Question for you technical guru's about televisions

Anglis

Anglis

Genkai Conqueror
Adventurer
Joined
Jun 30, 2004
Messages
2,030
Age
42
Location
Petal/MS
FFXIV
Anglis (retired)
Ok. Currently I have a 37 inch 1080i Westinghouse LCD HDTV. I bought back in late 2006 when 1080p TV's were super expensive.

It only has one HDMI and I'm looking to upgrade over that. I found a great deal at Best Buy for a Samsung 720p 50 inch Plasma with 4 HDMI's. Now I know it's preference, but I loved the Plasma color over the LCD color...i'm more of a fan of the natural color of the plasma plus deeper contrast levels. Anyway, thats not what I'm asking.

Is 1080p, which I know has a greater resolution, that much better then 720p? I do have a PS3 and Xbox 360 and I know blu-ray is 1080p. Will 720p still look fantastic? Also, is 720p better then 1080i since it's progressive?

Price difference...Samsung 720p is 999.99 and the 1080p version is 1699.99...the tv's have the exact same features and both to me looked great. What would you do?
 
Anglis said:
Ok. Currently I have a 37 inch 1080i Westinghouse LCD HDTV. I bought back in late 2006 when 1080p TV's were super expensive.

It only has one HDMI and I'm looking to upgrade over that. I found a great deal at Best Buy for a Samsung 720p 50 inch Plasma with 4 HDMI's. Now I know it's preference, but I loved the Plasma color over the LCD color...i'm more of a fan of the natural color of the plasma plus deeper contrast levels. Anyway, thats not what I'm asking.

Is 1080p, which I know has a greater resolution, that much better then 720p? I do have a PS3 and Xbox 360 and I know blu-ray is 1080p. Will 720p still look fantastic? Also, is 720p better then 1080i since it's progressive?

Price difference...Samsung 720p is 999.99 and the 1080p version is 1699.99...the tv's have the exact same features and both to me looked great. What would you do?
Click to expand...

If you get very technical, the answer is not an opinion. 1080p does look better then 720p.

Now from a leaned back stand point... 720p looks great. The difference is far too small for me to notice anything. I have a 65" 1080p tv in my living room and a 40" 720p in my room. The 720p tv also does 1080i and i dont notice anything there either.

Another thing i would consider is 1080p may be supported a lot more at a later time. Dont know if it changes anything for you.
 
TheOsyris said:
If you get very technical, the answer is not an opinion. 1080p does look better then 720p.

Now from a leaned back stand point... 720p looks great. The difference is far too small for me to notice anything. I have a 65" 1080p tv in my living room and a 40" 720p in my room. The 720p tv also does 1080i and i dont notice anything there either.

Another thing i would consider is 1080p may be supported a lot more at a later time. Dont know if it changes anything for you.
Click to expand...


I know technically it does.. a 1900 resolution compared to a 1320/1380? something like that. I just wanted an opinion from someone who had both and if they could really tell a big difference. Once I get it, I will mount it on a wall and have all wires behind the walls, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting money on a 720p after going through all that lol.

Does anybody like Plasma? I knew people said it gives better quality picture, but damn, i was shocked when I saw a 1080p/720p pic compared to a LCD. The colors to me looked way different, the Plasma wasn't as bright and had more natural color.
 
Last edited:
Yup, LCDs are naturally "lit up" giving them a brighter appearance. It's actually a pretty well known thing among artists, too, that LCD colour reproduction is pretty poor compared to.. uh.. every other display format. Plasma has much, much better fidelity.
 
Well if you have a really dark room.. you will be happier with the plasma because they do look nicer... But if you have a room that has a fair amount of light in it.. go with the LCD.
 
Buy a Panasonic plasma, they're much better than the Samsung plasmas, and a lot cheaper too. We carry the same models at my store(although we spank Best Buy's lolprices), and the 1080p Panasonic's are a lot cheaper than the Samsungs. I think our prices have the TH50PZ80 at around $1200.

Another option to consider is a DLP if you don't plan to mount the TV to the wall. If you're going to set it on a stand anyways, you can get a much larger TV for the same amount of money. Again, I'd advise against the Samsung brand, not that they're bad, but their competition(Mitsubishi in this case) is just better.

I like plasma's picture a lot more than LCD, the only reasons why I don't have one are because they really don't make plasma's smaller than a 40" and glare is a serious issue for me. I'm also not a fan of the energy drain and the heat output, but the glare is the only complaint I have about the picture. Plasma's are a lot better than LCD's, but 90% of my customers are stupidly gunshy about them based on when they first came out and absolutely refuse to even hear about them. But then, these are the same idioits who want to spend twice the money on a much smaller, worse looking LCD over a DLP(and they're not going to wall mount), just because they don't want a "deep TV," so they're not a good source to make a decision from.
 
Panasonic is better then Samsung? I thought Samsung as of right now had the best overall tv's...thats what I hear from everyone and from reviews on a ton of websites. I'll look into Panasonic though, but I didn't see any Plasma from range 42-50 that was under 1500.00 which I'm trying to get under in Panasonic. Still trying to decide if im going with 720 or 1080p...
 
Anglis said:
Panasonic is better then Samsung? I thought Samsung as of right now had the best overall tv's...thats what I hear from everyone and from reviews on a ton of websites. I'll look into Panasonic though, but I didn't see any Plasma from range 42-50 that was under 1500.00 which I'm trying to get under in Panasonic. Still trying to decide if im going with 720 or 1080p...
Click to expand...
Panasonic makes the plasma panels and most of the other technology that Samsung uses in their plasmas. Panasonic always gets better reviews, unless Samsung is paying for them. The only technology where Samsung is the top is LCD, and even then Sony is just as good. Also, I never trust websites like Consumer Reports or CNET, since they get paid out the ass by samsung and sony to rate their products and their "reviews," (using the term very loosely) often don't even make any sense.

The price thing is surprising, we had a 42" 720p panasonic for $699 at my store, you might have to check out the brick and mortar stores; since they seem to be cheaper than online.
 
It really comes down to Best Buy or Sears for me, but damn Sears has lower prices on TV's but their insurance policy is high. Not too many places that have a lot of TV's to pick from and I'm iffy about ordering them from online companies like New Egg and Tiger Direct. Even though those are good companies, it just seems it would be a pain in the ass to replace the TV if it got messed up.
 
Sears has a reason for their high priced insurance. They cover anything from user abuse to normal wear and tear, at least out here. I was shocked at how customer friendly their insurance is. Hell, I even asked the guy flat out, if I get pissed and sling a controller through the screen, what happens? He responded, "we fix it and you could do it everyday for the next 5 years and we'd still fix it or replace it." Not sure how Best-Buy's is though, I hear it's not very extensive. Pretty much only covers things that would happen over long periods of time and I'm not sure how hard they are to deal with either. Retunin' things at Best-Buy is becomin' more and more a chore, imo.
 
Best Buy is a 4 year plan and it covers most things lol, but I doubt it'll cover me flinging a controller!

Two Tv's I was looking at were almost 400.00 each on the insurance policy.
 
$400 for a 4-year warranty? God, how the hell does best buy ever get any business with a Fry's around? The 5-year warranty at Fry's for that 50" panasonic you linked is only $160, and the $1699 Samsung'd warranty would only run $229. We don't cover physical damage, but then until you said something about Sears' policy, I didn't think that anyone did.
 
Last edited:
After looking around and asking a lot of people. It seems 1080p truly only benefits if the screen is 80 inches and above and that most people won't see any difference between 720p and 1080p on anything smaller from 8ft back, which my furniture is.

I went to a couple family owned places here today and most of the TV's were more expensive then bestbuy. He had a LG 720p 50 inch plasma for 1599.99...which I thought was way to expensive.

So I'm narrowing it down to these.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9219062&type=product&id=1218061797099
Insurance policy is only 168.00 for 4 years

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8749438&type=product&id=1202649424626
which just went from 999.99 to 1199.00 from yesterday.... :(
 
Anglis said:
After looking around and asking a lot of people. It seems 1080p truly only benefits if the screen is 80 inches and above and that most people won't see any difference between 720p and 1080p on anything smaller from 8ft back, which my furniture is.
Click to expand...
They're full of shit, there's a definite difference between a 1080p blu-ray and a 720p TV broadcast on my 65" TV and I'm sitting 11 feet away from it. Even looking at a 52" LCD at work, the blu-ray versus the 720p feed we're running is extremely noticeable.

Sounds like some bullshit that people too cheap to but a 1080p tv are spouting to try to justify their cheapness. Below 40" there's not much of a difference, which is why there's not a lot of 1080p TV's before 40"; but 40" and above there's a clear difference unless you're sitting 20 feet back or something unusual like that.

I went to a couple family owned places here today and most of the TV's were more expensive then bestbuy. He had a LG 720p 50 inch plasma for 1599.99...which I thought was way to expensive.
Click to expand...
Family owned places are usually more expensive, but they're also usually the only place where you can haggle on prices.

So I'm narrowing it down to these.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9219062&type=product&id=1218061797099
Insurance policy is only 168.00 for 4 years

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8749438&type=product&id=1202649424626
which just went from 999.99 to 1199.00 from yesterday.... :(
Click to expand...
Go with the Panasonic.
 
I can notice 1080p at 32 inches. It's not a big different until you're in your 40s then it becomes more noticable.

If you're willing to pay $1800 for 1080P, and you've got decent light control in your viewing room, you should just go this route, damnit.

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-PLV-108...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236304559&sr=8-1

Because I don't know how many of you have seen the high def digital projectors of the last few years in action, but oh my fuckin god they look spectacular.

For a TV route, I'm mostly a fan of DLP. Plasmas look great but I feel like a good DLP is comparable, while being much cheaper and less fragile. Plasmas you have to be careful with, especially the earlier models, because they will fuck up if a moth touches them. Not to mention, if you're spending $1800 on a plasma, the size and quality of a DLP for the exact same price will blow it away. Maybe on the high end, Plasmas are going to produce an unbeatable picture, but I don't feel they offer a good value against DLP in the 1000-3000 range. But I also don't think Best Buy does great price-wise for DLPs. Circuit City, before going kaput, even though they were far bigger price jackers overall vs BB, would sell comparable DLPs for hundreds less. I don't know where is physical you can go... maybe Target? But shop around for DLPs. My folks have a 50 inch Samsung DLP and it looks amazing. Another point, you don't see pixels very easy with projection technology, which is why DLPs compete with Plasmas in quality at cheaper prices, and why projectors like in the link I showed you... produce a stunning image even at 120+ inches.
 
Bajaratt said:
They're full of shit, there's a definite difference between a 1080p blu-ray and a 720p TV broadcast on my 65" TV and I'm sitting 11 feet away from it. Even looking at a 52" LCD at work, the blu-ray versus the 720p feed we're running is extremely noticeable.

Sounds like some bullshit that people too cheap to but a 1080p tv are spouting to try to justify their cheapness. Below 40" there's not much of a difference, which is why there's not a lot of 1080p TV's before 40"; but 40" and above there's a clear difference unless you're sitting 20 feet back or something unusual like that.


Family owned places are usually more expensive, but they're also usually the only place where you can haggle on prices.


Go with the Panasonic.
Click to expand...


Actually it was the guys at Best Buy and McLellands TV that told me and they were the one's trying to sale me a TV before I even told them what I was looking for. Those guys usually try and get you to buy more expensive things which i found weird. Now with Blu-ray they did say I would see a difference, which I already knew that, but in cable/video games, I won't see much of a difference if any at all. It's in my budget to get a 1080p TV because I have roughly 1800 to 2k I can spend, but I want to mount it and get insurance and after all that, it would be well over 2k.

I'll probably go with the Panasonic 50inch 720p plasma. At bestbuy they had it hooked up right next to the Samsung plasma 50 inch 1080p for 1599.00 and they both were playingPirates of the Caribbean, the 720p still looked pretty damn good next to it, not quite the same quality but still good.

Though one 1080p Samsung Plasma was 1299.00 which I liked...but it only had one freakin HDMI
slot...

Oh and you were right Baja.. while the Samsung had better features and ports (all had PC and USB and the panasonic has neither) the Panasonic to me clearly had the better picture!
 
Last edited:
Anglis said:
Actually it was the guys at Best Buy and McLellands TV that told me and they were the one's trying to sale me a TV before I even told them what I was looking for. Those guys usually try and get you to buy more expensive things which i found weird. Now with Blu-ray they did say I would see a difference, which I already knew that, but in cable/video games, I won't see much of a difference if any at all. It's in my budget to get a 1080p TV because I have roughly 1800 to 2k I can spend, but I want to mount it and get insurance and after all that, it would be well over 2k.
Click to expand...
I can guarantee you they were going to try to sell you a 720p TV with a much higher commission than one of the 1080p TV's.

Oh and you were right Baja.. while the Samsung had better features and ports (all had PC and USB and the panasonic has neither) the Panasonic to me clearly had the better picture!
Click to expand...
What model panasonic, I could have sworn they all had USB ports on them, it's practically a standard on HDtv's nowadays.

Another question for you, since you say you're going to mount the TV, where are you going to put all of your components?
 
Bajaratt said:
I can guarantee you they were going to try to sell you a 720p TV with a much higher commission than one of the 1080p TV's.


What model panasonic, I could have sworn they all had USB ports on them, it's practically a standard on HDtv's nowadays.

Another question for you, since you say you're going to mount the TV, where are you going to put all of your components?
Click to expand...


Well they did say Blu Ray looks better on 1080p, just not HD cable..which is true since it only broadcasts in 720p anyway.

The TV and speaker cables through the walls... not sure on the PS3 and Xbox 360 yet..might just get them neatly wrapped up.

So far i've decided on this one

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...oduct&id=1218061797099#tabbed-customerreviews

Best buy is showing it's max resolution is 1024x768..every other website review place has it showing at normal 720p resolution of 1366x768
 
Last edited:
Firestreak said:
I can notice 1080p at 32 inches. It's not a big different until you're in your 40s then it becomes more noticable.

If you're willing to pay $1800 for 1080P, and you've got decent light control in your viewing room, you should just go this route, damnit.

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-PLV-108...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1236304559&sr=8-1

Because I don't know how many of you have seen the high def digital projectors of the last few years in action, but oh my fuckin god they look spectacular.

For a TV route, I'm mostly a fan of DLP. Plasmas look great but I feel like a good DLP is comparable, while being much cheaper and less fragile. Plasmas you have to be careful with, especially the earlier models, because they will fuck up if a moth touches them. Not to mention, if you're spending $1800 on a plasma, the size and quality of a DLP for the exact same price will blow it away. Maybe on the high end, Plasmas are going to produce an unbeatable picture, but I don't feel they offer a good value against DLP in the 1000-3000 range. But I also don't think Best Buy does great price-wise for DLPs. Circuit City, before going kaput, even though they were far bigger price jackers overall vs BB, would sell comparable DLPs for hundreds less. I don't know where is physical you can go... maybe Target? But shop around for DLPs. My folks have a 50 inch Samsung DLP and it looks amazing. Another point, you don't see pixels very easy with projection technology, which is why DLPs compete with Plasmas in quality at cheaper prices, and why projectors like in the link I showed you... produce a stunning image even at 120+ inches.
Click to expand...


Yeah the projector isn't an option but I've seen them in action and yeah they are sweet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top