New Tv Recommendations?

[JcProAm]

I am looking at buying a new TV for the wife to play video games on in the bedroom.   We are thinking of going in the range of 37" or so.  My question is this does anyone have any recommendations?  I have 2 Vizios and they have been great but the reviews i have read online seem to indicate they are going downhill in quality lately.

[SNAAKE]

any panasonic plasma

ALWAYS panasonic plasma

[Yenome]

for games and at that size make sure the tv is 1080p or you might see some pixalation. and 120hz if your going to be playing next gen systems on it. panasonic is a good choice as well as sony, Lg, emerson was great with there old products not sure bout now days with the new tvs

[Howard_Casto]

VIZIO  ALWAYS VIZIO. 

Seriously though, the difference in tvs isn't that great anymore.  I've found that the former computer monitor manufacturers do a better job than the traditional tv companies.  Regardless vizio's are significantly cheaper than other tvs and to be 100% honest, flat panel tvs aren't nearly as durable as crts were anyway...you'll be replacing it within 5-10 years regardless of the brand.   

You can't pay any attention to reviews anymore.  I've apparently got one of the worst reviewed internet tvs of last year, and it works flawlessly.  Go to your local big-box store, check out the tv you are interested in and decide for yourself.  And don't just look at the picture either, as for the remote and fiddle around with all the settings and features.

I would suggest lcd..... plasma is outdated tech (sorry snaake), and leds are cost prohibative atm. 

[Blanka]

to play video games on in the bedroom.

 
Just give her a good book, a banana or a cucumber.

[knave]

I'm very happy with both of my Sony's I have a 32 and a 40.
I did a lot of research before picking up the second one and had I not stumbled upon the Sony on clearance, I would have gotten the 42 or 46 Vizio from Costco. Extra year warranty, easy exchange within 90 days if needed and I could physically go and check out all the TVs. Costco has sales fairly often.

I would get a LCD model. There seems to be a lot more reports of the Smart features on the newer LED models having issues like freezing, turning off etc. almost like an old PC. I wouldn't want to reboot my TV in order to watch.

While I want a internet TV, I don't really need it. I have all the consoles plus a Roku to play Netflix, Pandora, hulu etc. not to mention a media PC.
 

[whammoed]

I'm very happy with both of my Sony's I have a 32 and a 40.
I did a lot of research before picking up the second one and had I not stumbled upon the Sony on clearance, I would have gotten the 42 or 46 Vizio from Costco. Extra year warranty, easy exchange within 90 days if needed and I could physically go and check out all the TVs. Costco has sales fairly often.

I would get a LCD model. There seems to be a lot more reports of the Smart features on the newer LED models having issues like freezing, turning off etc. almost like an old PC. I wouldn't want to reboot my TV in order to watch.

While I want a internet TV, I don't really need it. I have all the consoles plus a Roku to play Netflix, Pandora, hulu etc. not to mention a media PC.
 

I got a dumb TV on purpose.  With the money you save you can purchase a smart blu ray player.  Now you have all the features you need plus you still saved money over buying the smart version of the tv plus you have a blu ray player.

[Dawgz Rule]

This is almost as good discussing button layouts and joysticks....but easier. 

Plasma....no.  This is old technology.
My recommendation would be Sony.  More expensive?  You bet. 

Every time I have gone out to purchase a TV, I spent a lot of time looking at them side by side.  Each and every time, the picture quality on the Sony wins out. 

Go to Best Buy, take a look for yourself and see what picture is most appealiing to you.  Leave and go buy one from Newegg.  No sales tax....and if you are lucky....free shipping.

[Green Giant]

This is almost as good discussing button layouts and joysticks....but easier.  

Plasma....no.  This is old technology.

Old plasma's have old technology because they are old.

New plasma's are FREAKING INSANE.  A buddy just got a 65" 3D plasma a few months ago and I must say it is amazing.  They are also insanely expensive however cheaper than equivalent LED ones.  



Don't let rumors fool you like the ones that spread for years that plasmas only last 3 years.  I think the biggest thing is many stores still have old technology plasmas they are peddling for low low prices.

Go to Best Buy, take a look for yourself and see what picture is most appealiing to you.  Leave and go buy one from Newegg.  No sales tax....and if you are lucky....free shipping.

DO NOT TRUST BEST BUY.

Improperly setting the picture settings on a TV can cause it to appear much cheaper than others.  There is a reason there is an entire industry dedicated to adjusting TV color/picture settings.  The rich actually pay people $200-300 to come to their house and adjust their TV for their particular room.

Unless you are manually adjusting the TVs at Best Buy, don't trust what your eyes see.  God I hate best buy.  It is almost as annoying as their in store website having different prices from their online website.  Go to Fry's where the TVs are properly set in a darker environment.  They don't even care if you are fiddling with the menu features at Frys although they may also allow it at Best Buy.

[Dawgz Rule]

I do hate Best Buy but that  is about all we have here to look at anything side by side.  It's that, Wal-Mart, or Sam's Club. 

[Donkbaca]

Samsung, just got a new 60" LED. It was between the Samsung and the Sony, the Samsung just looked better to me and the wife.  Most friends I know have either samsung or sony, I think the Samsung looks better,and quite frankly, I am pretty fed up with Sony, they always come up with things that have great potential and then they abandon/stop supporting them before they ever reach that potential.

Plasma will give you the best bang for your buck, who cares if its old technology and who cares if you need a new one in ten years, they are cheap and look great.

[emphatic]

any panasonic plasma

ALWAYS panasonic plasma

^^This. Also, the side by side comparison is lame, because nobody keeps 2 different sets at home, so that will never bother you later on. All huge stores get a bonus from some manufacturer to sell a certain brand, this get a nice screen adjustment, better video source etc, never trust a salesman.

[Dawgz Rule]

Also, the side by side comparison is lame, because nobody keeps 2 different sets at home, so that will never bother you later on. All huge stores get a bonus from some manufacturer to sell a certain brand, this get a nice screen adjustment, better video source etc, never trust a salesman.

1. Don't need to talk to a salesman to look at TV's.
2. Side by side at one place may validate this but that is why you go to as many places as you can.
3. A lot of people have more than two different sets at home.  If you do, you will know the difference. 

[JcProAm]

Walking around costco right now looking at them.  Vizios still look as nice as other tvs and for a better price.   I am going to get a dumb tv as I am going to hook up a boxee box to it.  Thanks for all the suggestions everybody.

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

[Howard_Casto]

Just in regards to smart tvs.....  The problems people are having with them are pretty much a myth, in terms of something being wrong with the tv.  What is wrong has to do with whatever app they are trying to use.  Just like pc apps, some of them are buggy and just work badly and some of them are a little to picky/complex for the average user to use properly. 

It's very new tech and the developers that yahoo/google are allowing to write stuff for their tvs are questionable sometimes.  It's well worth the annoyance imho... stuff like built in youtube (in HD) and the web videos app as well as stuff like a tv guide and weather app are pretty handy.

Television viewing has nothing to do with the apps... so an app may crash, but your tv viewing never will.  So yeah if the latest playjam monstrosity you downloaded to your tv crashes you might have to cycle the power, but it isn't going to happen while watching tv. 

[Vigo]

A few years ago I bought a 50 inch tv and home theater, both defective garbage. At least the TV was part of a recent class action lawsuit, and I will be getting $300 of it back in the mail soon. I am going to buy a new replacement TV, and I am pretty strongly leaning to Panasonic plasma. I don't know if is worth in investing in 3D though.

[SNAAKE]

3d is worth the investment and its not much either. most new panasonic plasmas are 3d anyway. few days ago I say a 65" 3d panasonic for like 1700 shipped on slickdeals. only if I had the room!

[DillonFoulds]

I would have suggested Samsung plasma, but I'm currently on my third FPD. My first two were plasmas, a 46" and a 50". My third is a Sammy LED. I won't get into the details of why I'm on my third display, but let me just say Samsung has an absolute unbeatable customer service department. Something you'll more than likely encounter with a FPD (fixed pixel display, LCD, LED and plasma alike) is This Black Lines. All brands get them, and once you get one, you're going to get a lot more very rapidly. Plasmas are notorious for them, as the transistors (matrix drivers) are a lot higher voltage in a plasma (TV techs feel free to weigh in here).

While the LED is nice and bright, the colors sure don't hold up to what my plasmas used to. The plasmas truly had an unbeatable picture quality. Vibrant colors and dark blacks. Couple that with the response time that LEDs aren't close to touching, and you've got a very nice display. If it weren't for having two panels crap out in a 2 year span, I would have gone plasma again, but i'm afraid that I'm done with them now.

[Howard_Casto]

 

Like I said before, plasma is outdated tech it has issues to say the least.  I would argue that the difference in picture quality is not nearly as bad as you are saying, but regardless, as you said they aren't worth the hassle.  I mean if we are going to go there a high-resolution crt has better picture quality than both... but who wants to deal with a dinosaur like that?

Just for the record though, we are 100% lcd now, and have been for a few years, haven't gotten a single black line or dead pixel.  We've got a toshiba (that the power supply failed and I had to rebuild) two vizios and a one "generico".  Their picture quality is nearly identical and if anything the toshiba looks a little worse.  People get hung up on brand names a lot and see a color difference that isn't really there.  Many of the tvs that look worse simply need their colors adjusted, different companies have different opinions of which settings look best.    The only reason that I reccomend vizio's to every one is becuase they are the cheapest and ALL tvs in this modern era are kind of crappy. 

They aren't an investment like they were back in the day when you could buy a good crt and it would last 15 or more years without issue.  People need to get that kind of thinking out of their heads.

[Vigo]

I would have suggested Samsung plasma, but I'm currently on my third FPD. My first two were plasmas, a 46" and a 50". My third is a Sammy LED. I won't get into the details of why I'm on my third display, but let me just say Samsung has an absolute unbeatable customer service department. Something you'll more than likely encounter with a FPD (fixed pixel display, LCD, LED and plasma alike) is This Black Lines. All brands get them, and once you get one, you're going to get a lot more very rapidly. Plasmas are notorious for them, as the transistors (matrix drivers) are a lot higher voltage in a plasma (TV techs feel free to weigh in here).

Funny enough, when I clicked your link, the first result to pop up was a complaint from me about that issue on the CNET samsung forums. As it's Google, I don't expect everyone to see that first though.

Samsung support has been a huge YMMV in my mind. With the thin lines issue, they pretty much told me to STFU, go pay a TV repair guy, and leave them alone. It was like clockwork 2 weeks after the warranty expired, and they couldn't even offer a suggestion to me on the source of the problem, even though it turned out it is a common issue. Of course more issues cropped up on that TV later on, which is why my purchase qualifies under the class action against them. My experience with Samsung products is they are beautiful for a few years then taking a nose dive because of cheap components used. I don't even want to get into my Sammy home theater system.

[Hoopz]

I've never had any repair issues with my Vizio, but when my warranty ended they sent me several offers in the mail to extend it.  $180 for 1 year, and something like $392 for 2 years.  The logic and math behind that offer continues to confuse me.

Somebody is dumb enough to do it and it only takes a handful to generate a nice chunk of income.

 

To the OP: I bought an LG tv last fall. My first HD set and I'm happy with it.

[Necroticart]

Honestly skip the TV and get this and a cheap elite screen. This projector is sharp has a high lumen output so you can use it during daylight hours and you get 3D this is really the best bang for your buck until the LED projectors are refined. also keep in mind most games are scaled to or in 720p and even all 3D gaming is 720p

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005G2HR6W/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d1_g23_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0MEX0M41RERJT5YD25MR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

So long as you're dealing with 1080P I'm just not seeing tons of difference between various manufacturers.  WalMart's got 50 of them lined up here and they all look pretty damned good to me.

The only time your going to benefit from 1080p is if your watching bluray since it's native 1080p any other lower res will blur because the display has to upscale the image. 

[Dawgz Rule]

I'll stick with my Sony LCD's.  The oldest one we have is five years and old and still works like a champ.  Have never had an issue with them.  More often than not, when guests are over, I get comments about the great picture.  Yes, HD is HD but there is something about the color on a Sony (IMHO).  If I am in the market for a TV, I typically wait until right after the Superbowl Sunday and score a great price.  The last two were purchased via Newegg.

[Samstag]

I've never had any repair issues with my Vizio, but when my warranty ended they sent me several offers in the mail to extend it.  $180 for 1 year, and something like $392 for 2 years.  The logic and math behind that offer continues to confuse me.

If it isn't a mistake, it means they don't have a lot of confidence in that model surviving another 2 years.

[Louis Tully]

.

[Dawgz Rule]

The size is typically driven by viewing distance.  Just google "what size TV is right for my room" or something similar. 

[Necroticart]

I suggest using the calculator on the bottom of the this page 

http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter