Well, the title pretty much sums it up. I've been researching on this forum for months, and I've actually never purchased a TV before and have been living off of the set that I inherited after high-school from my family. :eek: (I'm 22 right now, fwiw)

I ended up deciding upon a Sammy, which I bought through Cleveland Plasma -- ultimately choosing the FP-T6374. I'll be pairing it with Onkyo's S990THX, and a PS3, and, most likely, an omni or peerless mount. It may end up being between a mount and a popcorn machine and poker table...:)

I generally have pretty discriminating taste, but I am hardly a videophile, so my primary goal was size w/ very solid, good PQ, particularly w/ coloration as opposed to just blacks.

Price was also quite important -- or, value, I should say, as I wanted to pair my baby up w/ some nice friends. My budget was basically 6k for a plasma and/or sound system, mount, blue-ray. I could have spent 6k on a plasma in and of itself.

Well, this was somewhat cathartic, actually, since I haven't told anyone about the game hub I am building; that said, if anyone has read this far, my biggest concern is calibration, and that I am going to smacked hard in the head sooner rather than later in the futile battle against "The Future's Always Best". But ya, from what I understand a Sammy, in particular, needs to be tamed. I got the HD Calibration Wizard, but I am wondering whether I should really try to bring in a pro.

I really don't have any pointed questions at this time, nor anything else of worth to posit, so I won't go on. But, I will be contributing pictures of my set-up when I get it hooked up in my new crib. Chris/Cleveland Plasma has been great to work with, and I also send my thanks to this forum as a whole, which has been invaluable.

Best....

You might want to post this in the calibration forum where they discuss calibration and it's benefits

Congratulations on your purchase. Definitely enjoy what you have. Are you doing an in-wall speaker system? That would be ideal depending if you own or rent. However, congrats!

Chris

you are going to get a wide array of opinions on this. Many for your own experimenting and other who faithfully believe a qualified ISF tech can do wonders. However, its more than just that to me. Its lighting conditions, use of bias lighting and of course no matter what you do, the source has to be the best possible. I am the latter in the thinking that when combined with all of the above, including the ISF you will be in great shape. I am expecting to get many replies who may say otherwise but I doubt they can argue with any of the other points outside of doing an ISF. I have had four panels done in the last few years and personally its worked well for me.

Thx for the replies. I'm confident in my decision(s), but, to be honest, now that they have been made, I have nagging doubts about whether I went the best way and did the right things within my budget. This will probably subside once I have everything set up (I hope).

In-wall speakers would be really sweet, but I am not sure it's doable since I am renting (albeit from a home owner).

Suzook -- good points about lighting conditions...I haven't really thought much about maximizing the plasma from lighting, bias lighting, etc....I'll be living *right* on the water w/ a lot of open light streaming into my "home theatre"room from a side angle. I might have to get creative w/ lighting in order to maximize the PQ.

I'm pretty ignorant about plasmas in general, to be frank, but have a good nose for research in general and tried to feel my way through finding a good set up. Now that it's been purchased, though, I'm starting to realize there are a lot of other variables that will come into play in maximizing the plasma.

Thx for the replies. I'm confident in my decision(s), but, to be honest, now that they have been made, I have nagging doubts about whether I went the best way and did the right things within my budget. This will probably subside once I have everything set up (I hope).

In-wall speakers would be really sweet, but I am not sure it's doable since I am renting (albeit from a home owner).

Suzook -- good points about lighting conditions...I haven't really thought much about maximizing the plasma from lighting, bias lighting, etc....I'll be living *right* on the water w/ a lot of open light streaming into my "home theatre"room from a side angle. I might have to get creative w/ lighting in order to maximize the PQ.

I'm pretty ignorant about plasmas in general, to be frank, but have a good nose for research in general and tried to feel my way through finding a good set up. Now that it's been purchased, though, I'm starting to realize there are a lot of other variables that will come into play in maximizing the plasma.

You will probably get more nagging doubts if you didn't know before that Cleveland Plasma won't accept the TV back without a 15% restocking fee :p

You will probably get more nagging doubts if you didn't know before that Cleveland Plasma won't accept the TV back without a 15% restocking fee :p

Oh -- I factored that into my initial budget! ;) I should clarifiy, maybe, that my "nagging doubts" are more emotional as opposed to actually rationale. I've really never even bought a TV before, and it feels a bit weird -- good, but weird. :)

You will probably get more nagging doubts if you didn't know before that Cleveland Plasma won't accept the TV back without a 15% restocking fee :p

Regardless of how you look at it...90% of retailers don't accept returns on displays, we provide support.

Chris

whoopie doo don't brag...my 1st was a 13" black n white tv with 1 RF input and built-in vhf/uhf attenna that was hooked up with manual hand dialed cable box.
It had near pefect blacks when I used it with my Atari video game console esp when playing Tank. And at least mommy n daddy didn't pay for it thanks to my job as freelance journalist (newspaper route).

whoopie doo don't brag...my 1st was a 13" black n white tv with 1 RF input and built-in vhf/uhf attenna that was hooked up with manual hand dialed cable box.
It had near pefect blacks when I used it with my Atari video game console esp when playing Tank. And at least mommy n daddy didn't pay for it thanks to my job as freelance journalist (newspaper route).

I really hope this was supposed to be funny, otherwise I'm missing the point of this comment. I'm pretty sure he made it clear that he bought this with his own money.

As for the OP...definitely think about getting it professionally calibrated if your budget allows. You can work wonders on a set with a good calibration disc, but an ISF certified tech can work miracles. I know ISF's website has a list of all the certified people by state...check it out and get price quotes. The flip side of that is play around with your calibration disc, check the settings thread for that TV and if nothing else eyeball it until the picture looks great to you. If you still feel like you need a calibration then you can always get one done later.

By the way....welcome to AVS :)

Regardless of how you look at it...90% of retailers don't accept returns on displays

Costco will accept a return for 90 days. No questions asked. No restocking fee.

Sam's Club will accept a return for 1 full year. No questions asked. No restocking fee.

whoopie doo don't brag...my 1st was a 13" black n white tv with 1 RF input and built-in vhf/uhf attenna that was hooked up with manual hand dialed cable box.
It had near pefect blacks when I used it with my Atari video game console esp when playing Tank. And at least mommy n daddy didn't pay for it thanks to my job as freelance journalist (newspaper route).


I do believe the name of the game was Combat:cool:

Costco will accept a return for 90 days. No questions asked. No restocking fee.

Sam's Club will accept a return for 1 full year. No questions asked. No restocking fee.

Yes B&M stores, such as Costco, Sam's Wal-Mart, Target, BB, CC, Abt, Amazon, Crutchfield, just to name a few are few retailers that accept anything up to 30 days or longer.

Most Etailers/Internet Dealers do not provide these types of return policies because we as retailers have to abide by the manufacturer's/distributors policies. Big name retailers have open box items that they can still sell to make up the difference within the loss sale or return. 9 times out of 10 they can not return the displays back to the manufacturer unless its noted as defective. Unfortunately you have people that rent TV's for up 30 to 90 days. Thus Costco/Sam's tightened up their return policy.

Chris

Yes B&M stores, such as Costco, Sam's Wal-Mart, Target, BB, CC, Abt, Amazon, Crutchfield, just to name a few are few retailers that accept anything up to 30 days or longer.

Most Etailers/Internet Dealers do not provide these types of return policies because we as retailers have to abide by the manufacturer's/distributors policies. Big name retailers have open box items that they can still sell to make up the difference within the loss sale or return. 9 times out of 10 they can not return the displays back to the manufacturer unless its noted as defective. Unfortunately you have people that rent TV's for up 30 to 90 days. Thus Costco/Sam's tightened up their return policy.

Chris

Chris is so right on; we Etailers provide the opportunity to side step "retail". Our return polices may not seem very attractive (shipping costs and restocking fee) however, we can insure our customers that we will not be sending out any "open box" screens which could ultimately mean "someone else's headache". Overall, our customers are very savy, well informed buyers who have done tireless research and know what they want. If a customer is unhappy with a purchase we do try to, within perameters, meet the needs.

Happy shopping, Deb

Chris is so right on; we Etailers provide the opportunity to side step "retail". Our return polices may not seem very attractive (shipping costs and restocking fee) however, we can insure our customers that we will not be sending out any "open box" screens which could ultimately mean "someone else's headache". Overall, our customers are very savy, well informed buyers who have done tireless research and know what they want. If a customer is unhappy with a purchase we do try to, within perameters, meet the needs.

Happy shopping, Deb

Thanks Deb! You are also correct! Nice!

Chris