<p>The “guilty pleasures” thread got me thinking about how I really want a widescreen tv. Since y’all are technologically advanced, perhaps you could help in the search? The tv would be used for regular viewing, dvds, video games, and–perhaps most important–baseball game watching. I would just love input on the best size, brand, type (HD?ED?Plasma?LCD? HELP!!!). We have Comcast digital cable that I think has HD capability or whatever it is you need. Mid-price range for such contraptions, whatever that might be. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that as an only occasional tv viewer myself, my major criterion is that it look good in the room (i.e., prefer flat, thin, elegant. Pros/cons of wall mounting?) Thanks in advance–I’m off for the day but will be back tomorrow.</p>
<p>If you want it wall-mounted and elegant, your choices become very limited. Set your price range FIRST, measure the space available, go to the store (Circuit City seems to be one with a good selection), and look at them. </p>
<p>My husband is fanatic about these things. We have a home theater, dark room, the whole bit, projector… we also have a wall-mounted plasma TV (one of the first) in our exercise area (so he can watch Lance while he rides his indoor bike trainer). The plasma is a great solution in bright rooms. It really does seem to be a case of you get what you pay for. I’m sure Consumer Review has done a review of plasma TVs.</p>
<p>Have no knowledge to offer, but an additional question.
We shopped for these before Christmas, and finally decided not to buy right now. One turn-off for us was being told that the plasma TVs have a “finite life span”, in that the plasma can “burn out” - we tend to keep TVs for a long time, and at these prices would expect years of service. Is this true? How big a problem is “burn out”?</p>
<p>Patient, I’m also concerned about look, we plan to mount ours over a fireplace, and may install shutters to hide the TV. Certainly though, these are not as visually intrusive as a regular TV.</p>
<p>I’m pretty happy with our projector / wall-mounted screen. For under $1200 we have an 80" diagonal HDTV system that is tolerably bright during the day and rivals some of the smaller screens at the local 12-plex with the lights off at night. It can be hooked up to a computer or video game system as well. The down side is that the lamp has a rated life of about 3000 hours and costs $300 to replace.</p>
<p>We have a Sony LCD that I love (60"). I too turned away from the plasma for reasons cited above (burnout). My number one concern was really sharp clarity, and I got it.</p>
<p>We also have a projecter and screen and like BassDad can get 80" but the downside for me was that it wasn’t as clear as the LCD.</p>
<p>Our plasma screen was bought in '99 and shows no sign of burn-in or burn-out. It’s probably used only about 1-2 hours/day though, which may make a difference.</p>
<p>Cangel, there was an article in the NY Times a few months ago saying that the prices are going to stop dropping on LCD tvs around July of this year, and that plasma will be priced out of the field. So I have kind of been waiting to see if this is right, but I am getting tired of waiting…thanks dmd, Bassdad and voronwe for suggestions so far.</p>