Finishing great room...25'x20' ft. and planned on mounting display long wall facing 3 sides of windows with southern exposure. Please help me confirm my "conclusions" based on info here and in other threads...

-- Am looking for at least 57/58" display (unless somebody convinces me 50-52 is OK???).

--I believe my first choice -- plasma -- would be a mistake due to glare, etc. during daytime and little chance of putting in blackened shades. True? This leaves me with LCD??

-- We watch lots of sports in HD (via satellite/cable), plus movies (BluRay via PS3 and HD-DVD via Xbox 360), plus some games via the boxes noted. Is 1080P the way to go?

-- Assuming the above is true -- are the new Samsung 1080P 81/61 and the new Toshiba lx177's worth the wait and price or would I be OK to buy the last gen 1080P sets?

-- Overall -- because things are evolving so quickly...perhaps go last gen and smaller (50-52) to save some money now and wait -- or are there enough "future proof" options available now to go for it? Another temporary "fix" is to move my Mits Diamond 65" 1080i (a monster CRT!!) from my dungeon in the basement into Great room for now...(my wife even agreed to this option).

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!! :)

(1) With that size room, I think 57/58 inch is certainly appropriate vs. 50-52 inch - as a matter of fact, depending on what you expect your viewing distances to be, you might want to go 60-65 inch, or even bigger. (It seems to me that in a "great room," you'd want a "great" big TV. You ought to at least consider getting a very large - say, 100 inch - front projector.)

(2) Plasmas in general have significantly more glare issues than LCDs, but plasma manufacturers are aware of this and have started to take steps to ameliorate the problem - at least both Panny and Pioneer have introduced some anti-glare features to some of their new plasmas that are reportedly quite effective. If you pick one of those models, glare may not be an issue for you. (Still, in general, you probably won't get all the goodness out of a plasma in a brightly lit room as you would out of a dark room.)

(3) Whether 1080P is the way to go depends to a great degree on your viewing distance. With a 57/58 inch panel, unless you are seated inside of, say, 10 feet, from the TV, you probably won't see a difference between 1080P and non-1080P. There are some excellent non-1080P panels out there.

For sports viewing (and gaming), many people are bothered by "motion blur" that is found to a certain degree on LCDs. You should check whatever you decide to buy carefully to see if that is an issue for you with the set you buy.

(4) Can't comment on specific models and whether it's worth it to wait, but do please realize there's no perfect time to buy - there's always something better out there just around the corner.


Finishing great room...25'x20' ft. and planned on mounting display long wall facing 3 sides of windows with southern exposure. Please help me confirm my "conclusions" based on info here and in other threads...

-- Am looking for at least 57/58" display (unless somebody convinces me 50-52 is OK???).

--I believe my first choice -- plasma -- would be a mistake due to glare, etc. during daytime and little chance of putting in blackened shades. True? This leaves me with LCD??

-- We watch lots of sports in HD (via satellite/cable), plus movies (BluRay via PS3 and HD-DVD via Xbox 360), plus some games via the boxes noted. Is 1080P the way to go?

-- Assuming the above is true -- are the new Samsung 1080P 81/61 and the new Toshiba lx177's worth the wait and price or would I be OK to buy the last gen 1080P sets?

-- Overall -- because things are evolving so quickly...perhaps go last gen and smaller (50-52) to save some money now and wait -- or are there enough "future proof" options available now to go for it? Another temporary "fix" is to move my Mits Diamond 65" 1080i (a monster CRT!!) from my dungeon in the basement into Great room for now...(my wife even agreed to this option).

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!! :)

(1) With that size room, I think 57/58 inch is certainly appropriate vs. 50-52 inch - as a matter of fact, depending on what you expect your viewing distances to be, you might want to go 60-65 inch, or even bigger. (It seems to me that in a "great room," you'd want a "great" big TV. You ought to at least consider getting a very large - say, 100 inch - front projector.)

(2) Plasmas in general have significantly more glare issues than LCDs, but plasma manufacturers are aware of this and have started to take steps to ameliorate the problem - at least both Panny and Pioneer have introduced some anti-glare features to some of their new plasmas that are reportedly quite effective. If you pick one of those models, glare may not be an issue for you. (Still, in general, you probably won't get all the goodness out of a plasma in a brightly lit room as you would out of a dark room.)

(3) Whether 1080P is the way to go depends to a great degree on your viewing distance. With a 57/58 inch panel, unless you are seated inside of, say, 10 feet, from the TV, you probably won't see a difference between 1080P and non-1080P. There are some excellent non-1080P panels out there.

For sports viewing (and gaming), many people are bothered by "motion blur" that is found to a certain degree on LCDs. You should check whatever you decide to buy carefully to see if that is an issue for you with the set you buy.

(4) Can't comment on specific models and whether it's worth it to wait, but do please realize there's no perfect time to buy - there's always something better out there just around the corner.

Thanks for comments...the great room has 16ft. cathedral ceilings, so I am not sure where I would put a projector; also, I have a HT setup in the basement for "critical" viewing (with the 65' Diamond).

Some interesting comments that give me pause...if I get a non-1080P panel, what will I be sacrificing? I thought Blu-Ray and HD-DVD were 1080P sources?? Wouldn't they look better on a 1080P display??

Assuming I am watching NFL Sunday Ticket on a sunny Sunday afternoon, which type of display is better -- LCD or plasma?? Anyone have comments on these new plasma anti-glare capabilities??

Boy -- this is crazy stuff!! :eek:

Thanks for comments...the great room has 16ft. cathedral ceilings, so I am not sure where I would put a projector; also, I have a HT setup in the basement for "critical" viewing (with the 65' Diamond).

Some interesting comments that give me pause...if I get a non-1080P panel, what will I be sacrificing? I thought Blu-Ray and HD-DVD were 1080P sources?? Wouldn't they look better on a 1080P display??

Assuming I am watching NFL Sunday Ticket on a sunny Sunday afternoon, which type of display is better -- LCD or plasma?? Anyone have comments on these new plasma anti-glare capabilities??

Boy -- this is crazy stuff!! :eek:



Blu-Ray and HD-DVD do indeed have full 1080P (1920 x 1080). If you are up close, you almost certainly would see a higher quality picture on a 1080P TV. At farther distances, you almost certainly would not. (What distance is the "tipping point"? I don't know - depends on your eyes.)


As far as watching NFL Sunday Ticket -- which I'll be doing every week this fall -- motion blur is a dealbreaker for me. I just can't watch sports if I see any motion blur, and I have seen it on every LCD I've ever watched (to be fair, some less than others, but I'm very sensitive to it). Some of the new LCDs (such as the soon-to-be-released Toshiba LX177 series) are using a 120 Hz technology to try to eliminate the problem - I have no opinion yet on whether it works or not. But unless and until that issue is fixed, LCDs aren't even on my "maybe" list.