42 to 50" Flat Panel Reccomendations

[Spiffyfast]

Wow, I just realized how long it is since I've posted anything on here. Anyways, its finally time to upgrade my display. I just sold my 48" Mitsu yesterday and am in dire need of a new TV soon. It was an offer from a friend that I couldn't refuse, but now I'm left with a big open space in my living room. I'm looking for a 42 to 50" flat panel, I'm not sure whether I want to go the Plasma or LCD route and my budget is 2k dollars Max. I've been checking out the Vizios at Costco and the pictures look incredible and their price point is very hard to shy away from. Any input on the Vizios or some other models and where to buy would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

 

[WmAx]

Wow, I just realized how long it is since I've posted anything on here. Anyways, its finally time to upgrade my display. I just sold my 48" Mitsu yesterday and am in dire need of a new TV soon. It was an offer from a friend that I couldn't refuse, but now I'm left with a big open space in my living room. I'm looking for a 42 to 50" flat panel, I'm not sure whether I want to go the Plasma or LCD route and my budget is 2k dollars Max. I've been checking out the Vizios at Costco and the pictures look incredible and their price point is very hard to shy away from. Any input on the Vizios or some other models and where to buy would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

The 50" Panasonic plasma is on sale this week at Best Buy for $2,000, I believe. I doubt you will find a better overall (and reliable) flat panel for that price. Please refer to the massive collection of posts concerning the modern Panasonic plasmas on various A/V sites. The Panasonic units appear to be held up as the best value, only 2nd in overall image quality compared to the considerably more expensive Pioneer plasma offerings.

Me? I have one of the aforementioned Panasonics. BTW, never base anything on the default image settings as the stores have them set up.

-Chris

 

[gzyzwc]

I actualy purchased a TH-50PX60U this week from Best Buy. I have been falling in love with it. It got great reviews on Consumer reports, and http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/ as well as all over the net. For your budget this is indeed a winner.

Thanks and good luck.

 

[brushro]

New Display

Nahhh...forget the rest & go w/ the best.....Sharp 46' LCD ( 62u Series) on sale @ www.onecall.com for $2200.00.

 

[The Dukester]

I'd also go for a plasma, either a Panny 50" or a Pioneer as mentioned above. You could shop around on the net for the Pio 5070HD. Last I looked, they were getting down close to 2k if you looked hard enough. If you have a Tweeter near by, you could also see if they have any 5016HDs left over. I bought one of these on Black Friday for 2100 and am pretty satisfied with it.
Hard to beat the Pannys or Pios for pic quality and reliability.

 

[stratman]

The 50" Panasonic plasma is on sale this week at Best Buy for $2,000, I believe. I doubt you will find a better overall (and reliable) flat panel for that price. Please refer to the massive collection of posts concerning the modern Panasonic plasmas on various A/V sites. The Panasonic units appear to be held up as the best value, only 2nd in overall image quality compared to the considerably more expensive Pioneer plasma offerings.

Me? I have one of the aforementioned Panasonics. BTW, never base anything on the default image settings as the stores have them set up.

-Chris

Right on the money, these Panny's are bullet-proof and they also give you most bang for your buck, you can't go wrong.

 

[EricAH916]

Ya I'm right where your at. $2k budget.

My first choice was the 47" vizio lcd. You can't really beat the price, native resolution of 1080. Everyone I've talked to give the tv good reviews. But they have a problem with defects in many of their tvs, which they're glad to replace for free but I've heard people go through 2,3 of them before getting a perfect one. Defects of loud fan humming, light leakage and other glarring problems.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I just installed a 47" Vizio LCD... I will happily never, EVER, recommend one or buy one in this lifetime. Very poor black levels combined with lousy processing. When you have nothing, it may look good, but this display can't hold a candle to the Panasonic plasma displays, and is even further from the Pioneers.

If you want a recommendation for a great plasma: Pioneer.
If you want good: Panasonic
For LCD? Sony, Sharp... maybe Samsung.

You can do this for a bit over $2K
http://www.bestbuyplasma.com/Plasma/Product.asp_X_Sku_Y_PDP5016HD
It's what I would do if going 50" right now and couldn't swing the extra cash for the Pro HD Pioneer series.

As it is, I think I may get a new car this year instead of upgrading the plasma.

 

[EricAH916]

Allright since your damning the Vizio maybe can give you recommendations.

See this t.v. would be used for 60% gaming, 30% movies, and 10% tv. So I figured I should go for an hd lcd.

Is plasma burn something I wanna watch shy away from? Say gaming from 3-8 hours nonstop?

 

[BMXTRIX]

Lots of gaming leans me to agree that LCD is the way to go. You will take a hit on overall performance, but gain freedom of burn-in worries. Despite some claims to the contrary, I am a firm believer that burn-in should still be a very major concern to avid gamers.

That said, I am not as familiar with the LCDs as I am with plasmas... except for that Vizio.

The three top runners seem to be Sony, Sharp, and Samsung for LCD... and my personal choice would be a tough call between Sony and Sharp.

I would look at this page:
http://www.bestbuyplasma.com/Plasma/searchresults.asp_X_ProdDesc_Y__Z_ProdTypeList_Y_3540_Z_ProdManList_Y_SHARP_Z_ReqPage_Y_3_Z_sortby_Y__Z_LastCode_Y_0

and...
http://www.bestbuyplasma.com/Plasma/searchresults.asp_X_ProdDesc_Y__Z_ProdTypeList_Y_3540_Z_ProdManList_Y_SONY_Z_ReqPage_Y_2_Z_sortby_Y__Z_LastCode_Y_0

From about $2K to $3K you will find some top shelf quality these days. Pretty damn amazing!

 

[WmAx]

Burn in, especially on Panasonics, seems extremely unlikely.

I have watched basically one channel for 95% of the time my television is turned on: Cartoon Network. A black and white logo sits on the bottom right on all shows, except for late at night, when it turns to the Adult Swim logo. After 4 or 5 months use, I noticed a slight grey outline of the logo in very dark scenes. Was it burn in? No. It was polarization. This was easily concluded after leaving the television on for 24 hours playing a different channel. The mark disappeared. Polarization is not permanent. I suspect that many people mistake polarization as burn in, especially on modern 1st tier plasmas, which appear to be (and are claimed by 1st tier manufacturers) highly immune to burn in.

I don't believe that 30 percent game time (specified by the poster) would be an issue on a high quality plasma display. If the display was used for 90 percent game play, and the same game was almost always used, then perhaps a plasma would not be the ideal choice.

-Chris

 

[EricAH916]

I have a feeling I`m going to go with a Panasonic TH-50px60u, heading to best buy tomorrow, they've got it for a dollar less than $2000.

Reviews all seem good about, it's got 2 hdmi slots which is huge plus. I wish you'd be able to take the speakers off, but hey what can ya do.

 

[WmAx]

I have a feeling I`m going to go with a Panasonic TH-50px60u, heading to best buy tomorrow, they've got it for a dollar less than $2000.

Reviews all seem good about, it's got 2 hdmi slots which is huge plus. I wish you'd be able to take the speakers off, but hey what can ya do.

Remember, BB will have it on default settings, which are horrible.

If you want to view the image in better settings(a specific tv may need a slight variation, but these will get you in the ballpark, and I am assuing the 50" version has the same menu as the 42"), go to Picture settings, and switch from Vivid to Standard. Set Picture at about + 13 to + 15, set brightness to around 0, set color to around -8 to 0, set tint from around -2 to 0, and sharpness to about +4 to + 10 max, then scroll down further(to the arrow on the setup) and you will get more settings. Change color temp to 'Normal', set Color Mng. to OFF, then select 'Other Adjust', and turn Video NR to OFF, MPEG NR to OFF and Black Level to Dark.

Also, remember, the store usually has much brighter lights then you would use in your home during television viewing, so the 'Picture' setting above may seem a little bit dim in the store environment.

-Chris

 

[EricAH916]

I stopped in before work last night to browse around a little. I haden't seen your reply, but I mesed around with the settings a bit. They definately love to set up the expensive sets a little clear, a little brighter and more vibrant than anything else.

I`ll probaly head back there tomorrow and check out those changes.

One thing I hate is how the sales people at best buy were hawking their monster cable accessories. I was hinting at buying the TV seeing if I could get some sort of deal and he's trying to sell me some $125 4' hdmi cord.

 

[Spiffyfast]

I have to say, I went against the reccomendations and ended up with the 42" Plasma from Vizio and I really couldn't be more happy. I liked the Panasonics but it was hard to find one with a PC input, which is something I really wanted. The picture is better than my 48" mitsu crt that I had before and this I can move around by myself if I'm careful. I've read about some of the reliability problems with Vizio's and its kind of hit or miss if the first one you get will be fine, so far so good, most of what I read the sets were in trouble right out of the box. I do have a hum that I can here if I mute my sound, but I don't mute my sound and just watch something so I don't notice it 99% of the time. All and all I'm very happy, I saved $500 dollars vs. the Panasonic which the model I had looked at actually had fewer inputs than the Vizio.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Dang...I am too late...I was about to say "get the Panny"...oh well...enjoy...