My 10 year old CRT tv blew up recently and now its time to move up to a flat pannel and move up to HD.

Basically I'm looking for the best tv for Standard definition.

my size requirements is 40"-46", and budget is $1500.




My first pick was the samsung UN46B6000, but its a side lite led tv that has some dimming issues and the flatness of the tv means the sound would be terrible. I do have a home theatre set up but it would not be on all the time.

Second pick is the panisonic TC-P46S1, this is a plasma set so its picture is going to be amazing but the energy efficenty of this set is gonna hurt. It will cost more to own this set over the years then a more expencive LCD tv.

my last pic is the samsung LN46B750, the 240 hz lcd tv is suppose to a great tv according to the reviews. But i heard the standard definition is mediocre and the price of this set is on the high side. When i can get the same picture quality for 500+ dollars cheaper with a plasma.



I want to know your guys opinion on the best standard definition set. or at least point me in the right direction on who makes better SD set.


And suggestions?

thanks alot.

Lg42lh5000 just bought one recently for £630 & I'm happy

My first advice would be a plasma tv.

Energy efficiency is the least thing you need to be worried about. I have my plasma on 5pm-2am every single week day and 10am-2am on weekends (unless im out riding my bike of scuba diving) and my electric bill went up by a huge amount of $3.95.

Energy efficiency is one of those things that you can move around from thing to thing and save money that way. For example in each of my 3 bathrooms I unscrewed 2/3 light bulbs and put in a low wattage bulb. I also turn off my lights religiously and all lights in my house are low wattage. I noticed a $15/mo reduction in electric bill. Most tv's now are very energy efficient so dont worry about that.

Things that you do need to worry about would be
-viewing angle (which plasma excels at)
-outputs for surround sound, hdmi, optic etc
-if you dont have surround sound then you would need to buy a tv with speakers
-brightness and number of colors.

also you do want to factor in tax and extended warranty into the price.

Crutchfield

any plasma recommendations?

Panasonic Viera.

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Seconded.

Being someone who has worked in many varied fields, I've worked for ViewSonic before. If you are getting a plasma, especially at the size you are talking about, realize the pixels are bigger than on an lcd. If you are going to put it in a living room where you have a little bit of distance, that's the better choice, but if you have a smaller sized room and the viewing spot is closer to the tv, you will be able to see the pixels and you might be dissatisfied. Other than that, lcd lasts longer than plasma, but with the new technology, they are catching up(with the big name brands at least). And yarik hit the nail on the head with the other stuff. Good luck on your search.

Panasonic FTW.
they will replace their plasma's if it gets burned in.

Have you seen those Samsung LED TV's? They are absolutely ridiculous and amazing to watch something on. I swear to you, when I played Fight Night Round 4 on one of those TV's, it was like watching a real fight.

They are more on the expensive side, but still the best definition I have seen in a TV. Also, they are coming out with 3D TV's in the near future (I saw one at Fry's Electronics recently) and I think they may be the next big thing in the TV market. But for now Google an LED TV and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

LED!

3D will fail miserably.

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I thought it was pretty badass. 3D gaming is the future bro!

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did the math on it, to get a LED with as good picture quality as a plasma would cost twice as much. Not worth it IMO.

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+1

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3d gaming is in the future. But way in the future. We barely just got 3d movies to work in the theater and that is not even perfect. The way the polarize lens work requires your head to be perfectly paralell to the screen or else you lose some of the affect. Until they perfect this technology to the consumer its not worth investing in it now. Not when the stuff you buy will be obsolete before the technology goes main stream.


btw i choose a 46" viera (THX certified display yummmm). Thanks for the input everyone

This post has been edited by Hanyo: Mar 8, 2010 - 4:42 AM

i've always heard LED was better than plasma. plasma's don;t last as long, or something like that. idk but samsungs always looked the brightest at best buy. my family has an lg; seems nice. vizo is an upcoming name aswell.

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LED and LCD's have a slower refresh rate than most CRT's so its a step down in that sense.
although LED's are a great TV, a Plasma is the best way to go. Best picture quality and colors are truer to life.
The myths about plasma's are kinda funny actually. they last just as long as a LCD TV (just as long as you take care of the tv which is the case for any tv).
you REALLY have to try to get a picture burned into a Plasma, and Panasonic will REPLACE your TV if you do burn it in.

to the original post; congrats on the new tv!

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My experience with Vizio isn't great. A buzz developed in the speakers after a few months and the picture quality wasn't as good as the Panasonic Viera that replaced it.

Old LCD TVs have CRT-esque refresh rates (60Hz)


Any decent LCD now has 120 or 240.


Personally I have a 42" Toshiba LCD @ 120Hz. Picture quality is much better than my brother's Panasonic 42" Plasma, but falls short of the 37" Sony LCD I bought my parents for Christmas. Still does CoD just fine, which is all that matters anyways

My only complaint (which is a setting that I turned off) is that my TV dims when the picture is dark to enhance the black. This causes a problem when the movie is switching back and forth from a light scene to a dark scene (think telephone conversation). The backlighting is on off on off on off and makes me want to shoot myself. After I turned that setting off my suicidal thoughts disappeared.

I have a Panasonic Viera 1080p plasma, and so I'll 3rd or 4th that motion because I absolutely love the TV. The negatives - it runs hotter than an LCD (won't melt your wall or anything) and its considerably heavier.

There are a lot of myths about plasmas, I think there's even a website that discusses them. If an image is left on for a few minutes you will see it ghosted for a few minutes, but if you have another image showing during that time you'll never see it, and it dissipates quickly. Plasma TVs won't last any less longer than you'll require it too. With the way technology moves you'll WANT another TV before it breaks.

I did a lot of research when I was buying mine and I went with plasma over LCD. LCD is getting better but when I bought mine plasma was a cheaper, better looking TV.

If you're getting anything smaller than 42'' don't bother with 1080p.

And about Vizio — basically Vizio made their TVs using the throw away parts from the major manufacturers. That includes Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer etc. These were the parts deemed not good enough for those TVs, so Vizio takes them and sells cheaper TVs. You get what you pay for.

This post has been edited by Supersprynt: Mar 8, 2010 - 3:33 PM

Don't Get A Sony Bravia, my aunt bought one and it only lasted about 2 years! It broke rite after the warrenty ended and it turned out that it was actually a common problem that the bravia had, when she called sony they said they were going to release a patch to help the problem in about 6 months but that even the patch wouldnt fix it completely.

All fine choices really, after gaming on all sorts of TV's, I can honestly say that I would pay for the LED. I can only go off experiences, not numbers. To me it goes like this LED > Plasma > LCD > CRT.

LED is a backlighting method on an LCD TV. The picture quality really doesn't change. Things that could change include black levels, since LEDs can turn off to get that deep black which are more on par with plasma TVs.

So the LED TV is actually LCD - since LED is a light, and LCD is a display. Instead of fluorescent lights, its LED. What you're paying for is new tech. LEDs will produce very little heat, create a smaller profile and use less energy, but the display is what counts. LED doesn't change the refresh rate, which is important when gaming.

This post has been edited by Supersprynt: Mar 8, 2010 - 7:34 PM

I bought the Samsung LCD LN46B630 last fall. It was placed in a sun room. LCD and the matte screen are what swayed me for a bright room. We are very pleased. Only thing I do not like is the ghosting on sports as it is only 120hz. They probably have the 650 out now with 240 hz.

JG

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I highly highly disagree. Gaming on an LED TV was probably my favorite gaming I have ever done. Fight Night was so unbelievably crystal clear and Halo 3 was just awe-inspiring.

And actually, the room I was in got really hot because of the LED TV. I don't know why (since LED aren't supposed to do that) but it did.

You can disagree all you want. An LED TV is still an LCD TV, it just uses LEDs instead of fluorescent lighting.

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Indeed sir, differing opinions is what makes you you and makes me the greatest ever.

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I actually did some heavy research on led tvs which produce an soap opera affect. It makes games and blue ray movies look "too real". Some people like it other don't. The reason I dont like it is because for standard definition it actualy hurts the picture then helps it. But if i ever where to use a tv for monitor and games on, i would not second guess buying a LED tv.


Back on topic. Anyone here with plasma have a break-in pointers? Any screen adjustment disc you recommend?

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Like I said, LED TVs don't change the screen, or the resolution. What they do is pin-point light better. This can create a more appealing picture, but the actual picture quality isn't changing.

There's no break-in for plasmas. I would just calibrate it to your liking immediately, since a lot of times they are set too bright.

I read online somewhere that the most sensitive time for a Plasma TV is the first 200 hours of its life, so setting the contrast and light to below 50% for the first 200 will increase it's life in the long run. Then after that you can adjust to higher settings.

Supersprynt, arguments are against the rules, quit trying to bring up a dead topic and ruin this guy's thread.

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That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
- Friedrich Nietzsche