Need a little help choosing an hdtv to go with X360

[TLK2K6]

Well I hope this isn't considered off topic, but I do need a HDTV for the upcoming nex gen consoles. I've done quite a bit of my own research but I'm still stuck on what to get. Basically it has to be off Newegg.com, and no more than $1000, unless you can convince me otherwise in spending $100-200 more. I would prefer something 30"+ and it doesn't matter if its a CRT, LCD, or whatever. Theres alot of options on Newegg but I need some help in deciding. So if anyone has any opinions on the matter that would be great. Thanks.

[jvd]

wait till after the holiday , you will most likely see 200-300$ price drops in most areas

[drpepper]

I second that, wait till January if you're in the market for an HDTV.

[TLK2K6]

Well I would love to wait for prices to go down but theres a problem. The reason I want one now, and it has to be off Newegg.com is because I have the newegg prefered customer account and I want to get in on the no payments for 6 months promotion before it ends at the end of december.

[hey69]

samsung LE32 series are not bad . (also used by xbox360 demo pods i believe)

[Deepak]

I think we need an audio-video forum as suggested by Pascal.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24972

[dopefishzzz]

Your best bet would be an HDTV with a native resolution of 1280 X 720 to perfectly match 720P.

Fast response time and HDCP compliant on a DVI or HDMI port.

[Eleazar]

I would suggest going to plasmatvbuyingguide.com. It is the best place by far I have seen for everything Plasma, LCD, and DLP related. They have EDTV and HDTV reviews.

Something to know:

Plasma:
By far has the best image quality, whether your talking, color, clarity, or contrast
Is susceptible to burn-in. First 200 hours is when it is mostsusceptible. Turn that brightness and contrast down. Have it in a dark room so the brightness and contrast aren't high. Also altitudes around 6500 meters and it starts having problems. Special models do accomodate this however.

LCD:
2nd best as far as IQ goes. The larger screen sizes see a significant IQ drop. Also once the backlight and cyrstals start going bad, the IQ degenerates. no burn in

DLP:
You don't have to worry about it going out of convergence. 3rd best IQ, except at the larger screen sizes compared to LCD not plasma. no burn in

I would suggest the Panasonic rated #1 on the site I gave you. It is as susceptible to burn in as a CRT (or so the marketing says) and has a increased peak brightness of 20%. If you want a nice plasma to game on this would be it. Make sure you study up on burn-in and how to prevent it. The 200 hours, contrast, and brightness are key. Also watch out for those static images. Make sure you take the necessary measure to refresh the pixels on the tv after playing games.

[london-boy]

I think people are kinda missing the point here.

It largely depends on size and price. Those 2 combined should give you a very small range of options to choose from, whether LCD or Plasma or whatever else. After deciding what type of set you can buy, it all comes down to what you will want to watch on it.

When viewing HD material, all HDTVs of the same type (plasma to plasma, LCD to LCD and so on) will give VERY similar results. The thing to watch out for is how these HDTVs handle SD material. Some are quite good, some are just crap.

So, if you intend to watch lots of SD material, you might want to look at sets that are good with that - in HD mode they will all look gorgeous anyway.

Given your price range, i think Plasma is out of the question, unless you go for cheap plasma which is going to be quite disappointing.

I think LCD is your best option, Samsung sets are very good and very cheap for what you get. The only problem is that they don't handle SD material as well as Panasonic or Sony sets (just to give an example), but they do charge you a lot for that.

[groper]

If we are talking for LCD 32'' , the best quality / lowest possible price is Samsung LE32R51B.

[london-boy]

If we are talking for LCD 32'' , the best quality / lowest possible price is Samsung LE32R51B.

He's in the US and their sets are named differently. The LE32R51B/BDX is the name they gave to the European sets, the US name is LN-R328W i think. Same sets pretty much, apart from obvious differences due to different territories (Digital TV tuners, SCART plugs etc)

[kyleb]

I have to put in a recomendation for this Samsung SlimFit (http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?prod_id=TXR3080WHKXXAA) again. For 34" or under I can't think of anything I'd rather have.

*fixed link
*no clue what is up with the link, but you can search the site for TX-R3080WH and find it

[london-boy]

I have to put in a recomendation for this Samsung SlimFit (http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?prod_id=TXR3080WHKXXAA) again. For 34" or under I can't think of anything I'd rather have.

No HDMI. I think it's safer to get a TV with HDMI, just in case.

[Eleazar]

I was just giving making sure he was fully informed about the HDTV technologies out there. Sorry for properly educating him :roll: Anyways, in your price range I would have to agree with london boy. I can't think of any Plasmas in the price range you gave that wouldn't be very susceptible to burn-in, since you will be gaming on it. The one I suggested was in the 1900-2500 price range. As far as LCD TVs go, I would suggest you look at the site I gave you.
They have many reviews on the LCD TVs and the + and - of each. If you want to make the best informed decision possible head on over there. They also have buying tips and a whole lotta other information.

www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com (it isn't only for plasmas)

[MrWibble]

I was just giving making sure he was fully informed about the HDTV technologies out there. Sorry for properly educating him :roll: Anyways, in your price range I would have to agree with london boy. I can't think of any Plasmas in the price range you gave that wouldn't be very susceptible to burn-in, since you will be gaming on it. The one I suggested was in the 1900-2500 price range. As far as LCD TVs go, I would suggest you look at the site I gave you.
They have many reviews on the LCD TVs and the + and - of each. If you want to make the best informed decision possible head on over there. They also have buying tips and a whole lotta other information.

www.some-site-or-other.com (it isn't only for plasmas)

Are you on commission?

Anyway for HD stuff I'd suggest holding fire on any Plasma purchases. Resolution is pretty important and although some screens have middling resolutions, few if any have an exact 720p res. That means you're going to be at the mercy of the internal scalers - might be ok for film content, but isn't ideal for video games.

The same caveat applies to LCD, but it's probably easier and cheaper to find acceptable resolutions or screens with good scaling.

If you wait around a bit, maybe in the next year we'll start seeing screens with 1080p resolution which will probably be the sweet-spot in the future - I think 720p and 1080i are just stepping stones, though it might take a few years for the dust to settle.

[kyleb]

No HDMI. I think it's safer to get a TV with HDMI, just in case.
I'd say HDMI is a must at this point, and the SlimFit does have it. I'm not sure what is up with Samsung's site as my link worked when I posted it but doesn't work now, and the link to the TV's manual is missing as well but if you could check the manual you would see that the TV does have a HDMI port and I am sure a quick google search would turn up the same fact mentiioned all over the net.

[Deepak]

I have to put in a recomendation for this Samsung SlimFit (http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=TXR3080WHKXXAA) again. For 34" or under I can't think of anything I'd rather have.

*fixed link

No 720p and 16:9

[Eleazar]

I would just like to point out that the X360 does not currently have and adapter from HDMI or DVI. Thoug I beleive support is planned for it.

[kyleb]

No 720p and 16:9
It is a 16:9 display and does 720p, just fine, I wouldn't have recomended it otherwise. I don't have any use for such a smaller TV like that, but I have seen quite a few on display and the from what I have seen the TX-R3080WH is as good as it gets.

[MrWibble]

I would just like to point out that the X360 does not currently have and adapter from HDMI or DVI. Thoug I beleive support is planned for it.

Please don't start *that* argument again...

Whether or not X360 has HDMI, PS3 will have, as will most new HD devices. I'd agree that it's probably fairly essential to look for at least one HDMI port on any new display.

[dubyateeeff]

Well I hope this isn't considered off topic, but I do need a HDTV for the upcoming nex gen consoles. I've done quite a bit of my own research but I'm still stuck on what to get. Basically it has to be off Newegg.com, and no more than $1000, unless you can convince me otherwise in spending $100-200 more. I would prefer something 30"+ and it doesn't matter if its a CRT, LCD, or whatever. Theres alot of options on Newegg but I need some help in deciding. So if anyone has any opinions on the matter that would be great. Thanks.

No Plasmas in that pricerange offers HDTV resolutions AFAIK. Most offer 480p. The closest youll get is probably 1k*1k... so forget plasma and risking burn in. Go with a LCD-screen. My recommendation is a Samsung at 32.

[Eleazar]

Errhmmm, I don't remember attempting to start an argument. I just didn't know if he was privy to the fact. I just wanted to make sure he knew. I also said I don't beleive, because I wasn't sure whether or not it was true. But it appears to be so. I am not entirely concerned about his though, because if I remember correctly support is planned.

[MrWibble]

Errhmmm, I don't remember attempting to start an argument. I just didn't know if he was privy to the fact. I just wanted to make sure he knew. I also said I don't beleive, because I wasn't sure whether or not it was true. But it appears to be so. I am not entirely concerned about his though, because if I remember correctly support is planned.

A quick search would reveal that the topic has been debated at length here to very little constructive purpose. I think number of pages in the previous thread approached double figures. Whatever the plans are, they do not appear to have been firmly announced and so speculating about it is unlikely to be terribly helpful.

[Eleazar]

It seems you have a habit of misinterpreting peoples post. Oh well I tried to clarify, you just seem to always think to worst of people and their intentions. I clearly wasn't speculating about anything or attempting to do so, nor would I have any reason to search for such a topic before posting. The only time I search is to see if a question has already been asked. If I searched every topic I bring up in my posts I wouldn't have any time left for posting. It is highly absurd to expect such a thing from anyone. Well you go your way and I guess I will go my way. There was no need to be so incivil about everything.

[MrWibble]

If I searched every topic I bring up in my posts I wouldn't have any time left for posting.

An added bonus!

Honestly I wasn't trying to be uncivil, I was trying to stop you from restarting a recent argument. Given that you've been a member here for less than a month at best and these were your first ever posts, you may well have been unaware - I never said you were doing so *deliberately*.

I certainly wasn't making personal accusations, which you seem only too keen to throw around.

However I don't think it's "absurd" to expect people to look around a forum before bringing up a subject or speculating on it without any firm facts. If you've actually got some firm information about the future of HDMI output from an X360 I'm sure that would be useful. Informing someone that you think you heard something about it at some point is hardly helping.

[Eleazar]

Well, if you look at my original post, you will see your suggestion wasn't even necessary. In fact, after looking at the previous post about HDMI, I would have to say both sides of the argument would find my statement to be true. Especially since I worded it in such a way that I was not entirely sure of it being a factual statement. In fact you accused me of speculating about it and you accused me of trying to spark an argument about the topic. My previous post, in its entirety, did not warrant any such retaliation or accusatory remarks from you. Well, I propose that we let bygones be bygones. You seem like a very reasonable person to me, and I assure you I am one as well. Forgive me for any unnecessary aggression and hostility towards you. I am sure all of this is just a big misunderstanding on both our parts.

[TrungGap]

Should I give up on the idea of the hooking up my computer to a HDTV instead of a monitor? Currently, I'm using a NEC 21" CRT...It's aging and I would like something of the same quality that can double as my TV. I'm not planning of gettting HD-DVD or BR, so 1080p will be strictly for my computer.

My brother knows someone working for Sony and can get me discount. I was looking to buy a 1080p display from Sony. However, to my dismay...they don't have any reasonable priced 1080p. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough? I tried shopping.com, pricegrabber.com, cnet.com and as well as sonystyle.com.

Nothing! The only 1080p I can find from Sony is north of $7000, which even with the discount is more than what I'm willing to pay. Costco has a 37" Spectre that will do 1080p for $1500. I head about the 37" Westinghouse LCD is reasonability priced, but I heard with SD content it sucks.

Maybe I should just get a 720p HDTV and a LCD monitor...I'm considering DLPs and LCoS projectors, but anyone knows the bulb life? And how much it costs to get it replace?

[overclocked]

The Sony KLV S32 Bravia LCD was something i was thinking of, but it apparently lacks the WEGA engine that the V-series have, otherwise i think i would hit it cause its down to 1200Euro.

Any alternative in that range, Samsung some says.

[Guden Oden]

Nothing! The only 1080p I can find from Sony is north of $7000, which even with the discount is more than what I'm willing to pay. Costco has a 37" Spectre that will do 1080p for $1500.
I think, when it comes to 'cutting edge' stuff like 1080P is right now, that you pretty much get what you pay for. Not saying the Sony unit is exactly 4 2/3 times better than this Spectre whatever thing (because with Sony you're ALWAYS going to pay a certain premium because of the logo), but when the price difference is THAT great there's bound to be differences, and probably big ones.

So you drop $1500 on a 1080 TV. Probably means you got it cheap, but also that you dropped $1500 on something that was rather pap. Money well spent? Perhaps not, unless "Spectre" is like, the highest value manufacturer in the universe. ;)

Sometimes it's worth more to spend more, and when it's something important like a viewing device you're going to spend a LOT of time staring at the WHOLE TIME, I'm not so sure skimping on the quality because the price's low is such a great idea.

Well, all of this = IMO, YMMV, etc.

[wco81]

The Sony SXRD sets are under $5k at most stores here. Of course, they don't have 1080p inputs yet.

I believe they also have some new Bravias coming, maybe by WC, which will do 1080p.

While 1080p is pricey right now from the big brands, they are being marketed to the masses.

A Circuit City ad this week showed a chart and said 720p is HD but 1080p was "Full HD" and it had little graphic showing the expanded screen area of the latter.

So in a year or two, I think at least some consumers will be differentiating the resolutions, the same way they differentiate the pixel counts of digicams.

Yeah I agree, you can get something for $1500 and save money. But if you find it inadequate and have to buy another set in a couple of years, you might as well have spent the money and have gotten something better in the first place.

Then again, prices are falling and performance is getting better that you might want to spend little now with plans to upgrade when 1080p is more common, more refined and lower in price.

[NavNucST3]

Should I give up on the idea of the hooking up my computer to a HDTV instead of a monitor? Currently, I'm using a NEC 21" CRT...It's aging and I would like something of the same quality that can double as my TV. I'm not planning of gettting HD-DVD or BR, so 1080p will be strictly for my computer.

My brother knows someone working for Sony and can get me discount. I was looking to buy a 1080p display from Sony. However, to my dismay...they don't have any reasonable priced 1080p. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough? I tried shopping.com, pricegrabber.com, cnet.com and as well as sonystyle.com.

Nothing! The only 1080p I can find from Sony is north of $7000, which even with the discount is more than what I'm willing to pay. Costco has a 37" Spectre that will do 1080p for $1500. I head about the 37" Westinghouse LCD is reasonability priced, but I heard with SD content it sucks.

Maybe I should just get a 720p HDTV and a LCD monitor...I'm considering DLPs and LCoS projectors, but anyone knows the bulb life? And how much it costs to get it replace?

THe HP 65" DLPs are "only" $4500, they both accept and display 1080p*, I have not heard many complaints about the HPs, though I haven't looked in about a month. They have a 58" which could save you between $500-1500 dollars, depending where you look.

*HP and Mitsubishi use wobulation and smooth picture respectively, meaning that the mirrors are actually, 960 x 1080.

EDIT:
HP MDTV L-5 Replacement Lamp (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?product_code=L2114A&cross_link=1)
Renew picture brightness http://hpshopping.speedera.net/www.shopping.hp.com/s.gif
$349.99

[wco81]

Isn't there a lag issue with at least some DLPs and gaming? You have to wonder about the wobulation thing too, as opposed to 1:1 pixel mapping.

Also, how do these different display techs. work with light guns?

[rounin]

Isn't there a lag issue with at least some DLPs and gaming? You have to wonder about the wobulation thing too, as opposed to 1:1 pixel mapping.

Also, how do these different display techs. work with light guns?

I think the lag issue with DLPs was only with certain Samsung DLP models. I have a Toshiba DLP unit with HD4 chip (or something or other) and its fine.

And I don't think any of these new display techs work with light guns...:???:

[Guden Oden]

Also, how do these different display techs. work with light guns?
Typically not at all, as the lightgun is looking for a scanline, and other display techs don't have these.

There is at least one LED-controlled lightgun out there which will work with any type of display, but the build quality is a bit dodgy and it requires a lot of tweaking and tuning to work properly. For example, you need to re-calibrate it if you change distance or viewing angle I seem to recall.

Check out Lik-sang if you want to have a look at it, there's a pretty thorough review there, and don't worry about them selling the thing as well; Lik-sang is startlingly up-front about issues and problems with their products, they even refused to sell that new hardware NES thing they were going to carry because it was so damn crappy. :)

[NavNucST3]

Isn't there a lag issue with at least some DLPs and gaming? You have to wonder about the wobulation thing too, as opposed to 1:1 pixel mapping.

Also, how do these different display techs. work with light guns?

Yes there is lag with some DLPs, as far as wobulation and smooth picture, if you can find someone to demo 1080p for you on the sets, I think it would alleviate any issues you may have had with it, it looks fantastic.

[Eleazar]

Be very careful about which 1080p HDTV you decide to purchase. Here is something you should definetely know before purchasing.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/reality.html

There is one question I would like to ask. As far as contrast ratio goes for DLPs, have they gotten better? Last time I checked this technology they were absolutely dreadful. That was a while ago though and a lot changes with technology. As far as contrast ratio goes, does this still hold true? PLASMA>LCD>DLP? Would be interesting to know this because contrast ratio is very important for gaming.

[SugarCoat]

Isn't there a lag issue with at least some DLPs and gaming? You have to wonder about the wobulation thing too, as opposed to 1:1 pixel mapping.

Also, how do these different display techs. work with light guns?


DLPs are best viewed at longer distances (10ft+), you really dont want to buy a DLP if you plan on sitting in a beanbag at 3ft or something. And some do have problems with sound lagging behind the picture as well, even if by a few milliseconds. Bulbs unfortunetly are a couple hundred dollars and will need to be replaced often enough that you may be upset; depending on the mode, 2000-8000hours. It does varry by manufacturer.

To help the OP and get back on topic since this thread spiraled into tv's costing 4 times as much..

Plasma, too costly, power hungry, you arent going to be looking at them in the $1000 range.
LCDs are good, just need to look out for responce time, black levels (sometimes other colour distortion), and the viewing angles arent the best.
DLP like plasma wont be considered for the 1000 dollar range and generally come in sizes of around 46"+, and you absolutly dont want to use it as a monitor.
Widescreen HDTV CRT would be my personal pick for price/quality but newegg carries a very small selection of these, and most are 480p. So if you dont want to look at other places, scratch that off as well.

Personally:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824011013
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16889187004 (slightly better in the colour department, ignore the responce difference)
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16889116003

[RobertR1]

Having both a DLP (mits 62725) and a plasma (maxent mx50x3) I prefer the plasma. I often end up sitting closer to the TV when playing games and the Plasma is better at close viewing than the DLP. Perhaps it's due to the size difference? 62 vs. 50 but that's just my take on it. Oh and I've not had any burn in issue with the xbox 360, fwiw.

[rounin]

Be very careful about which 1080p HDTV you decide to purchase. Here is something you should definetely know before purchasing.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/reality.html

There is one question I would like to ask. As far as contrast ratio goes for DLPs, have they gotten better? Last time I checked this technology they were absolutely dreadful. That was a while ago though and a lot changes with technology. As far as contrast ratio goes, does this still hold true? PLASMA>LCD>DLP? Would be interesting to know this because contrast ratio is very important for gaming.

I believe DLP has alwaysh ad better contrast ratios than LCD projection / LCD.

[skilzygw]

All I can tell you about is the tv i bought. It is a 47" CRT Rear Projection tv from Samsung for $999.

Here are some links. Samsung HC-R4755W


http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=161926


Has DVI which accepts HDMI with a converter. Accepts 480i,p, 720p, 1080i


Note for gaming i would much prefer a dlp or lcd.

[kyleb]

Having both a DLP (mits 62725) and a plasma (maxent mx50x3) I prefer the plasma. I often end up sitting closer to the TV when playing games and the Plasma is better at close viewing than the DLP. Perhaps it's due to the size difference? 62 vs. 50 but that's just my take on it. Oh and I've not had any burn in issue with the xbox 360, fwiw.
Well your DLP is both larger and lower resolution than your plasma, but on top of that direct view display technolgys are inherently sharper than rear projection designs since there is less in the way between you and what is making the image. Contrast and black levels are also hurt a bit buy rear projection designs compared to plasmas, and of couse optimal viewing angles are much lower as well.

[J_Saint]

Samsung just released their xx87 series DLP's that accept 1080p via HDMI, component and possibly even VGA.

[TrungGap]

Thanks guys!

Good info and opinions on the subject. I guess I'm going to get an average HDTV (720p) for TV/Console. And get a really good LCD monitor for my computer. Afterall, I do spend more time staring at my monitor...

I've looked at a couple of Philip and Samsung's DLPs. Both are pretty good...the Philip's are brighter but the color is a little off (too vivid -- it looks unrealistic). While the Samsung looks correct, but isn't as bright. Now, consider at the showroom, they turned down the light in the area. I'm a little worry about watching TV during the day with the curtains up.

Most of the LCDs I've seen have this unnatural sharpness to it. Is it normal? Or have I been living in the world of SD too long?

[overclocked]

So in the 32-range LCD is there any good advice for a 1000-1300 Euro LCD and hows Wievsonic and Diboss for ex compared with "brands". I was going to buy The KLV S-series Sony but it lacks the Wega engine i was told im not 100%, is Samsung a better choise or are there any better series coming in following months?
Any Swedes/Europes that now more about this things..

[SugarCoat]

HDTV displays (not to mention material) are still very much in their infancy, they'll be improving the technology for years to come. Why i'd personally suggest spending as little as possible just to enjoy the content you want, and waiting. Because right now each technology, be it DLP/LCD/CRT/Plasma, has their own strengths and weaknesses. Out of the LCD research i did, i personally thought the Panasonics TC-32LX50/TC-32LX60 (TX-32LX60F/TX-32LX500 respectively) were the best image/options for the money.


http://www.panasonic.se/servlet/PB/menu/1056437_l15/index.html

[scooby_dooby]

LCD's are your best pricepoint right now.

You can get a pimp 50" LCD projection for ~$2000 CAD.