Sorry but this will be kinda long with lots of questions, I am a noob.
I think I have narrowed down my choices to the :Panasonic st or gt30 65", Sharp 632 or 732 (733 at costco) 70" or LG6500 65". Unless there is another option I am not seeing.
It must be 65" or larger, 3-d is not a must but would be cool. Budget must be around $2500 or lower. My lighting is kinda controlled. Viewing angle is not a concern nether is sound (running a Denon 2112 receiver) Thickness or appearance of bezel is not a factor. I will NOT be gaming on it and I already have a BR player that has all the inter-web-net stuff on it.60% would be standard dvds. 30% blu rays and 10% streaming crappy netflix.
I know it's probably hard to figure but the most important factor would be reliability. I want something that will last and be maintenance free. My 60 rp sony lcd is going on it's 3rd bulb and at $100 a pop, I am done with it. Every time we want to watch a movie, we have to discuss it because I don't want to burn out the bulb and then I worry about the fan cooling the lamp off ect, ect
From all the research I have done on these forums, it seems to boil down to person preference. I had the chance to check them out in person yesterday at a best buy.
The sales person didn't help at all and I think I may have even known more than he did.
The Lg was a 65" but he said it wasn't the 6500. It was in the magnolia dark room and it looked great except that when it went to a black screen, I saw a considerable about of light bleeding around the edges and it was more of a blue gray than a black. I like the idea of passive 3-d much better than active but I haven't really been able to test 3-d out on a TV. I have read that the 6500s PQ is not as good as others and suffers some dirty screen effects...
The Sharp 632 caught my eye only because it was big and was around $1900 at cost co but it seems that those are hard to find and are replaced by the 732. I think it was the 632 that best buy had on the wall. It was bright, very bright almost unnaturally bright. I didn't see the diamond pattern people complained about and I REALLY had to struggle to see the darkened corner problem. I kinda saw some imperfections/blurring when there was motion but not that bad.
Right above the sharp was the Panasonic st30 65". The first thing I noticed was that it was noticeably dimmer. In fact, it looked like the dimmest tv in the store. The tones looked more "film like" and natural. It just looked "smoother" to me almost like there was some anti aliasing going on or something. It didn't "pop" like the sharp did but it looked better to me if that makes any sense. Aside from the dimness, I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I have read about a slight fan noise in the rear. Not concerned with the sound but it is in essence, a moving part which means it will fail. Is this something that is easily replaced?
It was hard to tell too because the sharp and panny were being fed the dish network feed that was not hd and it was industrial lighting as opposed to the lg that was in the dark room. The sales person was almost zero help because he kept wanting to tell me about refresh rates and the gimmick of a 4th pixel on the sharp. I asked if the sets were set to "stock" and he said yes. 5 minutes later he said that they were all set to max brightness. Then when I asked about the sets half life, he told me that I could expect a newer tv to only last 5 to maybe 10 years and that the leds may develop dead pixels and the plasma may loose it's "plasma". I can't be doing this again in 5 years, my wife already wants to murder me.
Can someone comment or push me in the right direction with my decision? Is one tech more prone to failure than others? Will the panny plasma "lose" it's black levels noticeably over time? Is there any maintenance on these newer sets aside from cleaning the screen? Will one tv make standard dvds look better than another? I am pretty sure that the panny had 2-d to 3-d conversion. Is that something that is used often?
Every once in a while I get an email about one of these tvs going on sale and now that I am actively looking, I want to jump on it next time it happens. Sorry for the long post, I just want to make the right decision. Thanks in advance
I think I have narrowed down my choices to the :Panasonic st or gt30 65", Sharp 632 or 732 (733 at costco) 70" or LG6500 65". Unless there is another option I am not seeing.
It must be 65" or larger, 3-d is not a must but would be cool. Budget must be around $2500 or lower. My lighting is kinda controlled. Viewing angle is not a concern nether is sound (running a Denon 2112 receiver) Thickness or appearance of bezel is not a factor. I will NOT be gaming on it and I already have a BR player that has all the inter-web-net stuff on it.60% would be standard dvds. 30% blu rays and 10% streaming crappy netflix.
I know it's probably hard to figure but the most important factor would be reliability. I want something that will last and be maintenance free. My 60 rp sony lcd is going on it's 3rd bulb and at $100 a pop, I am done with it. Every time we want to watch a movie, we have to discuss it because I don't want to burn out the bulb and then I worry about the fan cooling the lamp off ect, ect
From all the research I have done on these forums, it seems to boil down to person preference. I had the chance to check them out in person yesterday at a best buy.
The sales person didn't help at all and I think I may have even known more than he did.
The Lg was a 65" but he said it wasn't the 6500. It was in the magnolia dark room and it looked great except that when it went to a black screen, I saw a considerable about of light bleeding around the edges and it was more of a blue gray than a black. I like the idea of passive 3-d much better than active but I haven't really been able to test 3-d out on a TV. I have read that the 6500s PQ is not as good as others and suffers some dirty screen effects...
The Sharp 632 caught my eye only because it was big and was around $1900 at cost co but it seems that those are hard to find and are replaced by the 732. I think it was the 632 that best buy had on the wall. It was bright, very bright almost unnaturally bright. I didn't see the diamond pattern people complained about and I REALLY had to struggle to see the darkened corner problem. I kinda saw some imperfections/blurring when there was motion but not that bad.
Right above the sharp was the Panasonic st30 65". The first thing I noticed was that it was noticeably dimmer. In fact, it looked like the dimmest tv in the store. The tones looked more "film like" and natural. It just looked "smoother" to me almost like there was some anti aliasing going on or something. It didn't "pop" like the sharp did but it looked better to me if that makes any sense. Aside from the dimness, I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I have read about a slight fan noise in the rear. Not concerned with the sound but it is in essence, a moving part which means it will fail. Is this something that is easily replaced?
It was hard to tell too because the sharp and panny were being fed the dish network feed that was not hd and it was industrial lighting as opposed to the lg that was in the dark room. The sales person was almost zero help because he kept wanting to tell me about refresh rates and the gimmick of a 4th pixel on the sharp. I asked if the sets were set to "stock" and he said yes. 5 minutes later he said that they were all set to max brightness. Then when I asked about the sets half life, he told me that I could expect a newer tv to only last 5 to maybe 10 years and that the leds may develop dead pixels and the plasma may loose it's "plasma". I can't be doing this again in 5 years, my wife already wants to murder me.
Can someone comment or push me in the right direction with my decision? Is one tech more prone to failure than others? Will the panny plasma "lose" it's black levels noticeably over time? Is there any maintenance on these newer sets aside from cleaning the screen? Will one tv make standard dvds look better than another? I am pretty sure that the panny had 2-d to 3-d conversion. Is that something that is used often?
Every once in a while I get an email about one of these tvs going on sale and now that I am actively looking, I want to jump on it next time it happens. Sorry for the long post, I just want to make the right decision. Thanks in advance
