<p>Thank you everyone</p>
<p>Hitachi no longer makes TVs.</p>
<p>The biggest brand for TV is Samsung, followed by (in no particular order) Panasonic, LG, Sony, Sharp and Vizio.</p>
<p>As for picture quality, plasma is superior to LED backlit LCD TVs, but better in larger size and in more of a darker room setting which LCDs are better for viewing in brighter rooms.</p>
<p>Plasmas are superior when it comes to watching sports (or action films) since quick motion is more fluid on plasmas.</p>
<p>Burn-in has become much less of an issue for plasmas, but they do use more power than LCD TVs.</p>
<p>
Unless something’s changed in the last few weeks, Hitachi still makes TVs.</p>
<p>[Products</a> : Consumer Electronics : Hitachi America, Ltd.](<a href=“http://www.hitachi-america.us/products/consumer/tv/products/]Products”>http://www.hitachi-america.us/products/consumer/tv/products/)</p>
<p>Here’s an article dated last month talking about Hitachi considering no longer making TVs in Japan but instead continuing to make them outside of Japan.</p>
<p>[Hitachi</a> considers halting TV production in Japan - CNN](<a href=“http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-03/world/japan.hitachi_1_yen-jesper-koll-march-disasters?_s=PM:WORLD]Hitachi”>http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-03/world/japan.hitachi_1_yen-jesper-koll-march-disasters?_s=PM:WORLD)</p>
<p>I did a lot of research about 1.5 yrs ago.
Samsung LED is the best. The LED is much better than the LCD.
Route all your programming through a great receiver and the picture will be much better (additional $500 or so). Direct TV will give a much better HD picture than cable. Throw in a great surround sound and you will glued to the tube. Unbelievable picture. i purchased a 55".</p>
<p>Educate yourself on current TV technologies before you decide. There is a vast difference in quality out there. A good place to learn how to buy and about different TV’s is CNET.com.</p>
<p>
Again, for the sake of those who don’t realize it, the ‘LED’ sets in this context are actually ‘LCD’ sets. The ‘LED’, just like the fluorescent light source also used in LCD sets, is just the backlight used to illuminate the liquid crystals in the LCD display.</p>
<p>Given that, I think most people prefer the LED backlights - especially when configured as ‘Edge LED’ backlights and they seem to be taking over for the older technology.</p>
<p>Having bought several tv’s in the past couple of years, here is what I found:</p>
<p>-On a smaller screen, the picture quality probably won’t be all that much different between brands and if cost is a big consideration, you don’t sacrifice much. On larger screens there can be differences, but again brand may or may not make much difference (I have looked at ‘top brand’ tv’s like Samsung and Toshiba and Sony whose offerings IMO were worse then some of the off brand ones.</p>
<p>-If getting a tv, get one that supports 1080p. While current cable and I believe satellite is 720 p (1080 i), if you plan on using a blue ray player or with some game consoles, you want 1080p, believe me, it looks better. The difference may not be so obvious on a smaller screen, but it still makes a difference on my 32" or 46" sets. Plus eventually cable and such will probably offer 1080p, though they will fight it:)(For those who care, the P means progressive scan, where they refresh each line of the tv x times a second, with I (interlaced) it paints every other line, then fills in the middle. 1080i has 1080 horizontal lines, but it refreshes 720, then 720…and that can cause flicker).Actually, cable is doing something sneaky with HD that is degrading it, many of the channels are being compressed for sending out, then uncompressed at the cable box, and the picture is degraded, so that may never happen…</p>
<p>-I agree with others, if you like to watch sports, a plasma tv is probably better. However, the newer generations of lcd sets now have refresh in the 240 hz range, and they handle motion a lot better. </p>
<p>-I would recommend an LED set, they are thinner then bulb lit backlit screens and they use less power (and generate less heat for that reason). Our 46" sony is straight LCD, and it really heats up the relatively small tv room, while the lcd tv’s we have run pretty cool.</p>
<p>-One thing to keep in mind with brands and such, there are very few makers of the display screens they use, many of the brands are sourced from the same companies. Like the heads on old VHS vcr’s, they are made by few manufacturers and like the heads, they are the most important part of the set. </p>
<p>-I would agree about getting the biggest screen you can fit into your space, these days it is actually cheaper in some ways to buy a larger screen, they seem to be making more of them and price competition seems stiffer then for the smaller ones. Also depends on what you plan on watching, if you like movies and sports a larger screen seems more enjoyable to me, while if you are watching the news or the latest reality show, smaller screen might be fine (let me tell you, watching one of the ‘housewives’ series with the silicon boobs hanging out or watching the gaffones on “Jersey Shore” on a large screen can lead one to drink <em>lol</em>)</p>
<p>I agree with others, I recommend reading what cnet has to say, I find them a lot more reliable with their reviews then consumer reports, sometimes I wonder what universe CR exists in (plus their ratings drive me nuts, to be honest, their ‘best value’ often seems to be overpriced units to me, while the ‘choices’ often leave me scratching my head compared to what i hear in the ‘real world’…)</p>
<p>I was under the impression that plasmas had longevity issues, am I mistaken? If that’s the case it seems worth mentioning.</p>
<p>^^ Very early plasmas did but that issue seemeed to be solved quite a long time ago. I have a 55" plasma that’s 5 years or so old and I can’t tell any difference at all between now and when it was new.</p>
<p>I need to thank all of you on this thread. Last weekend we decided to finally upgrade our tv and when we went shopping/browsing I impressed my husband with all of my “knowledge” (this thread and some research).</p>
<p>Tonight I am watching our 46" Sony LED with edge backlight and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new HDTV DirecTV box and dish. We’ve been Sony people since we’ve been married so it’s no surprise that we ended up with another. The Samsung almost won us over, though.</p>
<p>The pre-HD picture already looks amazing.</p>
<p>I think an important question would be, how much are you looking to spend?</p>
<p>This is an old thread, but people considering going with large TV’s should also thinking about getting an HD projector instead. If you have space, you can get a much bigger screen for much cheaper.</p>
<p>Check out Crutchfield.com, they offer amazing customer service and free shipping, no sales tax. They also offer service after your purchase.</p>