Getting a new TV....

[sth]

Nah, but I will hopefully be able to get in on the Super Bowl TV sales. It really all depends on when the check gets here, or when my income tax gets here.

Nicely done sir.

 

[MassHavoc]

Nah, but I will hopefully be able to get in on the Super Bowl TV sales. It really all depends on when the check gets here, or when my income tax gets here.

The day or two after the superbowl is a seriously good day to go in and buy. Especially if you are ok with buying returns. Lot's of people still buy tvs for the SB and then return them. Also, the stores like to stock up for the SB and then they have to get rid of everything they don't sell to make room for the other stuff.

 

[Tater]

I have a 4 year old Panasonic plasma and love it.

Not one problem ever and the picture still looks great fwiw.

 

[Pez68]

I have a 4 year old Panasonic plasma and love it.

Not one problem ever and the picture still looks great fwiw.

Yeah. I really think I might just bite the bullet and go with a Panasonic.

 

[MassHavoc]

Yeah. I really think I might just bite the bullet and go with a Panasonic.

When I sold them, I didn't think anything compared plasma wise, and now I think Samsung for LED... don't know if it's changed for the plasmas, but I suspect that you will be nothing but happy with panasonic. If I bought a plasma, that would probably be what I'd get. I don't think I'll be bothering with 3d for a while though.

 

[BigPete]

Just got back to this post. So Pez, blu ray movies can be had cheap if you avoid the multidisc packs (blu disc, dvd, and digital copy). I got Inception and Salt the week they came out at Best Buy for 14$ each by getting 'just the blu ray'. Also, old movies are being remastered for about $10 to $12 so you can get old, good flicks. Backdraft on Blu ray makes a big difference.

 

[Pez68]

Just got back to this post. So Pez, blu ray movies can be had cheap if you avoid the multidisc packs (blu disc, dvd, and digital copy). I got Inception and Salt the week they came out at Best Buy for 14$ each by getting 'just the blu ray'. Also, old movies are being remastered for about $10 to $12 so you can get old, good flicks. Backdraft on Blu ray makes a big difference.

Very good to know. The price of movies is another big reason I haven't made the jump yet. Sounds like that's a reason to scratch off my list. I'll likely be doing my upgrades in the next month as well.

I'm on the fence in regards to which TV again. Seems the 2010 Panasonics have a well known issue with the black levels fading over time. So, within a year the superior black levels will have gone down to Samsung levels or below. I don't think I can justify spending $1000 more for a 58" Panasonic now that I know that. I'll probably go with the Samsung, take my chances with their QC, and spend the extra money on my new receiver, blu-ray player, and sub.

 

[whalerhawk]

I have not made the leap yet, and I actually haven't even pulled the trigger on a blu-ray player yet.

That said, the tv I purchase will be 3D just because most of the better televisions are.









I'm a plasma guy. I'm one of the few people that actually notices the motion blur of LCD televisions with high speed video playback. Things like hockey, and movies with a lot of high speed video are almost unwatchable for me on a lot of bigger LCD televisions. I also play a lot of Xbox360, and plasmas just tend to be better for gaming in general. Again, because of the motion blur and response times. I'm crazy, I know.

I play just as much 360 as you do, perhaps more, and its for that reason I have always stuck with LCD's. I don't see any blurring and aren't plasma's succeptible to burn in? I would freak out if I played 3 hours of a FPS with some health or ammo bar stuck up on my plasma screen the entire time.

 

[MassHavoc]

People like to point to things like "my tv is 600hz" and such, well that's nice for maybe the over the air, but if your sat. box only outputs in 60hz or your Xbox in 60 hz, it's not really going to do much. You have to then rely on the tv to try to up convert as much as possible. If you get a 120hz tv and want to maximize it, you'll have to get a 120hz output blueray, instead of like the 24-48 that the PS3 or low end put out. Something they don't teach you.

 

[Pez68]

I play just as much 360 as you do, perhaps more, and its for that reason I have always stuck with LCD's. I don't see any blurring and aren't plasma's succeptible to burn in? I would freak out if I played 3 hours of a FPS with some health or ammo bar stuck up on my plasma screen the entire time.

Plasma burn in hasn't been an issue for a long time now. If you do get burn in(called image retention most of the time), it is only temporary. I've played hours on end and the longest image retention I've had is a few minutes. My kids have accidentally left the same screen up for 3-4 hours thinking they turned the TV off, and it only took 5 minutes of running the scrolling screen in the menu to get rid of it. Basically, it is no more a problem than image retention on an LCD.



In regards to the motion blur, not everyone notices it, or has learned to tune it out. My buddy has a $5000 Sony LCD, and I can't watch any kind of extremely fast motion video on it. I get headaches from the blur. It really is that bad for me. Also, the input lag on some LCD TVs is huge, upwards of 50ms. Anyone that has played FPS games online knows how much that lag can hinder you.



If you have the wireless Rock Band 2 guitar and Rock Band 2, I guess you can use it to measure your audio/video lag to see how bad it really is on your TV.

 

[whalerhawk]

Plasma burn in hasn't been an issue for a long time now. If you do get burn in(called image retention most of the time), it is only temporary. I've played hours on end and the longest image retention I've had is a few minutes. My kids have accidentally left the same screen up for 3-4 hours thinking they turned the TV off, and it only took 5 minutes of running the scrolling screen in the menu to get rid of it. Basically, it is no more a problem than image retention on an LCD.



In regards to the motion blur, not everyone notices it, or has learned to tune it out. My buddy has a $5000 Sony LCD, and I can't watch any kind of extremely fast motion video on it. I get headaches from the blur. It really is that bad for me. Also, the input lag on some LCD TVs is huge, upwards of 50ms. Anyone that has played FPS games online knows how much that lag can hinder you.



If you have the wireless Rock Band 2 guitar and Rock Band 2, I guess you can use it to measure your audio/video lag to see how bad it really is on your TV.

I have RB2 and for real, I've never noticed blurring or lag. Is it like rainbows on DLP's where some people just see them and some people don't? I guess ignorance is bliss.



The problem the wife and I have with Plasmas is that they all have a glass facing and that's hugely reflective in a bright environment. Ours isn't particular troublesome in that regard, but it is an issue in certain situations.



Our TV is starting to go as well and we plan to get a new model come summer. My Samsung is only 3 years old (bought it in Dec 2008. I was stunned to see how far TV technology has come in just 3 years. My Sammy has a contrast ratio of 10,000 to 1 and a refresh rate of 8ms. A run of the mill LG these days is 50:000 to 1 contrast with 4 ms refresh and the top of the line LED LCD's have contrast ratios of 10,000,000 to 1 or more. That's crazy how much better the pictures have gotten in such a short time span.

 

[E Runs]

I love our Panasonic Plasma. Had it for 2 1/2 years now and it's still going strong.



A word of caution: the setting can make a huge difference in you preceived picture quality. The wife thought the TV was going because hockey on our friend's TV looked so much brigher. After screwing around with the setting I got out TV to look just as bright.

 

[whalerhawk]

I love our Panasonic Plasma. Had it for 2 1/2 years now and it's still going strong.



A word of caution: the setting can make a huge difference in you preceived picture quality. The wife thought the TV was going because hockey on our friend's TV looked so much brigher. After screwing around with the setting I got out TV to look just as bright.

Everyone should own a calibration disc. Either Avia or Digital Video Essentials. It maximizes your HDTV purchase.



Avia



Digital Video Essentials

 

[Pez68]

Everyone should own a calibration disc. Either Avia or Digital Video Essentials. It maximizes your HDTV purchase.



Avia



Digital Video Essentials

Absolutely. And all you really need is a DVD player to calibrate a TV properly. I use Avia, personally.



I wasn't referring to blurring or lag in RB2. I was just referencing that wireless guitar as a pretty good way to measure your video/audio lag. The new guitar I guess has a microphone and image sensor, so you just hold it up to the TV during the calibration and it will adjust the game accordingly. I've got a plasma, my buddy has an LCD. If I play Rock Band or Guitar Hero at his house, I am late on all the notes until I can adjust my timing. When he plays at my house, he is early on all the notes. That's because of the input lag difference between plasma and LCD. If you've got that RB2 wireless Fender Stratocaster, do the calibration and see what the lag calibration ends up being. I'd be curious to see how much it adjusts.



Once you are used to the LCD, you likely won't notice the blur or the lag when playing games. Just like using a slower internet connection. After a while, you just adjust to it. Problem is, I went from a rear projection TV to a plasma. Before that, I did a ton of FPS and gaming in general on the PC. So, every time I watch fast moving movies or sports on an LCD, I can see the motion blur. When I play games on LCDs, as opposed to plasmas, I can tell there's more latency present. Even on the best TVs. Newer models have improved the motion blur with better response times, but the technology they use to do so, adds input lag to the TV. So you can't have your cake and eat it too, so to speak. The motion blur is inherent to the LCD technology. Plasma response time is in microseconds. LCD is in milliseconds. The human eye can perceive visual changes at 4ms. Even the best LCDs on the market cannot turn off a pixel and turn on another pixel fast enough to avoid this. The bigger the TV, the more noticeable this is. Plasma technology, whether people care to admit it or not, is just better, because of human visual perception. There's a lot of information out there if you are interested in looking. If plasma manufacturers deployed this information in their marketing, they would likely be much more popular than LCDs. It is all physiological, and it explains why it is intolerable to some people(like me), and some people don't even notice it.

 

[BigPete]

People like to point to things like "my tv is 600hz" and such, well that's nice for maybe the over the air, but if your sat. box only outputs in 60hz or your Xbox in 60 hz, it's not really going to do much. You have to then rely on the tv to try to up convert as much as possible. If you get a 120hz tv and want to maximize it, you'll have to get a 120hz output blueray, instead of like the 24-48 that the PS3 or low end put out. Something they don't teach you.

This bit of information is HUGE! Especially if you plan to get 3D and use it. Spend some time reading Home Theatre Magazine articles on herz outputs.

 

[E Runs]

People like to point to things like "my tv is 600hz" and such, well that's nice for maybe the over the air, but if your sat. box only outputs in 60hz or your Xbox in 60 hz, it's not really going to do much. You have to then rely on the tv to try to up convert as much as possible. If you get a 120hz tv and want to maximize it, you'll have to get a 120hz output blueray, instead of like the 24-48 that the PS3 or low end put out. Something they don't teach you.

Kind of like not all stations/sat/cable providers broadcast in full 1080?

 

[MassHavoc]

Kind of like not all stations/sat/cable providers broadcast in full 1080?

Bingo, and as a matter of fact, a shit ton of cable and satellite boxes are only 1080i.