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  1. Member
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    Hi all, I'm sorry if this isn't the right section to post this but I had a question, I'm going to be buying a HDTV this weekend and would like some help on choosing. I have some stipulations though
    1. it will have to be bought from best buy "I'm using my best buy card to purchase"
    2. I would like nothing smaller than a 46"
    3. I would like it to be really close to or under $1000
    4. I would like the absolute best picture possible

    I will be using the TV for primarily playing Xbox 360 "mostly First person shooters and car racing games" and watching movies from streaming netflix threw my xbox or watching a DVD from a backup I have on my computer.

    I have been looking at LED tv's but I want a full array with dimming light configuration and best buy doesn't have that info on their site, I have looked up a bunch of model numbers and all have been edge lit. My reasoning for not going with an edge lit set is because i don't want to see light around the sides when there's a dark scene.

    What suggestions do you all have? Thank you all in advanced
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  2. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by drifter666 View Post
    Hi all, I'm sorry if this isn't the right section to post this but I had a question, I'm going to be buying a HDTV this weekend and would like some help on choosing. I have some stipulations though
    1. it will have to be bought from best buy "I'm using my best buy card to purchase"
    2. I would like nothing smaller than a 46"
    3. I would like it to be really close to or under $1000
    4. I would like the absolute best picture possible

    I will be using the TV for primarily playing Xbox 360 "mostly First person shooters and car racing games" and watching movies from streaming netflix threw my xbox or watching a DVD from a backup I have on my computer.

    I have been looking at LED tv's but I want a full array with dimming light configuration and best buy doesn't have that info on their site, I have looked up a bunch of model numbers and all have been edge lit. My reasoning for not going with an edge lit set is because i don't want to see light around the sides when there's a dark scene.

    What suggestions do you all have? Thank you all in advanced
    Most conform to your needs. Samsung and Sony usually rate at or near the top for LED.

    So I guess you have narrowed choice down to LED edge lit vs. array for $1000?

    Are there any 46" LED back light for $1000 ?
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  3. Member lacywest's Avatar
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    I've got 2 brands in my home ... Sony and Panasonic. The Sony 51" was bought in 2005 and does not have a HD tuner in it. We have it connected to our Directv box with HD out ... and I use the ... component video connection to display High Def on it. Works fine.

    BUT ... I am not happy with the way it displays a show or movie that is not HD ... to begin with. Seems to hit or miss some of the information on the sides.

    And I have two more Sony HDTVs ... but these are new ... with HD Tuners inside ... Size for these two are ... 31.5 "

    I dont have the same problem as the older 51" ... but it is because I use it as my PC monitor and my Nvidia 9500GT video card can be adjusted ... using the resize feature in the Nvidia control panel. I've got the screen filled to the very edge.

    The other Sony HDTV ... 31.5 " ... is in my wife's daughter's bedroom ... and I dont go in there ... LOL ...

    Okay here is the good news .... In my bedroom I have a Panasonic 42" HDTV ... bought in 2007 ... and it is a Plasma model.

    Works great ... I have it connected to a Pioneer Elite Receiver and all my connections go through my Pioneer Elite Receiver first.

    As for displaying ... a SD letter box TV show ... no problem.

    Example ... the SY FY channel .... we dont get it in HD ... my Directv Box is the HR10-250 ... and wont receive the SY FY channel in HD.

    The Panasonic has some very useful video presets sizes ... if I'm watching a show on the SY FY channel that is letter box ... I can hit the video button on my Panasonic remote and it will fill the screen ... perfectly ... takes about 3 button pushes to get the size displayed the way I like it.

    So ... when you go out looking ... consider the Panasonic models.

    My sister has a Samsung 50" ... they just got it ... a year ago. OH GAWD ... they are not even using it correctly ... they actually had a Best Buy guy come out and set it up. They have their DVD Player connected to it ... using the composite video connection. They are not using ... video component connections. When we go there for the holiday get togethers ... and watch videos ... the faces on the people are all washed out ... looks like your looking at cartoon faces. I told my sister ... what she is doing wrong ... and her answer was ... "looks okay to me"

    I guess after looking at a Zenith 25" tube TV for the past 15 years or more ... it does look okay to her.
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    Most conform to your needs. Samsung and Sony usually rate at or near the top for LED.

    So I guess you have narrowed choice down to LED edge lit vs. array for $1000?

    Are there any 46" LED back light for $1000 ?
    First off thank you for replying.

    Not at all I'm open to all types and brands I was just saying that because I don't want the light coming threw when a scene gets dark. I asked a best buy tech to kill the video signal on a tv so I could see what it looked like with a black screen and she just brought up the menu, what im going to do is put a letterbox movie on a flash drive and see if I can play it.

    They had a 46" Sony Bravia on display and let me tell you the picture looked amazing, but I asked them to put something other than a bluray in and they said "the TV isnt hooked up to the stores video feed only the dvd player" so I know its not going to be easy finding one that for lack of a better term looks great without having a bestbuy tech tuning it.

    If I was to connect everything to the TV it will be threw HDMI I do have a Xbox "the first one" a PS2 and "yes I know don't start" a dreamcast which I will run threw the composite plug.

    Lacywest thank you for your input I will check into Panasonic next time I go to best buy
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  5. If you must have "the absolute best picture possible" you want a plasma.
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  6. you pretty much answered your question

    if you don't like the "edge lit" then plasma all the way, period. no lcd has complete black background and will not have it ever

    plasma has more natural colors, and handles better analogue signal (not all is digital); that's why I ended up getting one
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  7. Member lacywest's Avatar
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    An addon ...

    The Sony 51" ... is projection ... when I saw how nice the picture looked on my sister's 50" Samsung ... [knowing I would have it connected correctly] ... I started considering gettting one myself ... but my wife said ... we can't afford one. I do have a Samsung 17" and a Samsung 19" LCD monitor for my PCs elsewhere in the house and picture looks great ... no side edge light problems. Westinghouse monitors ... uh uh .. no way ... I took them back.

    When my wife said ... no ... to upgrading our living room TV ... I did the next best thing. I pulled this monster out from the wall and took a look inside. I removed the back masonite peg board covers and saw mega thickness of dust and dust bunnies.

    I brought the Air compressor into the living room from the garage and I had my wife and her daughter standing next to me with 2 vacuum cleaners with suction nozzle hoses and as I blew the dust out ... they sucked up the dust flying around in the air. There was 3 [RED BLUE GREEN] light lenses aiming at a mirror and reflecting onto the front screen. The light lenses were also super dirty too. They got blown off too.

    Definitely made a huge difference ... we knew something was up from how our TV looked. My wife has a lady friend ... Linda ... who has a Sony 64" projection HDTV and her picture looks great and it is slightly older than ours ... so why is ours looking so bad.

    My clue was ... Linda ... makes you take off your shoes before walking into her house ... and when I worked on her computer ... I was amazed how clean it was inside the tower ... not even dirty at all ... looked new inside.

    So ... knowing it was projection ... I opened it and cleaned it ... its been over a year and it is starting to look bad again. We live on the edge of town and we have tree orchards half mile away and directly behind us ... a farmer grows wheat ... we have a dust problem.

    And ... 4 Dogs and ... at the moment ... 10 frikking cats ... dont help neither. Dog and Cat hair ... everywhere.

    And ... the two Sony 31.5 " HDTVs ... are LCD ... the one I use works great for my needs. As I said ... it is my PC monitor.

    Oh ... during the winter ... we dont use the Air Conditioner to heat our house ... we sleep with electric blankets and during the Summer ... yes ... we do have to turn on the Air Conditioner to cool the house down ... it gets 105 degrees outside the house and our air conditioner ... can barely keep the house down to 81 degrees.

    But in the Winter in our bedroom ... the Panasonic 42" Plasma ... it helps keep our bedroom warm. And hot during the summer.

    You might want to factor in that when making a decision ... your living room will most likely be more warmer than it was before. Open some windows and place a couple of 9" fans on the window sill to blow out the air or vice versa ... that is what we do.

    Last Summer ... we bought a couple of Shop Blowers ... 45 bucks at Walmart ... and have them outside blowing air through our bathroom window ... they shoot a narrow jet of air ... and worked nicely. The other shop blower ... was placed outside the patio sliding door window and that air was being shot into the living room.
    Last edited by lacywest; 27th Jan 2011 at 13:14.
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    That sounds like you need to get a swifter that magnetically catches dust and hang it behind the tv. I'm sorry you have 10 cats right now that must suck, but look at the bright side a Chinese food place will be happy to buy them if you ever get strapped for cash. My previous tv was a toshiba 43" cinema series I pulled out of the trash and fixed "convergence issue" but njust after Xmas it crapped out I think it's the power supply board but it's like 13yrs old time for a new one.

    So I guess plasma is what I should look into, know any good ones that the picture really pops?
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  9. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    Just don't get sucked into buying a 3D TV, those will fizzle out soon, 3D is a passing fad like it was in the 80's.
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  10. I heartily agree that plasma looks better, we have a 42" plasma and a 47" LCD. No contest, not at all.

    I noticed that Sam's Club had an LG 60" plasma for about $1,300 bucks just before Christmas. I almost got one, but knew my wife would have taken it...badly.

    Power consumption of plasma TVs has improved a good bit since I got ours a few years ago. Burn-in is no longer a problem either, most use pixel-rotation, not sure about the term. Panasonic plasma HDTVs always had a good reputation.
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    Originally Posted by drifter666 View Post
    Hi all, I'm sorry if this isn't the right section to post this but I had a question, I'm going to be buying a HDTV this weekend and would like some help on choosing. I have some stipulations though
    1. it will have to be bought from best buy "I'm using my best buy card to purchase"
    2. I would like nothing smaller than a 46"
    3. I would like it to be really close to or under $1000
    4. I would like the absolute best picture possible

    I will be using the TV for primarily playing Xbox 360 "mostly First person shooters and car racing games" and watching movies from streaming netflix threw my xbox or watching a DVD from a backup I have on my computer.

    I have been looking at LED tv's but I want a full array with dimming light configuration and best buy doesn't have that info on their site, I have looked up a bunch of model numbers and all have been edge lit. My reasoning for not going with an edge lit set is because i don't want to see light around the sides when there's a dark scene.

    What suggestions do you all have? Thank you all in advanced
    1 - No problem, large selection.
    2 - 46" is a good size for 8-10 feet viewing distance.
    3 - Capping at $1000 will probably eliminate LED(LCD) leaving CCFL (LCD) and plasma. Plasma currently has the price/size ratio to LCD.
    4 - Wow, BIG statement.

    LCD: Better whites, less glare, better 'game modes' for lag issues, more 'green'
    Plasma: Better blacks, glare issues, response time issues, less 'green' (but much better than they used to)
    (Lag happens when the TVs video processing causes a delay between what it gets and when it displays it. Some TVs are much better than others.)

    I enjoy a 60" Sharp 88UN, probably last of the great CCFL LCD TVs at that size. LED is still in it's infancy for backlighting so I still prefer CCFL. Lag has been reported in th 8-10ms range. Have said that, I just picked up a 42" Samsung plasma for son for his 21st birthday. On sale at BB for $469 this weekend.

    Putting in your constraints at the BB website and see what you come up with! Being a gamer and movie watcher, I'd recommend this:

    Samsung ln46c600
    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+-+46%22+Class+/+1080p+/+120Hz+/+LCD+HDTV/1414158.p...158&st=samsung lc46c600&cp=1&lp=1

    You could spend more but this is a pretty good TV. It would leave you a couple hundred for a entry level sound system as well.
    Have a good one,

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  12. check the LG 46LD550,and the LG 47LE5400 .I think both are made with IPS panels

    http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/240776

    my self I'm waiting for the Panasonic L42E30(coming in may or June)
    http://panasonic.net/avc/viera/us2011/product/e_lcd.html
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  13. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    that panny sounds nice but only goes up to a 42"? i'd rather get one of the larger new panny plasmas with "infinite" black level.
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  14. too much money plus I don't wanna get into the 3D thing
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  15. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    sorry didn't notice, they had the g series non-3d plasma infinite blacks up to recently. sucks they aren't making it anymore.
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    Well I thank you for your input I went to best buy last night and found a LED tv with an amazing picture it's a 47" LG 47LE5400 it looked amazing in the store I haven't bought it yet but I looked at alot of tvs and even played my own DVD on all different tvs and led looked the best, only thing I didn't like was the guy was trying to sell me calibration from bestbuy which I thought it made the image look really dim and gray but it looked smooth that's all so I don't think I'm gonna fall for that
    What's everyone think?
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  17. ask him next time how much they charge for the "MONSTER" cables lol

    I checked bestbuy.they are selling the tv for $1000 add TAX($80~),insurance $179 = $1259

    if you are ok with buying big ticket items on line .u can pay only $879/$899

    next time u go to bestbuy check the LG 46LD550 model

    LG 47LD520 model is cheaper by $200 ,but no NetCast.I don't think u need it since the xbox can take care of that

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0039RV0A0
    Last edited by MJA; 27th Jan 2011 at 21:57.
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  18. Originally Posted by drifter666 View Post
    Well I thank you for your input I went to best buy last night and found a LED tv with an amazing picture it's a 47" LG 47LE5400 it looked amazing in the store I haven't bought it yet but I looked at alot of tvs and even played my own DVD on all different tvs and led looked the best, only thing I didn't like was the guy was trying to sell me calibration from bestbuy which I thought it made the image look really dim and gray but it looked smooth that's all so I don't think I'm gonna fall for that
    What's everyone think?
    That's an LED edge lit LCD. It doesn't support local dimming. It appears to have flashlighting problems. And probably not the best black levels.

    http://www.amazon.com/review/R2XA4BN6LOER86/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B003BO4H56&...tag=&linkCode=

    Name:  flashlights.jpg
Views: 1060
Size:  1.4 KB (google image search, not the TV in question)

    Watch some dark material in a darkened room and verify you can live with it.

    You don't need professional calibration but I suspect the "dim and gray" picture was close to correct and you have the TV set closer to the factory defaults which usually have too much contrast, saturation, noise reduction etc (people tend ot gravitate to those settings on the showroom floor). The picture is not supposed to "pop", it should look natural.
    Last edited by jagabo; 27th Jan 2011 at 22:40.
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    I watched a dark movie on a LG led tv they had set up to show calibration and it actually looked fine, but the thing with the calibration is the tv actually looks like its overcast like there's a layer of dust on the screen or something I didn't like it at all. But if you are curious as to the movie I tested the TV with its called "Wangan Midnight" it was an MP4 I converted and burned onto a DVD, its in letterbox format and the first like 20mins are at night on a highway surprisingly I didn't see any bleeding threw at all so I guess we will see when I get it home.
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  20. Originally Posted by drifter666 View Post
    I watched a dark movie on a LG led tv they had set up to show calibration and it actually looked fine, but the thing with the calibration is the tv actually looks like its overcast like there's a layer of dust on the screen or something I didn't like it at all.
    Was that in a brightly lit room? It sounds like room lighting reflecting off a matte screen.
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    Yea it was on the show room floor, they had a side by side comparison for calibrated and un calibrated
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  22. Think of a matte screen as a piece of frosted glass (so the screen doesn't act like a mirror). If the room lighting is very bright you'll see lots of frost. They should have been showing that in a darkened theater room, more like a typical living room.
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    Ok guys, i just wanted to say that on Friday I bought the LG 47le5400 and I have to say I am completely astonished by how great this TV looks. I know some of the reviews out there say there is a lot of flash lighting but I honestly don't see any at all, I've watched quite a bit of dark movies and played my 360 on it and I really haven't seen any at all.

    I wanted to thank everyone on your suggestions and helping me with finding a TV.
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  24. Even though plasma HDTVs are superior to LCD HDTVs by almost all objective and subjective measures (except power consumption and burn in problems) most people find LCDs to be good enough.
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  25. deleted
    Last edited by MJA; 1st Feb 2011 at 21:09.
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  26. Originally Posted by MJA View Post
    U bought from worst buy or amazon ?
    amazon is giving a free Blu-ray Disc Player and Wi-Fi USB Adapter with LG 47LE5400,and 55-inch model
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