Flat Panel/Plasma TV's

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

Hey all I am starting to do research for a new TV. I am looking for something 40" Plus. Somewhere between 40 and 50 that is not to breaking in the bank, but could be. And is nice and has good features. I want something that is high def, and I can put my 360 and Wii to and have ultimate performance, something that will last me a few years and has nice picture.

I am assuming I should be looking for 1080i instead of 1080p?

What brand would everyone recomend?

We have an older Pioneer where the sides change color depending on whats on TV and love that feature. Wish they still made a similar model to it. Anyway any suggestions and thoughts? Let this also become a discussion as I begin to do my research as well.

 

[StarvingRussian]

1080p > 1080i.

LaDainian Tomlinson uses Vizio TVs.

That doesn't help.

I'm looking at TVs for my 360, I'm just going to get a 19" or so that has component and VGA and does 720p, I will use it for playing games and later on as a computer monitor.

 

[girth]

Phillips still makes their "ambilight" TVs that change colors on the wall in the back, similar to what your Pioneer does....but generally Phillips' build quality sucks.

It's too bad you didn't shop for a TV on the weekend after Thanksgiving - Circuit City had a 46" Sharp 1080p LCD flat panel for just $1299, which is the best deal you'll find. Same TV now though is over $2100. If you go with 40" the 720p or 1080i TVs will do just fine....arguably just fine at 50" too but once you get that size you might want to consider paying a couple hundred extra for 1080p. Biggest thing to look for right now in my opinion is 120hz refresh, which with a stand-alone kit and glasses can enable normal TV to look 3d.

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

Sorry I lies it was a phillips and not a pioneer. My mistakey. I like it and like the ambilight the quality has not truely been tested but I like the TV itself.

So I should look for 1080p over i then? i is crap?

 

[MP3Performance]

In general :

1080p is better then 1080i
720p is the same as 1080i
DONT GET 480p or 480i (if they even make them anymore)

Take into account that the company actually makes a difference. A sony 720p will look the same as, if not better then a vivzio 1080p. Remember to also get a HDMI cable. Without that your games and video will not be able to take advantage of the max resolution. (but dont get ripped off at best buy or circuit city, look online and you can save almost 90% over the stores)

I have a 42" westinghouse 1080p that I got for 1,000 about 4 months ago. I love the quality, and almost nothing comes close in price (except for vivzio and such).

 

[ZoomZoomH]

i don't think anyone actually makes 1080i TVs at all, it's all either native 720p or 1080p now

 

[girth]

Mitsubishi still makes 1080i TVs

 

[ZoomZoomH]

well that's just stupid

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

Well thanks for the info.

What brand/companies should I look for when buying? I want something in the middle, not too expensive but not cheap.

 

[orlandomsp]

I have a 42" westinghouse 1080p that I got for 1,000 about 4 months ago. I love the quality, and almost nothing comes close in price (except for vivzio and such).

I've got nothing but good things to say about my 32" Westinghouse. The inputs on the back, the source auto-detect, the awesome built-in HD tuner. (burnout)

 

[ZoomZoomH]

Well thanks for the info.

What brand/companies should I look for when buying? I want something in the middle, not too expensive but not cheap.

go to your local best buy/circuit city and look at them yourself.

then go buy that model online and save money.

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

go to your local best buy/circuit city and look at them yourself.

then go buy that model online and save money.

Thats what I was thinking, but I mean do those stores really carry the latest and greatest?

 

[ZoomZoomH]

Thats what I was thinking, but I mean do those stores really carry the latest and greatest?

see the ones you like best in person, then research if there's an updated version of that model

it's really simple dude, go look at something in person and then do some research from there on out, go do it already, geesh

 

[mountjonas]

take a look at samsungs, too.

 

[orlandomsp]

Samsungs are really nice, but even the midrange sets are pretty expensive.

 

[ChopstickHero]

one of the better LCDs in your size range

Samsung NT-T4665F 46" LCD TV

Also, https://www.amazon.com (commissions earned) is worth looking at.

 

[daonly1around]

ask yourself this, do you have to or need to mount it on the wall?

if you answer no, look into the newest samsung DLP 1080P.

They are literally about 6 inches deap and you can get a 51 inch for well under 2K.

I jsut purcased a 56 inch from Circuit city with the new LED thingy.... for 2000.

since you said you play a lot of video games plasma is out of the question. LCD"S will always crystallize at some point and even though the spot my be real small that is all you will start to see. Sure the bulbs will go out on the DLP's eventually, but that can be fixed when it does and it will be like new again, but with the LCDS good luck getting crystallized areas fixed.

 

[1sty]

Mitsubishi still makes 1080i TVs

Hitatchi has a real POS that is 1280x1080 so that they can claim to be a 1080 set but not actualy support 1080 resolutions.

 

[DeadGeneration]

Get a $9,000 projector - go big or go home.

 

[1sty]

Hey all I am starting to do research for a new TV. I am looking for something 40" Plus. Somewhere between 40 and 50 that is not to breaking in the bank, but could be. And is nice and has good features. I want something that is high def, and I can put my 360 and Wii to and have ultimate performance, something that will last me a few years and has nice picture.

I am assuming I should be looking for 1080i instead of 1080p?

What brand would everyone recomend?

We have an older Pioneer where the sides change color depending on whats on TV and love that feature. Wish they still made a similar model to it. Anyway any suggestions and thoughts? Let this also become a discussion as I begin to do my research as well.

For LCD look at Sony/Samsung
For Plasma look to panasonic or pioneer
Westinghouse, visio, olivia are COMPLETE Piece of s***.
I highly reccomend doing research on the AVS forums for this stuff.

The after Thanksgiving sales are usualy bogus. CC was selling that Hitatchi I just mentioned and BB was selling an odd ball panasonic that no one had ever heard of until a week before the sale. It was some reworked 720p monitor with a very odd assorment of I/Os

When I worked at tweeter, which you should go to by the way, we would sell the Sony/Pioneer to the customer with money and wanted quality and then the Panasonic and samsung to everyone else. Not a single salesperson in the store owned either panny or samsung anything. We also have a member of the forum that is a sales guy at full compass that may be able to get you a nice deal.

For projection, I still would go sony. I have not seen there eqaul and in honesty DLP is complete crap as they have been artificialy holding back on 3 chip DLPs. This makes alot of DLP sets simply out of the mix compared to EVERY new LCD or sony LCOS that is 3 chip.

Lastly, it might only be a 2-3 years before we see DLP and or plasma ducking off and being replaced by a form of LED.