Sony for reliability and LED for the light source because it will save a lot in electricity over time and presumably the lamp will not burn out.
I checked on this and what I found was (roughly):
Plasma: 300 watt
LCD: 110 watt
LED: 100 watt
So, an LED or LCD would save about 66% of the electric bill, but between LCD and LED, we’re barely talking 10%. If the additional electricity used by the tv is say $30/month, then you would save $20/month and pay $10 with LCD vs plasma. However, on the same bill compared to LED, you would only save $1. Therefore, it would take something like 17 years make up the electrical savings on the $200 price difference between LCD and LED for the same screen size.
I get free HD channels, but I had digital service already. That costs more than basic.
If you are watching sports, consider a DLP. They are faster than Plasma, LED, and LCD. In other words, all motion is clearer. And the image quality does not degrade over time. This is not an old fashioned blurry projection TV. The DLP is a chip with about 1 million mirrors on it that produce the image, at a much higher refresh rate than the other technologies.
There is a downside. I don’t know how much power WonderBoy (my 67" Samsung) consumes, but I don’t care. However, I’ve had to replace the bulb twice, and one of the fans. The color wheel can break, along with other parts. If you break a magnification mirror your TV becomes junk. If the DLP chip breaks, replacing it may cost more than a new TV. Unlike the other technologies, where a TV working at the end of the warranty is unlikely to stop working anytime soon, you need a service contract for a DLP, or at least be handy with tools.
The other downside, they are not flat. Wonderboy is 16" deep. But he weighs no more than the same sized thin TVs.
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Please read this article about off-brand TVs.
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With cable these days, don’t expect more than local broadcast HD channels ‘for free’. Most HD channels on cable now require that you rent an HD cable box. This is true in many, if not most areas of the country - but is the new business practice and will probably become universal. This is more or less mandated by the channel providers to protect them from piracy, the cable companies can’t control it in most cases.
Just two weeks ago, I finally pulled the trigger on a Samsung 46" 1080p, 120Hz LCD, 150,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio with 4ms response time. It’s mechanically identical to the LN46C650, which is generally going for about $1000-1300 online.
Best Buy has an exclusive Samsung model LN46C670, which as I mentioned is mechanically identical. From the Samsung US site:
The Best Buy site is down for maintenance right now, but I’m pretty sure this deal is still going. I got the C670 for $1000. Oh yeah, they also threw in a Samsung Blu-ray Disc player that’s normally like, $180 I think. I’m not sure what your primary set is, but there’s a good chance that this will replace it.
For me, this was an upgrade from an old 27" JVC CRT, so it was pretty much going to be a “holy shit” transformation either way, but I have to tell you. I’ve been to the stores, looked at the sets, been on the manufacturer sites, read the specs, read the reviews, etc. I did my due diligence and made up my mind several months ago, back when the B650 was the current revision.
Obviously I was not in a hurry to buy. I could not be happier with my purchase. It was a great price without the Blu-ray player. With it, it is a phenominal deal. I can practically guarantee that if you won’t regret spending the thousand bucks, you won’t regret this purchase. I honestly could not recommend it highly enough.
In regards to Best Buy, I will say this. The sales guy threw all the bullshit lines at me for the upsells. We started with the HDMI cable dance. After we established that I could buy a premium HDMI cable at monoprice.com for $7 we reached an unspoken agreement that he was going to pitch every upsale that he was trained (and probably required) to pitch and I was going to decline each one and he was going to say okay. He was actually a cool guy and I didn’t begrudge him doing his job.
Today we went to Best Buy and tried out their 3-D demo. There’s two types: those that can show 3D content and those that convert regular content to 3D. Both stank. If you’ve read about 3D already, you know about the lamberts issue, and it was pretty horrible in the store. They demo’d the 2d version of Avatar (I had seen the 3D in the theaters) and it was nearly unwatchable. Even the model that was showing “real” 3D content was impossibly dark to watch.
So, we cruised through the TV wall, and after comparing a bunch of models, I decided that the most important feature to me was refresh rate. My wife wanted one of two 32" LCD’s for $399, both were 60hz. The cheapest 120hz was over $500. So, I said screw it, and we got a 42" Insignia plasma TV. All I wanted to know was which one had the least amount of blur, and there it was.
I talked to a coworker today, and he has a plasma TV. I was worried about the effect on our electric bill, but he says he watches only 4 hours/day, and it only added $10/month compared to his previous TV.
We skipped on the warranty. At $399, it’s hard to justify even trying to get it repaired if it breaks out of warranty.
3D TV’s a this point are not ready for prime time technology wise and the premium you would pay is wasted. Plasmas actually have slightly deeper blacks than most LCDs which tend toward dark gray vs true blacks. There is an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) TV with true blacks which have the best picture of all at this point but they are crazy expensive.This superior black level difference of plasma is a big deal to some home theatre buffs, but plasma’s high energy consumption (they are true room heaters) would take it off the table for me.
This site is the SDMB of home theatre
I was remiss in my enthusiasm and did not address most of your specific questions in my first post. Also, the word is “phenomenal” fer chrissakes. (Addressed at myself.)
Best Buy is back online and this deal is confirmed.
- My wife wants to get a name brand. Nowadays, what are the good brands for LCD tv’s?
Regardless of brand on the set you buy, the actual LCD panel in your set is likely to be manufactured by:
Samsung
Sony
Sharp
Panasonic
Hitachi
- Plasma TV’s are dirt cheap now, and the sales person said they’re getting cheaper only because new 3-D models are coming out. Is this BS? I suspect this has something to do with the fact that plasma TV’s use 3X as much power as LCD’s.
Plasmas do black way better than LCD sets, but the delta is shrinking. What used to be “good enough” in LCD sets is mostly “pretty damned good” these days. I think the Dynamic Contrast Ratio that are used by LCD set sellers are mostly bullshit, but if they’re all on the same scale of bullshit, it doesn’t bother me. 100,000 - 200,000 DCR probably still doesn’t match plasma, but it’s pretty damned close.
If you own a laser disc player, you may want to consider plasma. Otherwise, Plasma is way heavier and sucks way more electricity from the wall. Pros vs. cons? In my book, LCD all the way. The market seems to agree with me.
- At Best Buy, it’s tough to ignore their house brands, Insignia an Dynex. Are these that much worse than the name brands?
From secondary anecdotal evidence, yes. The LCD panel is the panel. The company that assembles, brands and sells the set builds (or buys) all of the circuit boards and housing that support the panel. I’m not sure what you know about computers, so this analogy may fail, but think of it this way. If you’re buying a high-end $400 CPU, would you put it into a $60 generic motherboard?
- Is this a bad time to buy a TV? We’re not in a huge rush. About two weeks ago, they had a sale where if you spent $700, you got a 2nd TV free. The salesperson advised us to wait for the “crazy” sales.
My previous post answers the question in regards to my opinion. I think it’s a great time to buy. It’s always a subjective opinion.
- If my main goal is to watch sports, what features should I get?
Refresh rate. 60Hz is bog standard. 120Hz is a noticeable difference, and probably indistinguishable by most eyeballs from the 240Hz that the top end sets boast. Basically, this refers to how many times per second the display is re-drawn. Again, my own opinion: 60Hz to 120Hz is significant. 120Hz to 240Hz, not nearly as significant.
- How much of a difference is getting HD cable TV? My cable company will charge ~$26/mo for HD.
Once you get an HD set, you will not want analogue signal. You just won’t. However, you can plug rabbit ears into a new HD set and (location dependant, obviously) get an absolutely perfect signal for free. However, that will not get you Monday Night Football. On the bright side, Sunday Night Football is back on broadcast this year, along with Thursday games on NBC.
- Any other general advice for buying TV’s?
At this point, my opinion may be suspect. What the hell is this guy doing spending all this time writing up all this crap about TVs. What the hell is he selling? What’s in it for him? What’s the angle?
Well, the answer is this. I’ve spent a shitload of time over this purchasing decision. Way, way more time than I’ve spent on even higher value purchase decisions. It’s almost opposite of my usual buying habit which is normally: look good? like? buy!
It’s a fucking rabbit hole and your thread title says it all: “Dazed and confuzed.” I’m trying to help you out of the rabbit hole, dude. I went too deep and I can tell you shit about LCD contrast ratio that even I don’t want to know. Response rate don’t mean shit if you’re not gaming. Even 1080p resolution isn’t that important.
The bottom line is that if you have a grand to spend at Best Buy that you’re prepared to spend on a huge shiny TV (with bonus BD player), this deal will make you happy.
Edit: Crap that was a lot to type, and I did take my time doing it. Anyway, I’m leaving it up for the next guy, just in case he wanders by. Enjoy your new TV, Superhal.
I installed it and the picture is crap. I’m going to try to test DVD’s on it, but I suspect it’s the cable signal that’s the issue.
I see little dots on everything and everybody looks like they have freckles. Any hints on settings for this?
No way, dude. It should be crystal clear. Like, “holy shit, i never saw that on a tee-vee before!” clear. I’m still on free, over-the-air signal, and it’s so perfect, it makes me weep.
I think from past posts you live near me… I live in the evil snobby suburb that begins with a C (and ends in armel). We have Brighthouse, and when we put the 52’ Sony LCD in the basement and just connected the cable directly we had over a dozen HD channels (713, 706, 708, etc.). They don’t advertise this, and even the guys at Best Buy were surprised.
I found the HD channels. 
Yes, it’s freaking awesome…like photograph quality. Not the crappy photographs you take on your phone either, but like magazine quality.
New issues came up, any suggestions welcome:
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Sound quality: channels with crap picture have overly loud audio (sounds loud with volume ~7), while HD channels need the sound cranked up (25-30).
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Bars: Now that I heard about the burn-in issue above, I see black bars everywhere. My tv has settings to take them away, but I have to manually change the zoom or screen ratio to get rid of them. Anything I can do to have the TV automatically detect and remove those bars?
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On the digital channels, I’m seeing some strange resolutions: 480i, 1080i, etc. What do those mean?
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Energy saving modes: I’m assuming that turning this on lowers the refresh rate. Anybody know the range? I think I would be fine with 300hz instead of 600hz, to save electricity.
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Anti-tipping device: is this necessary? It seems like the TV is back heavy, not front-heavy. It would seem to make more sense if this was two-way.
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Source vs Output: I see a few flickers and interference here and there. How can you tell if it’s because of the source or some sort of electric line around the TV?
Okay, it’s too late for the OP, but for anyone else…
In this vein, I have some different advice: buy used from craigslsit. Get something 2-3 years old that cost $3000 when new, and is now going for $500. When I go to my local Craigslist, and search for “HDTV” under the electronics section, the first hit is a eighteen-month-old 42" Samsung 1080i plasma, selilng for “$450 but I’m willing to negotiate.” If this is a typical craigslist person, you could get a TV (with less than 2 years wear and tear) that was originally $1200 for about $350.
Thousands of electronics fanboys are upgrading their two-year-old TVs every day, and you can be the beneficiary.
Not really. Most TV’s will let you set and save a certain setting for each input, but if you’re going from SD to HD channels the bars are going to come up for one or the other every time. You have to either keep switching them back and forth or just learn to live with them.
It’s the input resolution. “i” is interlaced, “p” is forprogressive scan. The number is the vertical resolution, or number of lines of pixels, in the image. A higher number=more lines=sharper detail.
Not sure what you’re talking about here. You mean the stand or something else?
Take any electric devices that are around it, move them closer and see if it does it or not. If you do that with all your devices and nothing happens, it’s the source.
It comes with an attachment and a cable to prevent it from tipping forward, like what you would find with a bookcase.