Ok Axiomites help me pick my first flat screen. I am open to suggestions on any manufacturer and please post reasons for your choices. Viewing distance 10-12'. I have looked around a bit and find 32" too small at that distance and the prices for the 37"-40" is about right. No HD at the momment, but will most likely have, once the main HT area also has a flat screen. This is for a bedroom.

Thanks in advance.

I'll watch this thread closely as I'm (not very actively) looking for an HD LCD flat screen of those dimensions for my living room.

My advice would be to go for lcd rather than plasma.

Sharp, LG, and sony make good lcd tv's in my opinion.

Thenks terzaghi, I forgot to mention it will be a LCD as I have a window glare issue.

I think I told you that I purchased seven sets and the only one that shone was the Sammy. That was a year ago though so I'm not sure if the Sammy would still win today.

I'd narrow it down to three sets, bring them both home and decide from there. Before you bring them home, try to find out on the net what the best calibration is.

Earlier this year we were in the market for a 37 inch LCD or plasma. When we were looking the brands we were most looking at was the Olevia 537H, Vizio, Samsung and the Sharp LC37D43U. There were a few others at Best Buy and CC we looked at but to tell ya the truth I don't really recall all the brands.

The Olevia and the Vizio were ok looking but the build quality seemed pretty sub par, I mean they looked cheap. Now the Samsung really looked good but with all these TVs on at the same time at the same place the Sharp Aquos was the clear winner imo. It was also the most expensive @ $1400 and some change. I was able to negotiate the price down a few hundred.

This, the Sharp, was the one we ended up getting and have been very satisfied with it so far. I just picked up a Toshiba HD DVD player and it looks freaking great. I have only watched with the upscaling so far and I am very impressed.

One other set I liked was the LG LCD. It has a really good picture too. If CC would have come down in price I might have ended up with this one.

I've had a Sharp Aquos (20 inch HD) for a couple years now and I'm extremely happy with it. Even being a couple years old, it still has a beautiful picture, especially with high-definition.

I helped my in laws buy a 26" Samsung last year. Looks great. Then we got this year's model for another room and it was cheaper. Still a great LCD TV.

You can't go wrong w/ the new Samsung LCDs.

Jason, from rather casual observations at the stores and studying reviews(most recently the December issue of Consumer Reports), I'll make a couple of suggestions. At that distance a 40" LCD would be appropriate, and if it fits your budget I'd first suggest the Sony KDL-40XBR4(top of the line, 1080p), or a little lower in price the Sony KDL-40S3000(720p, but plenty for that screen size at that distance).

Jason, I have the KDL-40V2500 and am extremely pleased with it's performance. They can still be found for good prices.

I have a 32" Vizio and I'm very pleased with it. For the price it's a great tv. The colors are actually pretty good after calibrating, HD looks really good on it and of the few tvs I've tried it's the only one that was able to get the HD local channels off cable with its QAM tuner without any trouble.

I'm assuming that their bigger models are as good, though I haven't tried them myself. The only thing negative I can think of is their look. Some people can't stand the way the fron bezel and speakers look, I personnaly didn't care.

For that size you need to be around 6 ft to notice any difference between 720 and 1080, so save some $$ and go with a 720P set.

I have a 61" set we are 14 ft away from and should have got the 70", so at 12 ft you are fine with even larger if you want, but that 40-42" is the most popular size.

Make sure you look at both SD and HD programming on the sets you are looking at, as what you are saying is you will be watching a lot of SD right now. Some LCD or plasmas handle SD better than others. Also, if you will have a lot of light around the reflective screens of plasma are a disadvantage, where LCD will be better. If you can control the lighting, then personally I find plasma to have a better picture. Both formats are very similar in viewing angle and power consumption, but many find the colours in plasma more "punchy"

Let your eyes be the judge. I just saw some LG and Samsung LCD's that looked good, while you will probably pay more for the Sony and Sharp names it might not be justified. Sharp makes some great panels, but sometimes puts lesser quality video processors in some of their sets. My neighbour has a Sony Bravia and they have had some problems with leakage which shows smearing on the pixels.

Likewise Panasonic, Hitachi, Pioneer, Samsung and LG make some really nice looking plasma's that are well priced.

We recently moved from an apartment to a house, so I had a lot of TV buying to do. Simply put, I bought a 60" 1080p Pioneer plasma for the family room (PDP-6010), 37" 720p Sharp LCD for the bedroom (37D43U), and 26" Panasonic LCD for the office (26LX70). All are outstanding, but I must say that the Pioneer plasma does outshine the rest.

Anyway, after we bought the Sharp 37" LCD and were using it on the stand, my wife decided she might want to mount the TV in the bedroom for aesthetic reasons. So I told her that's fine, but then the 37" won't be big enough if it's against the wall. So she said ok, buy a bigger TV. So I fought and fought (lol) and agreed to replace the 37" Sharp LCD with a 42" Pioneer plasma (the PDP-4280 if anyone is keeping score).

Just my view, but as good as these nice LCD's can be, I just love the picture a good plasma puts out. Of course, if you are only looking for 37"-40", that argues strongly for LCD as there are many more LCD options in those sizes. So if that's the case, like the others, I'd look at Samsung, Sharp and Sony first and foremost. The Toshiba LCD's look pretty good also. We were very happy with our Sharp 37" LCD (using primarily with HD cable and HD-DVD), and could easily have stuck with it. Good luck.

I also forgot to mention. Dont bother with Telus TV in Calgary. Friends of mine have it with their 45" Sharp LCD and the SD programming looks soft.

They work for Telus and want to switch to another provider that has HD, rather than support the current provider that is also their employer.

The Costco in NE Calgary had some nice looking Panny and Samsung LCD's on display too.

Try and look for something with at least an 8ms response time too....the new 4ms units are as fast as plasma, LCOS or DLP so you wont get any ghosting, but can be pretty expensive.

I vote for the 40". I had a similar setup before and I thought to myself that I'll always be second guessing myself if I got the smaller tv.

I've heard 1080p vs. 720p is difficult to notice below a 46" tv. Take that for a grain of salt as I haven't read about it.

I've had 2 sharps and 1 sony and compared different brands. If I had the money I'd go with the Sony. In general, in my eyes, they look more natural and the darker scenes are better (not necessarily darker blacks).

I've read a ton of people having banding problems on the sharps, I lucked out and got 2 good sets. I heard that Sonys have clouding problems but I'd take clouding over banding because its less distinct. Again, opinions will vary on this.

The only reason I have a sharp is that I was able get it 50% off with the friends and family. I'm pretty picky about sharpness and natural colors but wouldn't call myself at videophile level.

No banding problems here.

I've read that the newer Sonys don't have the clouding problem. I think mine has it, but it doesn't bother me. It's really only noticeable when the screen is completely black. If not, I can't tell.

This is great guys keep them coming!

I have been out looking and like ctown, I have an eye for the Plasmas, they look more life like to me, but due to the chance of glare from a window I am sticking to LCD for this room. Sony Samsung and Sharps appear to have the best pictures I have seen so far, but I did find a Toshiba 720P set for $888 this week. I was tempted but the screen looked dim/dull even after a few adjustements, so I am still looking.

Some of the 1080P sets appear to have a little better color depth to me, a little more vibrant.

Jason, I was really tempted by the prices of the Toshibas, but something wasn't quite right with the color--kind of a greenish tint. Went to two different stores and saw the same results. I even fiddled with the color controls but couldn't quite make it pleasing to my eye.

Glad to know its not just me!

I would love to have a plasma too but I occasionally play games. I read and hear conflicting reports on burn in despite years of advancement.

Another thing to consider is standard def quality since not all programming is in HD yet. The sony I had did an acceptable job with it. Acceptable is the best rating for SD programming on a lcd or plasma tv in my book. Only the discontinued CRT hdtv do a great job. The sharp I have I would say is below average for SD personally.

Another thing to keep in mind is the signal that you see at the store. Even the feed at different parts of a store could be different. With this its hard to tell the true video quality of the tv. I usually shop different stores and have different looks at several models.

I didn't like the toshibas and visio's for the same reason and that I thought the images were a bit softer than the sony's, sharps and samsungs.

BTW, Samsung and Sonys use the same lcd panels, the imaging processors are the big difference in terms of HW determining video qualities.

Jason,

Costco has the best prices on LCD's right now. If you have a membership its worth checking it out.

Here is a good article from Sound and Vision that explains if you have a 46" set you need to sit less than 9 ft away to realize any benefit from 1080P over 720P.

Maxing out Resolution

That being said, when comparing 768 plasma next to 1080P LCOS side by side in store, I did notice some better depth in the 1080P sometimes. Some scenes looked better on the 1080set while some looked better on the 768....not enough to really say the 1080 was necessary.

9 ft from a 46"?!?!? I sit 10 feet from a 92", if I had a 46" I would probably sit 5 feet!

There is somewhat of a general thought that you should sit 2 times the diagonal length of your screen away for HD content and 3x for SD....the nice thing about that article is it tells you maximized seating distance per diagonal length of set and display format.

Wait till you get to be old Robb....like 35 Then you may have to move back a bit.

Latest thing I have seen on plasma's is they are now coming with antireflective coatings/glass to minimize/eliminate glare and the pixels(the proper term escapes me)are now rotating to prevent burn in.

Looked at a Phillips LCD yesterday and was quite impressed with its PQ.

yeah, the new panasonics have some kind of anti reflective coating.

In another year or 2 the 1080 plasmas with anti-glare coating will probably be standard and cheaper than the current 720's. Hopefully my CRT will be dead by then.

Jakewash, how picky are you with video quality. That will help us give you proper advice. Buying a tv is very similar to buying speakers in that you want to buy the best that your money can go for. At the same time you may not want to spend more money on a tv where you personally don't see much difference in quality. As far as glare, I wouldn't watch any movies with glare on the tv b/c it washes out the details, protective coating or not. The coating will help. I'd just wait until the sun goes down. Just my opinion.

I agree with Hutzel that Costco is a great place to buy tv's for cheap. FYI, their online catalog and in store products maybe different and the model numbers maybe different even though the sets maybe the same so that its harder to compare prices to places like BestBuy.

As far as sitting distance from your tv, I believe ctown is giving out good advice. Sure sitting 5' from a 46" is nice but not all of us have the cash to buy a front projection that would fit the best viewing distance or a proper room to have a projection tv.

That's right. You can sit as close as 5' from a 46" 1080P set that is displaying a HD signal, or with a 720P set 9' or farther which is more than often the case. That is why saving some $$on a 720P set rather than 1080 right now is a good plan.

In my case it was only an extra $200 for my 61" 1080p set and I still sit 14 ft away, but the nice thing is it can be watched closer, so if somebody is sitting on the front of the loveseat in my living room at 9 ft...its still not gonna show the pixels.

Jakewash, is this TV for the basement HT?? I'm sure you can go as large as 50" from your couch there, but 42-46" would still a great size set for the space.

Al, this TV is for my bedroom, I am making up to my wife for my future sub purchase[smile}. For the basement HT I am going 55" and up, as I have the room over the fireplace to get up to a 63". As these sizes are still quite expensive I am waiting a little longer to make that purchase.

Since my wife watches more SD programing I am looking at those that have comb filtering and the Sony's look really good in SD and they are currently $200 off at Costco. I was really against buying Sony again after my 8yr old 32" needed to be worked on recently, I also had a 27" that went dead after 9yrs, and I have had many other TV brands much longer than that and still no problems. I have 21" Mitsubishi that is 18 years old and still going strong.

Jason,

For a bedroom TV, I would really consider going to costco and checking out the Viewsonics, they are less than $1000 and offer decent SD picture. I think the 37" is up for $800 or something.

I just saw the Daytek for $699 it doesn't look to bad spec wise but I am quite picky when it comes to TVs and even in the bedroom I still want the best PQ I can get, my wife deserves it, she puts up with me! I do like my Viewsonic 17" monitor I use. I will be dropping by Costco later to pick up a couple of items later today so I will check them out. Thanks.

Costco definitely has great deals. That's where I bought my Vizio 32" LCD. It was less than $700 and was actually of better quality than I thought. So you should be able to find what you're looking for there.

Jason, give the Dell.ca site a look too if you want to save some $$.

I think they have the westinghouse sets on sale too and I hear they get good reviews. Or just get a Sammy like Mojo's at costco. Its a nice looking set.

BTW, thanks for the remote advice. Think I'm getting a 670 harmony.

I stopped by Costco today and those 37" Viewsonic's look pretty good for only$799 but so does the Phillips 37" for $1299 and the 40" Samsung for the same price (if I remember right). Maybe I am just being a little too picky, it is after all not the HT room.

I also noticed BB has the latest 40" from Samsung on sale for $1999 web only. 120hz and 1080P. And in just over a month we have Boxing day sales to look forward to.....

jakewash,
You can get a 40" Sony for $1400 at CC and its probably alot cheaper at costco. In the end, the quality of the picture will be determined by the money you put in. I've found Phillips, Dell, and viewsonic a great bang for the buck but the colors and sharpness weren't like the Sharps or Sony.

I frankly think 1080p is definitely not worth the money on a 40". Whether you can tell the quality difference with 1080p on a 42"... its a big maybe if you're picky and if you are then you can see the difference between the brands that cost more.

BTW, this is the first year 120hz is being introduced to a consumer level lcd tv and you're going to pay a $$$$ premium for it. Typically the 120hz are being coupled in the flagship tv in the manufacturer's tv line up.

I know the 120hz is new that is what makes that $1999 such a good buy, the retail was $2700. I expect to see it near the sale price sometime after Christmas, as they will have cleared out the older 60hz models. Is the 120hz worth the extra bucks in a 37-40" model? I guess that is upto me.

I would agree the PQ wasn't as sharp on the Viewsonic, it is rated at only 1000:1 contrast compared to the 8000:1 Samsung and 4000:1 Phillips but for $800 it was pretty good. Although I do feel the extra money is well spent for the better PQ.

I definitely agree about the PQ of the Viewsonic. I feel the same way about Phillips as I think the PQ is soft and the colors not as punchy.

I really wanted the 120hz but it just cost too much for me, at least 50% more in price. I didn't get it b/c of the money. They way I figured not to do it, maybe this will help you, was that I decided the tv I got would eventually go to the bedroom and I would but a bigger tv down the line. By the time that happens the price will drop a lot. Also, the LED back light lcd's are coming around soon.

That is somewhat the problem, this is already for the bedroom and it should need to last for many years, thus I feel justified in spending the extra money, but I also know we will watch mostly TV and even then it is SD right now as the number of HD channels just isn't enough to justify the extra expense for cable or sattelite.

Samsung and Sony have now crept to the top of the heap mostly just for the audio equalizer they have. Sharp doesn't have it.

sounds like you're making alot of progress in narrowing it down. The way I also look at it, if its going to be in the bedroom it doesn't need all the bells and whistles. When I watch a movie its going to be in the living room with the tv that has all the nice features and awesome PQ.

In looking I have discovered the LED LCDs are now out and are expensive, understandably as it is a new technology, but the picture brightness and contrast is equal to a plasma, at least the one I saw.

"In looking I have discovered the LED LCDs are now out and are expensive, understandably as it is a new technology, but the picture brightness and contrast is equal to a plasma, at least the one I saw."

Stop researching new technologies, you're SO close to buying!

I agree, stop researching new technology, its always more expensive. Remember that this will be in the bedroom, not in your home theater (because you're on a budget).

The reason I brought up LED lcd's is that it'll be the hot new feature out and then the 120hz panels will be a bit cheaper if thats the must have feature for you. I'm sure the LED lcd's will be super super expensive.

Nah, if you keep researching enough then you never have to spend the cash unless you really get tired of research. I researched RPTV's for almost 2 years and saved $1800 on the set I wanted....If I only waited another year I could have saved another $1000 on my 61" set.

BTW, is 120hz a 4ms response time?? That would be nice,
although on SD programming in the bedroom, motion blurr probably wont be a big issue.

Response time is 6ms and I gave in today.... Samsung LNT4069 for $1800.

That looks so nice! Congrats. I want one too .

Maybe I should give you the settings for my Sammy and we can see if they'll do wonders for yours. I got mine off the net from a TV calibrator.

I have the HD version of Digital Video Essentials to set it up with, now I just need the HD player to go with it. I do have my Samsung HD981 which is good for 720P, so this is the one I plan on using with it for now.

I didn't have time to unbox it before I came to work, this is going to be a long night....

Those Samsungs have a very nice pic to them. I haven't seen the newer ones but the ones from earlier this year look freakin good.

congrats, that tv looks sweet.

ctown,
I don't think 120hz means 4ms response time. The refresh rate and response time are 2 different things. I don't know about it much to tell you. I've read that 120hz is a big deal for lcd but not for plasma.

Here is a quick overview of 120hz in relation to LCD TVs.

For me it was the higher contrast ratios you get with them that sold me.

Life used to very simple. Then, along came digital technology.

No kidding.

Life used to very simple. Then, along came digital technology civilization.

I surprised my wife by unpacking the TV and leaving it on the kitchen table last night when I got home from work. I set it up this morning in the basement to have a feel for what a flatscreen down there with the Axioms will be like. The PQ is outstanding even in SD programming and 480P looks even better off the Samsung HD-931. I now need to pick up a DVI to HDMI adapter to try out the 720P setting.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my wife? Once the flatscreen was stationed above the fireplace she said that it was too small and we need a bigger one for that spot 60" LED LCD here I come.......in a few years.

Unfortunately this purchase has now pushed my subwoofer purchase back a year or so.

Why would you wait a few years? She may change her mind by then.

Jakewash, you the man.!! 1080P and everything for casual viewing in the bedroom??? Give it a couple months and that set needs to be transferred downstairs to your HT, while you do some more research and justify the 92" front projector and pull down screen in front of the CRT.

congrats...you get a new TV, while I am getting a bathroom reno..

Well, the TV is now mounted on the wall in the bedroom and looking spectacular. I run SD programming in 4:3 and it gives me 32" viewing size. The Grey Cup looked great on it. I used it as a chance to test out the 120hz capability. I found on the highest setting it was still giving the multi-football impression, on the initial movement of the throw or the kick and then it would catch up to it and look normal. I put the setting to the lowest speed and it helped quite a bit, only on a closer in shot of the game did it show the 3 football effect. Interesting that the fastest setting didn't help but the slower one did, all well just nice to have the ability to adjust I still have many adjustments to try and set up, this thing has the most adjustments I have ever seen on a TV. It did work and look great right out of the box, but in true audio/videophile tradition(not that I really consider myself one) I must play with the settings, for better or worse.

While it was downstairs in the main HT area, we watched Santa Clause 3 in my newly aquired Samsung DVD-1080P7. This is what we get to buy on sale for $98 up here, not a true HD player but it fills the screen better than my older HD-931 in 720P.

This upconverting DVD player worked awesome, the 1080P picture quality was outstanding from a SD disc! And the best part is I get to use the orignal remote from either, the TV or DVD player, as they use something called Anynet+, it is a one touch start up just like the Harmony. Push the DVD button the TV turns on set to the correct input and the DVD turns on and starts playing.

Thought I would throw up a couple of pics of the newly mounted TV

The glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars really do it for me.

What can I say, my wife and I put them up in the kids room and kept on going, they are fun to look at.

It's too small .

After the weekend out at my parents I can safely say that for those of you that want an LCD with out blurring issues of any kind the Sharp's are the way to go. They are 4ms and colors are nice and bright at 10000:1 contrast ratio blacks are pretty good too. I didn't go this route due to the lack of volume equalization and I really like that feature for the bedroom.

?
What is the timing in ms where it is considered that the blurring issue on fast moving objects does not occur?

I could google it but I like to provide job security for regular posters.

Well I can say that my 6ms Samsung still blurrs ever so slightly after a few more adjustments and it might not blurr at all if in HD instead of SD and this is only when watching Football games and just the football when thrown or kicked, I have yet to see any blurring with any other sport. Now my father's Sharp at 4ms shows no bluring at anytime I have seen it in HD or SD so 4ms seems to be the barrier.

Thanks!
Hard to believe 2 can make a difference. Not that I doubt you, I'm just amazed.

IMHO, blurring will always be a problem with LCD's until, maybe, the next generation of of lcd's comes out with a new way of presenting picture like OLED's. I'm not saying OLED's are the answer. Even with the newest Sony XBR with 120 refresh rate the blurring is a lot better but not removed.

I see blurring on my new Sharp but I expect it as its a lcd.

When do you see blurring on the Sharp? I haven't noticed any on my father's Sharp during any of the sports or movies I have watched on it.