Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners New TV for my bedroom advice please.

Full back-lit LED's have a better picture, whereas the edge-list LED's were the precursor to these with some visual abnormalities. But, you pay much more for the better quality. LED's provide better contrast and brighter colors (IMO), but purists would probably not go for the bling-bling.

I very much like the new Samsung 8000 series TV's. Despite what some people say about LED TV's I find the picture very natural. It can be set as bright as you like or it can be toned down. Looking at it in a store did not do it justice. In a home environment it is hands down the best picture I have seen to date. Just my thoughts. It is an edge lit set, but it has some type of local dimming also.

I knew that. Matter of fact, I was wondering the other day, "I wonder which of my friends exhibit the most parsimoniousness?" and I thought of you.

Not to keep touting the LG, but having just gone through all this...

I chose the LG over the Vizio because it seems as though some models of the Vizio had QC problems (turning off on their own, etc) and I limited my choices to brands with less reflective screens. The LG got across-the-board good reviews, had a lower-glare screen (none are actually matte) and had local-dimming...which allows some of the LED back lights to turn off to give you deeper blacks....avoiding that "gray" black that used to plague LCDs.

Vizios also have a great picture and a non-glare screen but those QC issues concerned me.

Samsung and Sony had the most reflective screens.

My 2 year old Samsung has a Matte screen that's non-reflective. It must depend on the model.

The current issue of PC World has HDTV ratings, and Visio is near the bottom of the list. LG is right at the top. I don't have personal experience with either brand. My TVs are Panasonic plasmas, which have excellent pictures in a darker room. If your room is very bright, LCD would seem like the better choice.

Wonder why Visio is near the bottom? Looking at the online PC WORLD HDTV Article.

Just some highlights from that article:

"In fact, we often notice more "juddering" (image artifacts created when fine patterns warp or vibrate on screen) in 240Hz sets than in 120Hz TVs"

"The top three sets nailed our image-quality tests. The Samsung UN46D8000 and the LG Infinia 47LW6500 did suffer from fine patterns in certain test scenes (a brick wall, for example, or a city skyline) vibrating slightly. The Sony Bravia 46HX820 had slightly lower scores in brightness and color, but delivered better de­­tail levels and handled the intricate-detail test scenes flawlessly. Overall, video on all three sets looked fantastic."

"The Infinia 50PZ950, LG's flagship plasma set, received color, detail, and brightness scores on a par with those of the top three, but it struggled in our motion tests: A scrolling movie clip of a seaside town looked choppy and vibrated a bit on the 50PZ950, while the other top sets rendered it smoothly."

"The Vizio XVT3D650SV, LG Infinia 47LW5600, and Samsung PN51D6500 all delivered generally good image quality but had a few additional minor flaws. The Vizio suffered from slightly muted color; the LG showed less contrast; and the Samsung showed more problems with detail and motion than the top three did."


Just based on this and a little more checking around. I'm liking the Sony Bravia 46HX820 edge-lit LED now. I was liking the Vizio 47 inch lcd because of panel and price. Price on that at Target is $700. The sony is around $1200.

Been doing some research and I'm liking the reviews of the LG 47LW6500 (it's an LED edge-lit LCD) and the LG 42LK550 (LCD).

I'm leaning towards the latter because it's half the price, has media streaming functionality, and standard LCD's apparently have a longer lifespan than LED edge-lit LCD's.

Whatcha' guys think?

Thanks

How would anyone know how long LED displays last? They have only been out a few years and to my knowledge that notion contradicts everything ever said about anything LED; most LED items I know of have at least a 10yr warranty if not longer.

Could be that it's LED in addition to LCD. That means one more thing that can break down, even if it tends to last longer when it's on its own.

Not much TV advice your you I'm afraid. I'm still waiting for my 46" Toshiba DLP to die. It's embarrassingly big for this day and age but it's still every bit as clear as the day I bought it. I'm certainly getting my moneys worth.

I do think you might max out at 42" up in the corner though. Anything else might just look too big aesthetically, if that is an issue.

On a side note, I won a free X-10 camera years ago when I was rigging up my old house with a bunch of X-10 stuff just for fun. I used it at the front door as well but I also had rigged up an X-10 controlled Nerf gun to it. It was mounted on the camera itself so you could aim it by panning the camera. I was able to make some tiny crosshairs on the lens out of cutting tiny strips of black tape and aligned them by firing against an old piece of plywood and noting where they hit on my screen image. Took a while to get right but it was accurate enough considering it was generally only 4 feet or so from people.

I'm thinking this sounds like something you need.