television guidance

[Brian Elfert]

Older plasma TVs used a lot more power and thus dissipated a lot of heat.

I have not had an issue with my newer 50" plasma. I bought a Pioneer 50" which is top of the line, but I hope to keep the TV for a long time.

[Pat Germain]

I have not had an issue with my newer 50" plasma. I bought a Pioneer 50" which is top of the line, but I hope to keep the TV for a long time.

When I was shopping for my TV several years ago, the Pioneer was the only TV I saw with a better picture than the Panasonic. Of course, the Pioneer was literally twice the price, which was outside my budget. Sadly, I heard Pioneer no longer makes televisions.

[Andy Pedler]

Add another vote for the newer Plasma TVs. The older ones were hot and power hungry, but in the last few years technology has advanced and resolved those issues.

A plasma TV from a quality vendor (I have a Panasonic and they may be the leader in plasma quality, but other top names will have similar performance) will have a more natural image than any LCD. It's an analog medium with phosphors that allows neighboring pixels to blend together which results in more natural looking motion. Technically speaking, it is not as "sharp" on a pixel-by-pixel basis, but unless you spend your time watching test patterns or the zebra network, you don't necessarily want razor sharpness. You want a picture that is bright and beautiful and easy on the eyes.

Plasmas can also create true black better than LCD's. The phosphors aren't excited so they stay off and you get true black. LCD's struggle to get similar black levels because the CFL backlight is always on, so "black" winds up being more like "really dark gray". This is the problem that LED backlit TV's solves, since they can simply turn off the LED backlight behind a portion of the screen as a function of how "black" that part of the screen wants to be. The LED backlit TVs look absolutely amazing. And as a side benefit the LED backlights use less power than CFL backlights so they are "greener".

I would buy plasma if I had to shop again now because I love mine. I watch a lot of sports and I think the images are simply amazing.

That said, I have relatives with a Sony Bravia LCD TV and it looks really good as well. We're splitting hairs on the degrees of picture quality between new TV's. And if you're upgrading from a non-HD set you'll be drooling over the image quality of any new HDTV running a 1080P feed.

Good luck in your shopping.

Andy - Newark, CA

[Neal Clayton]

When I was shopping for my TV several years ago, the Pioneer was the only TV I saw with a better picture than the Panasonic. Of course, the Pioneer was literally twice the price, which was outside my budget. Sadly, I heard Pioneer no longer makes televisions.

i sprang for one of those pioneer elite 1080p plasmas last time i moved, still using it. still the best tv i've ever seen.

i had a panasonic before, didn't really have any complaints with it, just saw the pioneer and it looked so perfect that i had to have it .

as for recommendations to the OP, the only real consideration between plasma and LCD besides which looks better to you is ambient light. plasmas with the glass screen will have glare if there are windows/bright lights near by. LCDs have a plastic screen so they don't have that issue. plasma works like old tube TVs did, so they look like tube TVs...bright regarldess of viewing angle. LCDs can have some washout at extreme viewing angles, so that's a consideration too. but if you only watch directly in front it's really personal preference.

[Bill Cunningham]

I also have the Panasonic from Costco.. I had some other 42" piece of garbage I had bought at Costco (can't even remember the name of the thing) but it died before it was two years old. I called the service center listed in the manual and they basically said warranty's up tough luck.. I called Costco and complained bitterly about wasting $2K on a piece of @$$#% that didn't even last two years.. Their answer? Bring it back, we'll give you a refund.. I was floored!! I brought it back, they gave me a full refund, and in that time, the price of the 50" Panasonics had dropped considerably, so I bought one then and there, and even had some cash left over.. I think they may have had other complaints about that 42" because there was no hesitation at all in offering me the full refund. I agree, the built in speakers are not very good, but I never use them anyway.

[Brian Elfert]

When I was shopping for my TV several years ago, the Pioneer was the only TV I saw with a better picture than the Panasonic. Of course, the Pioneer was literally twice the price, which was outside my budget. Sadly, I heard Pioneer no longer makes televisions.

Pioneer left the TV market in early 2009, but they continued to make TVs into mid 2009.

I bought my Pioneer 50" new in March of this year for $2,000 including stand and free Pioneer Blu-ray player. Pioneer had a hard time selling the last batch of TVs they made. You can still find a few brand new Pioneers out there. $2,000 was a stretch for me and the original $3,500 to $4,000 price was not happening for me.

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

Thanks for the advice and insight. I think the plasma route will be best for my situation. And thanks for the heads-up on tuning to the SD mode. That's not something I would have known to do. All of you have been a GREAT HELP! L

[Dan Hintz]

I brought it back, [Costco] gave me a full refund... there was no hesitation at all in offering me the full refund.

Bill,

I think Costco offers full refund/replacement for life on most everything they sell. After having bad luck with "Sears" brand car jacks that lasted a few weeks at best (including one that was recalled), I was going to purchase another Harbor Fright (the first one lasted me two years + before giving out). I found a similar model (both Chinese) at Costco for roughly the same price, and the lifetime warranty listed on their webpage convinced me to buy it... if it ever fails, it said to bring it back (with receipt) for a full refund. I keep my receipts for stuff like that now...

[Jerome Hanby]

I'm not too sure that among models with comparable specs that there is too much difference between brands. In Sams I noticed that Sony and Samsung seemed to be brighter than the others. Big thing I would be looking at is a model with several HDMI inputs. Seems like everyone I know that has a set with one or two HDMI inputs ends up buying a HDMI switch. I'd also spend less money for a proven technology that you know is going to work and is currently in wide acceptance over more money for bleeding edge state of the art. If the new wizz bang gizmo is the wave of the future, everyone else is going to start making them, and in 4 or 5 years you'll be ready for a new set and the price tag will be much lower.

Another factor in my next purchase is form factor. It will definitely be suitable for hanging on a wall. Having an entertainment center own the room is getting old...

[Pat Germain]

Seems like everyone I know that has a set with one or two HDMI inputs ends up buying a HDMI switch.

I'm not sure why people would bother with an HDMI switch. That's what a receiver is very good for. Shoot, you can buy a very nice receiver these days for not much dough. A decent receiver will have many HDMI inputs. You just run one HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV and let the receiver do the switching. And with the receiver, you get very good Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 sound; certainly much better than you're going to get from a "home theater in a box". You can always add or upgrade components and keep the same receiver. This isn't possible with an "in a box" system.

I think it's pretty amazing how inexpensive a nice home theater system can be these days. I remember not long ago when it took major loads of cash at a specialty store for good hardware. Now you can pick it all up at Costco for great prices. Sure, you can still spend lots of dough at a specialty store. But you can also get very good results from the inexpensive (not cheap) hardware.

[Jerome Hanby]

I'm not sure why people would bother with an HDMI switch. .

I can think of one example off the top of my head. At one time I had all my video except the cable box capable of providing s-video output. So I bought a new Onkyo receiver that could handle video switching all of those s-video inputs, cobbled together an adapter to get the cable box to s-video, and had all my functions swithed through and controlled by the Onkyo remote. If I just had to have that same functionality after all the video had upgraded to HDMI, I would spend the money on a much cheaper combination of a HDMI switcher and a Logitech remote. That Onkyo was too expensive to just toss out.

Buying all new equipment, I completely agree, why bother with an HDMI switcher.

[Dan Hintz]

In Sams I noticed that Sony and Samsung seemed to be brighter than the others.

Someone cranked up the Brightness setting?

[Jerome Hanby]

Someone cranked up the Brightness setting?

I don't think so, the displays didn't look distorted. I just noticed that in the bright florescent warehouse lighting inside Sams, some of the displays were dimmer than others. I suspect all would have been perfectly acceptable sitting in your living room, just side by side comparison underscored the difference...

[Wayne Hendrix]

I have seen several suggestions to view the picture in SD mode. Does that stand for Standard Definition and how does one go about viewing the picture in SD mode? I will soon be in the market for a new TV and appreciate all the advice being given in this thread.

[Pat Germain]

I have seen several suggestions to view the picture in SD mode. Does that stand for Standard Definition and how does one go about viewing the picture in SD mode? I will soon be in the market for a new TV and appreciate all the advice being given in this thread.

Yes, SD is standard definition. Unfortunately, most stores just pump one or two channels to all their TVs. You'd have to ask a store rep to change to a SD channel. It would be a good idea to view multiple channels. There's a big difference in quality between stations. For example, I have a local, SD station that looks downright awful on my Panasonic plasma. But looks awful on any TV. It's just a lousy broadcast.

Also, most stores display their TVs in a very poor lighting environment. That makes it hard to really judge picture quality. Note specialty stores have nice, darkened, simulated home theaters. They also typically have higher prices. (But not always.)