Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

Samsung.

They are all LCD displays. One uses normal lighting, the other can use "Back" lighting. (Improves darker colour, and reduces washing out of colours)

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

I have a 26" VIZIO LCD HDTV and I love it. I got it from Walmart I don't think anymore than $300.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

Also, careful:

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

basically LED gives you true black rather than a muddy grey color. but those tvs are hella expensive from what it looks like.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

It depends. You can go for a really small TV instead of a huge one. Depending on where you are using it, 24~30" is totally fine.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

A Mitsubishi 40 inch LCD HDTV would be just about right in your area. I'd recommend that to ya considering the fact that I own one, and got it for about $780 dollars.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

You want to be good to the environment, you gotta pay for it.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

I purchased my first hdtv this past summer and I did not know anything about tv's either. From what I went through it really depends on what you're going for and with the budget you have going you have a large range of choices.

In my case it was for gaming so I narrowed down my search to one that has a high refresh rate, has game mode and all that good stuff. With my price range of $800-$1000 I snagged myself a Samsung 46" lcd from Bestbuy with the help of looking up reviews online and I'm still loving it to this day.



From what I saw TV's have a lot of different features from each other so I say go for one that offers what you're looking for instead of buying something extra you don't need.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

Wait for OLED technology to get cheaper. It's going to put existing screen technology in the dumps.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

Plasmas give better blacks too.

Something that small, you'd need to be sitting pretty close to appreciate the difference between HD and SD resolution.

I'm talking like within 4 feet away.

I would suggest aiming for over 30 inches, going as big as your budget and available space will allow.

Quality front projection would still be superior... even if it does require a dedicated room and light management.

ps one thing to consider about buying a TV today is 3D. There isn't much stereoscopic content available, but more 3D Blu-rays are coming every day, and some gaming is leaning in that direction as well. Some cable/satellite providers are trying to move in that direction as well. All the 3D sets on market right now require active shutter glasses, but we'll have autostereoscopic sets available before much longer, so that might be something worth waiting for, assuming you're willing to pay more for the ability to watch 3D content without glasses.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

The main problem with 3D TV's however is their very narrow viewing angle, which definitely limits the usage of the TV to that of personal use, not exactly something the family can sit around. Hopefully there can eventually be a work-around for this as well.

As for projection...It's just too much hardware and power consumption, not to mention watching anything in daylight becomes bothersome unless you're going to fork out the cash for a 10,000+ lumen projector.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

Super cheapest: Rear-projection
Cheapest: Plasma
Best quality: LED
Middle-of-the-road: LCD

Things that don't matter:
Dynamic contrast ratio
color gamut (lmfao at those Sharp Quattrons what a ****ing joek)
response time

meaningless features:
Black Corrector, Advanced CE, Clear White, Color Space, Live Color, DRC Mode, DRC Palette, Dynamic Contrast, xvYCC, Color Matrix, RGB Dynamic Range, Black Level, Gamma, White Balance, HDMI Black Level, Fresh Contrast, Fresh Color, Flesh Tone, Eye Care, Digital NR, DNIe, Detail Enhancer, Edge Enhancer, Real Cinema, Cine Motion, Film Mode, Blue Only Mode. Usually the brightness and contrast controls are faked too.

Things that do matter:
8|
static contrast ratio, if it's given (it isn't usually)
knowing that nearly every spec about TV's is cooked to **** for marketing purposes

if a TV is "3D Ready" all that means is that it supports 120Hz refresh rate, there's no magic ****ing pixie dust that makes william shatner jump off your screen

Brands like vizio tend to be really cheap, awful tvs. Samsung, Sharp and the like are generally made of sterner stuff for a premium. It's up to you and your budget.

http://slickdeals.net and woot.com are good places to trawl for HDTVs.

ps you get what you pay for, if you see a 47" LCD going for $650 it's either a wicked good deal or it has these stupid ****ing dark stripes running horizontally across the middle of the screen

do i sound bitter

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

This is only a problem for autostereoscopic sets. Current active shutter glasses sets have functional 3D from any viewing angle, because they work using alternating frames in time rather than angle-specific viewpoints. And eventually, autostereoscopic displays will allow for very wide viewing angles too (I don't think there's even ONE currently available on the market yet).

And if you're outside of the viewing angle on an autostereoscopic display, what do you see? A traditional 2D image, I think.

Daylight. Hah. That's why I said you need a dedicated room with light control. In other words, a closed off room where you can control all of the light such that the projector is the only thing throwing light on the screen.

You're right though. Power consumption is a concern, and then you have bulbs to worry about too... not to mention the work that would go into having a dedicated home theater room. I shudder to think of the lengths some people go to for projector boxes, curtains, sound deafening, etc. etc. I shudder more to know that if I had a house of my own, I'd probably be doing it too.

ps giggles, contrast ratio is important. That's part of what determines how good the blacks look. Blacks on a quality plasma will be deep and inky, while a crappy LCD will look lit up, like a light trying to mimic the look of true black. In a lit room, the black on my LCD looks decent, but it's "lit up" clearly in the dark. The only thing is that companies use misleading numbers. So disregard numbers given. Go to a store and check out how they look. And when you do this, cup your hands over your eyes and get close to the screen so that you can see how the screen looks without ambient light affecting your opinion. Probably don't buy from a store though. Look at prices online.

pps before i forgot: 120 Hz is so that film can be played back at the correct 24 frames per second. It has NOTHING to do with 3D. In order to do proper 3D at 24 frames per second, 240 Hz is required, but not all 240 Hz sets are 3D. Be aware, however, that 240 Hz has ABSOLUTELY NO FUNCTION outside of 3D. Aim for 120 Hz if you want 2D. I don't know if they still do 60 Hz, but that's what mine is, and it looks fine to most people. They have to use trickery to playback 24 fps content (Blu-rays and ONLY Blu-rays) since 60 Hz is only compatible with 30 or 60 fps video, but most people can't tell the difference... I know it's not bothered me yet.

Re: Looking into buying a new HDTV. Need Advice.

no stop it afro

first off, the numbers given are usually what's called dynamic contrast ratio. This number is total cancer. Look, many LCD's have a power-saving feature. When the screen is mostly black, the backlight dims or shuts off. What they do is measure the difference between pure white and this power-saving mode, and that gives you ludicrous numbers like 1,000,000 to one all thge way up to potentially infinite contrast ratio.

second, static contrast ratio (a legitimate stat btw, measured without the power-saving ****) only matters in low ambient light and is almost always within 1000-2000:1 and no one publishes these numbers anymore when they can just say LOOOOOOOOOOOL 2,000,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio between flood lights and a blindfolded blind guy in a cave

the **** no

well maybe

but mostly 3D

Most NTSC sets operate or used to operate at 60Hz. The most common 3D method involves alternating between 2 different perspectives rapidly. So, in order to get dat fluid 60fps motion, they just doubled the refresh rate and boom 3D*. Trust me afro, TV manufacturers couldn't care less about what FPS your films were filmed in, they just want the extra 200 bucks they can tack on for being "3D Ready"

I guess 240 also works for 3D but that's kind of overkill for most people.

*simplified as sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit

EDIT: okay wait afro I think you're confused. "3D Ready" is a fancy-sounding marketing gimmick that means the TV has a minimum of 120Hz and 720p. It has nothing to do with making your films look better. I don't think many sets go balls-out 240Hz, but I guess you might find a set here or there.