I'm looking to get a new TV soon, but I'll be on a pretty tight budget. I'd like to stay around $500, but $600 is my max. In the past, I always swore by Plasmas and didn't like LCDs at all. However, I'm not really up to date on how much LED-LCDs have changed the game. Are they pretty much accepted as being the best now, or can a case still be made for Plasmas? What I really liked about plasmas was that they looked more "real", LCD pictures just looked fake to me.
I'm hoping to get a 42", really don't need any bigger than that. Would be willing to go a little smaller if I can get a better quality TV for the size-sacrifice.
One really important thing is I want a TV with as little input lag as possible. I didn't know about input lag before I bought my last Plasma and it was terrible. I read through the input lag guide on this site, and if I'm understanding correctly, if I get a 1080p TV and output my 360 in 1080p, there will be NO lag, correct? If so, all I really need to worry about is my Wii. I'd still like as little lag as possible, but I can always use Game Mode if necessary. I don't plan to hook up any of my older game systems to this TV (like NES/SNES), but if I do, I'll just use Game Mode for those as well.
2-3 HDMI ports will be sufficient. I'd love for it to have a couple component/composite inputs as well.
NOT having touch-activated buttons would be great, or at least having the ability to disable them. I already have to un-plug my 360 after playing it every time or my son will stand there and turn it on and off 100 times, lol.
I guess that's about all of my criteria. Any input would be appreciated, thanks! (I hope I didn't break any forum rules or anything with this post, please let me know if I did
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EDIT:
Based on what I'm seeing so far, I'm definitely going with Plasma. In most cases, Plasmas seem to be better about input lag than LCDs, even the better LED-lit LCDs. Panasonic Plasmas seem to be some of the best. Also, LED-LCDs only seem to be better about heat, power consumption, size/weight, and brightness (which helps when viewing in a well-lit room). The only one of those I even kind of care about is the brightness, but it's really not that big of a deal. I've never had any issues viewing a plasma in a well-lit room, and we do most of our watching in the evening anyway. So aside from those things, Plasmas are superior in regards to black level, contrast ratio, viewing angle, and motion blur, all of which are important to me. Apparently the better contrast ratios are what make the picture look more realistic, like I mentioned earlier.
So, now I just need to find a good plasma in my price range, hopefully around $500, but $600 max. I would like to get 1080p if possible, but will get 720p if I need to to stay in budget. It needs to have game mode too, but I think most do these days.
NEW QUESTIONS:
1) Do you think 1080p is important at this size (max 42")? Or will I not even notice a difference?
2) Does anybody have any recommendations or know of any deals?
I'm hoping to get a 42", really don't need any bigger than that. Would be willing to go a little smaller if I can get a better quality TV for the size-sacrifice.
One really important thing is I want a TV with as little input lag as possible. I didn't know about input lag before I bought my last Plasma and it was terrible. I read through the input lag guide on this site, and if I'm understanding correctly, if I get a 1080p TV and output my 360 in 1080p, there will be NO lag, correct? If so, all I really need to worry about is my Wii. I'd still like as little lag as possible, but I can always use Game Mode if necessary. I don't plan to hook up any of my older game systems to this TV (like NES/SNES), but if I do, I'll just use Game Mode for those as well.
2-3 HDMI ports will be sufficient. I'd love for it to have a couple component/composite inputs as well.
NOT having touch-activated buttons would be great, or at least having the ability to disable them. I already have to un-plug my 360 after playing it every time or my son will stand there and turn it on and off 100 times, lol.
I guess that's about all of my criteria. Any input would be appreciated, thanks! (I hope I didn't break any forum rules or anything with this post, please let me know if I did
)EDIT:
Based on what I'm seeing so far, I'm definitely going with Plasma. In most cases, Plasmas seem to be better about input lag than LCDs, even the better LED-lit LCDs. Panasonic Plasmas seem to be some of the best. Also, LED-LCDs only seem to be better about heat, power consumption, size/weight, and brightness (which helps when viewing in a well-lit room). The only one of those I even kind of care about is the brightness, but it's really not that big of a deal. I've never had any issues viewing a plasma in a well-lit room, and we do most of our watching in the evening anyway. So aside from those things, Plasmas are superior in regards to black level, contrast ratio, viewing angle, and motion blur, all of which are important to me. Apparently the better contrast ratios are what make the picture look more realistic, like I mentioned earlier.
So, now I just need to find a good plasma in my price range, hopefully around $500, but $600 max. I would like to get 1080p if possible, but will get 720p if I need to to stay in budget. It needs to have game mode too, but I think most do these days.
NEW QUESTIONS:
1) Do you think 1080p is important at this size (max 42")? Or will I not even notice a difference?
2) Does anybody have any recommendations or know of any deals?
