Posted: 08 February 2010 at 7:02am | IP Logged

Plasma is the clear winner in every way, and Samsung is at the top of that heap.

Burnin is a non issue anymore, and Samsung has an anti glare technology (the reason why people say plasmas arent good in well lit rooms) called filterbright.

So you have a better viewing angle with Plasma

600 Hz refresh rate ( no lcd or LED on the market even comes close to that)

2 000 000 : 1 contrast ratio (the best LEDs would have 1 000 000:1 , and LCDs MAYBE 500 000:1)

the only downside for plasma, is they cost a little more to run, but the price would be nominal.

Posted: 08 February 2010 at 10:10am | IP Logged

Ok, so I was in your same shoes two years ago when we decided to get a nice new TV. It took me over three months to find what I wanted.

Things you need to keep in mind are viewing distance, what kind of cable/dish service you will be using and what you will be watching most times (news, sports,....)

I only had basic cable at the time and didn't really want to upgrade to digital cable or HD. All views pointed towards Plasma because of the refresh rate.

I spent hours in various stores looking at various TV's to see the difference since they all play the same movies. After a few WEEKS...I had determined that my fussy choice and limited price range had narrowed down to Samsung, Panasonic and LG. At the time, Panasonic had anti-glare screens on all models I had looked at, Samsung offered it and LG only had a few that I had seen.

I asked questions to many sales reps (which I hate to talk to).

For my viewing distance, I couldn't go more than 42", since the quality would have suffered. (It was determined because of how my surround sound was setup, its no longer setup, so I'm now about 5' further from the TV, but I still enjoy it very much) You can search online to see which size is ideal for your viewing distance. Unless you plan on always watching HD, viewing distance DOES make a difference.

Since you're only looking at buying in a few months, prices are going to keep dropping. Things to keep in mind are warranty and return policies. Make sure you don't cheap out, get a monster power bar or equivalent...warranty will not cover if you didn't have a proper means of protecting your equipment.

At the end of it, I got a 42" LG Plasma which had the antiglare, low power mode and a built in DVR so I can stop live tv, rewind, record....the TV also has a built in cable box, so the first time I plugged it in, I had almost every digital channel available to me and 5 HD channels...FOR FREE . I always had it on the lowest setting while watch regular TV and it worked great, but once I would pop a DVD in the up converting player and switched everything to normal consumption and blah blah blah..I could see the black heads on people’s nose lol

I love the TV, but no longer use it to watch rental movies. I use the HD projector for that.

I’ve seen the LED tv’s quality and I do believe it surpasses everything up to now. I will not knock the LCD, but have seen the “faded” quality in the blacks. As far as power consumption…if you’re worried about a 40, 50, 30$/yr diff….not sure a big TV should go into your home

Good luck, take your time, keep doing your reasearch like your doing and let us know what you decide

Posted: 08 February 2010 at 7:15pm | IP Logged

Future shop has a 50" Samsung Plasma on right now for 1200 bucks. Won't get much cheaper than that for a 1080P .

LEDs are nice. too expensive though, and they still suffer from motion blur. the 240 Hz makes it better but doesnt eliminate it. They are usually listed at 2 ms response time, plasmas are 0.01 ms .

Posted: 08 February 2010 at 8:16pm | IP Logged

Just a note on Vizio - the guy who created this brand was the guy who developed Sony's lcd and plasma's - he then left and started Vizio. Prett solid quality - if you dig deep enough you will find out that the core operating of these different brands are the same. As for Contrast ratio - each manufacturer measures differently as there is not a set guideline that all follow.

Key thing as well is to calibrate it when you get it home - you can buy a disc to do it, george lucas dvd's have one in the special features that works pretty good - on star wars etc. When you bring it home it is on default and never looks as good as it should and last but not least - the quality of the output is only equal as the quality of the input. Need HD, need a good HDMI cable ( cheap not an option here). Good luck with your choice.