Any advice for purchasing a LCD TV for a couple who are completely ignorant on the subject?

Originally posted by SadButTrue
Go to Best Buy and get the Samsung spin-off Insignia, it's cheaper and the warranty is great, quality is basically the same. The only reason Samsung is more expensive is because they have to pay for commercials.

And really the specs on most tv's now-a-days are good enough really don't matter unless you have a really big TV, if you're getting 40 or smaller it doesn't matter.

Thanks for the nice post and information, this is all very useful to us here.
Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by michael1983l
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Panasonic yet. By far the best TV's. 1080p is a must and the next thing to look for is the contrast ratio - the higher the better and you want 100hz screen refresh. I am a broadcat engineer so I do know a thing or two about TV's. If you want 40" I would recommend this one

www.comet.co.uk...

Of course I am from the UK so if your not the tuners will vary and I realise it is expensive but it will be worth it. By far the best picture.

Bearing in mind that the human eye has a refresh rate equivelant to 77hz, going past 100hz rscreen refresh rate is pretty much a waste of time and is only designed to be a figure for selling points.

edit on 5-8-2012 by michael1983l because: (no reason given)

edit on 5-8-2012 by michael1983l because: (no reason given)

Thank you very much for the information and the link you so kindly provided for us here.
Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by DaTroof
No matter what anyone here says, your best option is to bring someone along who IS up-to-speed with technology, pricing, and it doesn't hurt if they know how to haggle.

Perhaps a relative, neighbor, or someone from work?

Thanks for that suggestion I was hoping my brother would be available as he is a tech junky and does electronic work for a living.
He said he is no good to us in this case because his Samsung is over five years old and he is very happy with it still so he is not up to speed on the new stuff.

I will try and think of someone we know that might be of help and up to speed on these things.

Great post and thanks
Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by Iwinder


The best advice I can give, get the cheapest in your size from wherever(yes even wal....mart...)
They are all cheap and made somewhere else than the USA so from there I just look for the pricetag.
Note: unless you watch alot of live tv,sports ,Etc. the 1080P will probably not even be noticeable, so maybe opt for the older tech and get a 720 with all of the same bells and whistles, just half price.
Now go forth and consume!

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Iwinder

 

Let me get this straight.

You allowed the Mrs. to convert the potential man-cave into a Yoga studio?

I hope you still have the garage at least.

All kidding aside, I have to agree with the cheaper brands of LED Insignia or Vizio. I have a couple and they have gave me no problems.

And to top it off, I saved hundreds by using these brands over the Big name ones.

edit on 5-8-2012 by TDawgRex because: (no reason given)

Laughing here, I draw the line at the garage, that is my marriage saver, cold beer and lots of tools.

Yes some of the posts here have got me thinking that perhaps a brand name is not necessary but I hate the thought of down the road I might get burned.

I don't know for sure but the usage will probably be only 2 hours a day or so......I might be wrong and rest assured the queen will be here later on with thoughts or questions and to thank every one for being so kind and helpful to us.

Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by Iwinder

 

The best advice I can give, get the cheapest in your size from wherever(yes even wal....mart...)
They are all cheap and made somewhere else than the USA so from there I just look for the pricetag.
Note: unless you watch alot of live tv,sports ,Etc. the 1080P will probably not even be noticeable, so maybe opt for the older tech and get a 720 with all of the same bells and whistles, just half price.

Now go forth and consume!

Thank you and your advice is being written down along with all the other great posts.
This set will be used strictly for Yoga instruction videos. Unless something happens to our set upstairs be we don't really watch tv here.

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by Iwinder

Yes some of the posts here have got me thinking that perhaps a brand name is not necessary but I hate the thought of down the road I might get burned.

Yeppers they all use the same exact tech, why buy some suit a yacht in the process??
Cheaper is better.

I have to get outside now and check up on the gardens and stuff, ohh and to check out the beer fridge also

A big thank you to everyone for the very helpful posts and ideas......

Please keep posting as this will be most helpful, I hate to spend money on something I know little about.
I believe already I can keep the sales people at bay and not let them talk over our heads now.

Keep an eye out for the queen (YogaGins)

Regards, Iwinder

You deffinately want 1080p make sure that you have the connections you need for your DVD player. I recently purchased a visio 47 inch with a 240hz refresh rate great tv excellent picture. Don't buy sony I compared them to all the others when I shopped for mine and they fail in so many ways for the price. Visio uses samsung parts.

Brands to look at are sharp,these are the best hands down. these guys invented the technology, but they are expensive. Samsung is very good. I found visio to be the best value for the money. Good value and great features and picture. Toshiba also has some good sets.As some one said earlier insignia are also good and inexpensive. I have an insignia DVD player that is several years old with surrond sound and it is an excellent piece of equipment.

LCD or LED, stay away from plasma, when I was looking even the sales people advised me to stay away from them as there are some inherint problems with the technology. Burn in has not gone away and there is a problem with viewing at an angle. Also bright light in the room will wash out the picture.

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by Iwinder

 

Yes some of the posts here have got me thinking that perhaps a brand name is not necessary but I hate the thought of down the road I might get burned.

Yeppers they all use the same exact tech, why buy some suit a yacht in the process??
Cheaper is better.

That is not true in the slightest. The TV's have to decode the signal, therefore a process takes place and the signal is converted into a picture. Therefore the best TVs have premium processes in them and better MPEG algorythms. For example my parents have got a 42" Samsung TV and the moving parts of the picture get outlined and appear unnatural. Also the cheaper screens dont have as good a contrast ratio which is the difference between the darkest and lightest color the screen can display, giving you a smaller pool of colors and grey looking black.

It all depends on what the OP wants. If the OP is happy to trade the luxuries of the higher price TV to save a bit of cash and isn't too fussed about the picture and capabilites then yes go for a discount brand. But I suspect that due to the simple reason that the OP has asked, then it appears that they want to find the best TV.

Maybe the OP can let us know what is more important to them, cost or quality or a happy medium?

Originally posted by lonegurkha


Brands to look at are sharp,these are the best hands down. these guys invented the technology,

Actually LG did and for a time nearly every flat screen TV on the market had a screen in it made by LG. Sharp are a budget brand as are Toshiba. In my opinion Samsung are a good brand for a mixture between quality and price but if you are looking for simply the best then it is Panasonic all the way, no other brand can get close to them.

reply to post by michael1983l


You may be right I really don't know.
They all work on the same cords and hookups.
And really now...
Unless you are an Eagle, can you really tel the difference?
I'm sure you will say yes, but for us normal non super powered humans, 720 is just as good as 1080.
I know a standard dvd looks like crap on my 1080 too many blocks, I back up 10 feet and it clears up, then it's like watching a 19 inch screen rather than a 42.
Whatever is cheapest is best IMHO, but spend all you want.

reply to post by g146541


Well it depends on how trained your eye is. Obviously being a broadcast engineer I have quite the sharp eye when it comes to these things. But if you want to use your TV to watch sports in HD and/or Blu-Ray films then you will certainly notice the difference between 720p and 1080p. Like I have said previously, it all depends on what the OP would prefer, the best TV or the best value.

Originally posted by lonegurkha
You deffinately want 1080p make sure that you have the connections you need for your DVD player. I recently purchased a visio 47 inch with a 240hz refresh rate great tv excellent picture. Don't buy sony I compared them to all the others when I shopped for mine and they fail in so many ways for the price. Visio uses samsung parts.

Brands to look at are sharp,these are the best hands down. these guys invented the technology, but they are expensive. Samsung is very good. I found visio to be the best value for the money. Good value and great features and picture. Toshiba also has some good sets.As some one said earlier insignia are also good and inexpensive. I have an insignia DVD player that is several years old with surrond sound and it is an excellent piece of equipment.

LCD or LED, stay away from plasma, when I was looking even the sales people advised me to stay away from them as there are some inherint problems with the technology. Burn in has not gone away and there is a problem with viewing at an angle. Also bright light in the room will wash out the picture.

Good advice and thank you, I knew about the viewing at an angle thing with Plasma but I had no idea about the bright lights washing out the picture.
Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by michael1983l

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by Iwinder

 

Yes some of the posts here have got me thinking that perhaps a brand name is not necessary but I hate the thought of down the road I might get burned.

Yeppers they all use the same exact tech, why buy some suit a yacht in the process??
Cheaper is better.

That is not true in the slightest. The TV's have to decode the signal, therefore a process takes place and the signal is converted into a picture. Therefore the best TVs have premium processes in them and better MPEG algorythms. For example my parents have got a 42" Samsung TV and the moving parts of the picture get outlined and appear unnatural. Also the cheaper screens dont have as good a contrast ratio which is the difference between the darkest and lightest color the screen can display, giving you a smaller pool of colors and grey looking black.

It all depends on what the OP wants. If the OP is happy to trade the luxuries of the higher price TV to save a bit of cash and isn't too fussed about the picture and capabilites then yes go for a discount brand. But I suspect that due to the simple reason that the OP has asked, then it appears that they want to find the best TV.

Maybe the OP can let us know what is more important to them, cost or quality or a happy medium?

I feel what we want is a very good LCD that we are going to be happy with for years to come here......I have to discount the Plasma as in the problems and cost, LED sounds nice but again the cost is quite high so I figure that if we go with a higher end quality LCD we might just cover the bases.

But I am still absorbing all the information in this thread so who knows? Not me for sure, nor the wife.
I am going to be cautious before we plunk down a large sum of money for this TV.

Once more thanks to all for the information we are gleaning off of this thread.
Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by Iwinder


My pleasure, it does matter (refresh rate). I bought a 60 Hz plasma at the end of 60 Hz period, everything on 120 Hz looks A LOT different (smoother). It actually looked weird to me at first (not in a bad way), simply because 60 Hz was the standard for most of my life. Then of course I was annoyed I didn't have 120 Hz+, heh.

Originally posted by AkumaStreak
reply to post by Iwinder

 

My pleasure, it does matter (refresh rate). I bought a 60 Hz plasma at the end of 60 Hz period, everything on 120 Hz looks A LOT different (smoother). It actually looked weird to me at first (not in a bad way), simply because 60 Hz was the standard for most of my life. Then of course I was annoyed I didn't have 120 Hz+, heh.

edit on 8/5/2012 by AkumaStreak because: (no reason given)

Can we ever keep up with the technology today???????
I don't know squat about TV's I am no fool with computers but even there it's been two years since I have bought a computer so I would be in trouble there too I suppose.

Regards, Iwinder

I figure it is like moving up 20 years progress in computers but in our case it is TV's.....
It is intimidating to say the least.

reply to post by michael1983l


Contrast ratio does matter very much as well as this poster said, specifically if you will be watching the TV in a dark room/if it's something you might be watching movies on etc. (as opposed to just doing your workout in front of). Higher contrast ratio = darker darks and lighter lights, vs. grey where you should be seeing black and dull white where you should be seeing bright white.

Anything better than 10,000:1 in my opinion is OK, that was good years ago, you'll have to research of have someone else chime in regarding what is actually decent now. It's a bit controversial anyhow as I don't think the technique they use to measure this stuff is very standardized ("the devil is in the details" kind of thing).

This thread is tricky because on one hand you are talking to a lot of techies who don't skirt the details/want to get the most for their money.

On the other hand you are saying this is EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOGA VIDEOS, lol.

If this poor TV truly has no rewarding alternate fate... yes... buy the cheapest LCD you can find (Insignia or anything with a standard warranty).

I am the kind of person that just doesn't like the middle ground. Get something good, or just get a cheap one from Wal-Mart, just don't get anything in between! Heh.

Originally posted by AkumaStreak
This thread is tricky because on one hand you are talking to a lot of techies who don't skirt the details/want to get the most for their money.

On the other hand you are saying this is EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOGA VIDEOS, lol.

If this poor TV truly has no rewarding alternate fate... yes... buy the cheapest LCD you can find (Insignia or anything with a standard warranty).

I am the kind of person that just doesn't like the middle ground. Get something good, or just get a cheap one from Wal-Mart, just don't get anything in between! Heh.

edit on 8/5/2012 by AkumaStreak because: (no reason given)

Appreciate your openness and honesty, I should have been more specific that this Yoga thing is actually a home based business which teaches at different venues in the surrounding areas.....
It's the wife's business but I am the official secretary

Yes I did get a Christmas bonus, a gift card for gas and better yet Poached eggs on toast for supper (all I could eat too)

I went over board on the eggs but I have managed to save the gas card so far here.
So quality is important as in the view ability and the cost too, but I would put the cost on the bottom of the list versus quality.

Regards, Iwinder