I would put the money either to some other use or in the bank. I would give all of the new technologies time for a shake-down before I plunked down $2500 for them.
As to my opinion of the technologies, I think that plasma has the best prospects. But then what the hell do I know?
That’s crazy-talk, David. Just crazy. I’m an American homeowner with spare cash…of course I’m going to make a self-indulgent home electronics purchase.
Besides, I’m in that surreal window where Lady Chance says, ‘Sure, go ahead’!!! I can’t pass up that opportunity. I blew it on the Motocycle incident of 2001 and I’m not going to miss it here!
What about waiting until after the holiday? Anyone think prices’ll come down after the silly season?
If the room can be made dark enough, go with a front projector and screen. Those piddly little 45" screens are nothing to my 100" (and that’s only because I didn’t want the screen to cover the entire wall).
Nah, that’s a little extreme for me. I just want a cool television that can play movies and XBox games and stay out of the way most of the time. Just getting the square yard back from the current TV will be a nice gain in the living room.
One thing you may want to watch out for is screen burn-in and high power drain, Two things. Two things you may want to watch out for…
I have heard that still images will burn in to some plasma screens after a couple of years. I have also heard that plasme screens draw a LOT of power. Might be something to check for…
The best picture I’ve seen in HD sets around the USD 2500 mark isn’t plasma, it’s the DLP rear-projectors from Samsung. And they are not too deep either. But if you want to free up floor space, by all means go for the wall-mounted screen…
LCD. Cheap for flat screen. Bad for viewing at an angle.
Plasma. Expensive. Good for viewing at an angle.
CRT. Still the best for picture quality. Not flat though.
Those things break down a lot and have to be sent away for repair, assuming the warranty is still valid. Just replacing the bulb costs, what, $200 or $300, or so I’ve been told. And unless the room is pitch black, the picture is not that great. And you cannot use the wall for anything else.
I use both a projector (an In Focus) and a plasma (I think it’s a Visio (?) all the time and the projector has no comparison to the TV. I don’t know why people get those if all they plan to use it for is as a TV. Just my own opinion, obviously.
I recommend browsing through the threads on theAV Science Forums. It’s an excellent source of audio/video information although the shear depth and breadth of material can be a little overwhelming.
Personally, I’ve been waiting for LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) technology, supposedly rumoured to show up sometime mid-2005.
Plasma displays don’t generate a lot of light, compared to an LCD’s backlight, so they may not work well in brightly-lit areas. However, they do generally provide better shadow detail than LCDs. They also have an odd characteristic of squealing at high altitudes, so if you’re in, say, Denver, you might not find too many offered for sale.
LCDs tend to have better highlight detail, but suffer in their inability to go truly black, thanks to the backlight.
If you can afford it, get a display that’s at least HD-ready. ED is pretty much meaningless and in a year or two, you’ll regret it when your cable company sets you up with a new cable box and it won’t work with the TV.
Not IME. I’ve got a Panasonic PW6 and it’s fine in a brightly lit room.
I’ve got a really small living room, so my choice was a small CRT TV in the corner, a smallish LCD, or a plasma. I bought a 42" plasma. It’s gorgeous. Since I hadn’t had a TV for 10 years I lacked all the ‘bits’, so I ended up spending a shade over £2000 - call it US$4000. But 3 months on, I’m still in ‘new toy’ mode.
I love my DLP projector. Do you use a projector for presentations? If so, you probably have one geared toward that. Mine is geared for home entertainment. The picture quality is awesome. In fairness, the quality isn’t quite as good as a plasma TV, but the thing cost about 1/3 as much as one and offers about three times the viewing size.
I think our bulbs are closer to $400 and you’re right that the wall is tied up. Then again, the wall the screen is on was already tied up because the CRT TV took up so much room, so for me it wasn’t a big deal.
Oh, and I second the AVS Forums. When we were researching our projector, they provided a wealth of information.
The projector is an In Focus but I only use it for watching movies or TV. (It’s not mine; it’s a close friend’s.) It could be that he bought one that is more for presentations but he doesn’t use it for that and is extremely electronics-savvy.
You can definitely get a much bigger picture area with a projector than you could with a plasma (for the same amount of money, I mean). For me, the bulb cost, the repairs, and the fact that the room has to be dark don’t work. I rarely watch TV/movies as my sole activity - I’m always doing something else - so having to keep the room dark would be a minus point for me.
LCD rear projection is worth looking at for some of the same reasons as DLP. We have a 44" that is only 14" deep that cost $1900. A plasma screen in that price range would have the much lower EDTV resolution.
I’m getting very interested in Toshiba’s DLP projector myself. The smalles one will just fit into my entertainment center. Two grand is still too much for me, though. I’m hoping to find a refurb someplace.
Go to your local Walmart and get the 42" flat, hang-on-the-wall-if-ya-want plasma from ILO (Walmart’s own brand, but secretly being manufactured by another larger name-brand company.) $1,995.
I just bought one and it works great…BTW, it was advertised as an EDTV, but like most plasma televisions, it is also HDTV (1080) with the right converter box. Once you get your local cable company (or Dish) connection to HD, and you see the difference, you won’t go back to those tube tvs again.