Best 60" Plasma... on a budget?  

Hey Everyone,

I want to say a quick thanks to ALL the members of these forums. The collection of everyone's opinions, reviews, and experiences is invaluable to a guy like me who researches a purchase to death so I can get the most bang for my buck.

There was recently a thread started by bcar473 about what is the best 60"+ Plasma. I almost posted there but he didn't really have a budget and I do so I felt a new thread was justified. I have also spent many hours reading the different threads and will continue to do so, but any advice to my particular situation is much appreciated.

So a bit of background. I've been looking at HDTV's for the last couple of years, and have saved up about $3000 to spend on a TV. At this point even if I wait longer, I don't think I'll continue saving, as this is about the most I'm comfortable spending on a luxury item. I'm currently using a 30" 9 year old RCA so anything will be a huge improvement. Also it will probably be at least 4-5 years before I purchase another TV. My viewing distance is about 12', in a room that is fairly dark even during the day. My wife watches mostly SD cable TV, and I would be watching mostly DVDs and HD cable TV. I also prefer to buy B&M versus online for purchases this big, although if its a good enough deal and a good reliable retailer I'd consider it. The last thing to note is that I'm okay with waiting a few more months. I'm getting really antsy, and hopefully I'll have a new TV by the end of the year at the latest, but I an wait another few months if something is around the corner or price cuts are known to be coming.

Here are the list of features I've been looking for for the past few years.

Requirements:
* 58"+ My wife has even told me that the 50" TV's in the store aren't big enough to her. A blessing and a curse as there are a lot of good options at this size.
* $3000 or less
* Wall Mountable so it can go above the fireplace
* Enough inputs for the DVD player, HTPC, Cable Box
* 720P, this isn't really a limiting factor, just a note that at my viewing distance 1080P isn't really necessary

Preferences:
* The bigger the better, I love the whole "theater" experience but FP is out of the question according to my wife. So the 60" range is pretty much as much as I can get for the money.
* Plasma, it just looks better to me, but I'm open to any suggestions.
* Reliability, As I mentioned a brand with a reputation to last 4-7 years is a big plus for me, however buying from a retailer with a great warranty program (Costco) is just as good.
* Picture Quality, My wife could care less, but to me the quality of the picture is instantly noticeable whether it be good or bad.
* The ability to directly select input source with the remote. I use a Logitech Harmony and I can see this being the type of thing that'd annoy me. But I could overlook it if it was the only issue.
* Over the air HD Tuner, I live in a big city and should be able to pick up several free HD channels. I'm probably going to pay for HD cable so not a requirement but would be nice.

So far I've been looking at two TVs, one of which doesn't even fall within my budget

60" Vizio VM60:
Pros:
* The only TV I've found that meets most of my requirements
* I like the look of the bronze bezel, but this really isn't important to me
* With the upcoming Costco coupon falls well under my budget
Cons:
* In the store the PQ is far from great. Granted this is an uncalibrated unit, but from what I've read even fully calibrated the best I could expect is slightly better than average. As noticeable as PQ is to me I'm afraid this might be a showstopper. However as I also stated I'm coming from a 9 year old SD TV so anything should look great once I've got it in the house.

58" Panasonic TH-58PX60U
Pros:
* Great picture quality, and this was on an uncalibrated unit in the store
Cons:
* Price, while its not unreasonable for what you get, it falls outside of my budget. Its about $1200 more than the Vizio. If it was even half that I'd probably already be a proud owner
* Ugly, its probably one of the least attractive plasmas I've seen but I could really care less.

There you have it. I'm guessing I'm just asking for too much for my current budget and I'm probably better off just waiting a few more months. I have read that the 58" 1080P Panny is about to come out. Think this will drop the current prices enough to be close to my budget? Or will they just leave prices the same and charge a premium for the 1080P?

Thanks for making it through this long post, and for any constructive criticism, advice, opinions, or input you may have.

-Mid

That price on TVA does look good. However thanks for the heads up on their reputation. I read around and it sounds like shopping with them is a little more risk than I'd like.

And I agree the 6070 does look like one amazing TV, but a display floor is likely as close as I'll ever get to one.

The more I read the more I think the Vizio isn't right for me. I've heard they have pretty poor SD picture quality from several people now and the wife won't like that. I guess I'll just keep waiting and hoping prices come down a bit further on the Panny.

At my local store I think the 63" Philips was only about $100 cheaper. And as far as PQ goes it fell in between the Vizio and Panny. Again these were totally uncalibrated displays. Just from my observations I felt that the Vizio's display was mediocre, but with tweaking it could probably be decent. The Philips was decent, and with some tweaking it could be pretty good. And the Panny was great, and with some tweaking could have been awesome. The Panny actually looked enough better that at the same price I'd easily have picked it over the 5 extra inches of the Philips.

My other concern was that I hadn't heard much about the Philips. I haven't done any active searches about it, but I haven't seen it mentioned too often.

So how much difference does calibration usually make? I'm a geek so I'm actually going to enjoy squeezing every ounce of performance I can out of my TV. But when looking at picture quality in store should you usually just ignore it for the most part since they aren't calibrated and set for store display?

I guess a better question is that on a 1 to 10 scale of PQ, how many notches does calibration usually increase a TV's score on average? Are we talking 1 point at most, or more likely around 2 points?

Sorry for all the questions, but thanks so much for all the responses!

Thanks for the advice!

I already have surround sound, and will probably have an HD DVR so I probably won't have a need for the cable card slot. When it comes time to purchase I'll definitely re-evaluate my needs and see if these are features I'm going to need.

Thanks for the insight on potential prices in the future. As I've mentioned I'm a bit hesitant about making such a large purchase online, but I've read some of the other threads where you've gone above and beyond for a customer and I appreciate that.

I'll be sure to give you guys a call for pricing on the 6070HD and the 58" Panny when I get a chance.

Thanks again for everyones comments