are they good? how many different kinds(lcd, hdtv) are there?
and most importantly
Where can i find one for low $$$???
thanks in advance
Yes they are wonderful. My wife and I purchased a large plasma flat screen several months ago on a raincheck from Best Buy. Seriously, we wait for the best sales there and then a few hours before the store closes on the last day of the sale we get a raincheck for the T.V.'s that are out of stock. I do not know your budget, but ours is a 32" I believe Panasonic Plasma…we paid $3900 for it…
I have never seen better quality in a T.V. There are several respected brands who market their HDTV, LCD etc…etc… t.v.'s I think Panasonic, Sony, and one other are the leaders.
Best Buy was perfect for us…
There’s almost certainly one in my future. We don’t have Best Buy out here in the hustings but the local Circuit City (only 20 minutes away!) has several lines in stock. I’m too damn cheap to spend that much so I’ve been watching them and watching the prices drop as they get more market penetration.
I figure around Christmas I should be able to get a good sized one for $1000-$1500.
But if the Cubs make the series I’m moving early. I’m helpless there.
I assume you mean flat panel and not flat screen?
Flat panel are the nice ones. The cool thing about them is that they are so light.
I have a flat panel LCD. It’s very nice.
I go to conventions sometimes for work.
In our booth we had a extremly top of the line 60 inch plasma screen.
After three days of seeing that tv, my tv at home as practically unwatchable. It was painfully blurry. It took a few days to re-adjust.
Alas I won’t be getting one anytime soon.
I’ve formed (but not yet acted) on a couple of things, based on watching the industry:
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Plasma has a reputation for having a lifespan. This may not be a problem if it’s more than you tend to watch TV.
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I’m expecting there to be a HUGE upset in TV pricing in the next 18-24 months. Intel is gettin’ into TV production with a heretofore unseen technology. Their ability to ramp up production is non-trivial.
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I just flat (pun) LOVE the DLP based products I’ve seen. The 50 inch Samsung just fits the hole our current TV takes up…if only it weren’t taking it’s damn-fool time in dying.
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DLP televisions have, like, 5 discreet parts. (Color wheel on a motor, cooling fans, light source, ‘The Chip’, and the Cabinet.) They’re NOT hard to produce, and I expect they can be extremely competitive in a market where their price is half (or less) of what they’re going for now. (the 50 incher was $3400 at Soundtrack, but the 60 was $3200 at Costco. Make your own conclusions)
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OLED looks to be a SERIOUS killer technology once they figure out how to keep them from getting dim too soon. They’re produced using, essentially, an ink-jet printer like technology. That wall sized, flexible, screen migh cost about $100 in the future.
I just bought a Sony Wega 42 inch flat panel dealy a couple of months ago. Got a deal on it as it was priced wrong in the store. 
Anyway, I absolutely love it. It’s enormous! And it’s really light - two people can carry it. The picture is stunning. I got it for $2,599 (was supposed to be $2,799). And although I probably shouldn’t have spent that much on a TV, I’m really impressed with it, and I don’t regret it yet!
By the time the Cubs make the next series, flat screens will cost about $34.00.
I wish I could remember the cite, but somewhere I read that flat screens are coming down in price by about 25% per year, and as mentioned, there are a few new innovations coming down the pipes that will make them easier and cheaper to produce. And I have also read that the current plasma versions do have a limited lifespan and pixels burn out leaving odd little dark spots in the screen.
That said, I wish I had the money to go out and snap one up tomorrow. But then I remember paying about $500 for my first VCR (and blank tapes cost $20 then)…and I figure I have waited this long, I can wait a few more years.
(BTW Jonathan Chance, I hope the Cubbies do get back in the series…that was quite a rush last year!)
What’s the difference between LCD and Plasma display? I have heard that Plasma has a problem with high altitude (that’s an issue for us). Does LCD also have altitude issues?
I’m guessing that plasma will have a better display than LCD but I wonder if it is worth it.
I think I might have answered some of my own questions. But nothing about altitude yet.
enipla - go ahead and purchase the plasma or LCD for your high altitude home. There will not be a problem…unless of course you keep your home below 45 degrees fahrenheit. I do not know what altitude you are at, my brother’s house in Payson, AZ 6700 ft above sea level - he has no problem what so ever.
phlosphr -
We are at 11,200’. I don’t know where I heard it but I seem to remember that something over 9,000 feet can be a problem. Our LCD’s at work (9600’) seem fine though.
I’ll keep looking, it will be a year or so before we buy.
From your second link:
How is this reconciled with comments from people like Philosphr, who said, “I have never seen better quality in a T.V.”?
Good question. My wife and I spent hours in Best Buy, Circuit City and even walmart hoping for someone with half a wit about LCD, Plasma, HDTV systems to give us some straight answers. It wasn’t until we went and saw the guys at Bang Olufsen did we get the straight answers on plasma screens.
Essentially, I wanted a picture to look the same when I was sitting eye level with the TV and when I stood up, or when I walked away, stood to the side etc…etc…
[ever see a flat screen that looked wonderful until you moved up or down or to the side?..thats what I didn’t want]
After the talk with the Bang Olufsen group, I was reasonably confident when went shopping for the unit we ended up with. To us, it was worth the extra cash to have a TV with such capabilities, i.e. real-to-life images. It is very interesting the little details one picks up when watching programs and movies on a plasma hdtv, there are alot of hidden details in the pics…
See here for bang olufsen definitions of good quality hdtv’s and plasma screens.
Actually, at higher altitudes plasma displays make a faint buzzing noise. (LCD displays do not do this) I live at about 6500 feet and I can definitely hear the buzzing when I go to any of the local electronics stores. It’s not very loud, but I’m sure it would be enough to drive me insane after a while.
I’m seconding the DLP.
MUCH longer lifespan, and if the bulb burns out, you can get a new one for about $80. Better than a brand new TV when your plasma cells go dark.
That may not have anything to do with altitude. In reference to this and the perceived quality opintions above I’d like to note:
When you’re in a store looking at TV’s for comparison, it’s a pretty loaded deck. Picture quality is questionable (but better, now that they’re splitting a digital rather than analog signal), these TVs are not seeing a normal duty cycle, and they’re being fondled by hundereds of quasi-educated people.
I had a saleskid tell me the current DLP tvs had a higher quality picture than next year’s DLP TVs as the new ones are going to a smaller chip. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it they had the same number of pixels, and that as long as the optics were up to snuff, you wouldn’t be able to see a difference attributable to the DLP chip getting smaller. (BTW, this is pretty interesting: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tv-buying-guide.htm, especially http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tv-buying-guide7.htm )
Between uneducated salesdroids trying to make quota, TV’s adjusted so that a certain brand looks better, and the ‘AM radio effect’* - it’s a miracle anybody picks a good TV out of a lineup. The reality is: Any brand new TV out of the box, in your home, will look better than what you saw at the MegaLoMart.
I won’t even get STARTED on Super Pure Wonder Power bars and Ultra Low Noise Wongle Monster Cable…
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- when you’re driving in the middle of nowhere, and there’s nothing on the radio but staticky twangy country - even IT sounds better than nothing.