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An audiophile who know NOTHING about TV

Well, I've been thinking of buying a new TV and holy crap, is this one confusing subject! First, what technology should I get: Plasma, DLP, LCD, etc. 16:9, 1080. I don't know what any of this stuff means. The funny thing is that i'm scanning consumer reports and others like it to see what is the "best" LOL. I don't think I found my SME 30 or Aesthetix IO there! I would be aghast at anyone who told me they were buying a high end piece of audio equipment like that, but here I was doing the same thing. Looking to see which had the best specs. I stopped by a best buy today and actually found someone who seemed to know what he was talking about. He asked the right questions (from what I read): What do you watch, how far do you sit, etc. I answered his questions. Not interested in surround sound at all. Mostly watch broadcast TV and lots of sports (I use dish network as my source), sit about 10 feet from the screen (need to measure, i'm just guessing), watch an occasional DVD.

So, we're moving along and he seemd to be steering me towards DLP (Samsung) but there was a Pioneer Plasma that looked great. Then he mentions that "regular" TV broadcasts look terrible!!?? You won't be able to use the whole screen? What the hell, I can't have that. Isn't most TV non High-Def? Why would you buy Plasma/DLP if this is the case? I know we are headed to high-def, but unless i'm missing something I would think I should wait before I buy. I guess I can go RP CRT but isn't that "old" technology? That's funny, coming from a guy who listens to records and has an all tube-based system LOL.

I just want the best picture and biggest picture that makes sense in my room.

Oh, the room has a lot of natural light during the day, but most watching is done at night.
cte500
maineiac
649 posts
 
You are right, it is a daunting task. I am lucky to have a couple of co-workers who are really experienced with this stuff and they have helped a good deal. You should check out the www.avsforum.com, there you will find lots of similar threads that should be quite informative. I have on order a 50" plasma so my advice is based on what led me to that decision and not any direct experience yet. To me, and of course, this is subjective, the plasmas offered the best picture in both HD and SD for that size. The LCDs are also very nice but right now a 45" (which for me would have been a minimum size and I am about 10" back as well) is VERY expensive. I spent quite a bit of time, pacing off viewing distances and looking at 42 vs 50". I looked at where I would mount the thing and measured off what it would look like. I looked at them with HD, SD, and DVD as sources.

I need to have some good off axis capability and the rear projections fell off pretty fast when getting to the side but plasma holds up very well. I want HD for sports and there should be pretty decent coverage for that between local channels and sat, and HD will surely increase dramatically over the next couple of years. Finally, I don't have the luxury of a dedicated theater room so my family room has to serve the dual purpose, a plasma also made a lot of sense for the use of the space.

I spent a lot of time reading, visiting showrooms, talking to different people before I could make up my mind.

Finally, there was an editorial in the latest sound and vision about how different buying a TV is today versus when he went with his dad years ago.
dsremer
210 posts
 
Actually RP CRT is still the best picture, deepest blacks least shadowing and the least expensive way to experence HDTV. Many new HDTV"s regardless of format(dlp,plasma,lcd, lcos) have built in digital tuners for over the air digital Standard and High Def programing. Many sports are now broadcast in HD (NFL playoff look great in widescreen HD) even standard digital,which will not fill up a widescreen display(16x9)looks better than full screen analoge on a large screen so choose the display which best fits your room and budget(bigger is better) and enjoy...
rrekstad
45 posts
 


Reasons to upgrade now:

More and more sports are coming available in High-def, and it is unbelievable the difference in the viewing experience. If you watch DVD movies, You aren't really taking advantage of the "new" format unless you have a widescreen tv that at least displays in 480p (the DVD standard). You can use the whole screen on wide screen tv's for standard broadcasts in one of various "stretch modes" built into the tv's. Certain tv's do this better than others, and should factor into your decision making process. I have a 57" Sony High Def RP CRT and am very pleased. "old" CRT technology has come a long way, and what it concedes to all-digital displays like plasma in resolution, it makes up for in other important areas (to me) like accurate colors and better black levels. Plus it costs a fraction of what a plasma costs at this point. Down the road, plasma and DLP prices will drop and their weak points will improve. Until then, my decision was to get a bargain CRT display that allows me to enjoy the "little" bit of HD available, as well as Outstanding DVD experience.

Good Luck
mrfastguy250aol
65 posts
 
This all really depends on your budget and if you want to do light control in your room.
By far the best quality and bang for your proverbial "buck"
would be a CRT based projector, however most dealers shy away from them as they are a touch harder to set up than other types of projectors, i really dont like RPTV's as they are way too room intrusive, but if thats not your case then they have a great picture. I prefer these methods simply because they use lines of resolution rather than pixelation which personally i do not like, altho it is more behaved in hi def formats.
If youre watching mostly regular TV broadcasts you may want 4:3 aspect ratio but as you probably see in stores and forums most everything now is 16:9 which i personally prefer.
Feel free to ask me any more questions you may have and good luck!
brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
You described me a month or so ago. After a trip or two my head was spinning, even after the purchase; I learned as much after as before.

Regular (SD) TV is broadcast in 4:3 aspect ratio, newer HD TV's have 16:9 aspect ratio screens, but will play in 4:3 if you don't have HD or (rather) that is the signal it is sent. If you have no plans of using HD any time soon take this into account because your big screen TV, say 52", will not be 52" in non-HD, more like 40"ish, there is a calculation but I do not remember.

The future is HD but you have to decide that. You could pick up a tube based TV "relatively" cheap and have a great picture, for SD.

I purchased a DLP TV (Mitsubishi WD-52725), one my salesman highly recommended. Some of the new TV types, like plasma, have "burn-in" issues when watching in 4:3 mode for extended periods, DLP does not.

Once I had a big TV it didn't take me long to want to experience it all, so this led to further expense of a HD (DishNetwork) receiver and a antenna for local HD channels. Watching TV in HD is quite an experience! Like you I am not much into video, but I do enjoy HD and look forward to more channels.

Remember this, a bigger screen will show the imperfections that you don't notice on the smaller screens you are used to. Tube TV's are still king as far as picture quality but you are limited on size (and quality), these TV's are going by the wayside being replaced with the newer technologies. Furthermore, quality tube TV's are getting rare.

Either buy with HD in mind or purchase a good tube TV for the time being.
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