HDTV question without HD feed

[jim stone]

I just acquired an HD tv. I have been looking into it for a while. The one I got was 19 inches so 720 p was ok. If you got to 37 or larger the p# is more important. I just saw a larger Vizio 37 in 1080 p LCD at walmart. Under $600
http://www.walmart.com/browse/TVs/Al...500.4293423516

If I were getting one for the den, that's the one I be getting. Stay away from plasma. There is a reason why they are getting cheaper. I have heard that they have a significant impact on your electric bill. I do not have HD service but the picture still seems better. I had to get this stuff little at the time.

[88 Bronco]

I wouldn't buy a walmart Vizio. Walmart gets the subpar models for some reason. If you do decide to get a HDTV, LCD's and DLP's are a little more durable than plasmas.

[catfang]

i bought a new TV for the downstairs and my son and I huffed and puffed and moved the 32" sony (CRT) upstairs into the play room...damn thing weighs 185 pounds!! Trying to find a stand for it and they really don't make them anymore for CRT tvs....so I might end up buying a cheap flat screen for up there...and throw away a perfectly good (10 year old) TV...

[Go To Girl]

hahahahaha - I told my husband we could put the downstairs TV now in our bedroom - we have an entertainment armoire and the TV part is pretty high up. My husband said that he was not looking forward to doing that.

[GRWatcher]

Originally Posted by catfang

i bought a new TV for the downstairs and my son and I huffed and puffed and moved the 32" sony (CRT) upstairs into the play room...damn thing weighs 185 pounds!! Trying to find a stand for it and they really don't make them anymore for CRT tvs....so I might end up buying a cheap flat screen for up there...and throw away a perfectly good (10 year old) TV...

Before you throw it away, check Goodwill & Salvation Army. You might need to check daily because a piece of furniture like that would go fast. And a Goodwill in the better part of town might be more likely to get something you can use. I ended up buying my son's furniture at a Goodwill in Winston-Salem, there's one that always gets the good stuff. Weekends are good days to check. Late Saturday & Sunday. Ask about what's in the back that hasn't been priced yet. You may have to wait until they bring it to the floor, but you'll be ready to grab it.

You know, just a sturdy end table could hold that tv.

Also, Goodwill will accept your old tv so donate it for tax purposes. CRT's are now considered hazardous waste at the landfills.

[catfang]

Originally Posted by GRWatcher

Before you throw it away, check Goodwill & Salvation Army. You might need to check daily because a piece of furniture like that would go fast. And a Goodwill in the better part of town might be more likely to get something you can use. I ended up buying my son's furniture at a Goodwill in Winston-Salem, there's one that always gets the good stuff. Weekends are good days to check. Late Saturday & Sunday. Ask about what's in the back that hasn't been priced yet. You may have to wait until they bring it to the floor, but you'll be ready to grab it.

You know, just a sturdy end table could hold that tv.

Also, Goodwill will accept your old tv so donate it for tax purposes. CRT's are now considered hazardous waste at the landfills.

I'll look into that, thanks!!

[Tensor]

Originally Posted by 88 Bronco

I wouldn't buy a walmart Vizio. Walmart gets the subpar models for some reason. If you do decide to get a HDTV, LCD's and DLP's are a little more durable than plasmas.

actually, plasmas seem to be more reliable. Plasma's rarely lose pixels. LCD's and DLP's lose them all the time, sometimes even after they've only been on the for a short period of time. There are more moving parts on an LCD and therefore more stuff to break. There are two million pixels on a 1080p LCD with three crystals for each pixel that move 60-240 times per second (depending on the television). You are looking at a 1 in two million chance of a pixel breaking 3600-10800 times per second. There are no moving parts in the pixels of a plasma. That is why pixel loss is a much greater risk on and LCD than on a plasma.

As for them using more electricity, they do, but the difference is not great. They are energy star certified just like the LCD's. Its even debatable that plasmas use less energy, but its hard to confirm. An LCD uses maximum power at all times because it is backlit and that backlight is always on regardless of the scene on the screen. On a plasma, if there is black on screen, that portion simply doesn't turn on and thus doesn't use any power. If you are watching a movie or show with a lot of dark scenes, plasma's will use less, but with a lot of light, plasma's will use more. It's pretty much a wash between the two.

Plasma's are cheaper for a # of reasons, not because they are inferior. In fact, they are superior in just about every way except white levels. They are cheaper because its a more established technology first and foremost. Also, there is a lot of waste that goes into LCD's because its very common for the screens to break in the manufacturing process, especially in the large sizes. The Plasma screen is made out of glass and does not break nearly as easily as a thin piece of plastic. They're also cheaper because they're having to slash prices to stay competitive because of tards that think they still have the issues they had when they first hit the market.

Plasma's were probably released too soon. They should have worked out some of the kinks before they put them on the market. They didn't and now have to deal with people assuming they did nothing to correct the problem. Technology changes a lot in a few short years.

Plasmas have far higher contrast ratios, uniform screen brightness from edge to edge, better blacks, superior color accuracy and more possible colors, glass screens that don't damage as easy or discolor with age, wider viewing angles, the list goes on.


All that said, LCD's are still great TV's, Plasmas are just equal if not better, contrary to popular belief.

[dimbee]

Buy an HD TV with a digital tuner. And buy an HD Antenna ($30 and up). Now you can watch all of the local channels in HD for free as well as watch the regular channels you get on your non-HD cable package

[Tensor]

you get local channels in high def. for free even if you don't have the digital tier with time warner. They are not legally allowed to scramble the local high def. stations. I got 8-10 channels in high definition before I got the digital box.

[88 Bronco]

Last time I looked at TV's 3 years ago, LCD's and DLP's were lasting about 2 to 5 years longer than plasmas.