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