Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests In the market for a non-plasma HDTV..

I saw the recent talk of plasma tv's, and even front projectors. im just looking for a lcd/dlp hdtv.
i dont have a ton of knowledge in the subject but i have been trying to learn what i can in the time ive been shopping
Ill probably be using the tv to play games, watch tv/movies, and possibly hooking my laptop to it for a monitor.

the only reason i say non-plasma is because after comparing i personally dont think theyre worth the almost $1000 difference in price(i admit they look nicer but i dont think its worth it)

Needs/Wants-
----------
- 42"+ (42"-50" ish)
- HDTV
- Strong name (have had very good luck with samsung)
- prefer local purchase if possible
- price under $2000 (ill bend if its reasonable)

Ive checked up on pricegrabber and a few other sites. when it comes down to it after shipping, circuit city has had nearly equal prices (they also have 0% interest for a year or something) i wouldnt mind paying an extra $100 if i have a year to pay it off.
the Samsungs ive been looking at are the
-HL-R5067W
-HL-5087W

whew sorry if that was far too long. tried to cover everything



ill take brand/type/ retailer suggestions.
thanks in advance!

I recently bought a DLP. Or rather my wife did. Gotta love a wife that's more into buying that sort of stuff

I'm a huge Samsung fan, and we were going to go with one of the Samsung models (I think it was the R5067W) because the price was very competitive. But when I took the wife to go buy the one I thought was best, she saw the Toshibas and just had to have one of those despite costing a few hundred more (it was also a couple inches bigger).

I admit, the Toshiba did look better -- they had a much brighter and vibrant picture than the Samsungs, a common complaint with them. But they cost a bit more and I still prefer the Samsung name personally, although the Toshiba has, to-date, performed perfectly. You would do good with either of them.

The only thing that I can say about DLP (and LCDs too) is that you really need to be aware of viewing angles, distances, and ambient light.

If you get too big a TV for your room you have to sit too close and the picture looks grainy. A 50" TV should be about 9 feet away from where you view it for optimal viewing, within 4 feet it'll look pretty bad. And it doesn't take much off-center to have your picture quality go downhill pretty rapidly. Just standing up or sitting on the floor makes a HUGE difference in picture quality. And if the sun is shining on the screen, even through blinds, the TV is extremely washed-out and almost impossible to view.

In the stores, when they put the TVs in those darker areas, the effects of all the above are greatly lessened. Viewing angles and distances aren't affected much when it's dark, but a little ambient light cuts the angle down considerably.

None of the effects are nearly as bad as they were with the old projection TVs. But the effects are far worse than they are with a conventional television and quite a bit worse than they are with Plasma. None of them were bad enough to make me want to return my TV or anything, but they were a lot worse than I expected after viewing them in the stores.

Check Out "LG" For Great Deals On 42" And 52" DLP With Dual HDMI's, Component, S-video. Either One Can Be Had For Under $2000.00 Right Now. We Just Bought The 52" For $1800.00 If I Remember Correctly. Couldn't Be Happier With Veiwing Angle And The Rich Picture It Provides Even Without Going To HD. It's Progressive Scan And Looks Great On Video Games That Support It. Best Bang For The Buck In My Opinion As Far As DLP/LCD Goes.
We Picked It Up At Ultimate Electronics: DLP Creaminess...

i would pick a dlp over an lcd

and I would (and did) pick up a "classic" style HDTV. Phillips. It has a better picture then an LCD or Plasma. Just is heaver then the fat man meeting in the family guy.

So ive put some 'research' into this in the past week or so and read up on my reviews.
I had almost settled to this Samsung 50" DLP HDTV until i found a decent amount of reviews saying DLP is poor for gaming...and gaming is about 50% of what i plan on doing on the tv..whether it be pc-input or just simple xbox/ps2/Wii(eventually ) supposedly the DLP causes a delay in the sound (approx .6 seconds) if youve seen movies online with such delay its noticable and annoying, and i know i couldnt live with this for my games.
anyway, i plan on going in to CC probably sunday with xbox or ps2 in hand to see if they'll let me try it out
has anyone had any experience with the dlp tv's that could give some input? im starting to lean away from dlp but definetly not away from hdtv(i plan on having the tv for many years once hdtv is much more common and more channels) i may not be limiting myself to non-plasma if the right deal arises but its a stretch

thanks to everyone who responded already, and to anyone who helps in advance

I can't say I've ever noticed any delay in sound in my PS2 or GameCube games using a Toshiba DLP. And they look amazing of course.

It could have to do with the way you set-up your home-theatre system and/or the cabling you use when you do. Off the top of my head I can't recall if my consoles have their audio directly into the receiver or if they go through the TV. I assume they go through the TV, and the connection from the TV to the Yamaha receiver is an optical cable.

Yeah (except the GameCube which I rarely use I think is on composite). If you're using an HDTV and using composite inputs the picture looks worse than the picture on a non-HDTV IMO. Components are an absolute must.