Help with a new TV.


Hi everbody,
The girlfriend and I close on our new and smaller condo the 15th of this month. Because it's smaller it has been decided that a wall-mountable, flat panel tv is going to be necessary to make the living room livable. Needless to say, I am all for this, and after a fair amount of research have decided on the following set, keeping in mind our budget is $2500 plus installation. The set in question is the Sharp Aquos 32" LCD HDTV. The picture quality and sound are both excellent, it is fully equipped with all the necessary ins and outs, and seems to have a very good rep for reliability. Sharp says the estimated lifespan is 60,000 hours, at a very high 5 hours per day that means it would last almost 33 years, more than sufficient. Given our budget are we making a wise choice, please keeping in mind we have space constraints that preclude and DLP set. Any alternate ideas would be very much appreciated as would support for the Sharp. Thanks.
128x128jond
Given your budget, placement and aesthetic constraints, a small LCD sounds like it fits your needs. If it is your opinion that the picture is excellent, that it has the necessary ins and outs, and your significant other likes it, then all systems are go for the Sharp. I would add two caveats. First, LCD's are not as good when viewing off angle. When you look at the store's model, adjust your viewing position so that it is similar to the position you will be in at home, especially if it's off-axis. See if you still think the picture is good enough for you. That usually turns me off of most LCD's right away. Second, I would repeat Swampwalkers's point. Observe the TV with motion to see if the motion artifacts are distracting. A tennis match is a good test. If the ball looks like a comet, although novel, it gets old really fast. For little LCD's, I am rather partial to Sony. They make a 26 inch widescreen LCD which should be around the same price point as the Sharp. It's a bit smaller, and Sony tend to charge a premium for their products, but it's pretty good. I was in a store which had three small LCD's. One was a Sharp, although not the model you mention, and one was a Sony. I forget the third one. The credits at the end of a film were rolling by on all three at once. Although none had the reproduction of continuous motion that you would get from a CRT, the Sony was head and shoulders above the others. Of course it cost more, but you could see what you were getting for the extra money.
FWIW, i was at soundtrack audio checking out the 42 inch version of the EDTV plasma, and it was right next to the HDTV plasma.
Standing 8 feet back watching a high def singnal, i couldnt tell a difference.
in fact, i couldnt tell a difference unless i was 2 feet away really looking for it.
edtv looks just as good as HDTV in my view.
i heared it was very similar but i diddnt believe it untill i saw the panny HD and ED side by side. After seeing them together i cannot juistify the price of the HDTV model.

Too bad on your experience with pannys, everything ive bought from em was a good deal and lasted me damn near forever.
Just rememver, when it comes to plasma, Panasonic is on thier 7th or 8th generation models, so far they are leaps ahead of other similar priced models.
Slappy's right about the resolution issue. At a smaller screen size, there is very little difference in resolution btwn ED and HD; you need to be within about 6 or 7' to see it on most sets. And Markphd is correct on the off-axis viewing. The LCDs have nowhere near the off-axis brightness as the plasmas. Not to try and make your life more difficult.
And according to Fujitsu, plasma has less chances of burn in than LCD. Contrary to popular belief, LCD also has burn in issue. If you "tweak" your plasma using Fujitsu's trick, you can minimize burn in on plasma.

AVS Forum has tons of info, but best gauge is your own eyes (like your own ears for stereo).