HDTV buying woes
I recently purchased my first HDTV and found the process to be agonizing. The options seem endless, and the available information is simply staggering. 720p v 1080p? Plasma v LCD? Contrast ratio? Response time? Why is there a Sharp LC-42D62U model and a LC-42D64U model?? What’s the difference? Why are there 20 different Sony 46″ LCD models?! The more I read, the more questions I had rather than less. Everyone seemed to say something different.
I initially thought I wanted DLP over LCD or plasma because they offer the biggest picture bang for the buck. The only drawback seemed to be that the panel is not 3″ wide and can’t be hung on a wall, something I don’t care about at all. But the real main drawback for DLP is the viewing angle: it is extremely narrow. If you move to either side, or stand up and look down at a DLP screen, the picture fades noticably, and this wouldn’t fly in my poorly-arranged living room. So, that’s out. LCDs have recently come down in price and up in size to compete with plasmas. I narrowed down my search to just LCDs based on the (somewhat antiquated but still valid) fear of burn-in with plasma: fixed images like sports or stock tickers eventually leave a burned-in image on the screen. This happens a LOT less on newer plasma models (apparently) but still is a possibility. So LCD it was.
Wired had a decent summary of the difference between 720p and 1080p. Basically, the human eye can’t tell the difference between the two on a screen smaller than about 50″, depending on how far away you are from the TV. On top of that, the number of true 1080p sources are very few right now. Blu-ray and HD-DVD, XBox 360 and I think PS3 are the only ones; no network broadcasts in anything higher than 720p or 1080i (a compromised 1080 resolution that has its drawbacks - read that article!) and I’ve read that no networks have any plans to switch to 1080p for the foreseeable future. That said, I still ended up buying a 1080p TV because, as one of the hot buzzword-ish specs for TVs that are selling right now, a lot of the accompanying specs are higher on the 1080p TVs, like response time (which is important for fast-moving images like sports) and contrast ratio and black levels.
I got sucked into the world of AVS forums and attempted to sift through the 10,000+ post threads on each popular model. Enter at your own risk! The most I took away from them was a general overall impression of the quality of various models, rather than a definitive solid choice. A lot of the nerds talk about specs and problems that the average person would never even notice. There is definitely useful info to be extracted, but it takes a lot of time and patience to read through it all.
cnet.com is of course the standard for electronics reviews, and I used it as well. The reviews are more accessible than the avsformums but still nitpicky on a level that doesn’t matter to the average consumer. The site helped me determine, though, that Samsung and Sharp seem to be the best bang-for-the-buck LCD. Pioneer and Sony seem to be the best overall, but you’re going to pay a pretty penny for them. Fairly certain that I could never tell the difference, I dismissed them as cost-prohibitive. After reading enough favorable reviews and seeing a couple of my friend’s Sharp Aquoses (what’s the plural of Aquos?), I opted for the 42″ LC-42D64U (LC-42D62U is a slightly older model with apparently rampant banding issues - one thing the avsforums.com nerds scared me away from) and am very happy with it. It gives a beautiful picture from my comcast digital HD box. My only regret is that I didn’t spring for the 46″ (another $700 didn’t seem worth it). My couch is 7′ away from the TV and I didn’t think that was too far for the 42″. When I sit closer I do notice some imperfections in the picture so I am definitely happy overall.
Good luck and happy hunting!