HDTV Suggestions

[tkam]

I compared them a few times and found the LED to look better in higher light environments. The edge streaking aside of course, which didn't particularly bother me.

comparing them in stores? honestly i know there aren't many options but it's kinda useless, just like auditioning speakers in a store they won't sound anywhere near like that at home, same thing with tv's. the plasma's are also quite a bit less expensive.

Just in ideal room lighting conditions or pretty much in general?

in general, the newer plasma's have very good anti-reflective coatings

[luvdunhill]

I compared them at a home theater store, not a general big box store. They had separate rooms and various setups in each. I'll probably never use it in low light situations, so that was a big factor for me.

[Sherwood]

I bought the LN46B650 about a month ago and really enjoy it. The 650 has the multimedia capabilities for DLNA and USB media playback which are my favorite features of the TV. With the rosewill dual bay enclosure, it recognizes both 1.5Tb drives and plays back most media (sadly, not FLAC). I have ripped most of my blu-ray and copied the H.264 video stream directly into the mkv container, converted the audio into HQ AAC, and haven't used my blu-ray player in a while. Wish it supported VC1. You can also use SamyGo (custom firmware and apps) to enable some extra features on the TV and more media formats as well.

True as that may be, those all seem like features one could pretty easily get from, say, a Popcorn Hour C-200, which I can personally recommend as well. It will happily play FLAC and .iso, to boot. Seems like either is a good solution, but if you don't mind the extra box and extra couple hundred bucks, the C-200 leaves your TV options wide open.

[manaox2]

It looks like only 2010 models of the Samsung LCDs have netflix support, none of the the LED LCDs support the netflix widgit at this time. The UN46B7000 or UN46B7100 both seem nice and support most of the media features.

True as that may be, those all seem like features one could pretty easily get from, say, a Popcorn Hour C-200, which I can personally recommend as well. It will happily play FLAC and .iso, to boot. Seems like either is a good solution, but if you don't mind the extra box and extra couple hundred bucks, the C-200 leaves your TV options wide open.

I was at one time tempted, but after following the support forums for a while, it still has an enormous amount of bugs that have yet to be fixed especially with Blu-Ray and mp2ts files that diminished my interest.

The Biggest Ultimate Bugs, Issues and Features List.

[luvdunhill]

does anyone happen to know where to find the manu. recommended clearances for the g25 series?

[luvdunhill]

I think I'll call customer support. Pending the above info, I'm going to go with the TC-P42G25. I wish I could have gone bigger, but it just won't fit where my wife will allow it. I cannot justify the cost of the LED and I don't really need the thinner profile in this particular deployment.

Now, looking for a good price, so if anyone runs across something, or a coupon, etc. please let me know

[manaox2]

the CinemaTube that i have works great, and is cheaper to boot.

Oooo! Specs look pretty good. My only possible complaint with the specs is that it could use ASS support for the pretty subtitles used in a lot of anime series.

[luvdunhill]

I'm pleased with the G25.. I somehow thought Netflix was avaiable now (I knew Skype was coming soon) but I'll just continue to use my Samsung player for that guess. After hell getting the cabinet installed and what not, I think it looks pretty damn good. Pics this weekend after I finish the last few things.

I'm debating on adding lighting to the back of the panel. What do you guys think?

[luvdunhill]

i have a lamp behind my TV, because guests sometimes prefer backlighting. i'd say do it, you can always turn it off.

cool. I'm not sure how well bias lighting (Ideal-Lume, etc.) would work in my case, as I only have 1-2" around the edges. I guess it will help if I had a pic to post... will do soon. Thanks Reks!

[falkon]

I got a LG 42LH90. As I expected the image quality is very good. The blacks are only slightly inferior to the Viera and the colors are better imo, esp in brighter lighting conditions.

[bhd812]

I still don't think the lcd ledled's have the greatest picture. Other than being very thin they are inferior to good plasma's.

For the 90+% of LCD-LED tv's you see at big box stores then yes i would not only agre with you but go a step further and just say they are complete shit in picture quality (imo).

that 90+% is always going to be "edge lit", which is the cheap and easy way of using LED's.

For the fewer then 10% of LED-LCD's that don't use "edge lit" but instead use "local dimming back lit" I would recommend you rethink your opinion on LCD-LED set's, seriously rethink! Very few sets use them but everyone one the sets is very highly rated for picture quality and usually in the top 5 all the best of the best (1, Kuro plasma. 2, Samsung 8500 Backlit led. 3, LG le8500 Back lit led. etc). Back lit led sets will kill a general plasma side by side in terms of black levels and overall pic quality. even the Vizio black lit stuff is amazing and from a side by side comparsion to a new isf calibrated panasonic plasma it still was a big difference in better picture quality.

today's buyer seems to be more interested in the thinness of the tv, online feed and widget and apps, and of course the newest gimmick 3D, but very few people really buy a tv today for just picture quality alone. next time your at a local bb or bigbox store look for the LG le8500 (47 or 55) and see what back lit local dimming LED LCD's beauty!

i would agree with you the edge lit stuff is nowhere close to plasma but the back lit stuff is really the greatest picture quality stuff out now (excluding the old Kuro)

[Grahame]

^

Will you be bringing any to CJ so we can check them out, Beely?

[bhd812]

nope, sadly i will not

[swt61]

Wow! All that time and thought put into that post must have completely worn you out Billy. I mean with all the help you're providing to the CJ-10 effort and all. Oh wait, you're not providing any help with CJ-10, you're dumping it on everyone else's shoulders. That must be why you have the time to post.

:asshat:

[tkam]

Billy, your right the backlit LED's are better than the edge-lit LED's but at that point your looking at prices that are at least twice as much as something like the Panny G20.

[Nebby]

Yea, the price increase required for a backlit LED panel is a bit tough to stomach.

[bhd812]

true I agree the local dimming led back lit stuff is considered the flagship of the brands and alot more then what a general Plasma goes for but my reply was to say that LED-LCD has stepped up and in some cases finally taken plasma. also the local dimming led back lit pricing goes up and down often (almost week by week), one week the LG 8500 is $2700 then the next week its $2200 with a free WHDI connection kit, then its $2000, then its back up to $2400..etc

also one should expect a top rated picture and a flagship model would cost a bit over the general plasma set's. and when you compare the local dimming led back lit price over the edge lit standard stuff its nothing compared to the price of a Kuro (or any top rated Plasma back in the day) over the general plasma you seen.

for example a 6000 series edge lit Samsung is the cheap of the cheap with LED's and it goes for $1600 before tax/shipping, the LG 8500 which is number 3 according to cnet in picture quality, local dimming led back lit, supports WHDI, 240hz, for $2000 if not lower with some price matching from store to store. $400 difference from the junk to the top. compare that to the $10,000 kuro to a 58 inch Panasonic at $3000 a few years back, point is the led's cost alot less to travel from the bottom to the top compared to Plasma.

if someone is on a low budget Panasonic is the way to go for general tv use, if you want the best then your going with the Kuro, but if you are using a computer then...

Plasma is a no no as a monitor, if i could i would of went with a dual monitor setup with two Panasonic 46 or just one amazing Kuro..of course this is dream world cause damn plasma and its image retention!!! So local dimming led back lit is the only way for me or computer users to go, yet not losing much in picture quality

[Nebby]

I don't know if I could ever use a tv as a computer monitor, 1080p is so....low res.

[bhd812]

true, it sucks why the resolutions can not be higher, personally i would never use any higher resolution myself though. Toshiba's Cell tv may support a 3840x2160 though but price and when it comes out is another question. i also believe most people sit way to far from the set to really notice the difference between 720 to 1080 in their movies.

[deepak]

true, it sucks why the resolutions can not be higher, personally i would never use any higher resolution myself though. Toshiba's Cell tv may support a 3840x2160 though but price and when it comes out is another question. i also believe most people sit way to far from the set to really notice the difference between 720 to 1080 in their movies.

There is talk amongst Sony execs about making 1440p more mainstream, I believe it's already supported by the latest HDMI spec.

Edited May 18, 2010 by deepak

[bhd812]

that would be great for the computer/hdtv user, well it will be better then whats out now. still i would guess the only reason why they have not pushed up resolutions in hdtv cause most people would never use the higher spec, most people are not concerned with the high spec, most if not all the tv/movie has a best of only 1080p, and of course you have to figure the extra stuff in hdtv's cost over the bare monitors..

which brings me to my other thought and why i never really cared for computer monitors in general. the cost for what you get is insane, 22 inches at $150 with two connections and no remote or speakers or tuner? reminds me of Audiophile cable makers. this is why i bought my old Vizio 32 inch lcd in 2005 for a computer monitor, everything else at bb and circuit city was $400 for 19/22 inches where the 32 Vizio was $450-500 with any hdtv tuner, remote, speakers, boat loads more connections and umm a much larger screen size. of course like i said before i dont do any gaming or editing to need the higher resolutions..actually for my normal computer use everyday 1080p is way over kill.

once you get used to a larger monitor device you'll never go back to 22 inches..those displays remind of my itsy bitsy net book screen.

[Nebby]

There's more to computer monitors than simply screen size. It's really unfair to compare computer monitor prices to Audiophile cable makers as you can actually measure the differences between monitors. I recently picked up a monitor with a 2560x1440 resolution and it makes a noticeable difference when doing photo editing. The factory calibrated AdobeRGB and sRGB modes are also a nice touch. About the only downside I've found so far has been the fact that 1080p video needs to be upscaled for my monitor

If all you're going to do with a computer is surf the web and watch youtube then I can totally understand your point but to say that computer monitors are overpriced just because a same sized tv is much cheaper is a bit too much.

[falkon]

U2410?

[aardvark baguette]

What do you guys feel are good ~65" options? Preferably ones closer to $2k than $3k...

Is this a good one?

Panasonic - VIERA / 65" Class / 1080p / 600Hz / Plasma HDTV - TC-P65S1

[Nebby]

U2410?

U2711