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Chris Jacob
I've been holding off on getting an HDTV for quite a while. I currently don't have a TV. I watch all of my TV and play all of my games on a 24" 1920 x 1080 monitor. I watch all of my TV online currently.
I want an HDTV. But I don't want one too big. 40" looks just about right for what I want. I want to be able to watch some movies, TV and play some games. I do want it to be 1080p. Some people say you can't tell the difference, but I honestly can.
I know that as soon as I get one, though, the price will drop. :(
Regardless of these guides I like my way of purchasing a TV.
1. Define a max budget
2. Save money so you can pay for the entire TV at once.
3. While saving look into LCD vs Plasma and what TV you actually want.
4. Determine how much space you actually have for a TV, in my case it fits between two bookshelves so the largest I could go, regardless of room size was a 46" TV.
5. Convince the wife a new TV is a good idea.
6. Wait for the a good deal so that you can get the TV you want, but is normally out of your budget.
7. ...
8. PROFIT!!! ...........
oh sorry let's try that again
8. Enjoy new TV after calibrating it!
Point out how big 50" TV is to wife.
Have wife get excited about the prospect of 50" HD porn. (Yes, seriously)
Go buy 50" Plasma so that you can see screen well from, *cough* "All angles."
Question, how often would it be reasonable to replace a HDTV? I have a 50 inch Sony KF-50WE620, which I kinda want to replace but it feels wasteful (and wasteful I am not!), so what do you think?
In my case, I'm very glad I got a plasma. No matter where you put the furniture you still get a good picture and our room isn't so light that an LCD's brightness would be an advantage.
@oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...: Not at all - I just got my new 42" plasma last week and it weighed the same as my old (very old, so heavier than they are now) 36" LCD.
Picture is fantastic, especially considering I got it under $600 shipped. Thanks, Dell!
@oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...: There are pluses and minuses for each type. Burn in really isn't much of a problem anymore, but why worry about it if you like the LCD's picture well enough? I don't play games on that TV and mostly watch movies and TV so a plasma works for me.
@oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...: burn in was the case for 1st gen plasmas. I have a Panny Plasma and game MW2 all the time for hours at a time. Not a trace of burn in.
@oo: Now with fewer o's: They're heavy. My 50" weighs in at 70 lbs. But, I don't know about being super cautious moving it. I just bought a stand that it mounts directly to to stabalize the unit and voila.
@Bizdady: @Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: @mikecoscia: thanks guys I honestly had no idea. We are looking at new tv's for the living room. wont be buying till march or so but plasmas are back on the consideration list now.
@ooooo: You can get image persistence on lcd also. It happened to my monitor but it's not permanent like burn in and there are ways to correct it (which takes a while).
@ripfire: yeah I mention that in a previous comment, I was saying Id take persistence over burn in dollar for dollar. but if burn in really isn't an issue any longer. Does plasma only have weight as a con now? I may have to actually read this guide.
Really the only drawback I've seen from modern plasmas is they're power hungry compared to modern LCD's. But, you can get a good sized plasma for less than the equivalent LCD as well.
@Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: yeah Im gonna go eye shopping. Honestly I may have to go cutting edge and get a super thin samsung. they are really pretty on a wall.
Back then, I remember recommending lcds to my friends and families. Then lately, I ended up with a plasma (Panny pz800). :P The quality is just too good for the price.
Ok, so, let me see if I've got this straight. Follow me on this: Some of the best new features of Blu-Ray (everything from the super-charged high resolution to the IMDb metadata) are most appealing to movie buffs and video enthusiasts, and honestly, only kind of "eh" to everybody else.
Now most of those features are all available in software and methods available to those movie enthusiasts already. As an example, I have a media server, on to which I've ripped my DVDs as isos (which is the only the strangest kind of illegal). They're lossless, stored on a single hard drive, presented in XBMC, with IMDB metadata, fast load times (with or without previews), and I have a remote application for my Android phone.
But they lock down the Blu-Rays, so I can't (yet) copy them to my hard drive. They lock down the media I give them money for, then offer me the features I'd already have if they hadn't locked it down in the first place?
@OCEntertainment: At 40gb per blu-ray you could only get 25 movies on a 1tb drive, why bother? Just put the disc in the BD player. It's not THAT much more work.
@firetwuck: It's not about convenience. It's about coolness. "Yes, that's right. Every single Blu-Ray disc on ONE drive." Not to mention, I likely wouldn't own too many Blu-Rays anyways. As some person whose name I can't remember said...Serenity is definitely better in 1080p, 5.1 Surround Sound. But Groundhog Day is still funny no matter what resolution it is.
@landoncube: Thanks for that, man. I actually haven't gotten into the Blu-Ray ripping scene yet, so it's good to know it's alive and well. Awesome.
@Eulatos: Out of curiosity, did you do any compression on your BDs? For myself, I'm a stickler for using as little compression as possible. I'd rather spend another $80-100 for another TB drive than squeeze all my movie onto the storage space I have and get pixelated movies. I mean, especially for Blu-Ray, that's just silly.
@ridgecity:
Most places I see here (Canada) have them retailing for like 5-7 more. But there are obviously exceptions (like Wolverine: $26.99 for the DVD, $39.99 for the Bluray which is nuts)
(The Borg aren't mentioned by name, but material deemed canon claims Roddenberry designated the species as the Borg.)
ABSOLUTELY WRONG... the Borg were not even conceived of as an entity until the end of TNGs first season by writer Maurice Hurley and others. There is some SPECULATION that Gene made that Voyager COULD have visited and photgraphed the Borg homeworld. BUt this was just SPECULATION on Gene's part. It is not canon and the machine inhabitants actions do not jibe with the Borg directive anyway.
WHY should the Borg care about a crappy damaged probe and help it? It doesnt make sense.
@dacheeze: Roddenberry was long dead before Voyager was conceived. After the "Q Who" episode of TNG aired, Roddenberry joked that V'Ger from the 1979 movie must have been found by the Borg.
Writers for Voyager expanded on this, giving the Borg the mission of assimilating cultures in the pursuit of perfection ("Omega"), similar to V'Ger. But there is no canon connection.
12/03/09
12/03/09
12/03/09
Now I only say that in my head.
12/03/09
12/03/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
I want an HDTV. But I don't want one too big. 40" looks just about right for what I want. I want to be able to watch some movies, TV and play some games. I do want it to be 1080p. Some people say you can't tell the difference, but I honestly can.
I know that as soon as I get one, though, the price will drop. :(
11/18/09
1. Define a max budget
2. Save money so you can pay for the entire TV at once.
3. While saving look into LCD vs Plasma and what TV you actually want.
4. Determine how much space you actually have for a TV, in my case it fits between two bookshelves so the largest I could go, regardless of room size was a 46" TV.
5. Convince the wife a new TV is a good idea.
6. Wait for the a good deal so that you can get the TV you want, but is normally out of your budget.
7. ...
8. PROFIT!!! ...........
oh sorry let's try that again
8. Enjoy new TV after calibrating it!
11/18/09
Point out how big 50" TV is to wife.
Have wife get excited about the prospect of 50" HD porn. (Yes, seriously)
Go buy 50" Plasma so that you can see screen well from, *cough* "All angles."
11/19/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
Of course, I bought a Samsung pn50b650 Plasma for $935... But, seriously, this would have been helpful!
11/18/09
I live in an apartment, so it's maybe a 20-step walk to my TV. I think I'll hold off on another TV for a while.
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
Picture is fantastic, especially considering I got it under $600 shipped. Thanks, Dell!
11/18/09
11/18/09
#tips
11/18/09
#tips
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
#tips
11/18/09
11/18/09
#tips
11/18/09
Really the only drawback I've seen from modern plasmas is they're power hungry compared to modern LCD's. But, you can get a good sized plasma for less than the equivalent LCD as well.
11/18/09
#tips
11/18/09
Back then, I remember recommending lcds to my friends and families. Then lately, I ended up with a plasma (Panny pz800). :P The quality is just too good for the price.
11/18/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
09/30/09
Now most of those features are all available in software and methods available to those movie enthusiasts already. As an example, I have a media server, on to which I've ripped my DVDs as isos (which is the only the strangest kind of illegal). They're lossless, stored on a single hard drive, presented in XBMC, with IMDB metadata, fast load times (with or without previews), and I have a remote application for my Android phone.
But they lock down the Blu-Rays, so I can't (yet) copy them to my hard drive. They lock down the media I give them money for, then offer me the features I'd already have if they hadn't locked it down in the first place?
Yes. This. Makes. Perfect. Sense.
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
@landoncube: Thanks for that, man. I actually haven't gotten into the Blu-Ray ripping scene yet, so it's good to know it's alive and well. Awesome.
10/01/09
10/01/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
09/30/09
Most places I see here (Canada) have them retailing for like 5-7 more. But there are obviously exceptions (like Wolverine: $26.99 for the DVD, $39.99 for the Bluray which is nuts)
09/30/09
07/15/09
ABSOLUTELY WRONG... the Borg were not even conceived of as an entity until the end of TNGs first season by writer Maurice Hurley and others. There is some SPECULATION that Gene made that Voyager COULD have visited and photgraphed the Borg homeworld. BUt this was just SPECULATION on Gene's part. It is not canon and the machine inhabitants actions do not jibe with the Borg directive anyway.
WHY should the Borg care about a crappy damaged probe and help it? It doesnt make sense.
07/17/09
Writers for Voyager expanded on this, giving the Borg the mission of assimilating cultures in the pursuit of perfection ("Omega"), similar to V'Ger. But there is no canon connection.