I’m about to buy a new TV and thought I’d tap into The Dope knowledge base. I’m looking at a Sony xbr9 (46 or 52-inch). My first question is if I should be looking at anything else. Aside from a nice picture, the Sony has a matte screen, which helps in my many-windowed living room.
Next, I’ve heard rumblings about “burn-in”. Is this a real problem? Over how long a time? And how bad can it be.
Next, LED TVs. Better? Worth the extra money? It’s a LOT of extra money.
Finally, and this is an important one, the cable I use coming out of the wall is not your standard size. It’s much thinner. I got it about ten years ago, and it was supposed to be as good as the ordinary ones, just much thinner. I have to use this cable, as it goes under a rug. I currently use it to watch my 35-inch Toshiba Cinema Series CRT, and it works fine. I can also watch Comcast On-Demand with no problem. My question is: will this cable work with the larger Plasma? And will it accommodate HD?
I’m fairly certain that Sony has stopped producing plasmas and that the xbr9 series are LCD panels. Quite different - no real burn-in issues at all, for one thing. If you want a plasma, Panasonic, Samsung and LG are, to the best of my knowledge, the only remaining players ( though the super-premium Pioneers might still be on the market, I don’t think they are making any new ones ).
LEDs, all things being equal, do seem to outperform standard LCD panels in terms of black levels, which is one of the most important features of a TV. But they can be pricey, the high-end Sony is absurdly so ( and not worth it, if you ask me ). This LG LED set is very well-reviewed and cheaper than the competition. LG is not considered a higher-end company in general, but this looks like a flagship set and I understand that quality-control is pretty decent for HDTVs generally, relative to other consumer electronics. By and large most Sony TVs look overpriced to me. If I were going non-LED LCD or a plasma for that matter, I think I’d stick with Panasonic or Samsung - the price/performance ratio seems a little better. I believe Panasonic’s quality control is also best in the biz.
If your cable works for your CRT, I can’t imagine any real issues with a HDTV. Whether you can get HD signals through Comcast in your area is another matter - I’d contact them directly and double check. But more and more it’s the standard, so I’d be rather surprised if you couldn’t.
Great info. Thanks. And yeah, I got the plasma/LCD thing flipped around. I like LG products and will check out their TVs. I looked a nice TV in Best Buy but it had a very glossy screen. Not sure if it was a LG or a Samsung. I’ll check it out again.
That particular LG I linked to has a matte screen, so might be down your alley.
In general Best Buy is not a good place to evaluate TVs - the bad lighting and artificially bright settings tends to throw off comparisons. Plasmas in particular suffer unfairly under such circumstances. Though given your apparently very bright room, LCD/LED sounds like a better bet for you anyway. Plasmas are best appreciated in a darkened room, or at least one with the shades drawn.
If you can find one, a higher end electronics store with dedicated, properly lit viewing rooms is better. Unless you are the type to feel guilty for not paying their premium prices after using them to comparison shop ;).
LCD is definitely the way to go if you have lots of bright lights and windows in the room. But not all LCDs are created equal, so be sure to check out the particular brand in a brick-and-mortar store.
LCDs do not suffer burn-in, plasmas do. I think you got that right.
Finally, although it’s always nice to support local businesses, you can get MUCH better deals buying on-line. I saved $200 buying from Amazon rather than from Best Buy, and another $100 or so in state sales tax. And they delivered for free and set it up for me. Only caveat: Online store prices change by the day. Watch it for a week or two and try to pull the trigger when the prices are at the bottom of a swing cycle.
I have a Panasonic 42" plasma, and just bought a new 50" plasma… went to the store expecting to buy a new Panasonic, but bought an LG 50ps60… love love love it… I need wide viewing angle in the room, and even though there are a lot of windows and a patio door, the glare is not really an issue… got it for under $1000…
Burn-in is really a thing of the past, as most devices/interfaces provide “screen saver-like” technology…
Thanks for the responses. One more questions: there seems to be the thin cable I mentioned (from wall to cable box), and also a flat cable, that can be put under carpet. But I can’t tell if the flat one is more from stereo to speakers as opposed to cable outlet to cable box. Anyone know? Is one better the other?
I guess the thing to ask cable-wise is: how can I tell if how a cable might compare to the one Comcast gives me?
On average plasmas have denser blacks and reproduce fast motion with less jitter. They are heavier and more reflective. Recent model plasmas don’t have limited lives or suffer from burn in. Plasmas have better side viewing angles than many but not all LCD TVs; newer LCDs do quite well there now.
Regular LCDs are less reflective. The newer LED LCD TVs are side-lighted and backlighted; the backlighted ones get better reveiws. Both LED types are more reflective than non-LED types; I thought the LG version was pretty decent but the Samsung line was too reflective for my tastes.
Some of the newest LED LCD TVs are spectacularly thin.
Most newer LCD TVs are between 120 and 240 Hz; enough to get rid of motion issues.
In summary, they are all pretty darn good.
Right now, if reflectivity is not an issue, I think a good plasma is the best value, esp for sports. But there are so many good TVs on the market, it’s hard to get really excited about one versus another.
As long as you have coax, don’t worry if it’s a cheap one. The signal is digital so it will either be there and excellent or non-existent. Don’t replace the cable til you test it out.
You should be able to call up Comcast and have a technician come and install a new cable from the ‘drop’ to wherever your TV will be and this should not cost anything extra. This is one of the advantages of cable over satellite IMHO, since you pay monthly for the hardware along with the service, the cable company is obliged to make sure everything is working perfectly.
Point being that while the thin cable may work, the signal level may not be within spec which could lead to picture quality issues. If your spending the money to step up to a better display, it makes sense to make sure the entire signal chain is as good as it can be.
It’s a fully digital signal - so “it’s either there or it’s not” means either the bit error rate is low enough for a perfect or near-perfect picture, or it will look awful. From your OP, I assume you currently have a Comcast STB, since you’re getting VOD. In that case, it’s possible that the thin cable will be OK for HD as well - the problem is you don’t know what frequencies the HD channels are being transmitted on. Does the thin cable have anything printed/stamped on it - “RG-6 compliant” or anything?
It’s really nothing like the Beta/VHS divide. It’s not like there will be “LCD only” signal sources down the road - as long as it’s got the right inputs now, they’ll be supported for the foreseeable future. Sure, HDMI may get replaced down the road, but the TV you buy today will be HDMI compliant whether it’s plasma or LCD.
[muddying up the waters]
If the technology question is still in play, have you looked at rear projectors? Do you have to mount the TV on the wall? Is depth a critical issue?
We tried a 40" Sony LCD and ended up returning it for a 57" Mitsubishi DLP. The difference was about $50 and we’ve have absolutely no regrets. We were nervous a bit at first (oooh! Old technology! We’re not hip!), but the extra size is worth it. Picture-wise, we have friends with both LCD and plasma screens and there’s no discernible difference. Blu-Ray and HD cable shows are breathtaking. It’s also only about 13-14" deep, so space difference is virtually non-existent (er, except for screen size). We have a set of southern windows in the room (TV is on the west wall) and glare hasn’t been a problem.
I don’t mind if someone wants to follow and say why my eyes suck and there’s this or that difference. But to us the only difference is that it’s not new tech shiny goodness, and that it’s on our entertainment center, not on a wall.
YMMV, but consider checking them out.
ETA: Googling DLP or plasma gets a lot of comparisons. From Obsessable:
Hmm few HDTVs have coax input. You’ll want to call your cable company to get a converter box. Should be free. But you’ll want to get HD package, which could be $5-10.
I have a Pioneer Plasma television that I got some eight years ago and it remains the best looking picture I have seen. Period (at least, outside the super high end room in an electronics store that no one ever seems to buy). Often the difference is very apparent (my mom’s flat panel is clearly and obviously worse than my set…would be immediately apparent to anyone).
Supposedly it should be suffering from limited life by now but is banging along just great.
It absolutely can suffer from burn-in as one go with my X-Box demonstrated all too clearly (fortunately was not bad and corrected itself).
Only thing it lack now are more modern inputs but that is not too big a deal.
It may be coax to the box but the TV will certainly require an HDMI (these days) hookup from the cable box (or a DVI connector on a slightly older design). In my case it is Component Cables which are kinda big and unwieldy (but do the job just fine).
I’m just talking about the cable going form the wall to the (soon to be HD) cable box. The wire I’m using doesn’t seem to have any writing on it. Mine looks like this. Though mine is white.
Yup. There was a thread a few weeks ago from someone asking how in the world all that HD data could be sent over the same crappy coax that barely gets a decent picture from an antenna - it’s all about compression these days. Interesting read - LOTS of info.
