First Plasma/LCD purchase ever - a few questions..

>04-09-09: Pcking
I understand that Pioneer is getting out of the plasma business and that there may be some bargains out there on their Kuro line.<

Pc, excellent point. I believe they're simply going out of the plasma production and sourcing to Panasonic. They showed a 10G prototype at a show somewhere. The folks over at the AVS are all over this stuff.

I just got of the phone with a friend who was shopping for the 50" Kuro (not the Elite) and he noticed that prices fell to $1800 two weeks ago here in the San Francisco Bay Area. A week later he pulled it together to get one and they had sold out. A week later he could only find them for $2500. Two days latter he found a used Elite on Craig's List for $2500.

Costco has a panasonic 46 inch 1080p plasma for about 989dollars--if you use the amex -costco credit card you get an additional year warranty above the 2yrs you get with them plus a 90 day return policy--hard to beat so I just bought one also have a 50inch plasma --vizio monitor that is 2yrs old from them with no problems picture is excellent and no calibration--good luck

Dont buy open box, dont buy warranty and dont buy the BS about calibration, the amount spent doesnt justify it and as long as you like how it looks who cares. Next and last is never NEVER listen to anyone at BestBuy..........too many of them are idiots to gamble with common sense.

>04-09-09: Chadnliz
Dont buy open box, dont buy warranty and dont buy the BS about calibration, the amount spent doesnt justify it and as long as you like how it looks who cares.<

In a showroom environment the brightest picture equates the best choice to the average consumer which is why most LCD's are shipped with the Kelvin or brightness set very high if not all the way up. Leaving the display set at this high level greatly shortens the life span of the display.

Lowering the Kelvin doesn't necessarily require professional adjustment. Accessing the diagnostic menu and adjusting all the parameters to their optimum using the appropriate software does. The custom settings can also be correctly set for day or night time viewing. As I mentioned above my LCD's benefited greatly from calibration with much better shadow detail, color rendition, and less fatiguing brightness, just to name a few.

Any adjustment should be done after a few months of use. As 55dok mentioned a search at the AVS forum may provide you with basic settings that could also greatly improve a displays picture quality over the factory settings.

"Rockadanny":

Do you have any specialty audio/video dealers in your area???

If so, why don't you pay a visit to one of them and get a second opinion.

Surely, I have nothing against Best Buy, as it is one of my favorite stores. I would buy a lot of things out of Best Buy. But rest assure you, a TV will not be one of them. And I may have to slightly disagree with "Chadnliz" as far as a warranty is concerned. Being that Plasma and LCD Television are relatively new technologies, I may be inclined to buy a warranty as well (for your piece of mind if for nothing else..... that way if you have any issues with your expensive set during the warranty period long after your one year manufacturer's warranty expires, you'll be covered as well).

And lastly, like others have stated, don't buy none of that bullshit that Best Buy may feed you in reference of calibration. The calibration of your TV set is something you can do on your own. You can get an Aria Digital TV Calibration Disc for less than $40.00 and do the calibration yourself. Just put the disc in your DVD Player and follow the instructions as you go along.

To start out on getting your first Plasma set, you can get a 720p Panasonic Plasma for as little as $900.00. If you get it from a specialty dealer, they'll cut you a deal that will compete with anything you'll get from Best Buy. If you bargain hard enough, a specialty dealer will take about $100.00 off of the price of the set if you opt for other things like installation and delivery. Including an extended warranty (if your choose to go with one) and taxes, a high-end dealer in my area will sell you Panasonic TC--P42X1 for about $1,300.00 (delivered, installed and with an extended warranty). I am thinking about getting one for my bedroom (I have a 2007 Panasonic TH-42PZ77U 1080p 42" Plasma Set in my living room.... and it was about $1,500.00 for the set only back in 2007 and about $1,900.00 delivered and installed).

Good Luck and Happy Shopping.

Let us know what you end up with.

--Charles--