I am planning to buy a new TV and a home theater system. As for the TV, I have decided to go in for a flat panel. Beyond that I am confused.
My budget is between 900 and 1100 dollars for the TV. While I would like to keep the cost as low as possble I am not averse to spending more if the benefit justifies the price.
1.Should I go for a plasma or LCD. I have also been looking at the LEDs which are quite expensive for the same screen size. Are the LEDs really that much better than the LCD or Plasma? Because of cost, I think I will have to choose between LCD and Plasma.
2.Until now I was under the impression that LCD is better than Plasma. Browsing thro some of the info off the internet though, I am not entirely convinced now. It seems that the colours are better on Plasma. LCD is better if the TV is in higher ambient lighting. Plasmas suffer from reflection but they have improved with matte finish of screens. Which one should I go for? Plasma seems to be cheaper for the same screen size.
Thanks.
3.Which brands are good? Are the new cheap ones like Insignia and Vizio reliable enough, or is it too soon to tell?
4.I love 3D. In light of that, does it make adequate sense to spend more and get a “3D ready” TV? From what I have gathered, the standard for 3D for TV has not been finalized. There are more than one technologies in the running. Do these “3D ready” TVs provide for the upgrade to whatever technology is ultimately accepted as the industry standard or can I find myself not being able to watch 3D eventually because my TV did not end up being with the industry standard? Neither would I like to be stuck with a 2D TV when a year or two from now, most are happily watching 3D in their homes.
Now about the home theater system.
1.I have budgeted somewhere around 400 dollars for this.
2.There are a few systems that have only a ‘sound bar’ and a sub woofer, but provide surround sound effects. Does anyone have experience with these? They will definitely lessen the clutter and set up efforts compared to a true 5.1 channel system.
3.I do not plan to listen to music, and would prefer a sytem which is more geared towards movie effects.
I’m not good with TV recommendations. However, on the home theater front, I have some suggestions:
$400 will get you a decent receiver and no speakers.
Steer clear of “home theater in a box” packages. Once in a blue moon will they be anything close to decent a year down the line, and they are universally impossible to upgrade.
If you absolutely don’t want to deal with speaker wire, get a soundbar. But they just don’t compare to the surround on a 5.1 setup.
3D is going to cost you extra on the receiver as well, so plan accordingly. Personally, I think the fad will pass (or at the least, another few formats are going to come down the pipe, requiring new hardware each passthrough).
I have an Onkyo SR606 that’s several years old, and I love it. When I get some money, my next upgrade will be speakers. The only downside is it only has 2 HDMI inputs, but I can live with that. If needed, I can get a switch.
A few days ago I installed a 47-inch LCD flat screen behind our wet bar. Did a lot of research before making the purchase.
Very generally speaking, a plasma TV will have a “better” (i.e. more videophile) picture than an LCD TV. So why didn’t I go with a plasma? Because their screens tend to be *very *shiny. If there is any light source in the room, whether it is a window or lamp, you will see it on the screen and it will drive you nuts. Since my bar room is well lit, I scratched plasmas off the list.
I then had to determine what kind of LCD TV to get. Since I wanted to hang the TV on a wall, I wanted it to be thin (i.e. shallow depth). This meant I had to go with a TV that is backlit with LEDs (as opposed to fluorescent lights). There are two kinds of LED TVs: edge lit and full array. The full array ones are newer and “better,” but also more expensive and a bit rarer. And most are *not *thin. So I ended up going with an edge lit LED TV (LG 47LE5500). You also want to pay attention to response time (the lower the time, the better) and whether it has a glossy or matte screen. (Like plasma sets, some LCD TVs have glossy/reflective screens, which is something I definitely did not want.)
If you don’t care about the depth of the TV, then you have many more options.
Since I am looking for advice and opinions, I guess I should have posted it in IMHO. Request Mods to move it.
It is not that I do not want to deal with speakers. Connecting the subwoofer, center and front speakers is not a problem. It is only the rear speakers that are an issue. I am not sure how I can run wires to them and still manage to hide them on both sides. I have seen some systems with wireless rear speakers. Perhaps that might be a viable option. But I guess that will add to the cost.
What would you need more than two HDMI inputs for? Are you using the receiver to receive the TV signal as well? I am sorry I do not have experience with receiver systems.
I can understand. But I wonder how bad it really is. I mean plasmas may not be as popular as LCDs but they do sell in quite large numbers. I guess those who use them manage to place the TVs so that reflection is avoided.
Does a matte screen have this problem just as much?
I think that’s a tech that is really going to start becoming more popular (and less expensive). Sorry, but I don’t have any experience with that, but it sounds like a great idea.
Seems like everything runs via HDMI these days. I just have two sources - my cable box* and my PS3. But if I wanted to get an Apple TV, Xbox, dedicated bluray player, HTPC or something else, I’d need to get a switch. Something as simple as this would do the trick, especially with a universal remote. But anything new these days is going to have oodles of inputs for everything you could possibly want, even in the lower entry level models**.
*I actually just send my cable straight to my TV via composite cable, and run an optical audio to the receiver for the times I want to take advantage of my surround. I don’t want to run the receiver for just mindless TV watching.
**“Entry level” being “still in the AV category”. You can still find receivers out there that just do audio, and that’s not what you want for your setup.
Back when I was looking at TVs, the plasmas were quite the energy hog, needing several hundred watts. Don’t know if they have improved them lately.
A LCD TV with LED backlight tends to be very energy efficient.
Plasmas have a naturally good black level (i.e. blacks are truly blacks, not dark grey). LCDs do not have as good a black level. With LED backlight the black levels are better. Array LED (rather than edge lit) can approach (maybe even equal?) plasma.
My old Onkyo receiver is short of HD inputs, so I have to run some video directly into my TV and some into the receiver, but all the audio through the receiver for the home theater audio. It works but it’s… messy.
You may want HD inputs for: dish/cable box, over-the-air antenna/decoder box, DVD player, game box (if you have kids or a a gamer, maybe 2 or 3 game boxes), DVR/TIVO. Even though I rarely get TV signal through my antenna, if the cable goes out for a while I can still get local TV with a couple of push buttons. I don’t want to have to rewire things to do it.
Impossible to upgrade? I don’t follow. I have an Onkyo home speaker system bought at Best Buy a number of years ago, and all the parts are standard and interchangeable. The speakers connect with ordinary speaker wire.
FWIW, my speakers sound very good to my ears. They’re definitely not the best I’ve ever heard, but you get what you pay for. Anything is better than the sound from a TV’s speakers.
I’m in the same situation, although it actually forced me to get creative with the inputs and outputs, and I keep finding ways to cram together more stuff. I have a ridiculous number of devices hooked up. Somehow, I managed to squeeze an Xbox, HTPC, Wii, PS2, Cable box, Dreamcast, and 1/8" (for ipods) into one setup.
I have no doubt you will find a decent TV in your price range. I saw a 42" Vizio for around $550 today at Costco. They are good, I am using a 23" Vizio as a computer monitor. You didn’t indicate what size you will need.
$400 for the audio is going to be a bit thin. If you don’t need a huge TV (bigger than 46") then I think you may want to budget less for the TV and more on the audio, probably getting a 5.1 receiver and running only a 3.1 speaker system (doing without the rear speakers for now). You can add the rears if and when a wireless solution that meets your needs is available.
Now, to get into real IMHO territory, I 'll add that my comments are based as someone who usually uses his system for music and not movies. I’m certain that people who know more than I do will add their comments, but in my experience I have found that simply having more volume through good loudspeakers adds enough to the movie watching experience to satisfy me. And here is the reason why - perfect placement of surround speakers is often impossible for a variety of reasons, and then the sheer number of possible combinations of settings (individual speaker volumes, delay settings, etc.) meant that you spent more time trying to tweak the audio settings than it was worth. For me, just turning up the volume on some Ohm 2XOs speakers was enough to make me happy.
On the other hand, I’d guess that the set up of modern systems might be be easier these days.
And that brings me to content. The few times I’ve watched movies with a really good AV set up, I was actually just more annoyed with the audio effects. The sound editors seemed to think that LOUD + BIG SUBWOOFER effects = good sound. Didn’t work for me - I am happy watching movies in plain jane stereo with decent speakers. Hearing sound effects behind me really doesn’t add much to the experience for me.
That is certainly more of a subjective call on your point - and you have made it clear the listening to music is not a concern for you. I just advise to try a few different set ups to see what you think is acceptable to you, and then to spend less on the TV and more on the audio equipment (on whatever type of
system you think is best for you). I don’t think you will regret that.
After reading my post, I may have just summarized like this: A higher quality 2 or 3 speaker stereo system may end up being a better choice than a cheaper 5.1 or sound bar system.
Many HTIB systems don’t have a separate receiver - the speaker outputs come out of the DVD/bluray player. They also don’t have any inputs for other sources you may want to connect to it, or outputs to go to an actual receiver. So when the time comes to upgrade, you have to now buy a new DVD/bluray player. There are even some systems that have the speakers hardwired into the DVD player, so that you even have to replace the speakers (or just cut the wires and rewire).
Onkyo did a good job by putting their regular receiver (I think this started with the SR505 or 605) into their HTIB packages, I bet that’s what you have. (The model number was different in the HTIB, but it’s the same piece of equipment.) Unfortunately, they were at the time one of the few exceptions to the rule.
I’d agree with that. A good quality 2.1 setup would greatly enhance your experience.
I’ve never seen or even heard of a DVD player with hardwired speakers. As for a “separate receiver” are you talking about separate from a power amplifier, or separate from a tuner, or separate from some kind of switching component?
Most “theater on a box” packages contain one major component which contains all the inputs from source machines, the speaker amp, all the outlets to speakers, and usually an FM stereo tuner. I have seen a few with TV tuners, though those are pretty rare. It’s quite unusual for a system to have a separate power amplifiers, and somewhat less unsual to have a built in DVD player.
The only systems I’ve seen with hardwired speakers are either really really cheap ones, or some shelftop units made to be as small as possible.
Here’s what you should be looking for IMO. At minimum your receiver should have more digital AV (DVI or HDMI or fiber optic) inputs than I need right now, 6 speaker outputs (front left, right and center, plus 2 rear surrounds, plus subwoofer), built in decoding for Dolby 5.1 Surround and DTS (I think DTS is better than Dolby, but that’s just me), plus and FM tuner, headphone jack, additional inputs for a CD player and maybe turntable if it’s going to double as your home stereo system.
Some nice extras to have – another pair or two of stereo speaker connections if you want music in other rooms, a graphic equalizer for adjusting the tone to your preferences, and a “night” sound setting. This basically compresses the dynamic range of the audio – it’s really made for your neighbors or guests who aren’t in the room, so you don’t have to keep the volume high to hear quiet stuff and suddenly get blasted by the sound of gunfire or something. And you want to be able to adjust all the speaker volumes separately for a preferred seating position in the room. And some systems will allow to to adjust the time delay between front and rear speakers to enhance the surround effect.
I would not get a receiver with a built in DVD player, which is the most likely item to break down. I wouldn’t care about a separate power amp.
TVs can be very cheep if you shop around a bit. I bought a 55" Toshiba LED earlier this year on Amazon and had it delivered for $1200. With the ability to get nice TVs that cheep I wouldn’t go off of name brand and would simply wait for sales online.
As far as the home theater system I’m using my computer for my system and have the Logitec Z5500 system for my surround sound system. So far it’s working pretty well although I am going to upgrade my sound card and get a blueray drive for Christmas. Look at the size of the room you are putting you system in the smaller it is the easier it will be to get away with a less expensive system. My TV room is only 8’ x 10’ and I have trouble picking out my rear speakers unless the volume is very low.
Here’s Best Buy’s HTIB page. The first default listing is this Samsung model. It has no receiver - all sound output goes straight from the bluray player to the speakers. It doesn’t have any video inputs, but does have one optical audio input and an analog sound input. That is usually the default in a HTIB. A customer who’s not all that accustomed to this stuff is going to see it and think “hey - one less big black box to ugly up the entertainment center!” and not realize what they’re missing.
We got a Sony five-disk changer and surround sound system for our wedding eight years ago - we have yet to have a problem with it, and the sound is still phenomenal. We’ll probably be going with Sony when we buy a new tv and a blu-ray player.
We also have an LG DVR, and it’s a piece of shit. It refuses to record more shows than it will record - it’s apparently extremely sensitive to stations sending out “Do Not Record” signals.
Yes. It is LED technology (specifically “local dimming”) that allows LCDs to approach the excellent black levels of plasma, but such sets are expensive, as you say. Plasmas are cheaper and generally PQ is better, but they’re heavier, use more power, possibly susceptible to burn-in (though only in exceptional cases) and don’t come smaller than 42" or so.
I realized this morning that while listing off a bunch of stuff that you should avoid is helpful to an extent, it’s not all that concrete. It basically limits a list of 10,000 options down to an equally unmanageable list of 3,000.
Going through today’s Best Buy ad, we find this basic AV receiver. It’s $180, has 3 HDMI inputs (including 3D passthrough*), and all the audio codecs you could want. It’s missing some features you’ll find elsewhere (video upconversion being the main one, as well as things like ipod and satellite radio connectivity). It does have something called “Rocketboost” which seems to be wireless audio - which would be great for connecting those surround receivers without having to run speaker cable all over the place.
In my opinion, this is a pretty low-end receiver, but it meets all your needs and will really improve the sound of your system greatly. For $180, the price is great, as you’ll be able to spend $120 on speakers. That’s not a ton, but it’s a really good start. And it certainly gives you an idea of what to look for.
However - here’s what I would do. For $180, I can find a receiver worth three times that on craigslist. Going into the electronics section and doing a search for “receiver” turns up a bunch of stuff in my area. If you want some help digging through, send me a PM, I’m happy to help.