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Generally, Plasma got better quality, LED is sharper.
In reality, all that doesn't matter, cuz' you wouldn't be able to tell once it's in your living room.
Imho, I would pick LED, sharper and doesn't create much heat like LCD/plasma or consume much electric like plasma, but that's just me.
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I have a 50" Phillips plasma 1080p 120hz for about 6 years now. Still love it. I wont buy anything less. Stick with a high hz level. especially if you watch a lot of action movies. LCD gets blotchy during dark scenes. A downfall for watching suspense/thriller movies. And Iv heard that LED hurts your eyes after a while in a dark room.
Samsung LED, 240hz, done deal. I did just set up a 70"+ Sharp 3D, 240hz, for my boss and it is a great TV but something is lacking in picture quality compared to the 55" 240hz Samsung LED I put in his bedroom.
But don't get caught up on specs. If you are not a home theater techie you likely will not notice the difference. I blows my mind but a couple of my customers have said they cannot tell the difference between HD and SD channels. But now days the picture quality is about the same on a Plasma versus a LED LCD and the downsides to getting a Plasma have pretty much been eliminated. But man are the LED LCD's thin an light weight.
panasonic if u go plasma or pioneer if u can afford it. samsung if lcd. plasma's tend to have higher picture speed (hz) as well and better blacks.
plasma fan here.
Pay attention to how reflective the screen is. Plasmas are shiny, and glare can be an issue if you have lamps or windows in your TV room. LCDs are the least reflective, but have the least picture quality. LED shinyness varies from brand to brand.
Go to Best Buy (or similar) and spend a while looking at all the TVs. Pick the brand whose picture looks best to you. Move from side to side to check viewing angle, and pay attention to store lighting to check for glare. Pace off your planned viewing distance to make sure it's big enough.
I got a Sony LED about a year ago, and love it. 240 Hz, gorgeous picture, no glare, no motion blur. Good viewing angle. Looks just as bright when standing up as when sitting down, and when off to the side perspective becomes a problem well before brightness.
Get the biggest set that will fit in your space. IMHO, there is no such thing as a flat screen that's too big. I regret that I only had room for a 46", but that was the physical limit unless I had my fireplace removed.
Ken
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I've had 2 Vizios, a 42" 60hz and a 42" 120hz. I have loved both of them and would buy another Vizio in a heartbeat. Price was the largest deciding factor for me.
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As mentioned before, don't get anything less than 120hz. I have an LCD with 60hz and I hate it (it was free though). I have another plasma and its so much better! In general plasmas now have unmatched refresh rates. Thats why you see them in a lot sports bars. The only downside with plasma is glare. But depending on where your TV will be, it might not be a problem.
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I have a 50" Samsung plasma and 40 Samsung 40" LCD, both are great. Try to stay away from models that are a year old, unless they are on blue light special.
If I were to get a new TV, it will be an LED smart tv.
Pay attention to how reflective the screen is. Plasmas are shiny, and glare can be an issue if you have lamps or windows in your TV room. LCDs are the least reflective, but have the least picture quality. LED shinyness varies from brand to brand.
Go to Best Buy (or similar) and spend a while looking at all the TVs. Pick the brand whose picture looks best to you. Move from side to side to check viewing angle, and pay attention to store lighting to check for glare. Pace off your planned viewing distance to make sure it's big enough.
I got a Sony LED about a year ago, and love it. 240 Hz, gorgeous picture, no glare, no motion blur. Good viewing angle. Looks just as bright when standing up as when sitting down, and when off to the side perspective becomes a problem well before brightness.
Get the biggest set that will fit in your space. IMHO, there is no such thing as a flat screen that's too big. I regret that I only had room for a 46", but that was the physical limit unless I had my fireplace removed.
Ken
The biggest problem with going to the store and checking them is Best Buy as well as other major retailers are known to mess with picture quality. They make the cheaper TVs look worse and really tune the more expensive ones and the result is "omg that tv looks amazing! I can see why its so much more expensive and its worth it!!". Now if you want to spend the time tuning the tv's there yourself to a good picture then thats another story.
If price is a major concern look at Vizio, they are really starting to get some good TVs now. Sharp aquos can also be had for a very good price sometimes. Check newegg.com amazon.com and tigerdirect.com they all can have some good prices. Also costco has some pretty good deals as well.
The "smart" tv features are worthless to me. If you have a ps3 or 360 you can stream netflix anyway, thats the only good thing I have seen from it. There are other things it can do also. You end up paying quite a bit more for those smart features usually unless some crazy sale is happening.
I personally hate plasmas and always will. I have had to deal with those damn things at work and at my friends house. They run HOT, so hot they noticeably heat up the room it is in. At least every single one I have been around has done this, much more so than an LCD tv.
Samsung LED, 240hz, done deal. I did just set up a 70"+ Sharp 3D, 240hz, for my boss and it is a great TV but something is lacking in picture quality compared to the 55" 240hz Samsung LED I put in his bedroom.
But don't get caught up on specs. If you are not a home theater techie you likely will not notice the difference. I blows my mind but a couple of my customers have said they cannot tell the difference between HD and SD channels. But now days the picture quality is about the same on a Plasma versus a LED LCD and the downsides to getting a Plasma have pretty much been eliminated. But man are the LED LCD's thin an light weight.
I'm the kind of guy that will pay through the nose for a higher quality screen on a laptop. Image quality is important. I think the thin n light will be the deciding factor.
As to not being able to tell the difference between HD and SD
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I've a 50" Samsung Plasma and wouldn't go with anything else. I also have 2 Samsung LCD screens for my computer. Love them as well. Fantastic brand. had it now since 2008 and wouldnt go with anything else. As for the concern about reflections and what not... have to say, it's a null issue. Unless you have your tv in a room with a bay window and it's on the exact opposite wall... and you have no curtains... and the sun shines where you live 24/7... maybe i am just lucky in that my den is setup to be a perfect home theater, complete with sliding glass doors that face east... so except for 8-9am... glare simply isn't a concern... ever.
I'm no fan of 3D so i can't recommend them. LCD TVs are a waste of money. LED's... well i use an LED screen at work and i have to say, it hurts my eyes. I've never dealt with eye train in the past (been working on computers now since 2002) but can honestly say this is the first i've had to deal with eye strain. i have been here two weeks now and may ask them to get me something else. But i cannot imagine this for a home TV. yes, the color quality is phenomenal... but ugh...
Samsung Plasma hands down winner (imho)
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Last edited by Shinka_MJR; 03-02-2012 at 09:52 AM.
I have a 40" Panasonic plasma which I like a lot. Movies, I think, look better on plasma, but then you're darkening the room and paying direct attention. If you are the type to leave ESPN or Speed on all day long however, then LCD may make more sense from both a glare and power consumption standpoint. Personally, I don't like huge sets in a normal-sized room. It makes the TV your center-of-the-universe, which bugs me. (Everyone here knows your garage/hanger should be that!)
I'm the kind of guy that will pay through the nose for a higher quality screen on a laptop. Image quality is important. I think the thin n light will be the deciding factor.
As to not being able to tell the difference between HD and SD
Me too, I can't even edit pics on my work PC because then when I open them at home on my HD monitor they look like ****
You need to look at the TV's and see what looks best to you. Plasmas have their advantages and so do LED. Traditionally plasmas produce blacks better but some of the higher end LED's are getting closer. Evaluating in a Best Buy is problamatic at best. As someone mentioned they are frequently mistuned and all are brighter than they should be. If PQ is most important to you I would stay away from Vizio (I have one). They are cheap but there is a reason. Also they are basicly disposable TV's.
For the record I have a plasma and I have yet to see a LCD/LED that can match the blacks, color, and PQ of mine.
Go to AVS forums and you will get more information than you know what to do with (and opinions)
Can anyone give a reason why a Samsung should cost ~$200 more than a (what seems to be) comparable LG or Sony?
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Can anyone give a reason why a Samsung should cost ~$200 more than a (what seems to be) comparable LG or Sony?
It's hard to say. Depending on the exact models you're comparing, it could offer more features or simply have a better display. Maybe it's just overpriced. I own a samsung and my parents own 2 samsungs and they have all been good TV's. I don't remember the exact pricing for the 2 my parents own, but I know the first one wasn't too different from the competition. There were definitely a couple options that were cheaper and a couple that were more expensive. That was a few years ago, so there have almost definitely been some changes in the market. The TV I own was kind of unique at the time. There wasn't really anything that fit in my price range, offered the size I wanted and had an image quality that I liked except for the one I bought.
I think samsung has had consistently good designs and their products generally seem to be quality products. I can't really say how they compare to the competition right now, but they've always been good in my experience. Try to take a look at them yourself to see if they seem better or try to find reliable reviews on the specific models you're looking at and see if there's a reason that might justify the higher prices.
Just out of curiosity, what will be the viewing distance for this TV? I was set on buying a 1080p TV for myself, but realized that it wasn't really necessary for the size of screen and the size of the room. I'm not going to say that I can't tell the difference, but it's minute. 1080p either meant a sacrifice in screen size or going past my (preferred) budget. With that in mind, it just wasn't worth it for what was a fairly small difference that I was willing to live with. If you haven't tried this already, you might want to see if you can see a significant difference between a (quality) 1080 and 720 screen from your expected viewing distance. It may give you a few more options and possibly help stay in your budget or save some money for something else. As a general rule, I'd say 50"+ should be 1080p. Less than that, it depends on the viewing distance.
Can anyone give a reason why a Samsung should cost ~$200 more than a (what seems to be) comparable LG or Sony?
Without the actual model numbers so we know what you are talking about... you may as well as, "Why is this piece of red fruit better than that piece of red fruit?"
So, if we were to go by what you have told us, the only logical explanation that can be given in that it costs more money to spell out Samsung than it does Sony or LG... LG would obviously be the cheapest of the three.
Model numbers or GTFO!
__________________ "Clarity of thought before rashness of action."
^ lol... Harsh, but true. Give us a couple of examples of a specific samsung model vs a specific other brand that is comparable and maybe we can identify a difference for you.
Unless, there's something I'm missing the only thing that's really different is the fact that it's not a "Smart TV". Do people honestly watch Youtube and Skype and stuff on their TVs? That's definitely not something I need or want. I have my own dedicated HTPC for that sort of thing if I need it.
As for the question of 1080p vs 720p, that's a fair point but the expected viewing distance would be ~8-12ft; easily close enough to notice that difference.
At this point, I think my only decision is when to buy the above TV.
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