Need a new TV

O

ob1

2[H]4U
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Well my DLP finally bit the big one, and the three repair shops I sampled want way too much to repair the thing. It was a good 9 year run I guess.

Anyway, so I'm looking to get a new larger screen TV. My budget is roughly 1.5k or less and I'm looking for something hopefully in the mid 50's at least. Who is making the best LED 3D smart TV's these days? Is it still LG? Anyone have any recommendations for where to start looking or reading reviews, (besides newegg and amazon)...
 
I'd say Samsung and LG are my preferences for LCD/LED right now.

For Samsung, you'll want to look at the 6000, 7000, 8000 series. D models are last year, ES are the new 2012 models. the 2012 models might be over your budget for 55" screens.

I'm not up to date on the new LG models.

Higher end Sharp Aquos should be nice too.

AVSForum is where you need to go to read reviews, a very active forum with lots of users commenting on everything AV related
 
ob1 said:
Well my DLP finally bit the big one, and the three repair shops I sampled want way too much to repair the thing. It was a good 9 year run I guess.

Anyway, so I'm looking to get a new larger screen TV. My budget is roughly 1.5k or less and I'm looking for something hopefully in the mid 50's at least. Who is making the best LED 3D smart TV's these days? Is it still LG? Anyone have any recommendations for where to start looking or reading reviews, (besides newegg and amazon)...
Click to expand...

LED LCD TVs are going to be a little more expensive, but don't have burn-in, altitude, or heat concerns like plasma. LED TV also have close to the same contrast as plasmas.

Samsung is currently ranked highest in customer satisfaction. Yahoo News Article - Samsung tops Apple, Sony, HP as most preferred consumer electronics brand

I have a UN55C8000 55 " 3D LED LCD and love it. The picture is mind blowing, and at 240 Hz, you get a silky smooth experience (even in 3D). The TV also has buiilt in wireless (awesome apps and storage manager) and Bluetooth 3D glasses. It is a little higher than your budget though, but a little future proofing is always hard to put a price on.

No matter which TV you go with, get the extended warranty. One power board, processor board or LCD controller board and you have paid for the warranty plus some...
 
Yea, TV's are about the only thing I'd "waste" money on an extended service warranty. Also, if you can, buy from Costco. They have one of the best return/exchange policy going... Although it's not as good as it was about 5 years ago, its still better the most.
 
If you want to save a few bucks on your electric bill and don't care about having the best picture, get a LCD/led. Even the new Led lit tvs can't match the black levels of an older Plasma as well as the pq. As far as a samsung, I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole after their lawsuits and recent failures.I'd chose a Panasonic plasma any day over an over priced samsung led lcd. Panasonics have the lowest failure rates, lower black levels and superior 3d performance as well.
 
climber07 said:
LED LCD TVs are going to be a little more expensive, but don't have burn-in, altitude, or heat concerns like plasma. LED TV also have close to the same contrast as plasmas.

Samsung is currently ranked highest in customer satisfaction. Yahoo News Article - Samsung tops Apple, Sony, HP as most preferred consumer electronics brand

I have a UN55C8000 55 " 3D LED LCD and love it. The picture is mind blowing, and at 240 Hz, you get a silky smooth experience (even in 3D). The TV also has buiilt in wireless (awesome apps and storage manager) and Bluetooth 3D glasses. It is a little higher than your budget though, but a little future proofing is always hard to put a price on.

No matter which TV you go with, get the extended warranty. One power board, processor board or LCD controller board and you have paid for the warranty plus some...
Click to expand...

LED/LCD TVs STILL have burn-in and IR issues just the same as a properly broken-in plasma. Technically, newer plasmas have less chance of burn-in than LCDs do after a proper break-in period. Plasmas have IR which is non-permenant.

LED is NO WHERE close to contrast of plasma. Compare dark levels and the comparable levels of black (or 'grey' mind you) and you will see the only thing that can compete with plasma for darks is OLED. Edge-lit display dark level? Please...pathetic. Localized dimming? Much better, but you get nasty halo effects. Think about it, each individual subpixel is emitting its own COLOR of light.

Most newer plasmas are rated to at least 8,000 feet. So unless you live on the top of a friggin mountain, you are just fine. Plasmas do generate more heat than LCD/LED, but not by that great of a margin.

A 2012 Panasonic 55" GT50 will run you around $1500 at Paul's TV (Amazon will price match them). This will give you probably THE best picture quality BAR-NONE.
Granted, if this TV will be used in a room with a LOT of bright light from lots of open windows, LED may give you a little bump in the brightness department (sacrificing contrast and washing out the picture).
 
Mr. Baz said:
LED/LCD TVs STILL have burn-in and IR issues just the same as a properly broken-in plasma. Technically, newer plasmas have less chance of burn-in than LCDs do after a proper break-in period. Plasmas have IR which is non-permenant.

LED is NO WHERE close to contrast of plasma. Compare dark levels and the comparable levels of black (or 'grey' mind you) and you will see the only thing that can compete with plasma for darks is OLED. Edge-lit display dark level? Please...pathetic. Localized dimming? Much better, but you get nasty halo effects. Think about it, each individual subpixel is emitting its own COLOR of light.

Most newer plasmas are rated to at least 8,000 feet. So unless you live on the top of a friggin mountain, you are just fine. Plasmas do generate more heat than LCD/LED, but not by that great of a margin.

A 2012 Panasonic 55" GT50 will run you around $1500 at Paul's TV (Amazon will price match them). This will give you probably THE best picture quality BAR-NONE.
Granted, if this TV will be used in a room with a LOT of bright light from lots of open windows, LED may give you a little bump in the brightness department (sacrificing contrast and washing out the picture).
Click to expand...

Living at altitude isn't the concern. I move a lot, USMC, and shipping plasmas is harder unless they go ground the whole way. Overseas is probably your only concern with shipping one.

I've been working on TVs since the inception of LCDs and Plasmas in the consumer market (back when a 40" LCD was $15,000)... LOL Plasmas still give you more bang for your buck than LCDs do. Both plasmas and LCDs (with CCFL lighting) have a higher rate of power supply failures. Especially in older Samsung models.

There is a reason, not sure if it is just marketing hype or consumer preference, that most TV manufacturers are halting their plasma lines.

Most people don't keep a TV for more than 5-10 years anyway. That's way before the life expectancy of both LCD and Plasmas. I recommend finding some friends with similar living room arrangements and asking their opinions of LCDs and Plasmas.

Your typical LCD will be washed out and dim in bright rooms. Higher end LED backlit ones (maybe I got lucky with mine) don't wash out and blacks have nearly zero halo effect. Plasmas will have none of these problems.
 
You shoudl be able to get a 60" Sharp (I think they're up to the 640 model now - I have the 633 (basically a Sams club version of the 632) for $1399ish (its in this week's best buy ad). It does not have 3d, but is a great screen for the price - I picked it up about 4 months ago and have been quite pleased with it.

The only thing cheaper at that size would be a Plasma screen (i.e. Panasonic ST30 or whatever this year's model number is), but looking at them side by side, they are significantly dimmer and I notice a lot of screen flicker in the corner of my eyes. If you want 3D on a 60", it adds quite a bit to the total cost (at least when I was shopping it hard earlier this year) - I personally don't care for 3D, so I'm good.
 
I would give a strong recommendation to LG LED smart TVs, 2011/2012.

I got an IPS 42-incher and the screen quality is great, but I am not an IQ expert.


The LG netflix app used to suck, but they have continually updated it to where it's now pretty good.

LG (unlike all? other mfgrs) includes a plex app in their smart tvs.

the plex app has an amazing UI to brows and watch all your downloaded videos on your PC, over your network, to your TV.. (using your tv remote control and such)
almost all tvs have some way to accomplish this task, but the UIs are horrible, and in practice, it rarely works (possibly because of codecs, and general complexity of getting DLNA working), plex is a brease to set up, does all sorts of on-the-fly transcoding, so it plays just about every codec/file....

Basically it makes the screen far more useful/capable.

there is also an android (and iphone?) app that lets you control the pointer on the screen with your smartphone... kinda nice at times.
 
Well after doing much research and reading tons on the forums suggested, I think I am going to chance getting either the LG 7600 or the 8600. My budget doesn't allow the 55" though, so I will probably settle for the 47" and call it a day. And that way, if I win the lottery or have a windfall of cash in the future, I could always move that 47 to the upstairs room or my bedroom...
Thanks everyone, appreciate the suggestions...
 
Out of morbid curiousity, What kind of DLP TV was it and the problem?

I picked up a cheap LG 42" last year and love it (I won the IPS panel lottery :) ). Then picked up a 4yr square trade warranty for about $80 (read the stipulations as some people moan about them but in reality isn't a bad deal).
 
It was a second gen samsung 56" dlp. Its like 8 years old, and I wanted to get it fixed. I had purchased the 5 year warranty through best buy when I bought it, and it had to have four bulbs and one processor board in that time...
 
climber07 said:
Most people don't keep a TV for more than 5-10 years anyway. That's way before the life expectancy of both LCD and Plasmas.
Click to expand...
I'm still using the Panny plasma I bought in 2002, works great and I have no plans for replacing it (it's a bedroom TV).
 
I've been considering this LED TV. It uses Passive 3D, comes with 4 glasses out the box. It uses the same tech that is in theaters so you could use the glasses in the theater or if you go to the theaters and decide to "keep" the glasses it can be used on the TV as well.

http://store.vizio.com/3d-smart-tvs/m3d550kd.html?___SID=U

I'm looking in getting a new TV. I'm still trying to decide between Plasma or LED. But looking the stores you can tell Plasma is way dimmer then the other TVs but from I've read retailers do it purposely to promote LCDs.

The only thing I thats keeping me leaning away from plasma is heat and power consumption.
 
I say if you want to get the most PQ for your money go with a plasma, especially with a budget of $1.5k. Also, I would highly recommend you to go with a Panny and avoid purchasing yourself a Samsung plasma. Samsung plasmas are notorious for having insufficient capacitors, which mine has also fell victim to only after 11 months.
 
Smart TVs are a waste of money. Just another excuse by big companies in order to charge a huge premium.
 
Picked up a Panny 55" ST30 a couple of weeks back on clearance from Sears a couple of weeks back for 900 bucks and absolutely loving it. The PQ on the Panny with proper calibration is amazing, not to mention the black levels, which are so much better than my Samsung and Sony LCD's.
 
The LG 3D tech uses passive glasses, just like in the theater. Samsung uses active shutter tech that has to run on batteries and usually sync with the tv via Bluetooth. LG glasses are really cheap and easily replaced, Samsungs are not. I love Samsung LCD's - we've had 4 over the years. I currently have an LG on backorder from Amazon - my first 3D set.
 
The LG and movie theater glasses are both polarized but they're not quite the same.

The LG 3D mode is interlaced, each horizontal line is polarized the opposite of the one above and below it. If you're fairly close to the set this becomes obvious via blurring, but at a more normal viewing distance it's not as noticeable. You do lose half your horizontal resolution though. I'd go check it out at a store before buying. I still like it better than shutter glasses.

The movie version (RealD) polarizes alternating frames one way and then the other. Full resolution but half the frame rate. They just run at 48 FPS and end up with the 'normal' move 24 FPS.

IIRC the LG uses linear polarization and RealD uses circular so you can't just steal the movie theater glasses. :)
 
TroubleMagnet said:
The LG and movie theater glasses are both polarized but they're not quite the same.

The LG 3D mode is interlaced, each horizontal line is polarized the opposite of the one above and below it. If you're fairly close to the set this becomes obvious via blurring, but at a more normal viewing distance it's not as noticeable. You do lose half your horizontal resolution though. I'd go check it out at a store before buying. I still like it better than shutter glasses.

The movie version (RealD) polarizes alternating frames one way and then the other. Full resolution but half the frame rate. They just run at 48 FPS and end up with the 'normal' move 24 FPS.

IIRC the LG uses linear polarization and RealD uses circular so you can't just steal the movie theater glasses. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up a bit. I was just regurgitating market speak from my recent research. I do know that the LG tech uses passive glasses that are much cheaper to replace and much less complex than the active shutter glasses. Since my set is still on backorder from Amazon, I have yet to experience in my own setting.
 
I was debating between my panny 65" and the LG 65" with the passive glasses.The pq on the LG is pretty good but It had some pretty bad bleeding on the LG. It is edge lit from what I remember and going with the panasonic was one of the best purchases ever. Zero problems aside from DNLA issues which is probably from my network.
 
i am picking up the LG 55LM6200 LED LCD 3D today, was bummed to hear the movie glasses wont work, but they give you 6 pairs with the set. i will post back with how it goes later.
 
i got the LG all set up and I must say it is stunning! I would recommend it to anyone. It is kinda pricy, but worth it.
 
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