Just my two cents worth on observing these fairly large sets. I see them at Walmart priced from $848US (42 "😉 to ~$1500 US, for 47-50".
What I noticed is people should be checking out at least 4 things about these sets. One was a 42" plasma for 848, but it has a very reflective front surface, they were displayed, about a dozen sets at Walmart up in the air about 8 or 9 feet up. There was flourescent lights in the ceiling that was a useful reference for reflections. The shiny surface clearly imaged the lights and the rest with matte screens also had a range of effectiveness at rejecting reflections. The best ones showed a barely noticed cloudy diffused reflection, not much reflected and that that was reflected was way diffused.
Some of the other matte screens were not as effective, but clearly better than the shiny screens which were a lot cheaper. I guess if you are putting one in a room with little window space, you can get away with the cheaper screens. That was test # 1.
#2 is the resolution, it should be 1080, some of them are only 720 and would not have as good a res.
#3 is the reaction on the screen to fast movements. At Walmart they had a repeating ad that at the beginning showed footballers and some of the screens could not handle the fast action and had visible blockiness in like arms swinging and such, others had much faster response and I saw no problems with video artifacts of fast movement.
#4 was the overall brighness, some clearly brighter than others.
#5 would be the # of different digital/analog connections, I saw differences there, forget what they called them but there were obvious differences in the # of connections and type of connections, like video game plugs, some had USB plugs, I guess to interface to PC's or laptops. The best ones in the 46/47" area were about $1200 US, good rejection of reflections, bright high res images, fast response to quick movment and a bunch of plugs. So that was my quicky analysis of the sets on display at least at Wal Mart.
Originally posted by sonhouseResolution: 1080P is only good if you are watching bluray DVD's or Playstation/Xbox games. TV broadcasters only broadcast in 720P and will not be changing to 1080 for many many many years. So, if you don't have a BLUray/xbox/playstation, save your money and get the 720P.
Just my two cents worth on observing these fairly large sets. I see them at Walmart priced from $848US (42 "😉 to ~$1500 US, for 47-50".
What I noticed is people should be checking out at least 4 things about these sets. One was a 42" plasma for 848, but it has a very reflective front surface, they were displayed, about a dozen sets at Walmart up in the air ...[text shortened]... bunch of plugs. So that was my quicky analysis of the sets on display at least at Wal Mart.
Refresh Rate: Most LCD's have a 60mghtz refresh rate. This will cause fast motion scenes to blur. The newest TV's have 120mghtz refresh rates. Invest in the 120mghtz and the blur will not be an issue.
Brightness: Most good tv's have 1million to 1 contrast ratios. Anything less and you're sacrificing quality.
Connectivity: Depending on what you are planning on hooking up to your tv, You should get at least 2 HDMI connections and connections at the side of your tv for hooking up cameras/memory sticks.
No no-names: Stay away from no name brands from discount stores. The components inside are cheap and wear out fast. Sony, Samsung, Panasonic etc. The rest don't cut it.
Originally posted by uzlessMy advise is to go to lots of sports bars for games and take note of the tellies you like to watch games on and the ones that look like crap. During my past year of investigation I found I prefer Panasonic tvs. I like the look of the games on them. I also concluded I could have purchased my own tv with the cost of doing the research😛
Resolution: 1080P is only good if you are watching bluray DVD's or Playstation/Xbox games. TV broadcasters only broadcast in 720P and will not be changing to 1080 for many many many years. So, if you don't have a BLUray/xbox/playstation, save your money and get the 720P.
Refresh Rate: Most LCD's have a 60mghtz refresh rate. This will cause fast motio ...[text shortened]... nside are cheap and wear out fast. Sony, Samsung, Panasonic etc. The rest don't cut it.
bluray players don't cost much anymore, and neither do the disks. unless you hate watching movies, it would be pure insanity to buy a non-1080p set anymore. or a player. I haven't bought a single dvd after getting my first blu-ray, and probably won't. it's like listening to c-cassette after your first cd.
oh, good quality dvds will look amazing upscaled to 1080p with a proper player or a set. bad quality dvds will just show more noise. but you probably didn't get that cheapo dvd for its quality in the first place, right?
about the picture quality: you really can't rely much on what the picture looks like in the store, as most of them aren't calibrated worth anything. you need to calibrate the set in the store yourself AND know what you're doing. failing that, the next best thing is to read tv-reviews written by enthusiasts for a week or two, ignore all photos of the 'picture quality' (as they only tell you about the camera used to take the picture), select candidates from the general top choices (they'll be sony, samsung and the costly kuro. the missus will want the samsung, the tech nerd the sony, and the plasma zealot will want the kuro). THEN go to store and make up your mind about the things you were left unsure about online.
sony will be the best, but look slightly less impressive.
contrast: ignore contrast, focus on the black level. they go hand in hand but inky blacks is what you're REALLY looking for. that said, in a completely dark room you'll always see black as slightly grey. until the next generation OLED and regular LED sets become affordable. they aren't really yet, and the current LED based sets are only a slight improvement with 3x price tag. maybe in a year that'll change. 5+ years for OLED.
connectivity: as many hdmis as you can get, but don't let it be a deal breaker. 3-4 probably, 2 might land you in slight trouble, unless you plug everything to your AV/AMP and that with a single hdmi to your set. figure out what you might need connected before buying.
refresh rate: yeah, there's no going back to 50/60hz, so don't even consider less than 100hz. 200hz is only slightly better though.
no manufacturer has their motion interpolation perfected yet, so don't put too much weight on that. sony is ahead though, but you won't be able to stomach it on a movie. looks magical on a good quality sports signal though.