Hello!

I've been doing research and I'm currently suffering from paralysis-by-analysis and hoping some of you could offer some advice to help us out.

The wife and I are moving into our first home and we have a budget of $1,000.00 to get an HDTV and say bye-bye to our 10 year old 32" RCA tube TV that weight a hundred tons.

We will be sitting approximately 7 to 8 feet from the HDTV. We aren't gamers. We plan to watch regular TV, cable, hd, and movies.

We most likely will by an HDTV dvd player as well.

So our questions are:

#1. At 7 to 8 feet away, is a 42" 720p good? Or is a larger size and 1080p better?

#2. Can we find a decent HDTV for $1000?

and #3. People say Vizio, Westinghouse are good. Are they? Which Plasma's are the best for the money - Sharp and Panasonic?

We are checking out the Black Friday deals and are deciding on some of those models. This Panasonic model (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasonic-42-Plasma-HDTV-TH-42PX75U/sem/rpsm/oid/175535/catOid/-12867/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do?linkid=j13459594k39085&affiliateid=k39085&mid=) is one we are debating on for $999 on Black Friday is that a good one?

Thank you ,

Paul & Nancy

check some of the black friday ads .com sites. i think best buy was going to offer a 42 pany in that range.

Panny is a good choice, why not see if you can get a Philips 9631 for about the same $$$ or maybe the newer 9731 for few bucks over ?

Excellent PQ, a good 1st HDTV, and Ambilight and PixelPlus. Perfect for the kind of use you mentioned above. :)

Thanks for that info on the Phillips.

I also found a black friday deal at micro center for what I believe is the Panasonic TH-50PX600U . Is that a decent Plasma?

I have another question - is it true that Plasma TV's use more watts and energy compared to DLP or LCD ?

Not really. I think typically a 50" uses ~300watts or so.

This Panasonic model (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasonic-42-Plasma-HDTV-TH-42PX75U/sem/rpsm/oid/175535/catOid/-12867/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do?linkid=j13459594k39085&affiliateid=k39085&mid=), is it a good one?

I'm going to pass on DLP since you have to replace the bulb every 6,000 hours apparently for a couple hundred bucks.

42" at about 8 feet away - am i good to go ?

pm5239, I just set one of those up for a friend. He bought his at CC as well. It was a good deal, and seems like a very nice PDP. Actually he got the 50" from CC, but same model otherwise. At 8' you could go with the 50"er as well, without any problems. Getting it from CC, if you thought it was too big, you could take it back and get the 42" later.

Yes plasma's use more power than LCD's and DLP's. Its one of the few downsides to plasma. If you got to cnet.com and read their reviews they post calibrated and uncalibrated power consumption.

I'm going to pass on DLP since you have to replace the bulb every 6,000 hours apparently for a couple hundred bucks.


not to dissuade you from purchasing a plasma (i have one and a d-ila as well), but every 6,000 hours is approximately once every 3 years, assuming you watch the set about 6 hours every day... ;) not a show-stopping expense...

not to dissuade you from purchasing a plasma (i have one and a d-ila as well), but every 6,000 hours is approximately once every 3 years, assuming you watch the set about 6 hours every day... ;) not a show-stopping expense...

Ahhh very interesting. Great. Thanks a lot. Now I'm back to square one. :p ;)

My decision is this (~$1,000 budget):

the 42" or 50" Panny Plasma as noted above

or

either the Samsung 50" DLP HLT5075S at Circuit City for $799 (black friday)
or the Mitsubishi 57" DLP for $1199 at CC (Model #MDE WDY577)

I know i"m not in the DLP sub forum but if anyone can chime in I'd appreciate it.

Those are my 2 choices. I may not be able to fit the 57 incher in my built-in entertainment center but I thought I'd include it in case anyone knows anything about it.

Thanks again!
Paul

Go with the 50" plasma and don't look back. Perfect size for your viewing distance.

CC will have the PX75U for $899 I believe on BF

I got it about a month ago for a killer price and absolutely love it :D

edit: sorry it's $999 on BF

The most important thing to consider when looking for a rear-projection display is whether it will look good from all seating positions because of their limited viewing angles compared to Plasmas. In order to get the best possible picture out of a DLP/LCoS you need to make sure to set up the display so that the center is at eye level since rear-projection displays are most sensitive to vertical viewing angles.

When searching for a new HDTV for my mini Home Theater, I first purchased a Sony KDS-60A3000 SXRD rear-projection but found that at my 7.5' viewing distance and on my 25" stand that the top of the screen was just too high. The top of the screen would get too dark unless I sat up uncomfortably straight on my couch. I ended up realizing that I could comfortably have an SXRD rear-projection at this distance if I jumped down in size to either an 55" or 50" and got a lower stand (in all fairness my stand is slightly abnormally high).

As a result of not wanting to buy a new stand and wanting to stay with the 60" 1080p size I ended up choosing the Pioneer PDP-6010FD plasma (was also annoyed by the silk-screen effect, SSE, on the rear-projection sets, but that is a whole different discussion). I now have a display that is completely uniform regardless of where I sit or what vertical angle I look at the TV.

With all this said, if I was trying to save a buck and really wanted the 60" rear-projection size then I would have tried again using a 12-15" stand. This may be hard to find and YMMV depending on exactly how far back you sit and what size you settle on (all these factor into the vertical viewing angle). Don't worry too much about the horizontal viewing angle though, I found it to be great on most of the rear-projection sets I looked at.

If you do want to stick with the Plasma though, then consider the 50" Panasonic TH-50PX77U. I'm thinking about getting the 42" version for my upstairs living room right now.

42" at 8' is a little on the small side. Unless you have great eyesight or spend time closer to the screen than your seating area, 1080p will not greatly improve your PQ over 720p - although it been nice on a 50" at that distance, it would be wasted on a 42".

Except for really big screen sizes, I expect rear-projection TVs to become much less popular over time. The #1 criteria for selecting a TV is screen size and until recently all large flat-panel TVs were just too expensive for many if not most people. Hence the popularity of rear-projection. Now that 50" and similar sized flat-panels are being viewed as affordable for many more people, they are buying those sets and not rear-projection because they generally have a better all-around picture. It's when you get up to 60" and larger screen sizes that rear-projection is still the only good option without taking out a new mortgage.

Although rear-projection may be dying, it is still going to be around for likely the next 5 years or possibly even more. Rear-projection still offers an excellent value to those who are willing to deal with a few very minor annoyances such as viewing angle (LCD owners already put up with this, and rear-pro is only worse vertically), depth (the new Sony 70XBR5 is only going to be 15" deep for a 70" set), bulb replacement (minor setback IMO considering that once you replace the bulb the display looks brand-new again; on a plasma or LCD you can only restore the screen back to full brightness by throwing it away and buying a new one), and SSE (Silk screen effect is only an issue for some people with rear-projection sets, it is the sparkly stuff that is on the screen to help refletion. It is easier to see if you are sitting super close to the set.).

My point is that as long as rear-projection is still a great value and offers a comparable/better picture to flat-screens (whatever technology may exist in the future) and is thousands cheaper, then people will continue to purchase them and manufacturers will keep making them. The biggest problem for rear-projections though is that they look awful under fluorescent lighting which is what you'll see at most retailers.

Consider though that you can easily find a Sony KDS-60A3000 SXRD for $1600 at most stores now. This 60" SXRD display looks better than most Plasmas and LCDs (not all, just most) and yet it costs $5000 less than the Pioneer Kuro 60" you are going to see hanging on the wall next to it. The Sony 3000 series SXRD displays even accept 1080p/24 input and 5:5 cadence to 120hz and have black levels that are right there with the Kuros.

Enough time with that one..... ultimately you'll just have to look into them yourself and make your own decision.

FWIW, I just returned a Sharp 52" LCD and bought a 58" panny PDP.

There is a huge difference in picture quality. Everything looks better on the plasma. This is just my opinion, but if you have a environment suitable for a plasma then go for it. It does produce a little bit more heat than the LCD, but that's a small price to pay for such an awesome picture.

My wife wasn't in favor of returning the Sharp and spending $800 more for the Panny, but once she saw the picture, she simply said "Wow!."

Just my $0.02,
Matt

Although rear-projection may be dying, it is still going to be around for likely the next 5 years or possibly even more. Rear-projection still offers an excellent value to those who are willing to deal with a few very minor annoyances such as viewing angle (LCD owners already put up with this, and rear-pro is only worse vertically), depth (the new Sony 70XBR5 is only going to be 15" deep for a 70" set), bulb replacement (minor setback IMO considering that once you replace the bulb the display looks brand-new again; on a plasma or LCD you can only restore the screen back to full brightness by throwing it away and buying a new one), and SSE (Silk screen effect is only an issue for some people with rear-projection sets, it is the sparkly stuff that is on the screen to help refletion. It is easier to see if you are sitting super close to the set.).

My point is that as long as rear-projection is still a great value and offers a comparable/better picture to flat-screens (whatever technology may exist in the future) and is thousands cheaper, then people will continue to purchase them and manufacturers will keep making them. The biggest problem for rear-projections though is that they look awful under fluorescent lighting which is what you'll see at most retailers.

Consider though that you can easily find a Sony KDS-60A3000 SXRD for $1600 at most stores now. This 60" SXRD display looks better than most Plasmas and LCDs (not all, just most) and yet it costs $5000 less than the Pioneer Kuro 60" you are going to see hanging on the wall next to it. The Sony 3000 series SXRD displays even accept 1080p/24 input and 5:5 cadence to 120hz and have black levels that are right there with the Kuros.

Enough time with that one..... ultimately you'll just have to look into them yourself and make your own decision.
And that's a big TV you're talking about. I don't expect to see many more RPTVs sold that are less than 60" since flat panels have become much more affordable in the 50" range. Before, many people simply considered them "prohibitive". Sure, people will gladly save a $1000 or more at a given size and go with an RPTV but shrink that delta down to a much lower figure and the flat panels become the preferred choice.