<p>It’s all greek to me. LCD, plasma? Does size matter? Any brand suggestions and suggestions on where to get the best price when buying several appreciated.</p>
<p>Size matters as much as you want a bigger or smaller TV. Get what size you have room for/can afford.</p>
<p>LCD vs. plasma is a debate that has yet to be settled, but I don’t know that it matters much-- go with what you think looks better, picture wise.</p>
<p><a href=“CNET: Product reviews, advice, how-tos and the latest news”>CNET: Product reviews, advice, how-tos and the latest news;
<p>Here’s one good site that compares the two. I found a few others just by googling plasma vs. lcd.</p>
<p>No opinion myself, I only watch about 3 hours of TV a week, so I get all mine as hand-me downs.</p>
<p>Plasma tvs are still ridiculously expensive, are nowhere near as reliable as LCD, burn in much easier, heat up with ease and have nearly 1/2 the lifespan of LCD tvs.</p>
<p>My company installs home theaters. If I were going to buy a tv myself, and I have, I would go to <a href=“http://www.bestbuyplasma.com%5B/url%5D”>www.bestbuyplasma.com</a>. They have good pricing and service. I am NOT affiliated with this company in any way. If you lived in my area, I would get a tv from them, mark it up and sell it to you.
As far as LCD vs. plasma, depends on what you want. Lots of people buy plasma because they want to hang it on the wall. If that is your desire, think about wiring. Where are all the wires going to go. If you are doing construction, no problem, you bury them in the wall. Otherwise you are going to face a lot of work. Ditto for components. If you buy a plasma do you want a cable box hooked to it? Where is the cable going to go?
We personally own a 65" Sony Wega LCD and love it. You get high def, it isn’t huge, great picture quality, etc.</p>
<p>We have a plasma 52" LG. We just got it about a year ago and we love it. The high def programs are awesome! We sit and watch nature and science shows that we never watched before because it’s an “experience”. (I used to be strictly HGTV every once in a while, maybe a couple shows a week person).</p>
<p>We bought it at Best Buy, and our son’s friend works there. He steered us away from a lot more expensive products. It’s nice to have a friend in the home theater department to point you in the right direction!!</p>
<p>The “boys with their toys” in my house - that would be DS, DH and their friends (engineers all 
) - went for the LCD. They bought a 46" Samsung. I would <em>never</em> have sprung for anything like this. A 13" any type is fine with me. But I have to admit the picture is wonderful for the HD broadcasts. Even I am somewhat of a spectator sports nut and it is awesome. </p>
<p>DH felt he got a much better deal on the Samsung than some of the bigger names with no compromise in quality. We had planned to put it on the wall. But putting it on its stand on a nice-looking console from Crate and Barrel actually has the same effect without all the work of burying the wires (and hassle of getting to them when things need to be fiddled with). And - believe me - they had to be fiddled with quite a few times in the beginning. Three Engineers (DH, DS and DS best friend) spent hours on the tweaking and it wasn’t pretty :eek:. But the end result, as mentioned above, is pretty awesome.</p>
<p>Oh, I think all the tweaking was necessitated more by the fact that they bought separate components than the LCD itself. Not content to spring for the 46" TV, they also had to go for a separate receiver and sub-woofer as well. That, plus an unfamiliar satellite dish system and cabling in the DVD player. Well, I was longing for the simple 13" one with maybe the good old days of 3 channels with a dial that you turned, lol.</p>
<p>I think somebody made a good point about having room for it. What is the TV being bought for? School, living room, bedroom,etc?</p>
<p>I bought a 19" LCD that right now is in my bedroom and will be going with me to school in the fall most likely.I’m not sure that I’d want anything bigger in my bedroom or in a residence hall room.</p>
<p>I was at Sears today looking to replace a washing machine that bit the dust recently…and they have a lot of nice televisions and prices… a closeout Sony Bravia … $900 had to be a 37 in flat screen… closeout model perhaps? a friend filled their ski condo with LG flat screens… very happy … so what is the purpose… normal viewing distance from screen etc may all make a difference… we have a panasonic 1080 plasma and we love it…</p>
<p>Ah, yes. The aforementioned DS who was in cahoots with DH on the 46" LCD for our home has spent his first summer internship paycheck on a 21" LCD for his room that he plans to take to school. He was fortunate to get a great internship which will more than cover his living expenses at school as he is usually very frugal. So I can’t complain about the TV purchase with the first check - it’s his $$.</p>
<p>Thank you all. Ebee…, so would home theater people be who I’m looking for if I want to buy several varying sizes of television, add a slingbox and any other great technology I can find and have it all installed with directions for dummies included? How far South are you, I’m in SB. And can we make that mark-up small?? </p>
<p>Whoever pointed out the problem with cable is on target in my case. Cable boxes are not currently where I want TVs. I do plan to paint, but home has expensive plaster walls and I don’t even want to know how much it’s going to cost me to tear them up. It would probably be cheaper to buy the unbelievably expensive wireless Sony TVs.</p>
<p>All thoughts appreciated!</p>
<p>Darn, jmmom. I was really hoping that your TV-buying-conspirator S. would be the same S. as the CC poster’s son who brought home the Golden Grahams. :)</p>
<p>Don’t know why, but it would have just tickled me to think of him splurging on an LCD AND sugary cereal.</p>
<p>We have a gorgeous 42" Sony Bravia LCD with the Wega engine and built in cable card that we LOVE! We decided on LCD over Plasma, because I didn’t like all the tiny dots on the screen you get with any plasma screen.</p>
<p>I have this feeling when my current TV gets outdated b/c of HDTV-only reception, we’ll be the only family on our block without a TV. Except for watching DVDs, of course. They would REALLY have to come down in price for me to justify buying a replacement for my perfectly good TV in order to watch–what?</p>
<p>I read some great advice online somewhere. The summary is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If this is your first HDTV purchase, stop worrying about details. It’s going to be so much better than your current TV that you will be amazed. (This is true.)</p></li>
<li><p>Plasma vs LCD is six of one and half-dozen of another. Don’t worry about it. (Although at sizes less than 42" you will probably end up with LCD.)</p></li>
<li><p>Expect to own this for 5-6 years. Television technology is changing so fast that it is not a 20-year purchase any more.</p></li>
<li><p>Pick your size and features, then shop for price. Ignore name brands. If you are going to buy another one in five years, the ultimate “quality” just doesn’t make much difference. Besides, most brands are reselling products made by a handful of contract manufacturers in Asia. If it says “Sony” on the front, you still won’t know who really made it.</p></li>
<li><p>“p” is better than “i”. A 720p looks better than 720i. (My opinion is that 720p is the current sweet spot of quality vs money.)</p></li>
<li><p>Shop non-traditional sources. (Last fall, I bought an Oleivia 37" LCD for $700 from newegg.com, which is a large computer retailer online. I’d never heard of the brand, and never bought a television online before. It was delivered UPS and I am in love with it. It’s cheap enough that I will be thrilled if it lasts five years. My last television lasted 19 years, but cost about $2,500 in today’s dollars. No competition.)</p></li>
<li><p>Beware of hidden costs. Our large collection of VHS movies looked really awful on the new teevee, so we tossed them and spent $300 replacing a lot of our favorites on DVD. See? Hidden cost. I’m not quite willing to pop for HD-DVD yet, but I suppose the costs will be down enough in another couple of years.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Alas, conyat, it was my S who brought home the Golden Grahams, but he does not watch TV! Sorry to ruin your “moment?” ;)</p>
<p>Well I don’t know much about the different types of TVs but I had head that beginning in Feb 2009, television broadcasts will only be digital, and analog broadcasts will completely cease; something to keep in mind as you start seeing a lot of analog TVs go on sale over the next year or so…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dtv.gov/inthenews.html[/url]”>http://www.dtv.gov/inthenews.html</a></p>
<p>I’m with mommusic–I am not going to start replacing perfectly good appliances because the technology is changing; I’ll do without. The idea that it’s no longer a 20 year purchase but now a 5/6 year one (and at a higher and higher price) just seems to be forced conspicuous consumption running out of control. I mean, I can see the pictures on my regular old TV just fine; there’s no snow or lines running across or flickering pictures like the old days. How clear does it really have to be–it’s just TV. If it comes to this, I’ll stick to reading, and I can listen to baseball on the radio.</p>
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<p>Syntax makes good TVs. I’m looking at an Olevia for myself for college.</p>
<p>garland,</p>
<p>I don’t know how much it’s conspicuous consumption, per se, versus rapid development of new technologies.</p>