Need help buying a 40"+ HDTV

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: kalrith
Well, at 6-8 feet a 42" 720p TV would probably be fine. Many people prefer a 50" between 8-10 feet and a larger TV beyond that distance. All of this is largely personal preference. The chart I linked is mainly to see if your eyes can possibly tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at a certain distance with a certain screen size.

hehe...how many of you people remember wathing the 'ol 19-24" 4:3 tube TV when you were growing up...from at least 6 ft away

Is Lens crafters or related eyeglass stores traded publicly? I'd say load up on stock for those guys before HDTVs hit the 50% adoption rate

 

[DaedalCipher]

I have done a certain amount of tv searching myself over the last few months, and I can say that everything you seem to be getting from Kalrith and the others sounds pretty good. I don't know that 50" is something you need right now, especially if it strains your budget to the point where you're getting a crappy tv. I know you can find a great price on 42 pretty much anywhere (it might now be a bad idea to find a friend who trusts you and get them to do the credit card to get the rebates, then just give them your cash. It's what I'd do).

Speaking just in terms of tv/movie watching, I think a 42" with 720p would be fine, though i'm not honestly sure how much this changes when you want to use it for a monitor.

I would stay away from Olevia and Vizio if only for this reason- worked at Best Buy for 3 months and heard more customers than I rightfully should come back to return and/or just complain about them. Anyway, why you'd plan on spending 1,000 bucks on anything you'll be using every day and then get the cheapest kind is beyond me. I've always had great luck with Samsung, myself.

Good luck, and maybe come back in a bit and let us know hat you got and how it's treatin ya.

 

[WarhammerUC]

I'm looking to buy one also.. which would be easier to play the wii on ? plasma or lcd ?

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: WarhammerUC
I'm looking to buy one also.. which would be easier to play the wii on ? plasma or lcd ?

It depends on what you mean by "easier". Plasmas are generally better with motion than LCDs, have better viewing angles, and typically IMO have a better picture than LCDs. Plasmas are somewhat prone to burn-in, but it's SO MUCH better than it used to be. If you plan to frequently pause games for hours at a time or if more than 50% of your usage will be games with stationary things like taskbars and menus, then an LCD might be a better way to go. Most LCDs are better at dealing with bright ambient light, but stay away from the glossy LCD screens if this is a concern.

The Wii is not in HD, so the TVs processing will play a big impact on the picture quality. Some TVs have excellent processing, while other TVs are total crap in this area. I recommend reading some reviews that talk about how well the TV displays SD, and that should give you an idea of how good the Wii will look. Also, be sure to get this cable for the Wii so that it will transmit in 480p and not 480i. That should make a big PQ difference on an HDTV.

Edit: Changed 30% to 50%. It's really a debatable number, but I was thinking more along the lines of the recommendation for what percentage of total viewing should be letterbox (i.e. widescreen movies) viewing. Static images on games shouldn't be a huge deal unless there's just one game you play, because then it will always have the same static images.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: dclive
I just got the 42" Panasonic plasma (720p) at Sears. $999 pricematch to Fry's, then $150 credit card discount. Net price of about $850 plus tax. The stupid clerk didn't know about the free (up to $200) installation discount, so I didn't take advantage of that (set it up myself).

Most reviews I read say there's little difference in 720p vs 1080p when viewing televised content; I wouldn't stress out on the difference unless you plan to use it as a computer monitor (this isn't something I consider important). I had a Sharp 1080p 32" attached to a computer, but...I've already got monitors; why wouldn't I want to use a TV as a TV?

So - I'd jump on the 42" Panny Plasma, 75U model. It's highly rated, and I'm very pleased with mine, and for "just" $850-ish.

Is that the same as the PX70 we get in Europe? I have the Panasonic PX70 and it's a great TV, IMHO.