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Bronze Member Username: BigpoppaphileSAINT CLOUD, MN United States Post Number: 30 Registered: Mar-06 | I know, the world will end if I can't watch football, but I have no real problems -wink- so I'm going to focus on this one. I'm a audio guy by nature and have no knowledge of tv's and am basically caught off guard right now for a tv purchase. My old 27" crt takes about 5 min to come on with a picture and it is getting worse as the week progresses. since I have no desire to repair it (it will probably cost more that what I paid initially for it) I need some advice on a new set. As stated it will mainly be used to watch sports like football, baseball, etc., right now I have digital cable. From what I have read there is no point in buying a new standard def tv, so I will most likely get HD programming from charter once I get the new tv. I also watch dvds about 4 times a week and play a little playstation from time to time. From what I have read in the archives here and researching online, lcd's and plasmas may have motion lag or artifacts from fast motions found in sports and video games. Is this true? I did notice in best buy the other day that the motion was not as smooth on some tv's as others. Also, I've only got 35.5" of width in my ent. center for this new tv. I have a small apt. living room and sit between 5 and 10 feet away from the set depending on the seat. From what I've heard that pretty much rules out plasma sizes. The 12 year old working at best buy who helped me said not to get the westinghouse 32" lcd I was looking at because it would be poor for gaming. Was his advice correct? (I'm always wary of the best buy folks) Circuit City guy recommended just getting an hdtv crt set for now and save some money for a bigger new technology set once I move out of this small apt and have a house. I like that idea since I could always put the hd crt in the bedroom down the road. Will a hd crt like a 30" samsung slim fit be the best buy for my size restrictions, picture quality, and price? Thanks for any and all advice to guru's out there in advance! |
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Bronze Member Username: NflPost Number: 16 Registered: Sep-06 | BigPop...there are advantages and disadvantages on both LCD & Plasma. You can google it and find out which is best for your need. I'm currently have a Panasonic Plasma with HD tuner, I love it. Football games are all now broadcast HD in local channels, loving it every Sunday. I don't play video games and watch much DVD like you. My opinion, Plasma was my choice at the time I bought mine, because Plasma the pictures are much sharper then LCD. One major problem is burn-in with plasma, but I got that problem figured out. Turn the contrast and bright level down to 50% when you first watch the plasma and you never have to worry about burn-in. LCD technology is catching up. Producing higher resolution and refresh rate is much better than all previous model. Which mean they have improved the lagging issues, but the prices don't look too pretty. However I still like Plasma because of the current price & picture quality. LCD looks better small than anything larger than 42". Plasma looks better at 42" and up. |
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Silver Member Username: HawkHighlands Ranch, CO USA Post Number: 969 Registered: Dec-03 | Big: Your post is pretty complete concerning the restrictions you have on a new set. However, you failed to give a budget, although I figure you have a low budget if you are comparing a Westinghouse LCD vs. a 30" Samsung direct view. So, I will try to recommend some things in that price range. First, motion lag was a problem with LCDs, but the newer LCDs do not suffer from that problem. You should examine the specification of the "response time". Any spec of 12ms or less and I think you will not see any motion lag. And, I think you will find an LCD to be far more flexible in the future even if you want to put it into a bedroom (I got a 32" LCD and hung it on the wall in our bedroom--it looks very cool and my wife loves it). I cannot comment on the Westinghouse model you were looking at, but here is one that is the same size and is available at a very good price, yet has the good response time (8ms) that will allow you to do some gaming: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=22033 80&CatId=386 Vizio is a brand that has been very aggressive in putting out a good product at a very aggressive price. A frined of mine has the Vizio and loves it. Now, if you are willing to spend a bit more and are uncomfortable with a brand you may not know, you can get a major brand LCD with the same or better response time (I am seeing some spec'ing out at 5ms now). Sharp makes the best LCDs, followed by Samsung, JVC and Sony. A 32" LCD generally measures out at 32" or less in width (so it will fit your cabinet), provided you get a model with the speakers below the picture. My bedroom 32" model is from Phillips, a brand I heartily recommend, except it has the speakers on the side, so it would not fit your cabinet. Anyways, that is what I would do if I were in your situation. Good luck! |
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Bronze Member Username: BigpoppaphileSAINT CLOUD, MN United States Post Number: 33 Registered: Mar-06 | Thank you both for your responses and input, it was very helpful. Nfl fan, I definitely agree that the larger plasmas look better than lcd, and smaller lcd look better than small plasmas. Unfortunately even the smallest plasmas were too big for my situation and out of budget for now as well. Hawk, I took your recommendations to best buy again and scoped out some lcd's in my price range, around 800 bucks. Only two had the response times at 8ms, the westinghouse and a sharp. There was a panny that the guy helping said had a good refresh time as well it just wasn't listed on the tag. Anyways, I got lucky because they had the same model westinghouse hooked up to an xbox in the store for display. So we checked that out while some people played madden 07 and it didn't look too bad as far as the motion things goes. You could tell though on some plays the ball had some small motion artifacts. They also had a panny lcd i liked a lot better than the westy, but it was 1200 bucks. I was unwilling to pay that much right now. I looked at the crt hd sets and compared the picture quality with the lcd's in my price range and the lcd's just couldn't compare in contrast and black levels until you got into the more expensive brands/models. In short, I couldn't afford to get the lcd's that met both my picture quality and performance tastes, so I went with an LG 30" slim fit widescreen crt that was on sale for $699. Of course I don't have hi def cable yet to test it now that it's at home, but I was able to use the 720p/1080i mode on my Gran Turismo playstation 2 game for the first time. It was great. Picture quality was excellent and motion was not even an issue with it being the "old" style technology. Played a movie after using the THX optimizer on the disc to set my display and even with using just a yellow video cable the picture was great. Will be getting some componant cables today for the dvd to tv connection. Thanks again hawk and nfl fan for the info, it did help me make a decision I'm happy with. I'm a little sad I couldn't jump on the lcd bandwagon but my lg looks great so far. Oh, and one more quick question, what's this 3:2 pulldown setting i'm seeing on my tv menu options. Doesn't say much in the manuel about it. From googling it I'm getting is has to do with movie playback? Is it dependant on the dvd disc playing or how I'm connecting to the tv? Didn't notice much difference in picture quality while messing with it. |
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Silver Member Username: HawkHighlands Ranch, CO USA Post Number: 977 Registered: Dec-03 | Big: Sounds great--I didn't know LG even offered a HD crt! Anyways, congrats. As for the 3:2 pulldown, that allows you to play a DVD in any player without progressive scan (which means the DVD is doing 480i at the output) and the pulldown will convert the signal and play it at 480p. I have seen several demonstrations of this feature and it does make a noticeable improvement in the picture. Enjoy! ! ! |