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I'm in the market for a new TV. Any recommendations?

heehee said:
You need to get a new TV cabinet. I have 55" now and I want a bigger one. :D
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LadyX said:
LOL. 37" is perfect for me :D
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The above quotes are evidence that size only really matters to men. :D


sdilley14 said:
Vizio may be another brand worth looking into if you are more "cost conscious". I don't personally own one, but I've heard mostly positive things about Vizio sets, and they're more affordable than Samsung, Sony, LG, etc.
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dcharleyultra said:
I have 3 Vizios I bought about 3 years ago from Costco. They are still going strong and still get complements regarding the real life looking images from the 120 MHz refresh rate.
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LadyX said:
I've never heard of Vizio and I tend to stay away from companies that I don't know anything about but I'll check what they have.
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Our family currently owns a 50" Panasonic plasma, a 42" Vizio LCD, and a 70" Vizio LED. All three sets have been great. I know some people view Vizio as a lower quality brand, but everyone I know that has one has been just as pleased as we have been. We have the 42" Vizio in our bedroom and have owned it for almost 5 years now. We've never had a problem with it and the picture is still crisp and bright. I'd highly recommend considering Vizio as a positive option. Overall, I would say you can't really go wrong with a TV from Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, or Vizio.

Here's CNET's suggestions for TV's 33" to 43"

All the best with your purchase. Keep us posted on how it goes. :)
 
AutoUnion39 said:
LCD. Plasmas are dead technology.

If you want it to last a few years, I highly suggest spending the extra money on a Sony or Samsung TV. They are worth the extra price. And no, LG is NOT equal.

If you really want it to be future proof, might I suggest LED-backlit displays? They will be much thinner than regular LCD TVs and have deeper blacks.
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Plasma's are still the best tech out there. LCD will soon be dead once OLEDs pick up steam. There is still a lot of debate on when or if that will happen. The prices have to really come down but those will be the only thing to beat a plasma.
 
Here is a possible consideration, based on something I read on another site: if you buy a "3D" blu-ray disc, you may not be able to play it properly on a "flat" TV. The way I heard it described, you can kill one channel of the 3D image (making it flat) on a 3D TV, but you cannot do that on a non-3D TV, leaving you with a messy picture. I am not sure if this is still the case, 3D seems to be on the wane, so it probably is of no particular consequence. I mean, if nothing else, you could easily wait for the flat disc or get the movie on iTunes
 
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maflynn said:
LED is LCD. Prior to LED the backlighting was done by a florescent tube, now they're backlit by LEDs
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Yeah I understand that. Just the way you worded your post was confusing..

LCD, Plasma TVs are getting phased out of the consumer market due to the cost and popularity of the LCD models
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I thought maybe, even though its "marketing terms", you meant to write LED.

:)
 
LadyX said:
... I think I'll be getting this 40 inch Samsung: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN40E...ref=sr_1_1?s=tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1388921921&sr=1-1.
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Unfortunately, all the electronics stores I talked to have this specific model out of stock. They said I should check within a few weeks. Since they're weren't sure when they'll have it back in stock I asked about all the 40" inch Samsung Full HD they currently have in stock and they only have these four:

http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UA40F5000ARXZN

http://www.samsung.com/nz/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UA40EH5006MXRD

http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UA40F6400ARXZN

http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UA40F7500BRXZN

The last two are 3D, and I won't be using the 3D feature. So I think I'm left with the first two options.
The first one says USB Movie. What does that mean?
 
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I'm an LCD fan mainly b/c I'm on the water and the reflections from that and pool and having an open house = glare like a mofo. Plasma is useless in my house. I'm looking at a nice LED though next, most likely a 70" LED. I have Toshiba LCDs, got on sale a few years back and they've been great.
 
Just wanted to say that I got a Samsung 40" F5000 Full HD LED TV yesterday. I'm really happy with it. It has great picture quality and the sound is fantastic. When you guys buy a new TV, do you change the default settings? I've read a couple of reviews of people stating that the settings out of the box the picture doesn't look good and some changes in the settings should be done. Should I just leave the settings (mode, contrast, backlight, brightness, sharpness) the way they are or should I check and see if I can get an even better picture?
 
Usually settings need to be adjusted to your specific room for characteristics like brightness, contrast, color, etc.. There are plenty of AV sites where you can find whole discussion threads dedicated to calibration settings that people are using for your specific TV model. The bottom line is don't obsess over it, find what you think looks best and go with it. Congrats on your purchase. I hope it brings you many years of enjoyment.
 
mscriv said:
Usually settings need to be adjusted to your specific room for characteristics like brightness, contrast, color, etc.. There are plenty of AV sites where you can find whole discussion threads dedicated to calibration settings that people are using for your specific TV model. The bottom line is don't obsess over it, find what you think looks best and go with it. Congrats on your purchase. I hope it brings you many years of enjoyment.
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I've searched for the recommended settings. Everything seems great so yes I will not be changing anything anymore. Thank you!
 
LadyX said:
I've searched for the recommended settings. Everything seems great so yes I will not be changing anything anymore. Thank you!
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Settings have to be customized by panel and room. One size doesn't fit all. Every tv calibrates differently.
 
Btw, if you need to adjust your picture to reduce the infamous "soap opera effect" I believe you need to back off the blur reduction. I have a F7100 and absolutely love it after tweaking the picture. At 1.2" deep it is extremely thin for a large screen and the bezel is almost nonexistent although I'd prefer it were black rather than silver. The only serious complaint I have is the apps have very limited functionality using a bluetooth keyboard. First I tried an Apple keyboard then the actual Samsung keyboard which is made to use with the newer Samsung TV's. No luck typing; ARG! It would be nice to type with a real keyboard but support told me that functionality is coming future firmware updates.


@Apple…did you read the part about the thin bezel?!?
 
LadyX said:
Just wanted to say that I got a Samsung 40" F5000 Full HD LED TV yesterday. I'm really happy with it. It has great picture quality and the sound is fantastic. When you guys buy a new TV, do you change the default settings? I've read a couple of reviews of people stating that the settings out of the box the picture doesn't look good and some changes in the settings should be done. Should I just leave the settings (mode, contrast, backlight, brightness, sharpness) the way they are or should I check and see if I can get an even better picture?
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Absolutely calibrate your TV. I've never had a TV come out of the box that is even close to natural and real looking. Many prefer their picture to pop and be ultra bright which is the way TV's are usually set out of the box. But once you get used to a calibrated picture that looks totally natural and real, you'll never go back. A professional calibration will cost you upwards of around $300. But if you are patient, you can do a decent job yourself with the THX Tuneup app on iTunes or any number of other DVDs. The difference will be amazing especially with being able to see shadows you never even knew existed and getting the skin tone so real that the people look like they are right there in your living room.
 
definitely do not get a plasma, it can burn images into the screen. any name brand will do good. samsung, song, lg, vizio, etc.
 
carjakester said:
definitely do not get a plasma, it can burn images into the screen. any name brand will do good. samsung, song, lg, vizio, etc.
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Please stop spreading this nonsense. This has not been a significant problem for years.
 
QuantumLo0p said:
Btw, if you need to adjust your picture to reduce the infamous "soap opera effect" I believe you need to back off the blur reduction. I have a F7100 and absolutely love it after tweaking the picture. At 1.2" deep it is extremely thin for a large screen and the bezel is almost nonexistent although I'd prefer it were black rather than silver. The only serious complaint I have is the apps have very limited functionality using a bluetooth keyboard. First I tried an Apple keyboard then the actual Samsung keyboard which is made to use with the newer Samsung TV's. No luck typing; ARG! It would be nice to type with a real keyboard but support told me that functionality is coming future firmware updates.


@Apple…did you read the part about the thin bezel?!?
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I calibrated my TVs with the Disney WOW Blu Ray. Picture quality is amazing my few year old budget sets get better picture quality than new units that cost many times more that are uncalibrated.

Also the first thing I turn off is all the automated processing for "improving" the picture. The high contrast, 120/240hz, motion control, noise reduction, &c just ruin everything. I don't know why they add "features" that reduce picture quality.
 
zhenya said:
Please stop spreading this nonsense. This has not been a significant problem for years.
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funny because at my work we always have sport center on and when it is on commercial or a different channel you can see the burnt in image from sports center on it.
 
I'm in the market for a new TV. Any recommendations?

When I mirror my MacBook to the TV, and open HDMI, I get a text on the top corner of the TV that says 1920*1080/60p, then it disappears. What is 60p?
 
carjakester said:
funny because at my work we always have sport center on and when it is on commercial or a different channel you can see the burnt in image from sports center on it.
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Which tells the average home consumer little to nothing about what the plasma experience is. At work it's probably on many more hours per day, maybe on the same channel most of the time. The tv itself could be an older model that did have those problems. It's one of the common complaints about plasma when if you look at the people who actually own them for home viewing, most of the reports are glowing because they do so many other things so much better than LCD.
 
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