Looking for a new 55" TV... any advice appreciated.

[olds97_lss]

Well, it's been a sad day... my 60" hitachi non-hidef rear projection TV is starting to fail. It was my wife and I's first "married" purchase almost 10 years ago and it's been an enjoyable part of our family ever since. The issue just started where when bright images are on the screen, the image gets warped all around the bright parts.

I have been looking at LCD TV's for about a year. Not knowing what is what, I spent a lot of time reading after looking at them in stores. Found that almost every single one out there has a high rate of issues that cause people to take them back or require costly repairs within the first year of ownership.

This was one that I looked at that had a silly good picture and almost no blurring/artifacts whatsoever regardless of speed of motion:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung...HDTV/9234303.p?id=1218068137461&skuId=9234303

Then after doing some reading, it seems samsung has dropped the ball on quality. Power supplies failing, popping sounds, screen just shuts off for no reason...

Considering all the issues I've read about many others (artifact issues, blurring, flashlight effect, soap opera effect, yellowing of colors, complete failure...), it makes me very leary about dropping any $ on one.

I really don't want to spend over $2500 and would like to stay below $2K if possible. Since I'll need a stand to put it on and possibly a new center channel and a blue-ray player. 55" or greater is required to stay even close to what we had. Anything smaller will be too small. Even at 55", it will still be smaller for 4:3 tv watching.

As a side note... a buddy of mine wrote a comic about me and my delima:
http://www.rm-r-comic.com/index/385/
TV is one of my wife and I's biggest hobbies. Our TV is probably on 4-5K hours a year (hence the reason I'm not looking for a bulb based projection tv). He'd been nagging at me to get hidef, then we'd never shut the thing off! Now he's trying to get me to build a media PC... ever so helpful!

 

[Lessen]

I know you're not looking for a bulb based television but the wife and I bought a Samsung DLP right when they came out... about 6 years ago. Considering it was new tech at the time we had an issue with the color wheel on two occasions but it's been years since we've had a problem with it. It's a great looking television IMO. We've replaced the lamp once and it was covered under warranty and we got REALLY good usage out of it. Something like 16k hours if I remember correctly. Definitely not less than 12k. From what I understand Samsung DLP's are easier on lamps than some other brands. All in all the t.v. is like 6 years old and with it being very new tech of it's day if we get 2-3 more years out of it before anything major goes wrong I'll be relatively pleased. I'm not a die hard Samsung fan by any means, but I've been pleased with the quality of the picture since day 1.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yeah... I kind of noticed the same thing on a few AV forums. People also got good life out of mitsubishi DLP lamps ($100 lamp replacement cost) with almost no other issues whatsoever. The downside is getting a unit like that in our place. We are on the 3rd floor. I had paid movers to move our TV up here (another $150 on top of the moving bill). I plan on cutting up the box and taking it out in pieces... So, if I do have problems, it's going to cost to get it to a tech or to pay a tech to come here.

Apparently, 10 year reliability isn't an option anymore... Like our current set.

 

[beason]

i have a phillips 42" lcd. its 1080p, with 120hz and crazy wide viewing angle. I've had it just over a year, with no issues at all.

i chose lcd over plasma for a few different reasons, burn in, heat, and lifespan to name a few.

 

[Lessen]

I don't even understand why they even make Plasma anymore. Is there ANY performance advantage to those? I always hear so much negative about Plasma.

 

[beason]

the plasma does a true black, where the lcd is more of a gray. like laptop screens when they are off, they have a matte finish.

plasma is supposed to be faster at rendering pictures, which would mean less problems with fast paced action. but with the 120hz, and now 240hz lcd, they have caught up.

 

[olds97_lss]

I've looked at 240hz and honestly, I can't see a difference between samsungs 120 and 240. Both look really good at high speed and do really well with blacks. Just wish I trusted the power supply... The LED light source makes a heck of a difference with the black viewing.

BB had a sale around Christmas with the 55" 120 being around $1600 and the 240 at $2300.

May end up going with one of the 120hz anyway and getting BB's 3 year protection plan for an extra $300.

 

[hamz9561]

The Samsung LED backlight LCD's are awesome looking. I've seen nothing but good things about them on the AV boards I visit.

 

[olds97_lss]

Looks like the LG 55LH90 is well liked as well. I really need to get off my butt and go "shopping" again before ours dies completely.

 

[beason]

i got mine at sams. i got a good deal on it (black friday) and even got a $100 gift card to boot.

you may see a difference in 120hz to 240hz with blue ray, but regular tv i dont think you will see it. my uverse receiver only outputs at 1080i

my dad got a 52" sony plasma, and it looks really nice, but he payed almost 3x what i did.

 

[bergoff]

I work for comcast as a tech and see tons of tvs. I really like the 240hz led's. The Samsung LG and Toshiba look awesome. I have a 42 Samsung plasma that has an good pic. But if I was in to market for a new on I would go Samsung or LG. Newegg has some good sales and free shipping and the reviews are good also.

 

[olds97_lss]

Well... the wife and I ventured out today into a rainy, foggy, sullen mess of a day to go tv shopping. Went to 6 stores and saw what we needed to see. Ended the day with a 55" LG 55LH40. Not top of the line... but wow! Looks just awesome in our living room.

$1900 (exactly 1900.00) out the door with a high quality HDMI cable, screen cleaning kit (stupid cats), 3 year in-home/replacement warranty through the store and tax.

Will be investigating blue ray players next. Kind of thinking of going with one that is netflix capable. Will have to run some cat5 to my office, but would be a nice feature.

It seems our comcast cable/dvr box is only spitting out 720p, but I have to say, if it was any clearer, the people would actually be in my house!

This model also has a neat little feature that makes it automatically adjust to room light. Plugged stuff in, lined it up with the couch, turned it on and bam! Dimmed the lights in the living room and the TV followed it nicely.

Tomorrow will be a sad day though as I'll be busting my old hitachi 60" down to pieces so I can carry it down the 3 flights of stairs I had paid movers to carry it up. Was a good ol TV and served it's purpose well. 10 years of service isn't something to complain about!

Now I just need to find a center channel with the range that the the 8" drivers in the hitachi had (wired them directly into my center from the receiver) when I had my JBL center channel for highs... I have a feeling I'll be making something custom.

 

[2revo1maxx]

i have a phillips 42" lcd. its 1080p, with 120hz and crazy wide viewing angle. I've had it just over a year, with no issues at all.

i chose lcd over plasma for a few different reasons, burn in, heat, and lifespan to name a few.

Damn man!! You must be my evil long lost twin!! I have the same exact tv, I love nissans and own one, and RCNT. I love that tv by the way, best 800 bucks I've ever spent.

 

[bergoff]

Well... the wife and I ventured out today into a rainy, foggy, sullen mess of a day to go tv shopping. Went to 6 stores and saw what we needed to see. Ended the day with a 55" LG 55LH40. Not top of the line... but wow! Looks just awesome in our living room.

$1900 (exactly 1900.00) out the door with a high quality HDMI cable, screen cleaning kit (stupid cats), 3 year in-home/replacement warranty through the store and tax.

Will be investigating blue ray players next. Kind of thinking of going with one that is netflix capable. Will have to run some cat5 to my office, but would be a nice feature.

It seems our comcast cable/dvr box is only spitting out 720p, but I have to say, if it was any clearer, the people would actually be in my house!

This model also has a neat little feature that makes it automatically adjust to room light. Plugged stuff in, lined it up with the couch, turned it on and bam! Dimmed the lights in the living room and the TV followed it nicely.

Tomorrow will be a sad day though as I'll be busting my old hitachi 60" down to pieces so I can carry it down the 3 flights of stairs I had paid movers to carry it up. Was a good ol TV and served it's purpose well. 10 years of service isn't something to complain about!

Now I just need to find a center channel with the range that the the 8" drivers in the hitachi had (wired them directly into my center from the receiver) when I had my JBL center channel for highs... I have a feeling I'll be making something custom.

omg i'm giving olds advice. lol turn the tv and box on shut the box off and press menu. this will get you in there to change it to 1080I. if you want to change the 4.3 override to get rid of the black bars on the side of digital channels change this to stretch. or you can do that on the tv also but sometimes the info bar will get chopped off. hope that helps.

 

[hamz9561]

Samsung makes a good Netflix capable BluRay player.

Unfortunately most of the Hi Def TV is broadcast in 720p. Some of the movies on demand are in 1080p.

 

[neobart]

The burn in on Plasmas is a myth IMO, you have to leave a bright image on the creen for 6 hours or more to even see an impact, and that goes away after 2 minutes, I've done it so I know for sure.

LCD's (more so LED) are getting better, but I still prefer plasma for it's better colours and high speed rendering. If you watch a lot of sports you will still see a difference compared to LCD.

 

[bergoff]

Samsung makes a good Netflix capable BluRay player.

Unfortunately most of the Hi Def TV is broadcast in 720p. Some of the movies on demand are in 1080p.

if you have the dcx3400 it will tell you what res it is. it all depends on the channel and how its filmed. alot of them are 1080i and ondemand is 720p.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yep, got the cable box switch figured out. Guess I didn't have to venture off to an AV forum after all! lol

In case anyone else wants to monkey with it, here's a screen shot of the menu:
2010-0315-ComastHDSetttings01.jpg[/img]

I put the sharpness back down to 3 as that's where it was. Not sure if/what it does, so I figured I better leave it be. I set the TV type to my TV and the output to native. Figure if I want to stretch/bend/twist it, I can do it via the TV vs the cable box.

Old:

New (lamp in the right corner is the same as a reference):

Dark:

It's odd how dark the camera makes the room as it's not really that dark. It's "dim", but not like a theater.

 

[bergoff]

Hey olds do you want to watch some amazing hr watch life on discovery hd.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yep. We DVR'd it tonight. Will watch it at our leisure. Just the commercials themselves were really cool/clear and detailed to look at.

My father-in-law came over today to take us out for my birthday... also gave me some $ (not sure why), so while out, I spent it. Bought a LG blue ray player, another HDMI cable and 3 blue ray disks. My wife was going batty over not seeing the second twilight movie yet... so that was one of the ones we bought and watched.

I have to say, the blue ray does look pretty friggin nice! It does a nice job upconverting SD disks as well. I was surprised at how clear "transformers, rise of the fallen" looked when viewing through the BR player. Just downright awesome!

I tried hooking up the network feature, but I think the cable I have is bad, so I'll need to pick one up. Unfortunately... to go through the walls and to my router, I'll need a 75' cable to do it!

I have to say, getting into HD is like getting into TV all over again. Just a great experience that I hope we don't just "get used to"...