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OK, so I think that I am finally going to break down and buy a new TV for my living room. I don't have a huge amount of room, so I think that I am going to go somewhere around 42" at the largest. That should fit nicely on the wall over the fireplace.

Now, there are about a bilion different itterations of televisions out there. I like my little Roku boxes, so I am not going to go with an internet connected TV. I don't see any need for that. However, what I don't know is whether I should go LED or LCD ..... or Plasma ...... 720 or 1080 ...... if I go with a 1080p, will that work with 1080i like WFMJ broadcasts?

I bought a little 19" HDTV for my office, and I like it quite a bit. It's just a 720p, 60 Hz set, but it delivers a really nice picture. Would 1080 give that big of a difference? Bear in mind that most of my TV watching is football and Netflix. (which is 720p)

Any suggestions? Anything to stay away from? Any mounting suggestions? Anyone want to come do it for me for free? Anything I should know, but probably don't?

I like Plasma the best but certainly others are going to favor LCD. That one you just need to go look at and see what suits your eye the best. Now don't necessarily discount the internet connected TV's as these sets will allow you to get updates to your set without having to have a technician come out.

Go with 1080P, it will show all other resolutions quite nicely and if you want to add a blueray player later you'll have that option.

I don't know that I'll have a need for a Blu Ray with my streaming NetFlix. Ever since I got it I haven't even put a DVD in the DVD player.

Reconsider mounting over the fireplace.

I know it seems like the the "thing" to do, but in time you, and your neck, will tire of having it there.

Then you can buy a PS3 and you'll have the best of both worlds!

I love spending other peoples money!

My experience is that my parents just bought a 55 inch LG LED tv and mounted it over their fireplace. It has the netflix app built in. It looks stunning. However, I have a 50 inch Samsung plasma that is just on a tv stand in front of my couch and I would much rather watch that. The 55 inch LED tv is just TOO much for me. If that makes sense. After a long football game, my eyes are fatigued. and I am sitting about 20 feet away.

*edit i agree that mounting it above the fireplace will fatigue your neck. honestly didnt mean to use the word fatigue twice in my post but thats what happens

I just bought this one for our bedroom a few months ago for $548 and and very happy with it bro.

http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/8477431/...ews/reviews.htm

I also just bought our second samsung 32 inch, for the basement (already have a 26 inch in the kitchen) on black Friday for $ 329 at Radio Shack and I am very happy with it as well.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605...ku=05771021000P

I always wondered what is the difference between a plasma and an Lcd? ( i still have the old block tvs) I see the Lcd cost more so it must be better, but don't no for sure if thats true.

LCDs aren't necessarily better or worse than plasmas, just different. I prefer plasmas because, in my limited experience, the colors seem crisper, deeper blacks, whiter whites, etc. In a 40-42" range you'll be able to take your pick of either/or. You could also go the LED backlit route, which is more expensive but slimmer, lighter and more energy efficient.

Your screen size really should be determined by how far you'll be sitting from the screen when you watch it. You want to get your viewing distance to be about 2 to 4 times the diagonal of the screen.

As for 720p vs 1080p, I've always found this article to be a helpful read. Most importantly, look at the chart. Find where your screen size and distance from the screen intersect. For a 40-42" screen, you would have to be sitting more more than 5-6' from the screen to realize the benefits of 1080p over 720p. Also consider that no broadcast television at this time is broadcast in 1080p (all HD content is 1080i or 720p). Your cable box and/or TV will scale the signal to your TV's native resolution, and you can force most cable boxes to output everything at a particular resolution. For example, my TiVo HD can output at 1080 or 720, but the LCD TV its hooked up to has a native resolution of 720p. This doesn't mean it can't display 1080i content...it just has to scale it. If the TV does the scaling, then you may experience blackouts of 1-3 seconds when changing between channels that have different resolutions. By having the TiVo scale everything to 720p, I avoid this blackout and channels change much more smoothly. I also have to consider that the TiVo's scaler is probably as good as the one in the TV. The quality of the scaler will depend on what your cable box is. This isn't going to be an issue though with stuff like a Roku box that is always at the same resolution (I would imagine).

I was at a Best Buy the other day,, thinking about doing the same thing as you as a matter of fact.

I looked at LCD, LED and Plasma..

In talking with the sales rep,,, this is what he told me about each.. Take it for what it's worth.

LCD - Great picture, runs hot therefore, may not last as long as a LED

LED - Great picture, runs cooler, life expectancy is much greater,,more than an LCD

Plasma - Cheapest right now, but he says that's because they don't last very long before you will have picture problems.

1080P vs 720 - From what I'm told (and I couldn'lt actually see the difference) the 1080p just has a crisper picture

120 hz vs 60 hs - This is the refresh rate so I'm told.. Basically, the larger the number, the quicker your picture refreshes. I was told that if you watch a stock ticker or maybe a ticker that runs at the bottom of ESPN or perhaps a scroll from a TV station with Alerts (like school closings) You will notice a big difference between 120 and 60. Otherwise, you won't see the difference.

Something about the human eye can't detect that little bit of difference..

So I've been looking at 46 to 47" LED and LCD flat screens with 1080p and 120hz...

Prices I've seen range from 648 to over a grand.. The ones over a grand seem to have a greater refresh rate.. 240 or more... So you get what you pay for.

I really don't know much about this stuff, just repeating what the sales rep at Best Buy told me..

Lots of good information here guys. Thank you.




I am having trouble deciding where I would put the TV if I don't mount if over the fireplace. I have the TV stand partially in front of the fireplace now. Maybe I can build a swing arm that would lower the TB when in use, then move it back up on top of the fireplace when not in use. LOL My living room is longer and narrow ..... and the couch can really only go in one spot. That kinda limits where the TV can go.

I've read that eye level is best for TV viewing...and I tend to agree. We have ours at that height...when I go to homes with sets above the fireplace I don't like the picture nearly as much. Besides, it looks kinda dumb.

Every year about this time we get back into this conversation...lol

A big part of alot of this is going ot be preference...so DO YOUR HOMEWORK...get out there and look at the TV's in person....remember, you are going to have to live with this thing for quite a while...

Just remember each and every techmology is going to have its pros and cons...try to fit them into your needs.

I bought a plasma. I think it has the best picture. Better colors, Better contrast, No motion blur. It was also cheaper. And you do NOT have to worry about reliablity as was mentioned in an earlier post...that was a salesman looking to make someone buy a higher priced product. Whats the downside??? Well, they are heavier, thicker, cost a little more to run (will get into that a little later) and depending upon the lighting in the room you place it in, you can have issues with glare. the reason for this is because they have a big piece of glass along the front...which is actually nice if you have pokey and inquisitive children that like to touch the TV...all you have to do is wipe off the fingerprints.

Now when talking about LCD's and LED tv's I am going to basically talk about them together as they are the same technology except for one difference which I will explain later. These TV's hare brighter than the plasmas, you will not have an issue with glare, and the colors and contrast have dramatically improved. If your room has a big picture window....go with the LCD/LED. They are also cheaper to run. However I did do the math...and when it comes down to it...the cost of purchase and running the TV for ten years evens out between the 2 technologies so while plasma is cheaper to buy and more expensive to run...it will take ten years of running to make up the initial cost difference for comparable sizes and quality. The LCD/LED are now baselining at about 120Hz but most of the TV's you will find are at 240Hz so Motion Blur is all but eliminated.

So what is the differnce between LCD and LED?? Backlighting...LED TV's ARE LCD televisions...except instead of a flourecent backlight as a source of light for the TV it uses LED's It allows the TV to be Thinner, lighter and actually have better colors as a more pure white light is acheived with the LED's. It also is a little more energy efficient.

Now...There is a downside with LCD/LED's besides possible picture qality vs plasma(which is subjective at best) Price is one....but that is comiing down...butit is that inquisitive child thing....pokey children can bust pixels on the LCD/LED TV's Not always the best of things on this kind of investment....

Again I highly suggest doing your homework...BUT If you are looking at PLasma...look no further than Panasonic or Samsung...They make the best in the business and you cannot go wrong...as far as the LCD's the NEW(I repeat the newer model) Visio's are CNets top rated and are definitely worth a look. Once a Bargain buy...the new LED model is turning heads. Otherwise check out the Sony's LG, SamSung, etc...

Good Luck

if money isn't a huge issue with you, you can't go wrong with sony or samsung. as far as what type, that is something you and your family will have to figure out on your own. look at everything. and not so much in store, but maybe people you know. go over and watch a browns game at a friend's that has a tv that you might want.

vizio is a really solid brand that gets you a ton of bang for your buck. can't obviously match up with sony or samsung, but it's a really really good tv for what you pay with. we have 2 and i can't complain. one we've had for 3 and a half years, the other is about a year and a half old. both are great.

Speaking for me ..... money is a rather sizable issue.

I'm not going to go spend thousands on a TV. I have already spent thousands on my back in the past year, and fully expect that I will have to spend thousands more before it gets back to something approximating normal. I want to find the best bang for my buck. That doesn't necessarily mean the cheapest, but the best value I can find.

A few other notes...

Go with Panasonic for plasma. Since Pioneer got out of the game, Panny is the best consumer grade plasma in the game.
For LCD, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, LG.

An LCD won't have glare like a plasma, but will probably look washed out in direct sunlight. In either case, light control is a good thing to have if you can.

If you use your fireplace, make sure it doesn't get too hot. Excessive, prolonged heat and electronics don't mesh well.

If you are going to wall mount, don't forget to factor in the cost of a wall mount (get a quality mount like Sanus or OmniMount). You'll also want to have a means of fishing cable up through the wall if you don't want them hanging in view. DO NOT run the television's power cable in the wall…it's an electrical code violation and a fire hazard. Either have an electrician put a receptacle where the TV will be mounted, or get one of the DIY solutions that run about $50 on Amazon.com. I'd also recommend springing for a good line conditioner/surge suppressor. I personally like Tripp Lite products.

for mounting above the fireplace, it depends on how far your couch is from the fireplace (or wherever you are sitting).

I have 15ft from fireplace to couch and a TV sitting at 72" off the floor above it. Perfect angle with no neck fatigue (for me at least).

my suggestion: put a wall picture above the fireplace and sit where you would sit and see if you think you are straining at all. realize even a little bit would be irritating after a TV show.

------------------------------------

I prefer the DLP to any other picture (best color IMO), but obviously that is not wall-mountable as it's rearprojection.

LED - best pic of these options because it can have a slightly duller look and still get the crisp picture compared to LCD.

LCD - definitely a crisp picture, but higher energy bill, lower shelf-life. If $$$ makes the difference, it is not a bad option (but research the brand/model)

Plasma - as mentioned above, shelf-life is not good. They used to be on par but it seems like as companies gear away from them they are not trying as hard to keep them up to snuff. I'd steer clear as quality of product isn't there (not necessarily related directly to picture).

My couch is about 10 feet from the fireplace. I may have to put the damn thing on a cart with wheels and roll it away when not in use. lol

The problem is that I have an older house, and it has a lot of built ins ... that are beautiful .... that I want to keep .... but which take away a lot of wall space from the wall between the living and dining rooms.

Well ... there is that possibility as well .....

Good info.

47" 3D LED LG + 4 3D glasses sets for $1380

You're welcome.

boom! clevesteve - amazing deal

this is pretty much in line with what you're looking for, at a great price.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=217056124

Again though, I just don't know if I want to spend an extra almost $200 to go from 720 to 1080. Blu Ray doesn't really matter to me, so I don't know if I want to spend the extra money for somethign I will probably never use or need.

I'm gonna have to go look at these damn things. Maybe I'll go stare vacantly at sets at WalMart and Best Buy for a couple of hours.

Blu Ray will still look and work just fine with a 720p television set.

I've bought my last three televisions at HH Gregg. They always have good deals, their sales staff will bargain, and you can get 12 months same as cash if you apply for their card.

well it's not just bluray that benefits from 1080p. you stream netflix and a lot of their content is in 1080p.

imo, 600 for a much newer model with more technology is a much better value than 400 for an older dated tv.

Just clicking

Well, I up and did it..

I bought a Visio 47" LCD 1080p/120hz TV..

Got it at walmart,, $698 + Tax + 65 bucks for the extended warrenty.., $814 out the door..

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vizio-E470VL/13904838

got it up and running and I gotta tell ya, it's pretty darn cool..., Great picture....

Gonna tune in to football tonight to check out how it looks,,should be exciting...

I'm not into all the technical mumbo-jumbo, I leave that for my hubby to worry since he's into it. I do know that when were picking out our new TV, we had the choice of LCD, Plasma and DLP. We nixed the plasma after our conversation with one of the guys at Best Buy. If your TV is in a position that there will be a good deal of glare (opposite a window, for example), a Plasma would be terrible as the surface is shiny (you'll see all kinds of glare). Just something to think about.

BTW, we ended up with DLP and LOVE it!

we went with the 720. My reason was I can't tell the dif unless there is a1080 right next to it. Money was the biggest factor for us too. Another reason we went plasma. (I actually prefer plasma picture over led) You have to decide whts most important and what isn't worth the extra cash.
I know it sucks but just wait... not like it's a car and you need it asap. I waited over a year and got a 50" Zenith for $480!

i have a plasma and i have a big window right next to it. i dont have a glare problem, but my plasma has anti glare coating (adds $$) on it and is a samsung (high end one at that).

life expectancy, i cant comment.

but LED tv's are too intense for me. i wear glasses to read and at night but when I watch a LED tv, i have to put my glasses on then too. my eyes start to hurt right away. it affects my astigmatism somehow

A word of advice...Don't go by what the salesman tells you. A good plasma television should have a 60,000 to 100,000 hour half-life for the display.

Also, TWC broadcasts some channels in 1080i and some in 720p. Your ability to detect the differences between Blu Ray at 1080p and 720p will be based almost completely On the size of the screen and how close you are to it.

Plasma wasn't our first choice, until I really started looking at them in person. The refresh rate and price were my biggest selling points. He still wanted lcd, but for the same price range, we would have had to have gone much smaller.

We've had it almost two weeks so I don't have any complaints as of yet. There is a pretty bad glare... but bc of the direction of the window, it only last for about an hour in the morning. It's not very difficult to close the curtain, so I couldn't care less about that part, myself. I'm typically not even home then, or busy doing other things.

I hadn't heard about the "short life span" thing. Ours is only used a few hours a day anyways. I have been told that they can get images "burned" into the screen... say the little channel logos for instance. But I guess it takes quite a few constant hours for that to set in.

You may want to verify that your cable box isn't set to output everything at a specific resolution (also, 720x480 is not an HD image, its 480p). I just set my TiVo to output everything natively (that is, at whatever resolution its broadcast in) and a quick survey shows me that WKYC NBC and WOIO CBS are in 1080i, WEWS ABC is in 720p. WBNX is 1080i, Fox 8 is 720p. The ESPN family are in 720p, as is A&E. TNT and Discovery are 1080i.

Keep in mind that this is neither a good thing or a bad thing, but just a thing. I personally like to have my TiVo scale everything and output at constant resolution (720p) to my television. Though it can do either 720p or 1080i (as well as 1080p) natively, the fact that I generally sit 7 to 9 feet away from the screen, and its a 42", means that I won't be able to discern between the two in any meaningful way. Also, many people are of the opinion that 720p is better than 1080i for fast moving pictures (action movies, sports, etc) because even though there are fewer lines of resolution, they are all progressively drawn in every frame as opposed to having half of the lines at a time interlaced. Additionally, by letting my TiVo scale the image, I'm able to change channels more quickly because my television doesn't stutter as it scales the image internally.

Now, if I get about 18 inches away from the screen and compare the image from a broadcast 720p image with a 1080p image from my BluRay player, you can tell a difference. However, since this has no real-world value its simply a moot point.

When I was shopping for my television, I was torn between the Panasonic TH42PZ700U and TH42PZ77U. At the time, they were regarded as two of the best 42" plasmas on the market (and, as far as I know, the only ones that supported 1080p in a 42" display). I was leaning towards the 77 because of its antiglare coating on the screen (as well as its slightly lower price). My television sits opposite a big bay window, so glare was a major concern. After reading reviews though, I went with the 700 because the picture quality was apparently vastly superior. I have to say that I don't regret the decision one bit. Glare is sometimes an issue on the sunniest days around mid day, but if I sit about 15-20 degrees off axis from the set (which I do by simply sliding over on my couch) the glare no longer bothers me. Since I do nearly all of my television watching at night I'm willing to make this minor concession. When I watch a movie with the curtains drawn and the lights turned out, the picture quality is impeccable.

Regarding screen burn-in on plasmas, its generally advisable to run a plasma display on less than the brightest settings for the first 100 or so hours of use to lessen the likelihood of it happening. Some people will play a DVD on loop for many hours a day (like while they're at work) to accelerate the process.

do you have TWC?

Yes

Daman - I too have TWC and can attest to what Adam is saying. In the HD channel package there are a number of channels that broadcast at 1080i. I am surprised at many saying they cant tell the difference visually between 720 and 1080p televisions. I have a Samsung 1080p LCD and to me there is a night and day difference when I happen to watch programming broadcast in HD between the 1080p and a 720. Perhaps a less than noticeable difference can be attributed to the quality of the actual TV one is viewing?

YTown- Aren't you able to stream HD movies on Roku? I know I am able to stream HD Full definition thru my Apple TV box so I would assume Roku has the same capabilities. If so, maybe you would like to consider getting the full 1080p TV so you get the most out of TV and viewing experience. Just a thought anyway.