Panasonic TC-37LZ85 or Samsung LN40A550?

Which display?

  • Samsung LN40A550

    Votes: 8 53.3%

  • Panasonic TC-37LZ85

    Votes: 7 46.7%

  • Other (please specify)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    15
G

Gaiden133

[H] Ninja
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
3,720
Hey all.

In the market for a 37-42" to replace my dead Westinghouse lvm-37w3 (no need to go indepth, there's already another thread for it ;) )

Anyway, I've done some research and narrowed it down to these two.

Just wanted to get the general consensus before I make the plunge.

Panasonic TC-37LZ85 for $988 shipped from Buy.com

or

Samsung LN40A550 for $870 w/ tax + shipping from Amazon


Both fulfill the amount of inputs that I'd ever need. I am a PC/console gamer and but probably 70%/30% usage. I'll also be using it with a HD DVR

Panasonic Pros & Cons:
+ IPS Panel
+ best LCD TV viewing angles
- $120 more
- 3" Smaller


Samsung Pros & Cons:
+ $120 cheaper
+ 3" bigger
- S-PVA Panel
- May have to do some configuration to get color levels perfect
-/+ (neutral) Doesn't have DVI input, will have to buy extra HDMI <-> DVI cable. not a big deal though.


Any more thoughts/input I should take into consideration? First hand experience? owners want to chime in? :D
 
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none, get a real monitor for your pc and a separate tv for your console/entertainment. But since you are so intent on going with a tv as a monitor, I'd go with the sammy as s-pva is surely preferable when it comes to tv, movies, entertainment, etc.
 
I'd go with the Panasonic. A lot of people here recommend it.

I do not think any VA panel is preferable for movies, entertainment and so on.

I'm not a huge fan of crushing blacks.
 
Biges said:
PVA/MVA TV gamma shift:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC7EozTCGSQ
Click to expand...

And that has to be the SHITTIEST VA panel ever. I have three samsung lcds in my house. One 37", one 52" and a 30" samsung monitor. None of them exhibit that kind of gamma shift. The 19" dell va screen we have does, but not our samsungs.

Also, not every VA screen has "crushing blacks," only the crappy ones do.

I've seen no recent samsung s-pva screens exhibiting those kinds of shifts or with crushing blacks. There is a slight shift, but hardly noticeable unless one looks hard for it.
It's no bigger a shift that IPS panels have (and yes ips panels suffer from it too). My H-IPS panel did suffer from gamma shifts on light blue/gray colors, so IPS panels aren't exactly immune from it, either. They have slight shifting from off angles, too. I have a 32" panasonic tv with an alpha-ips panel, and while it does look good, it does not look as good as our samsung televisions, but I would say viewing angles are very slightly better on it.
 
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The poll is currently a tie at 3:3, lol.

These don't seem like all that big of an upgrade over the LVM-37w3, correct? Just wondering since I'm semi-looking for a new monitor for my second computer. My LVM-37w3 is working fine but it would be nice to upgrade it and shift the LVM-37w3 to my second comp.

Where is the 37" 2560 x 1600 or even 1920 x 1200 monitor!

Gaiden133 has me worried about my own LVM-37w3 :(
 
The Samsung may not contain S-PVA since they contract 40" A-MVA from AUO as well, which isn't that different from S-PVA tbh (performance wise). However, I think it lack quality video processor.


Panasonic on the other hand deploy excellent video processors across their entire range (accept for the ultra low-end). And the panels they use are manufactured in-house (based on H-IPS) are considered excellent (accept for blacks).

So if I had to choose, I'd go for the Panasonic. But you may hold-off for the newer models from Samsung, Sony and Panasonic.
 
Omerta said:
And that has to be the SHITTIEST VA panel ever. I have three samsung lcds in my house. One 37", one 52" and a 30" samsung monitor. None of them exhibit that kind of gamma shift. The 19" dell va screen we have does, but not our samsungs.

Also, not every VA screen has "crushing blacks," only the crappy ones do.

I've seen no recent samsung s-pva screens exhibiting those kinds of shifts or with crushing blacks. There is a slight shift, but hardly noticeable unless one looks hard for it.
It's no bigger a shift that IPS panels have (and yes ips panels suffer from it too). My H-IPS panel did suffer from gamma shifts on light blue/gray colors, so IPS panels aren't exactly immune from it, either. They have slight shifting from off angles, too. I have a 32" panasonic tv with an alpha-ips panel, and while it does look good, it does not look as good as our samsung televisions, but I would say viewing angles are very slightly better on it.
Click to expand...

Ditto

Some people's comments on this site is shocking to say the least.
 
samsung
131l1057.jpg
 
Well, *VA technology has inherent specific gamma shift. My post wasn't motivated to start a flame war, I just wanted to warn Gaiden133. Everyone has a different sensitivity to this effect. It also depeneds on the content being displayed.
 
The question is which is better for PC use.

Not which is the better TV.

The Panasonic is know to have low input lag. This is a plus for gaming.
 
Biges said:
Well, *VA technology has inherent specific gamma shift. My post wasn't motivated to start a flame war, I just wanted to warn Gaiden133. Everyone has a different sensitivity to this effect. It also depeneds on the content being displayed.
Click to expand...

Yes that is true, but don't class all VA together. Also, keep the tech used in monitors and TV separate.

You have to compare them individually rather than in groups/clusters. The same goes for plasma vs LCD (but that should be compared in terms of price vs performance)

E.g. 3rd-gen S-PVA (TV class) vs 3rd-gen A-MVA (TV class)
 
Well, thanks for all the feedback in the thread :)

I decided on the Samsung LN40A550. It's getting delivered tomorrow.

Expect review + pics either late tomorrow or wed.

Hope it'll help future owners :D
 
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