Need a new 55-60" TV

[thrillme]

I need a new TV. I want one that's 55-60". We watch a lot of TV so it's on a lot. The 50 and below are too small for my cabinet and we're used to the 53".

I don't know what to get. My minds been so flooded by advertisements and salesmen that want to sell their biggest commission product that I'm not sure what to look for anymore.

I want to stick with a budget of under $3000 and I'd like a 19xx x 1080. Has anybody tackled this task lately and been pleased? A lot of the LCDs that I've looked at have a nasty watery effect then I've heard contridicting information that Plasma has a high probablity of burn-in (then others say the newer ones aren't so bad) and that plasma will go out after 60,000 hours (others say it'll just start fading a bit)....I've got a projection now and it's 11 years old and it's "fading" the picture is getting so pale and you can't adjust anything anymore.

Boy...this is sooooo hard. Any suggestions? What do you like?

[wjrhw]

I ending up going with DLP. It is HD, super lite and the only downfall is that the bulb will burn out eventually. But after you replace the bulb your back to a perfect picture. I have had my DLP for a couple of years now and I'm very pleased.

With DLP you don't get dead pixels or fading.

[Mufasa]

What do you primarily watch on your TV? Do you subscribe to cable/satellite? Any plans to add a high definition movie player in the future (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD)?

You won't really find any 50 inch plasma screens with 1080p resolution under $3,000 (I know Pioneer makes a nice PRO-FHD1 set but you're probably looking at a price closer to at least $4,000 for that set these days).

Amongst LCD sets, the Samsung LN-T4665 is a set you might want to take a look at, although it is 46" however it can be had for under $3,000 and has some excellent picture controls right in the user menu which is far beyond what a lot of sets offer with full controls so you can really tweak the set's grayscale tracking and gamma as well as support for HDMI 1.3 and the "xvYCC" color space sometimes also referred to as deep color- although there really aren't any display devices or content yet authored that takes advantage of xvYCC.

The picture quality possible from this set can definitely rival the picture quality from a good plasma display.

Why xvYCC support is interesting is that it supports a color range which is closer to what the human eye can perceive.

Rear projection sets offer good performance at lower prices and you have the option of replacing the lamp on these units when they wear out- in that case, I like the Sony KDS-A2020 series of SXRD sets- you should be able to get their 60 inch A2020 set for just around $2,000. You won't really see much picture quality differences between their A2020 series and the more expensive XBR series (what their higher level XBR series sets offer are support for things like xvYCC and HDMI 1.3 but as I mentioned before it's not something that is a must-have feature now since there aren't really devices out there that are taking advantage of the feature).

There's also the A3000 series of SXRD sets coming in August which will be between the A2020 and their XBR sets which will offer xvYCC and a faster image refresh rate- but does it justify the price difference of about $1000 over the 2020 series? Probably not.

With any TV purchase, I would plan on setting aside a couple hundred dollars to have the set professionally calibrated by an ISF (Imaging Sciences Foundation) technician to properly measure and set things like grayscale and color decoding on these sets, especially if it features as the centerpiece of a dedicated home theater.

[Vinny]

Boy...this is sooooo hard. Any suggestions? What do you like?

I know what you mean. I must have spent about a month searching, reading reviews, hitting the stores and researching HDTV's when I bought my first one before last Christmas. Although the one I have is smaller than yours (32 inches), I think it is about the biggest television that I would buy for my home theater. For anything bigger, I myself would look into the InFocus brand of HD/DLP projectors. They offer a very large viewing screen and various input hookups. I am not sure if any of their models meet the resolution that you stated in your post but they are worth a look IMO. Hope this is a help!!

[DizneyRox]

OK, let's start at the beginning...

How big is the room you are putting this into?

At 57" you are looking at a sweet spot of about 11 feet away as the best spot to view it from. If you don't have a place that large, then you absolutely need to look at smaller sets. So, let's start there, then we can work towards, Plasma, DLP, LCD, etc...

[PirateLover]

We've had a 60'' Sony SXRD for about 6 months now. It is full HD 1080. You can stand anywhere in the room, including right in front of the TV and right next to the tv and still see everything perfectly. We've had zero problems. In the reviews, A lot of people complain about the sound but it doesn't bother us. We don't really use it to watch movies very much so we don't need surround sound. It comes in 55" and 50" and all are under $3000 (before tax) at Circuit City. We ordered ours online and got a great deal. At the time, the 60' was actually cheaper that the 55!!!

[thrillme]

Wow...lots of GREAT advice. The Sony SXRD sounds pretty good. The DLP with 1080 seem pretty good too. I'm not sure how big the room is (maybe about 18x15 or something like that). In the past our old 53 inch always seemed fine until it started going out. I looked into possibly replacing the lamp but it looks like it's so old that they really don't have the part anymore. It's not HD anyway so it probably wouldn't be feasible to try to fix it. The picture on a lot of TV's today is a lot better than mine ever was even in it's glory days.

I guess no matter what I buy in about 10 years technology is going to demand that I upgrade. :(

Has anyone had problems playing ordinary DVD movies on these new HD TVs? I have a pretty sizeable collection and can't imagine throwing everything out or watching movies on only the OLD TVs. I had one friend tell me that regular DVD's looked horrible on HD TV's but I don't know whether she was blowing smoke or being a bit hypercritical comparing HD DVD to regular DVD.:confused:

[DizneyRox]

Has anyone had problems playing ordinary DVD movies on these new HD TVs? I have a pretty sizeable collection and can't imagine throwing everything out or watching movies on only the OLD TVs. I had one friend tell me that regular DVD's looked horrible on HD TV's but I don't know whether she was blowing smoke or being a bit hypercritical comparing HD DVD to regular DVD.:confused:
DVDs should look fine on a HDTV. You may need to change the configuration to handle the signal (I use component cables from my DVD to my TV, NOT S-Video or Composite). If your DVD player is progressive, then you may have to specify the signal as being progressive. That may have been what your friend was referring to.

He/she may also have been referring to standard definition TV will look horrible on a HDTV. Which may still be the case depending on how your TV upscales the information (if it does). I have gotten used to SDTV on my HDTV. It's just a fact of life.

Remember though, that digital TV doesn't necessarily mean HDTV. You may need to subscribe to your local companies HD package to receive HD programming, even if you already have a digital package.

[BigRedDad]

The previous reply was correct that the optimal viewing distance is (2 x SIZE / 10). For a 55" HDTV, it is (55" x 2 / 10) which is 11 feet.

The next decision is if you want a flat tv or rear projection. Then the next biggest question is if you want a 720p or 1080p tv. 99.9999% of cable, satellite, and local broadcasts will not exceed 720p or 1080i content for at least 10 years. The reason is the amount of bandwidth to send such a signal and the number of people requiring it. The only content you will see at 1080p is from Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs. If you do not plan on going that route, then a 1080p tv may be too much for now.

DLP tvs are extremely bright on the eyes. They also have a potential rainbow affect. Since everyone can see at different frequencies, this may not pertain to you. The brightness is something that can definitely strain your eyes. You will have to tone it down to your liking if it can even go that far down. LCDs and DLPs are alike in almost every category. You can't go too wrong choosing either. Also, neither one have image burn-in possibilities. Plasma tvs have burn-in possibilities, potential short life. When the TV goes, it is gone. Unlike DLP and LCDs where you just replace the lamp and it is brand new. Checking the price of lamps is critical. Some only sell to repair technicians. When I bought 4 years ago, Panasonic's bulbs cost $800 + service bill (~$950 to replace). My Sony cost $200 and I replace it myself with an Allen wrench.

Brands by my ranking:
1. Sony - but you will pay the premium
2. Samsung, LG, Pioneer, Mitsubishi, Hitachi
3. Philips, Toshiba, RCA, Visio, Olevia, Panasonic, Westinghouse