TV Novice Questions

[hillview]

We are (finally) going to get a proper TV. We have a small one in my office that we watch for 30 mins a day or so. We are going to put one in the living room. Anyone have
- review or suggestion on a type
- review or suggestion on a brand
- how large would you get
- features to get/avoid
- other thoughts?

I read in the NYT that they expect LCDs to go down quite a lot this holiday season :)
/hillary

[3blackcats]

Our last tv's have been Samsung. We got it from Costco. Our current is LCD 46". We debated getting a 43" but when we marked it out on the wall, the size difference wasn't that big, so we go the bigger one. Sorry I am not more help!

[jgenie]

Three of our TVs are Samsung and we've been happy with them.

[KrisM]

Ours is a Samsung as well. We got the 46" from Sam's. Ours is a matte finish, which I love because we have so much sun in our room and now we can actually watch TV with the curtains open or with lights on. Our old TV (tube) had a ton of glare. The matte was noticeable when compared to others in the store as well.

[WolfpackMom]

We, my parents, and my sister and bil all love our Samsungs. DH and I also have a LG that doesn't get used as much but we like it just fine.

[wellyes]

We have a wall-mounted Sony. I think 38 or 42 inch. It's absolutely fine. I love having it up on the wall so we get that floor space back in our smallish living room.

The only thing I'd really worry about is not getting it too big or small for your space and viewing distance. Everything else - pixels, features, whatever - isn't really that big of a deal for TVs. It can be really hard to comparison shop anyway since TVs, like mattresses, are often sold with slightly different model names from store to store. The truth is that if you buy a decent brand, they're all generally fine, and if one looks different than the others in the store it's likely just because of how it's calibrated.

Newegg.com runs good sales, but in general I did not find that buying online (from a store I trust) was signficantly cheaper than in-store. We got ours at BJs.

[Tondi G]

we have an LG LCD tv (42 inch I think) and have been VERY happy with it (been around for a few years).

[Penny's Pappa]

The size and type of TV you get are going to depend largely on the room that you want to put the TV in. The farther away from the TV you go, the bigger the TV needs to be. Plus, the bigger the TV you get, the higher the resolution you'll want to get. 720p sets are fine for TVs that are less than, say, 36" or so, but much bigger than that and the image will start to noticeably pixelate, especially when you're sitting a little closer to the TV. I'd suggest going for 1080p for a 36" or larger TV.

The brightness of the room may play a part as well. Plasmas tend to have glossy screens that form glare in well lit rooms (though I think they make some now with anti-glare coatings). This isn't as big a problem with LCDs.

As for brands, Samsung LCDs are usually highly recommended. We have a 32" Samsung and love it. I think Sony get's pretty good marks too. I think there was a thread here a month or so ago and someone suggested a brand for plasmas, but I can't remember which one. Panasonic, perhaps?

We (and by "we" I mean "I" since my wife couldn't care less about buying a TV!) are in the market for a larger (~50") TV and I think I will buy a plasma. They have better contrast, produce better blacks, and I think they're generally cheaper than a comparable LCD.

I know nothing about LED TVs and 3D TVs.

HTH!

[egoldber]

Here is a recent-ish thread from the Lounge. DH works in the TV manufacturing industry. He recommends Samsung for LCD and Panasonic for plasma. (He does not work for either company.)

http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=366396&highlight=panasonic


We (and by "we" I mean "I" since my wife couldn't care less about buying a TV!) are in the market for a larger (~50") TV and I think I will buy a plasma. They have better contrast, produce better blacks, and I think they're generally cheaper than a comparable LCD.

The downside of plasma is that is more expensive for comparable screen size (because it is more expensive to manufacture) and they use more power. So if you live in an area with relatively high power costs (like California for example) it can make a non-trivial difference over a year in operating costs. But they are definitely much brighter than a comparable LCD.

[willow33]

Another vote for Samsung! We just bought a 46" and are very happy with it. We wanted to get it at Costco, but they didn't have that size at the time. We bought it from Best Buy.

[arivecchi]

We have a couple of Samsung LCDs. No issues and great picture.