Flat Panel TV's - Good Bang for the Buck?

[DusterRT]

With my new job I recently started, I am making some pretty decent dough. I am looking for a decent flat panel TV in the $1500-ish range. I haven't been able to decide between LCD and Plasma..I'm not a real TV tech-savvy guy since I've never been one to spend much money on stuff like this while I was in school so I didn't pay much attention to it. It will be mostly for TV/Movies, but I've got a thing for Forza Motorsport so I may be doing some gaming in the future as well if I pick up an X-Box.

I know I can probably get the best price through mail order, but I am leaning towards Best Buy or Circuit City due to the 18 months no interest deals (and I believe CC has 18 months no payments as well). I could pay cash up front, but not only do I not have a TV, I also don't have any furniture beyond folding chairs, lol. I think with a sale/clearance price I can still do well price-wise and still take advantage of the "free" loan.

I guess in a nutshell, I am just looking for some guidance as far as brands and model lines to look at. I've been looking at Samsung, Panasonic, Thanks in advance!!

[Mkelcy]

Plasma TV's have a high gloss face. If you have a room that gets a lot of light or has large windows, you might have a glare problem. LCDs have more of a matte finish and much less of a glare issue. In addition, if you get a mount that allows you to tilt the LCD down slightly, you can virtually eliminate glare.

The Plasmas (IMHO) give a brighter, more vibrant image, that tracks action well, but the newer LCD's are extremely good too.

The 768(?) resolution Sony LCD's (as compared to the 1080) are pretty reasonable now. Very little currently uses the 1080 resolution - but games may be an exception. HDTV is 768, regular DVD's are 480.

http://www.avsforum.com/ is an excellent resource no matter what you buy and where you buy it.

[69TAPoser]

I just bought a Sony Bravia 40" 1080p LCD a few weeks ago:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7986664&st=sony+lcd&type=product&id=1155069777368

...It's a great TV.

A bit of advice, buy the best TV that you can afford (even if you have to sacrafice a little size), you definetly "get what you pay for" with the new TVs in my opinion. Also, if you spend the money on a nice HDTV, you should plan on upgrading you current service to HD (I upgraded my DirecTV to HD for $10 per mo.).

Phil

[newbaa]

what about a projector? my buddy's got a projector and so instead of a 44" tv, we get to watch like an 8 foot "screen" that's just projected onto his wall. nothing like watching football in HD on an 8 foot screen :jump:
the wall is smooth, and he's got some special paint on it that is designed for that sort of thing.

our tv just died and so now i'm trying to talk my dad into buying a projector. mount it on the ceiling and you've just got that much extra space...

just an idea

[EFI69Cam]

If you want to play games, the plasmas will burn in, the LCDs won't.
I like my DLP, but if I was going to buy another TV it would be an LCD.

[rocketrod]

I recently purchased a 40" Samsung 1080 LCD and I am very happy with it.

[muthstryker]

welcome to washington travis, i would look into a LCD ive heard the plasmas tend to burn out quicker due to the gasses in the tv. and the lcds have gone down in price alot. costco had some nice ones for $850-$1600 with sizes ranging from 30"-60" tvs, i will be buying 2 48" lcds soon. one for my dads bday and one for me. oo did you ever find a storage place for your car?

[novanutcase]

Plasmas typically have an 80,000 hour lifespan before there is a noticeable difference in picture quality. That works out to around 15 years if you leave your TV on 8 hours a day(My math's probably way off!!) but by the time your plasma becomes noticeably worse in picture quality you'll probably have gotten rid of it a long time before! I think Plasmas are the way to go since they offer the best picture(IMO) in terms of vibrant color and prices are dropping daily. LCD's are getting better but still don't come close to what a Plasma can do! As far as playing games the newer plasmas have something called pixel shifting so that you don't have the "burnt image" issue that the old plasmas had!

John