tjf

i need another tv for the house, i alreadly have a 1080i/720p, 50 inch Panasonic plasma for me to play xbox on, i need another one for my living room

i have a 12% off coupon from best buy so im thinking about going there later, i was browsing on the site i saw an Insignia TV that was 50 inches and 1080p, now I know thats the best buy house brand but it was only $1500 and im trying to spend $2000 or under. Has anyone ever had experience with one of these TVs, keep in mind id get the best buy warrantry which means if it breaks they gotta give me a new one.

CHAOS

Samsung or Sharp > *

__________________
SOT - you aint... no goon.

tjf

im thinking Samsung or LG but ill get the 720P one casue the 1080p's are still 2500-3000

Vertabreaker

Troof. Stay away from LG TVs.

__________________

Broken5hift

the samsung 650 is the only tv you should get. the prices on them have plummeted, a 46" samsung a650 is about $2400 right now, thats a $1400 savings over what it was originally.

__________________


SOT - .... I dunno, i wasnt really paying attention....

tjf

yea but its 46" i want 50 or larger

do they make a 50" in that model

el_jefe

dood, I just got a 50" Samsung 1080p Plasma for $1800. The A550 model. see my thread in this section.

__________________

darth_tumor...

a couple of questions for you before i make any recommendations:

-what is the lighting like in your living room? really bright, uncontrolled light?
-what are you going to be using this tv for?
-what is your seating arrangement like? spread out or close together?
-how far away is the primary seat from where the screen will be?
-do you prefer a bright, punchy picture or a more smooth, natural, film-like picture with deep, rich, inky blacks?

off the top of my head before hearing your answeres, 2 tv's jump into my head:

-as el_jefe said, the samsung pn50a550 is an outstanding plasma. very accurate primary colors right out of the box, low video noise, and great video processing-but it's black levels aren't quite the best and it's anti-glare screen leaves something to be desired.

-panasonic th-50pz85u $1895 shipped from b&h photo & video, just got mine yesterday, and i think it's an outstanding tv. great anti-glare screenl. i have it right next to a big sliding glass door leading out to the deck and i get virtually zero reflections/glare on the screen, even from lamps and a recessed overhead light in the room. colors are very rich and vibrant, although not quite as 100% accurate as the sammy. very very clear picture w/the 1080p resolution playing blurays. blacks are very very deep and inky, among the best you can get short of spending $3500 on a pioneer coming out this summer. very bright picture too for a plasma-still not quite as bright as the best lcd's out there, but unless you have a lot of sunlight shining directly on the tv, that advantage means virtually nothing, especially when the lights go out for movie night. excellent shadow detail as well. very nice looking gloss black bezel, but the samsung has that as well. both 50" plasmas are outstanding sets and outstanding values that kill anything else in the sub-$2000 category, and in my personal opinion, are better than a lot of tv's that cost a decent amount more.

if you have any sd sources, like a wii or an sd-dvd player, your best bet is going to be plasma. lcd's have a larger gap between pixels, known as inter-pixel gap, that tends to give them a sharper appearance. however, lcd displays tend to be rather unforgiving with sd sources because of this. plasmas have much smaller interpixel gap, so they look a lot better if you watch any sd cable channels or have a wii or anything like that.

as to whether you need 1080p or not-certainly, it doesn't hurt to have it. i took the plunge on it myself and i'm glad i did. it largely depends on how good your eyes are, how far away you are from the screen, and how big your screen is. i'm about 12' away from a 50" screen, and i feel like i can tell the difference, although that could be my mind playing tricks on me to make me feel better about my purchase. on a 50" screen though, i think it's worth it. anything smaller and you really will have a hard time telling the difference. there's so much more that goes into picture quality than just resolution-but that's a whole other discussion.

get back to me with the answers to those questions and we'll see what the best tv for your viewing environment will be that will fit within your budget.

__________________

el_jefe

FWIW, xbox 360 on teh 1080p =

__________________

darth_tumor...

dude that's great to hear. i haven't had a chance to game at all yet on my new set. i can't fuckin wait. i'm watchin ratatouille on bluray tonight, and after that, game on! i'm gonna kick some cod4, mass effect, and gta IV methinks. i think those will give a good torture test so to speak for the tv.

__________________