<p>It has not been a good week. The 10 years old RCA finally stopped working.</p>
<p>All these LED DLP, LCD, Plasma are very confusing. The good thing is that I look at the price only. In my research, I think I would like to get a basic LED DLP such as Samsung HL61A750. Because we don’t have HD cable, nor game system, nor HD DVD. </p>
<p>I know waiting until after Thanksgivings I probably could get a much better deal. My question is if a LED DLP is the best TV for price?</p>
<p>I have a 55" Hitachi plasma flat screen that’s a couple of years old now. I have it hanging on the wall and I like it. </p>
<p>I’d recommend taking a serious look at the LCD and plasma flat TVs. I like the flat ‘thin’ types much better than the projection types. Projection TVs are old technology that’s not going to be around much longer.</p>
<p>Regarding the HDTV - make sure you get it. Almost all large TVs will be HDTV anyway. Even if you don’t have cable/sat many of the broadcasters are broadcasting in HDTV now. Watching a show shot in HDTV on a decent HDTV set is noticably superior to watching it in non-HD mode. DVDs played back on an upconverting DVD player look better also. I haven’t tried the Blu-Ray DVDs yet but they should be even better. I don’t watch a lot of DVDs though.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that LED-backlit screens were available for TV sets now. LED backlit screens should use far less power than CCFL LCD screens and run far cooler. Apple is the only seller of these for monitors that I’m aware of right now.</p>
<p>I’m waiting until the cutover in February to look at TV sets. For now, we have an old tube TV. I have USB devices so I can watch TV on my computers for those rare times when I watch TV.</p>
<p>^^ He’s referring to LED-DLP which is a projection TV using DLP with LEDs as the light source. It’s different than a backlit screen.</p>
<p>Here is what Consumer Reports has to say:</p>
<p>[ConsumerReports.org</a> - Televisions: LCD, Plasma, HDTV](<a href=“http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/televisions/index.htm]ConsumerReports.org”>http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/televisions/index.htm)</p>
<p>If you let me know which type you want, I’ll post the ratings in that category.</p>
<p>Thanks, Toledo.</p>
<p>We went to the local circuitcity and got out ther even more confused. DLP seems is on their way out. For the same size LCD or Plasma, the prices difference is so huge. </p>
<p>For those who know - which type last longer, LCD or plasma? Is 120 Hz rate a must have? Is there any particular brand that is the leader in either LCD or Plasma? I.e. you have Nikon and Canon, and there is everything else.</p>
<p>Nikon and Canon aren’t major brand names in TVs. The big names are Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, and a few others. Lesser names are Vizio (costco has these), and a large array of various brand names, some familiar, that are plastered on TVs made by other manufacturers. Some of these off brands sometimes use previous generation displays made by the major manufacturers to cut down on cost hesnce the lower price but sometimes you’re not really getting the same thing.</p>
<p>Early plasmas had potential burn-in and lifetime issues but those have been resolved in newer sets from the major manufacturers. LCDs have also had a few issues including the speed of the display and keeping up with fast moving images. A lot of these issues have been resolved. The LCDs have been moving up into the plasma space as the yield for the displays (the ability to produce them with all of the pixels working) gets better.</p>
<p>I suggest trying to watch a number of the TV brands and types side by side as much as possible and preferably at a few stores to account for differences in lighting and adjustments.</p>
<p>Here are the LCD ratings. We just bought a Vizio at Costco for my son’s dorm room and it’s got a fantastic picture.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/televisions/hdtv/lcd-tvs/reports/ratings/ratings/index.htm[/url]”>http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/televisions/hdtv/lcd-tvs/reports/ratings/ratings/index.htm</a></p>
<p>I own a business which deals with these items. The Costco sets are good but buyer beware, if you have a problem with it you have to haul it back to Costco.<br>
Generally speaking I like the Samsungs and Sharps. You can sometimes get a great buy on the Sharp TVs at Costco.</p>
<p>I was thinking of buying my mother a new TV for Christmas. The tube on her ancient Sony is just about gone. The catch is that she is homebound and runs her television all day every day. Is there a particular type (LED DLP, LCD, Plasma…whatever) that has a longer screen/tube life?</p>
<p>Dad II – We got a 32” Samsung LCD about 6 months ago and it has been great. I highly recommend the brand – sorry but I don’t remember the model #. One thing that has surprised me is how decent the picture is on the non-digital channels. We have cable, but it isn’t even digital because we didn’t want to deal with a cable box. The channels that we do get that are digital are much clearer though as are DVD’s, but the non-digital ones are not bad. If you don’t want the extra expense of upgrading your cable and DVD player, it is worth a try to hook it up to your current system and see how the picture is.</p>
<p>Since we don’t have digital cable, then we don’t have a DVR either and we have to record on a DVD (if you have a recordable DVD player) or a tape. I’ll work on my family about getting digital cable at some point, but for now just hooking it up to the cable we had has been fine.</p>
<p>Re Elleneast:</p>
<p>It sounds like your mother runs her TV in the background to keep her company. A cheap solution would be to buy a standard tube TV with a digital tuner. She can pick up signals over the air after the change over to digital next year with the built in digital tuner or hook up her cable box. The picture will not be as sharp as a true flat screen digital picture, but it will be better than her failing Sony and a lot cheaper. These sets range from 13”-27” and cost from $100 to $250. Wal-Mart and places like it sell these kinds of sets.</p>
<p>craigslist is a good resource for a cheap tv. Especially in this economy :(</p>
<p>I love my $59 Konka - the most popular tv in the world! Now if there was anything worth watching…</p>
<p>For 20 minutes, I thougt I got the problem solved. </p>
<p>Openned the back and found the fuse is burn. Drove to the local Radioshack and got myself a bag of 5A fuse. It burns the second the power is on. I wigged some wires and clean some out some dust. Next fuse - burns, next one - same. Either there is a short somewhere or one of the component is drawing too much power. Bottomline - this unit is dead.</p>
<p>We will move the spare 27" to the living room and wait until Thanksgiving. We may just get a 52" LCD such as LN52A650.</p>
<p>Thanks. </p>
<p>BTW, toledo, the page you loaded asks for subscription to view.</p>
<p>Thanks, Michuncle. Good thought.</p>
<p>We have a Vizio 32" LCD, Dec 2006, from Costco. Had tuner problems, and had go arounds with Visio customer service. Finally they said we had a problem, duh. and sent a replacement board and service tech. 1st year warrenty under Vizio, 2nd year under Costco (no charge).</p>
<p>Not worth troubleshooting to repair. Time and labor just too expensive for inexpensive parts. </p>
<p>Not worth repairing high tech equipment computer boards worth $8000 apiece in 2000. Boards are just too complicated to learn, and diagnostic equipment too expensive.</p>
<p>I also have a 32" LCD Samsung that I really like. Great picture. I haven’t even bothered to go HD because the picture is very good without it.</p>
<p>I have a two year old Sony XBR series DLP and I’m very happy with it. I believe it has been replaced with a next generation version, but I’m sure it still has a stunning picture–perhaps even moreso. I would say the blacks on my tv are very black but not quite as black as those on my neighbor’s plasma. Other than that, I see no room for improvement in the picture.</p>