Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Which 37" or 40" LCD

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!