Tell me about home theater setups; LCD vs Plasma TV's; HDMI; Blu-Ray players
 

Seamaiden and I are looking into our first large screen TV purchase using our income tax refund and gift money from our wedding. There are several promising models on special locally, including an LG 47" LCD TV for under $1000. I am a complete noob when it comes to this giant tv's (we are still watching a 19" CRT tv which is about 10 years old) so I need to bone up on the information quickly.

Does anyone have any insights that they'd like to share?
Things you wish you knew now that you didn't know when you bought your first TV?
Which is better: LCD or Plasma, and why?
What is HDMI and why do I need it? I've noticed that most TV's specify how many HDMI inputs they have.
Do I really need a new DVD player (with up converting)?
Will a Blu-ray DVD player play regular DVD's as well as Blu-Ray?

The LCD vs Plasma debate is a long and heated one. It really depends on what you are using your tv for primarily. For me, Plasma wins on almost every level with the one exception of heat. Plasmas (Panasonic blows away everyone else) have true whites and true blacks so Blu-Ray movies and HD shows look so much better than on a LCD screen. If you get a good panny plasma (G10, G15, V15 models) they have 24p mode which allows you to view movies in their true 24fps settings. Add that plasmas are running 600Hz subs, and you'll see why there's nothing even remotely close to motion blur on plasmas.

HDMI is basically a cable that allows you to stream uncompressed data. The only thing you need to know as far as the HDMI cables go is don't pay stupid money for them. The $10 cables are just as good as the $200 monster cable versions.

I see no reason not to buy a Blu-ray player if you're going to have a HD set. The Blu-ray player will play SD dvds just as good as the HD dvds so you won't have to worry with that. I use my PS3 for my player and can't be happier.

For a nice 47" LCD you should pay around $800 to $900. That's a decent deal but only if it's a higher end model.

That you should put your money into the size of the TV more than anything, and that the difference between 720p and 1080p isn't noticeable to most people.


Neither one is really better. I own a 50" Plasma, a 40" LCD, and a 32" LCD. The Plasma reflects light pretty bad, so if the TV is going into a room with lots of windows you may want to consider a matte screen LCD instead. There are glossy screen LCDs and matte screens. The matte screens are flat black instead of shiny. The picture quality is no different between the two. Example:

http://www.nelsonguirado.com/media/b...ase/glossy.gif

Plasmas will be slightly cheaper than LCDs and noticeably heavier since they have glass in them unlike LCDs.

This is a video cable standard. HDMI cables plug into your TV and then go to other devices like a 5.1 audio receiver, cable box, video game console, DVD player, etc. It takes sound AND video through 1 cable to your TV. It supports 1080p resolution (the highest resolution available in TVs). A good TV has 3 or 4 HDMI ports.

Need? No. But DVDs aren't in high definition, so without upscaling, regular DVDs may not look very impressive on an HDTV.


Yes.

The big question is how big of a TV do you want, what's your price range, and the most important question of all: how far away are you sitting from the TV (measure in feet from your eyes to the TV screen)?

If you don't minding spending more, I can highly recommend an LED tv, like what Samsung produce. The clarity and contrast is incredible and make plasmas and lcds look dull.

:lol:

you've obviously never seen a properly calibrated plasma set.

I wouldn't buy an LED set until LED's are standardized.

I forgot one thing to tell you Luci.. never ever ever ever ever ever buy a Vizio.

Why not? Seriously...

Because they have the cheapest parts, the worst aspect ratios, massive litigation from several companies in front of them, horrible customer service, horrible longevity and they just generally just make shitty televisions.

Does anyone have any insights that they'd like to share? I like checking with CNet before purchasing anything because, imho, they're pretty consistent at determining the overall value and quality of electronic products. Otherwise, don't be afraid to purchase online, like Newegg or Tiger Direct. There's no sense in paying 20% more just to buy it from Best Buy or Target.
Things you wish you knew now that you didn't know when you bought your first TV? There are actually three ways to put in rear speakers: ghetto on the floor college dorm style, drilling holes and running wires, and now there's wireless. I wish I'd gone wireless, it would have saved me time, effort, and putting holed in the wall.
Which is better: LCD or Plasma, and why? Plasma picture quality is slightly better, but LED LCDs are probably going to change that as the technology matures. I'd say your best bet right now (April 2010) is to get a 3-d ready 1080p 120-240 hz LED LCD. They're a bit more expensive, but the tech will last you.
What is HDMI and why do I need it? I've noticed that most TV's specify how many HDMI inputs they have. HDMI = High-Definition Multimedia Interface. It's an all-in-one cable for digital video and audio.
Do I really need a new DVD player (with up converting)? Yes. My Mac mini and BR player both do up-converting and it's a must for HDTVs. Regular DVD quality looks atrocious on 720p and 1080p tvs.
Will a Blu-ray DVD player play regular DVD's as well as Blu-Ray? As far as I know, all BR players to DVDs, too.

My setup:
Samsung LN40B630 1080p 120hz HDTV connected to
AT&T U-verse HD cable box via HDMI
PS2 via component
Samsung HT-BD1250 Blu-Ray home theater via HDMI
Mac mini via HDMI

It suits my needs perfectly.

Thanks for all the good advice. We went and looked at a 50" 720p Panasonic Plasma TV today, looked pretty good!

If it's in the $700-$800 range, buy it, you won't regret it.

Remember, Lucifer's in Canada--the pricing is a bit different up there due to the size of the Canadian market.

It was originally $1100, marked down to $899! We bought it, it's fucking huge!! :thumbsup:

My opinions, for anybody who finds this thread in the future:
The first and most important step is deciding how much time you want to spend learning about TV's and investigating which is best for you :) Keep in mind you have to learn technical details through research, because there's a great amount of marketing in the TV world; visiting stores, company websites, or asking salespeople will give, at best, skewed information, or at worst, made up things that sound weird or comical to people who actually know.

This is a cheap marketing trick :) These TV's have both power-saving and image quality improvements compared to earlier LCD's. They do use LED's; however they are LCD TV's, not LED TV's. Also of note, the reason they were created was to fix one of the main image quality problems LCD's have when compared to plasma TV's, which was usually ignored because LCD's are thinner, etc.
I don't believe LED TV's are an option right now. Sony is the only maker of any type of LED TV that I know of, however they're going out of the market due to poor sales. This is because they only make one model, which is 11 inches and costs around $2500.

IMO, that's the best way to do it without a small research project. Go look around and get whatever looks best. Only thing to keep in mind is that most stores know so little that the images on those TV's have a lower quality source than an HDTV should have, so if there's static or weird things going on it's probably BestBuy's fault, not the TV's.

passthru: admittedly, the most accurate terminology would be LED backlit LCD's...but most people are happy calling it an LED tv since there's nothing it could really be confused with.

As for the 11" 'true LED' I believe you're thinking of OLED...which is different.

I'm nervous about these things, since the latest technology commands the highest price tag and is easy to fall for since it's the newest/best.
I went to look at some Samsung LED sets and they're represented differently. There was no mention of LCD whatsoever. The weirder part was, there were three 50" sets varying in price by $600, and the only difference was contrast. The lowest one was still better than last gen stuff, and there wasn't any mention of power savings, less bright black, and the other more relevant stuff.

And, yeah, the OLED is the one I was thinking of. I still think it's closer to "LED TV" than the Samsung stuff is, though :)
There was a somewhat related comic the other day: HDTV.

you'll be very happy with your Panny lucifer.

My take on this: Never buy a Vizio bigger than 32". The Razor LED series is outstanding and the 23" 1080p model I have beats the shit out of TVs that cost $150 more.