Comments on: New TV in my future http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/ Helping Clog Up The Internet Since 2002 Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:03:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Josh F http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7639 Josh F Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:15:44 +0000 http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7639 Have you considered DLP televisions? I actually prefer the picture on a DLP over plasma or LCD and than other flat panels. They're immune to burn in and the new LED's are suppose to have more color than any other technology out there. I bought a 52" DLP about a year ago and love it. Have you considered DLP televisions? I actually prefer the picture on a DLP over plasma or LCD and than other flat panels. They’re immune to burn in and the new LED’s are suppose to have more color than any other technology out there. I bought a 52″ DLP about a year ago and love it.

]]> By: gw http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7623 gw Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:45:32 +0000 http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7623 We went with an LCD instead of plasma, and bought a 32" Polaroid. Yep, they make TV's. The picture was the nicest of all in our price range. It has a built-in DVD player and has media card slots, too. We're really happy with it. We were disappointed with how regular analog channels looked on it, but tweaked things and bought a different cable to use between the Time Warner digital/DVR box and the TV. I'm too brain dead to remember what cable it was. We went with an LCD instead of plasma, and bought a 32″ Polaroid. Yep, they make TV’s. The picture was the nicest of all in our price range. It has a built-in DVD player and has media card slots, too. We’re really happy with it.

We were disappointed with how regular analog channels looked on it, but tweaked things and bought a different cable to use between the Time Warner digital/DVR box and the TV. I’m too brain dead to remember what cable it was.

]]> By: Jen (yep, me too) http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7605 Jen (yep, me too) Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:58:36 +0000 http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7605 I own a 42in Panasonic plasama and it's wonderful. The only time I have any image degradation is when there are a lot of moving lights, such as at a concert, but I don't watch too many of those so it's no biggie. My T.V. displays "regular" tv quite well also. I own a 42in Panasonic plasama and it’s wonderful. The only time I have any image degradation is when there are a lot of moving lights, such as at a concert, but I don’t watch too many of those so it’s no biggie. My T.V. displays “regular” tv quite well also.

]]> By: Peter http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7601 Peter Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:52:35 +0000 http://verybigblog.com/2007/11/25/new-tv-in-my-future/#comment-7601 I worked in the crazy electronics retail for a couple years, and trust me: Vizio is no. They're not *horrible*, but you're paying less for a reason: poorer quality. At my store we optimized each set the best we could, often relying on expert settings from the avsforum.com boards (which I highly recommend for research,) and we could never get it looking nearly as good as even the other mediocre sets. Often a customer would come in purporting to be an expert and toy with it for ten minutes only to leave with it looking worse. Some people will swear by them, and you'll find a good review here and there, but I've yet to see one that stacks up to their competition. We also had a slightly higher defect rate than most other vendors, though not nearly in the range of Olevia or Polaroid sets, both of which I would rate lower than Vizio. That said, Samsung is great, especially if you're looking at a plasma. Panasonic is also worth a look in plasmas; you'll usually get a slightly lower price point than the Sammy, though I'd take the Samsung on quality. You just won't lose with either one. One thing to make sure to check out while researching is which sets better display standard definition TV. If you're not going to HD yet (and even if you are, since not everything is in HD or even close) then you'll want to make sure that you're not too disappointed in the quality. A lot of people don't realize that SD programming actually looks *worse* on an HD set because you're stretching a 480 line signal over a 720 line display rather than keeping it in its native resolution. As a designer, I don't have to tell you what happens when you enlarge a picture like that. Some TVs have better scalers than others, and it's definitely worth reading reviews that touch on this aspect. I worked in the crazy electronics retail for a couple years, and trust me: Vizio is no. They’re not *horrible*, but you’re paying less for a reason: poorer quality. At my store we optimized each set the best we could, often relying on expert settings from the avsforum.com boards (which I highly recommend for research,) and we could never get it looking nearly as good as even the other mediocre sets. Often a customer would come in purporting to be an expert and toy with it for ten minutes only to leave with it looking worse. Some people will swear by them, and you’ll find a good review here and there, but I’ve yet to see one that stacks up to their competition. We also had a slightly higher defect rate than most other vendors, though not nearly in the range of Olevia or Polaroid sets, both of which I would rate lower than Vizio.

That said, Samsung is great, especially if you’re looking at a plasma. Panasonic is also worth a look in plasmas; you’ll usually get a slightly lower price point than the Sammy, though I’d take the Samsung on quality. You just won’t lose with either one.

One thing to make sure to check out while researching is which sets better display standard definition TV. If you’re not going to HD yet (and even if you are, since not everything is in HD or even close) then you’ll want to make sure that you’re not too disappointed in the quality. A lot of people don’t realize that SD programming actually looks *worse* on an HD set because you’re stretching a 480 line signal over a 720 line display rather than keeping it in its native resolution. As a designer, I don’t have to tell you what happens when you enlarge a picture like that. Some TVs have better scalers than others, and it’s definitely worth reading reviews that touch on this aspect.

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