HDTV Question

Leroy,
A good friend of mine is my "go-to-person" when it comes to things electronic. BTW he says I still live in a world of transistors, B&W TV and crank telephones! Here's what he had to say:

Just my opinions -

1. Internet TV is cool, necessary depends on how "tekkie" the viewer wants to be. We use it for streaming Netflix movies, for which it is very nice to have and that's about it.
2. 3-D has a long way to go right now
3. Any of those brands are excellent, I happen to favor Sony but it is very proprietary. Of those brands, the proper inputs/outputs are far more important
4. LED has not impressed me in the least, again personal. A 65" television may not be available in LCD, don't know for sure.
5. Not familiar with Mitsubishi Laser technology

was explained to me that because of sonys huge following that they are living a little more on their name than on the newest technologies and that samsung was one of the leaders now. for me i figure once its out of the store and set up the way i want it setup after a while the screen grows on you(stores will set the colors and contrasts etc to sell the one they can profit most from, you can make any screen look less compared to another if you want to sell a certian set). i went with the sharp aqiuos 65 inch lcd, couldnt be happier, sits on my old 50 inch box tv :laugh: i need a wall bracket. mines up high, a few inches from the ceiling, i like it way up there now, would never put one down low again. only problem is that people on the lake hate my choice in telivision, always hear someone yelling from way out on the lake to change the channel :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: they should give classes on color settings though, its crazy how long that took with the tv, actually went on line and found several settings to start with before modifying, the factory settings were useless. one trick i learned from looking at all the tv sets is to turn them off, you want a dark screen as black is a difficult color, dark screens give better blacks

priorities stike, big tv or shower in a bathroom, been just about a year now, did install heat tape up to the shower head last year, its a bit nippy up there :laugh: should take a pic of my chair, it was free with the last set, has needed duck tape for the last few years but i dont want to waste the duct tape

Not to be rude or insensitive, but I'll make a rational observation.

If you bemoan your failing eyesight as the reason/justification for needing a larger set, then most likely you aren't going to be able to discern any differences in picture quality between brands or types. So go with the cheapest set that gives you the features you desire.

I have 2 flat screens - one plasma and one LCD. For the first year or two the plasma had a better picture, but over time it seems to have evened out a bit. The plasma emits much more heat, costs more to run, and has a reportedly shorter lifespan than the LCD models. The plasma are also cheaper to purchase. If I were to buy one today I would compare plasma and the LED-LCD models. Here's a pretty good comparative article: http://www.cnet.com.au/plasma-vs-lcd-which-is-right-for-you-240036500.htm

Personally, I would avoid the 3-D stuff. I don't want to wear 3-D goggles to watch TV.

when i was looking at sets over 60 inches the only set that really stood out for me was a 60 inch pioneer plasma but it was near 10,000 dollars. my 65 inch sharp aquois lcd doesnt seem to darken out from looking at it from the sides, it does have a slight blurr problem with really fast sports like hockey but you get used to it quickly, not a deal breaker. that pioneer was a really nice set though if you only have the one set in the house you wont know the difference after a week or so anyways :laugh:

1. Is being connected to the Internet worth the additional cost?

ANSWER - depends on how much you want to use internet ready services - do you stream movies? Do you do on-demand? do you hook up your computer wirelessly? etc.

2. Is 3-D worth anything if I can’t see in three dimensions?

ANSWER - you say you "can't see in three dimensions" - does this mean you have eyesight in only one eye? If so, then I doubt if 3-D TVs offer any more than what you can perceive in real life "3-D" viewing. Besides, it's still a few years before 3-D TVs are going to be "worth it" from a technology & a pricing standpoint.

3. Is Samsung REALLY any better than Sony or LG or Panasonic or Visio or other TV’s?

ANSWER - nowadays, most brands that are comparable in price and performance are so similar it doesn't really matter. Only brand loyalty may play a factor in your decision, and one brand may have more (or different) bells & whistles than another. But if the price is within a few hundred dollars, I'd bet the quality is going to be so similar you can't tell a difference. It's sort of like how some folks prefer Ford vs Chevy - but if you're buying a 3/4 ton pickup, they'll both do the job - but one may have 20 more HP than the other, but does that REALLY matter? One might have more bells & whistles in the interior, but if you're going to use it on the farm as a TRUE pickup, does that matter? For the price, both are very comparable. It's what YOU like that matters.

4. Is Plasma better than LED or LCD?

ANSWER - find a place that has a demo room set up with their top-of-the line plasma & their top-of-the-line LCD & have them put the TVs side-by-side & watch the SAME exact Blue Ray on each with the SAME exact scenes being played. You will notice that plasma offers colors more "true-to-life" than LCD (which may or may not be what you want). LCDs offer colors which are "brighter" than plasmas, but that doesn't necessarilly mean that's the way the color really looks in "real-life" - some folks like that, others do not. LCDs definitely draw you in & get your attention when you first walk into the showroom better than plasmas - this is because the colors are brighter & more vivid.

5.0 Is Mitsubishi’s new Laser technology a better deal?

ANSWER - I know nothing about this.

Also, remember that where your TV is going to be relative to how far you are going to be watching it from plays a role as well. Check out the "viewing distance" chart to see the distance vs screen size - this shows you how far you need to be for the human eye to even perceive the differnces of true 1080 resolution.



http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter

And this link has a viewing distance calculator:

http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

HTH,
Rob

:laugh: would be nice to get the box fixed for sundays games. two games is better than one. youve seen a pic of the hill i live on, things come down, not much goes up :laugh: that wall is plywood backed behind the sheetrock, one of these days a wall bracket, one of these days...... actually scares me when the wind picks up and i left a window open, that big screen is a sail

that's an awesome looking entertainment center!!

yeah, you mentioned about building it yourself - I feel the same, but with the cost of lumber now, and the (miniscule) amount of free time available, sometimes it's better to just pay someone else.

Unless woodworking is a hobby that you enjoy, then it's a pleasure.

But for me, my woodworking skills are novice level, though I do enjoy doing it, I'm not very fast at it :P

if you think buying the tv is difficult, wait to you try and set it up, never seen so many settings :laugh: i think my first set just had a knob you could spin to make the lines go up and down :laugh: i should have bought online, cheaper and way less hassle than buying at the local sears, sears was three trips to their distributor about 45 minutes away, each time saying it was in and it was not :ermm:

if it works on a 65 let me know, i would be interested. thanks.

Hi Leroy:

I wish I had seen your post earlier, I work in the AV industry.

The key to everything is the source. (cable, satellite, internet, antenna, DVD, etc.)

If your source is poor, you can have the best gear going and your images/audio won't be as good as they can be.

Once you've got a good source signal, the next thing you want is good cabling. Be prepared to set aside a few dollars for good cabling. DVI, HDMI etc. I'm sure your local geek squad will hook you up properly. Of course you'll also want a good audio system including receiver/speakers. Make sure you buy a decent sound system - not a surround sound system in a box. And if your local AV store recommended a surround sound in a box - shame on them.

The great thing about the above (source / cabling), is that (in most areas) these are items that you can control after you've made your purchase.

Experts could debate the pros and cons of all the different technologies. There are guys that I work with that can pinpoint flaws and I look at the image and say " wow" . (but that's what they're trained to do)

If you've looked at a bunch of TV's, listened to a bunch of sound systems and you liked what you saw/heard, I'm sure you'll be happy.

Michael