Ok so I intend on purchasing a new TV within the next few months.

I can get a 42" HP Plasma for $1200 which is what I intended on purchasing. I keep seeing these LCD TVs for less .

I want 1080i at least and 1080p would be great but I'm not spending over $1500 on a TV.

Anyone have any input for me. The TV will be used to watch HD DVR, movies, and DVDs (planning on picking up a progressive scan DVD player and using my existing stereo system for now). I would pickup a home thetre system if the price is right.

 

Check out the brand Vizio. I know its kinda a no name company but the quality for the price is really good. I have a 32" Vizio LCD, that I bought from Sams. Retail its like $699 last time I checked, I got it by buying one that was returned. Got it for $475. With a 4 yr warranty it was $525 plus tax. Cant beat that. It does 480i, 480P, 720P, and 1080i wonderfully.

Just remember without HD tv, any regular tv you watch is going to look fuzzy and kinda crappy. When you watch low res tv on a high res tv, it just looks worse than watching low res tv on a low res tv. Sorry for the crappy explantion. Just get HDTV. You'll love it.

 

Saying that I sell TV's I have some useful input for you. First, does the room that you are putting you TV in have lots of windows or other bright light sources, because if it does Plasma's glare very bad, whereas a LCD doesn't. An LCD's picture is going to be brighter that the Plasma's but the blacks will look blacker on the Plasma. LCD's weigh much less. LCD's do not screen burn, whereas plasma's can. In my opinion I like the LCD's better.

As krustytheclown said, Vizio is a good brand even though it is a no-name. It is actually made by Samsung, who make some of the best LCD TV's on the market now.

And for the DVD player, you need to get one that HDMI HD-Upconversion instead of progressive scan, so that you will get the best picture possible out of all you dvd's.

 

I bought a 47" lcd tv last year and love it! I even have my computer hooked up to it. actually i have both my desktop and my laptop hooked up to it. I have it in a birght room and it gets a great picture.


Like they said the vizio is good. I think either sams club or one of those wherehouse superstore type places were selling it around here. There was another store that sold it as well but can't remember where. anyway there good tv's for the price.

Definately try to find products that have dvi or hdmi pn them. you will get a much better picture.

Speaking of that it's finally time for me to get a new dvd player mine is on the fritz

 

Don't plasmas have a lifespan of just 3-5 years?

 

I have a Vizio 32" HDTV LCD TV and I it!

 

My wife and I just bought a 56" Samsung DLP 1080p HDTV...for $1900.
I mean, yes it was expensive but I won't have to purchase another tv like it for a LONG time. At first I told her it was too friggin' big but after watching a couple of movies on it...forget about it, it's here to stay. It also looks basa$$ when playing my Nintendo Wii...

 

Spent $1900 on a 56" DLP?

You got ripped off. My best friend got a 56" for just over $1200 from Best Buy.

You're right though, playing Wii on that thing is fantastic.

 

How about a 32" for $600? Good Deal?

 

37" Vizio lcd here, $800 at Sam's and looks great.

1080p is only noticable on larger tvs, check vizio's 47" 1080p on their website. Costco has it for between $1600-1800.

 

You can't say that so matter of factly without divulging all of the facts. Is your buddy's 1080? A lot of the cheaper ones at Sams and the like are 760 and 480. How many inputs does your buddy's have? Does it have HDMI? What is the name brand? You practically need a daggone engineer with you to buy a tv today.

 

1080i, yes, HDMI? 2 slots. Sony. 3 compsite and component imputs.

I was there to help him buy it since I sell them myself at another store. That, and DLP is far and away the cheapest of the three(DLP, LCD, PLasma).

 

The half life of brightness of newer plasmas are about 20 years, if they were watched 6 hours a day...


So no.




Plasma's are great, but they're not something you can leave paused while you run to the store. Image retention is a big issue. Burn-in is almost nonexistent. The window glare issue is another big issue.


But as for picture quality, I've yet to see a sub 1500$ LCD match the picture quality of a comparably priced plasma.

 

Your main selling point for a 1080p display is a 480i source like the Wii?

That is unless you're running components, but even then it's 480p.





Quick lesson for those not savvy of resolutions.


Most (all) OTA/HD programming on TV will come in at 720p/1080i

Standard DVD players are 480i.
Progressive scanned DVD players are 480p.

UPCONVERTED DVD players are 1080i over components, and 1080p over HDMI

HD DVD is 1080i on certain models, and 1080p on others.

Blu-ray is 1080p.



So UNLESS you are feeding your TV a 1080p source. Save your money.

1080i/720p is sufficient for nearly everyone. And you'll notice most Plasma's are actually 768p and that's due to the irregular shape of their pixels creating an odd screen dimension.

 

which model? the 86W, 87W, or 88W?

And those make a HUGE difference in terms of quality...

an 86W might be 1200$, but an 88W might be 2000$

The difference? resolution and contrast ratio, and I believe on most newer models, the higher end ones come with LED back lights, rather than an incandescent.

 

^ Not to mention that the two sets in question didn't have the same resolution.

1080i v. 1080p... that's where the extra money went.

 

if ur lookin for lcd tvs

Sharp,Samsung,Sony is the way to go! for the money

HP is crap so is Vizio

i think the best lcd in the market right now is mitsubishi

 

For the money? Those are the most expensive brands.

Wrong. Vizio has a quite high user reviews. I bought mine from Costco and have a 2 year warranty for free. It's been trouble free for nearly a year now. Picture is perfect. I could've spent an extra $500 on a different more popular label for a comprable tv, but I decided to spend that money on something else.