I am planning to buy a good HD widescreen, and have been told that the 45" Aquos is the best on the market, hands down. Unfortunately, it is also quite expensive. How does this board think it compares with other 45-60" HD tv's? Thanks.
Hi Jeff. I just got back from CES in Vegas and looked at pretty much all of the technology around.
The real choice for you is whether or not you want to purchase a 760P HD LCD or a 1080P HD LCD. The manufacturer is a sub chapter to this. The two brnds that stood out at CES to me were SAmsung and Sharp. Both carry 760P and 1080P displays and had them nearby each other.
In addition, more than the resolution has changed. SAmsung changed their backlighting to avoid some of the problems they have had with uneven brightness issues. In addition, they increased their viewing angle.
The refresh rate of the Sharps is running at 6msec; the SAmsungs are at 8MES. This is important for sports and blurring etc. At 4 msec and below, LCD will be close to plasmas for motion artifact.
The thing is, there really isnt any 1080P content out there yet, either from sat, cable, or even hi def dvds ( soon to be released). So a 1080P set is a bit more future proof, but is about 500 dollars more at each size relative to a 760P display.
Lastly, problems with HDMI firmware is basically a plague that will affect all displays equally regardless of choice.
So which did I like? I preferred the SAmsung 96D 1080P line over their 760P line as well as the Sharp 760P line. The 1080P comparisons are very close but there are no identical sizes between the two brands interstingly.
Dear Marc, Thanks for the informative reply and current information. I do not know the abbreviation MES, so do not understand your paragraph: "The refresh rate of the Sharps is running at 6msec; the SAmsungs are at 8MES. This is important for sports and blurring etc. At 4 msec and below, LCD will be close to plasmas for motion artifact." (I read that sharp refreshes at 6 micro seconds and Samsung refreshed at ???) Which of the two has the better refresh rate?