Need help choosing between two tv's?!

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Oliver

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#39137 10-Aug-2009 12:12

After a lifetime on CRT tvs I'm finally upgrading to the LCD/plasma world.

At the moment there are two options I'm weighing up and would appreciate any advice - I don't know too much about what I'm getting myself into...

The two choices I'm most keen on are either:

* A 50" Panasonic plasma:
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a7f637c009088be2740c0a87f3b0724/Product/View/GE6492

* Or a 42" LCD, I've seen some nice looking Samsung ones but am still looking around.

The reason I would go with the 42" is that I could also afford to get some new home theatre speakers. I'm tempted by the 50" but would have to stick with my current cheap DSE home theatre speakers... The 50" Panasonics have been on special for as low as $2300 here and that's about the top end of my budget.

Other considerations are that our lounge gets a lot of sun in the day (although the tv faces away from the windows), and that I am runnning a HTPC through the tv, and that also gets bit of use for 3D games (Halo etc).

Any advice is much appreciated - I've done the basic research on LCD vs plasma and am not too bothered which I get. Am keen to hear of any brands to go for or avoid, plus any good specials anyone has seen around Christchurch.

Cheers!

Oli

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#244704 10-Aug-2009 13:50

Thats a tough choice, the 50" Panasonic Plasma's are awesome for normal TV viewing (inc Sports), whereas the 42" LCD would be better for gaming. Plasma's use a bit more Power, the model you've specified has an anti-glare coating so it would not be effected too much by glare. LCD's use less power and are less prone to glare. Personally I'm a Plasma man myself as they have (traditionally) given much better quality blacks and dark shades as well as better performance for viewing fast paced TV (such as Sports). Would a 50" look too big in your lounge?

casper021

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#244706 10-Aug-2009 13:56

I personally prefer LCD Samsung, well thats what I have and quite happy with it

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Jaxson

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#244707 10-Aug-2009 13:58

I think lcd's are fine now for the fast moving stuff.
-They initially had slow refresh rates so a fast moving object had moved quite a bit before it next got drawn on the screen. This is mainly sorted now on most new brand name TV's.

If you're going to have the TV a while:

I'd look for integrated freeview tuner

Also look for screen resolution. You can get away with 'HD ready' / 720P resolution on smaller sized tv's (32" sort of thing) but as the screen size gets bigger, the individual pixels get bigger too. At 42" but definitely above I'd look for 'Full HD' / 1080P resolution if you want it to look the best.

There's a cool screen distance/perceivable resolution chart floating around here somewhere. You can work out what size TV you're looking at and how close to it you'll be sitting before you can see a difference in resolution.

NZCoderGuy

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#244764 10-Aug-2009 15:25

Myself having a Sony Bravia 46" FullHD LCD, i definitely recommend them - but the size is more an issue of how big is the room its going in, how far the couch/whatever you sit on, is away from the tv. I have my couch sitting about 5 or so metres away and its a decent size. However if you only sit like 2-3 meters from the tv, a 46" is going to be way too big! I do recommend both Samsung and Sony being the most common brands, but at the end of the day its your decision, and results will vary depending on what source you test the screen with. I'd recommend a test sitting with a Bluray movie and see how well the television can render it :)

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bazzer

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#244768 10-Aug-2009 15:30

gtxboyracer: However if you only sit like 2-3 meters from the tv, a 46" is going to be way too big!

Rubbish! I would say at 5 metres, you're too far from your screen. If you want to take advantage of full HD you need to sit closer. Granted, it's a little bit personal preference, but I think in general, people sit too far from their screens. Their parents' must have convinced them if they sit too close, it'll hurt their eyes!

P.S. I think this is the graph Jaxson was referring to...

NZCoderGuy

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#244771 10-Aug-2009 15:37

bazzer:
gtxboyracer: However if you only sit like 2-3 meters from the tv, a 46" is going to be way too big!

Rubbish! I would say at 5 metres, you're too far from your screen. If you want to take advantage of full HD you need to sit closer. Granted, it's a little bit personal preference, but I think in general, people sit too far from their screens. Their parents' must have convinced them if they sit too close, it'll hurt their eyes!

P.S. I think this is the graph Jaxson was referring to...

5 Meters isn't that far away from the TV - although in regards to your reply, generally when playing a PS3 game like Guitar Hero/Rockband/Burnout Paradise i usually sit about 1-1.5meters from the tv.. it looks awesome but after a few hours get sore eyes. haha

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Jaxson

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#244785 10-Aug-2009 15:47

bazzer: P.S. I think this is the graph Jaxson was referring to...

Yeah that's it, cheers Bazzer.

I converted this to m once, looks like this:
https://cdn.geekzone.co.nz/imagessubs/blogb073d299fba7f885eae6249a8df3552a.jpg

I think if you're watching a movie you should remember what it's like at 'the movies'. Seating should then be appropriate to recreate that viewing angle again. As per THX, times your display diag size (in inches) by 0.0302 to get recommended viewing distance (in meters).

http://www.thx.com/home/setup/display.html

Too far back and you might get away with a lower res tv because you're too far back to see the pixels anyway. Vice versa, if you're too close then you'll def need a full HD TV. Given a TV is a fairly major purchase now, I personally think it's better to get a full HD one with integrated tuner, or at least get one at a much cheaper rate without. You can't easily go back and pay the difference to update later though.

duckquack

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#244871 10-Aug-2009 17:39

Its important to note that the Panasonic you mention isn't full HD. I own a Panasonic PZ850 Plasma and have no regrets, however I think these comments from Consumer are valid for most Panasonic Plasma TV from my experiance.

Good points

Good picture quality. Good sound quality for a flat-panel TV. Easy to use. No viewing angle problems - like all plasma TV sets. Affordable price for a large TV. Some connections (S-video, AV composite and headphone) accessible from the front.
But

Very shiny reflective screen (even with anti glare). Moderately high power use.

CASE: Silverstone LC16-M & iMon Remote, PWRSUP: Corsair VX520W, MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, VIDEO: Gigabyte 8600GT Silent, SOUND: Onboard 8 Channels ALC889A Audio controller , CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8400,3.00GHz, RAM:Corsair DDR2-800, 2GB, HDD: SAMSUNG 500 & 750GB + 1.5TB HDD, TUNER: Hauppauge PVR-3000 and 2200, DISPLAY: Sony 55" LCD 1080p SOFTWARE: Windows 7. Also using Microsoft 360 as an extender.

Oliver

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#244887 10-Aug-2009 18:13

Great, thanks for all the replies. Will definitely get built in Freeview - it seems pretty standard for new tv's which is great. (Although a no brainer I guess if analog is getting switchd off!)

>Would a 50" look too big in your lounge?
Nope, huge lounge luckily. Those charts are great, at the moment the seats are between 8-10 feet away so according to those charts I'd be justified getting the 50". Excellent. I was a bit suspicious as the model seems like a cheap price for a 50 inch screen but I guess it's just got lower specs than other models.

I'm also looking at this Samsung Home theatre
<href ="http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a7fb784001d4416273fc0a87f3b06bc/Product/View/AE7989">
Anyone have this and dis/like it? There's a Philips one of the same price but that seems to be an end of line product.
I don't really need the DVD player but it seems hard to find a home theatre system without one - unless you buy all the components on their own.

*And by the way, how do you properly put links into posts?!?!

kiwijunglist

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#244920 10-Aug-2009 19:18

If your using for an HTPC, then there is a small chance of burn in if you get plasma, therefore LCD maybe better.

Get a TV where the pixel aspect ratio is 16:9 eg, get a 1280 x 720 pixel tv or 1920 x 1080 pixel tv. don't get a widescreen 1024x768 tv

Also since you are using an HTPC you should get a TV that supports 1:1 pixel mapping via HDMI.

I have a 46" 1080P LCDTV I have seen this model on sale for around $2300 (I paid either $3000 or $3200). Of course if you buy at this price it is older model which doesn't have Freeview Tuner Built in.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

Oliver

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#244952 10-Aug-2009 20:53

kiwijunglist: Get a TV where the pixel aspect ratio is 16:9 eg, get a 1280 x 720 pixel tv or 1920 x 1080 pixel tv. don't get a widescreen 1024x768 tv

Also since you are using an HTPC you should get a TV that supports 1:1 pixel mapping via HDMI.

I've been trying to find out if the models I'm looking at support 1:1 pixel mapping and can't find anything - even the manufacturers websites don't seem to mention it. There are a few lists showing up in a Google search but they're outdated.
Any clues as to how you would know? Is it called ever anything else? How elusive.

A few tv's I've seen have a resolution of 1366x768. My video card can do 1360x768. Does that seem odd that the video card is out by 6 pixels?

And why not go for the 1024x768 size - is it just a weird aspect ratio or something?

My video card has DVI out or S-video out. I take it the best way to connect to tv is with a DVI to HDMI cable? What about the s-video or s-video to composite cables?

The more I hear, the more confused I'm getting. Maybe I should have just bought the one that looked the nicest in the shop!

Cheers!

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

d0tn3t

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#244966 10-Aug-2009 21:19

You should take a look at the LG 42LH50 which was going for $2399 the other day at Noel Leeming. 42" Full 1080P and 200hz. Really nice TV, you should really check it out - bargain of the century.

kiwijunglist

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#244969 10-Aug-2009 21:25

Basically my TV can change pic modes Just Scan -> 4x3 -> 16x9 -> Zoom -> Zoom 14:9 etc...
Samsung 1:1 pixel mapping is called "Just Scan"

Some Tvs only do 1:1 pixel mapping via VGA, better if it does 1:1 mapping via HDMI/DVI
If you really wanna check for 1:1 mapping
Get a laptop plug it into TV via DVI->HDMI
Set resolution to match the native resolution of the panel
Set overscan to zero
Run a full screen preview of a test pattern.gif file
eg. google "tiger dave 1920 1080"
Check wikipedia for a full explanation of 1:1 mapping
Basically if it doesn't have 1:1 mapping you will see different coloured vertical or horizontal lines instead of just one colour only, because the display is averaging the pixels.

For your PC -> TV connection for best quality you should use PC DVI OUTPUT -> HDMI:DVI adaptor -> HDMI Cable -> TV HDMI INPUT

1024x768 16:9 display is oblong shaped pixels, some people have difficulty with aspect ratios, scaling etc... if the panel uses a native widescreen ratio eg. 1280x720 or 1920x1080 then its a lot easier.

If you want to have crisp txt, eg surfing the web on your TV you should need 1:1 pixel mapping otherwise txt is ugly. If you just displaying movies/pictures then 1:1 mapping is less important/noticable.

You gotta decide if you will watch TV via the HTPC or not.
If watching via HTPC then get a nicer TV that doesn't have Freeview built in (older model = cheaper so you can go for 46" 1080P samsung display)
If you think you will watch TV on the actual TV then only look at ones with freeview.
Also a lot of TVs come with mail in redemption, i got a free 5.1 receiver/speaker package via mail in redemption when i got my tv.

Also - Don't waste money on expensive HDMI cable or Power surge or extendend warranty. Don't buy HDMI cable from the TV shop bc they are overpriced. If they throw in a cable then remember the cost price of cable is probably 1/4 to 1/2 the retail price. i think powerstore does good deal, don't settle for less than 20% discount for cash. Possibly more discount if buying a model without freeview built in.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

Oliver

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#244971 10-Aug-2009 21:27

d0tn3t: You should take a look at the LG 42LH50 which was going for $2399 the other day at Noel Leeming. 42" Full 1080P and 200hz. Really nice TV, you should really check it out - bargain of the century.

Great will check it out tomorrow. That model doesn't show up on their website but I've been meaning to go and hassle the salespeople to see how desperate they are at the moment - see if they will drop prices from what is advertised...

kiwijunglist

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#244987 10-Aug-2009 22:00

I wouldnt pay $2400 for LG 42LH50 unless it has freeview built in. [url=http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/lg-42lh50/4505-6482_7-33485118.html]Apparently that set doesn't do 24P.[/url] IMHO 200Hz is a gimmick, you need a set that does 24hz/50hz/60hz. 200Hz is just interpolated frames.

A lot of people think that you can't tell the difference between 720P vs 1080P for 42" TV unless you sit very close. I have 46" TV and after having it for 6 months I wouldn't go smaller, unless you have a very small room.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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