My Samsung Bluray player keeps freezing. Firmware is up to date. So now that I need a new player I can't help but feel it's time for a new TV (excuse). I have a Panasonic 50" plasma that has been flawless for 8 years now. It is 720p. We mostly watch TV, one or two bluray movies per week. I've never had the pleasure of real bluray HD. I figure now that 4k is coming out it's the perfect time for me to upgrade to 1080p, that way I can be out of date again in a few years ( my technology trend). So, I have two questions. If I get a New TV, Sammy or LG? (Or just keep my 720p Panny that still has a perfect picture over Fios). And is 4k worth it yet? I guess that's 3 questions isn't it.

The size of the screen and how close you sit will determine how much benefit you get from 1080P.

If we assume a 60" screen, you start to see the difference between 720 and 1080 at around 10' and will get full benefit of 1080 at around 7'. 4K is hype for most people.

Check out this link for more detail of distance and screen size vs resolution.

I have no idea which brand is better at this point. I convinced myself I needed a projector to really take advantage of 1080p.

Thank you for your input Fred, I have room on the wall for a 60 and sit about 14 feet away. Seems like these days there's actually not as much professional review info available as there was back when I bought the Panasonic. I remember researching relentlessly and deciding the avi era was a clear winner, in my budget. Maybe the technology has just advanced to where there isn't that much difference in competing price points. I'm starting to think that these days it's more about which I can find a better deal on than whether Samsung is better than LG etc.

I was sort of impressed with the OLED TV (55 inch) 1080p at Best Buy yesterday, although I'm sure that part of that was just the video that was being played. It had a slight curved screen. Don't remember the manufacturer. The price was around $2500 I think. The salesman said a 65 inch was around $4500.

I can always tell when I'm watching a blu-ray on 720p TV, so yeah, there is a difference.

At 14 feet you are not even going to notice the difference between 720 and 1080 until the screen size hits 85".

When I first saw your reply I thought; "Wow, how can he sit so far away from such a small screen?"

Thinking on it, we sat 7' from our first TV, a 13" B&W. How times have changed.

Your eyes must be shot as I can tell the difference between 720 and 1080p at 14'. I tested out many TV's when I replaced my 55" RPTV and I could pick out the differences. Things like grass on a field. it's not that you can see specific detail, just you see that something is just not right if you put them both up side by side.

That said, i would not buy a new TV just for the sake of it. If your current one works for you then i would just keep on using it.

Yea Fred, it's amazing how quick we got used to these big TVs. It wasn't all that long ago I was buying a HUGE 4:3 32" Sony CRT "flat screen". It had to be delivered because it weighed 285 pounds! Now I'm sitting here convincing myself that my 50" plasma is too small.
Matt, you are the voice of reason. My old Panasonic is still pretty nice.

Nope, I've got 20/20 vision. Well, with my glasses on.

We may well have different levels of accuity. I'm going by the chart I linked to. I seem to fall within its working premise as I was barely able to tell the difference between 1080p and up-scaled DVD at 8' from my 50" rptv. They are night and day different on a 110" screen at 10'.

I think those charts are over-rated and not very accurate.

So, even though I have told myself that I'm not buying a new TV my subconscious is not listening. I have now found myself at BestBuy, twice, and HHGregg staring at LED TVs. With the exception of some of the 4k ones that are trying to trick me by running 4k content off thumb drives I swear I can't find one that has PQ as good as my old 720p Panasonic Plasma. I figured just the age difference alone would be a factor, mine is going on 9 years old. The ones I'm looking at are last year Samsungs, 7150 and 6350 in 60 in. Is it just a calibration issue or are these LED TVs just never going to compare to my old plasma?

how would you expect a TV to look good when it has been setup to try and look as over saturated and brilliant to overcome terrible lighting and catch the eye of Joe general public who also has not a clue what it really should look like.

If you want to go shopping for a TV then you must go out to an overpriced Hifi store that specialises in trying to convince you that their TV's are far better than anyone else's to justify their over price. Then you can see one setup correctly to see that the picture though not as good as your plasma is pretty darn close in the right conditions.

Ah! Excellent idea Matt! There was one in Cherry Hill near me, maybe it's still there. I went there to demo speakers before I bought my first Axioms some years ago. I'll check it out this weekend.

My Sony 55" LED from last year is superb to me.

Remember, the display models in stores are normally set to 'Torch Mode' - IAW, everything turned up to close to max & very unrealistic with everything over driven. Get it home & put it into 'Standard' or whatever & it will shine...

TAM

I'd never buy another LCD after having 3 of them and 1 plasma. All 3 had off axis viewing problems. Don't know if that was ever fixed. Haven't shopped around much lately, but I did see an OLED that might be a good contender for Plasma. Perhaps better. I was told the price for a 65 inch was around $4500, which is the price point of my plasma when it first came out (Panasonic 65VT50).

I'd definitely choose another Samsung when the timecomes. My LCD is several years old, picture is still perfect, never had a problem.

It is certainly a preference thing. I personally can not look at a LCD anymore. I purposely bought a f8500 last year knowing that plasma's were being phased out and I was afraid my existing Panny Plasma would not make it to the time when affordable OLED and bug free were common.

I've been in bed a lot lately, not feeling well. Won't get into that but in there is an older 720p Panasonic plasma and I would still take that over most LCD's out today.

http://www.rtings.com/ is the best resource I found to quickly pare down which TVs are worth a look and which are a waste of time to look at.

I like Samsung, but my Samsung loads slow, and even the eject seems to take forever.
Also, if watching a DVD the quality is not great at all. A lot of ghosting pixilation.

watching a Blu-ray it is good.


I say this with DVD because my Sony is not near as bad as the Samsung with DVD's

My Sony BDP & PS3 play DVDs flawlessly.

A lot of material looks almost as good as Blu-Ray whereas others not so much. I think that it is kinda like poorly recorded CDs sound substandard vice good ones that are marvelous...

TAM

Using a Samsung 60" 7150 with Oppo 103D blu ray. Looks good and the darbee processing cleans up old crappy sources well.

I've had 3 Samsung plasma's, one Panasonic plasma, and now I have 2 Samsung LED-LCD sets, both 4k. The only one that displeased me was an expensive Samsung plasma that broke after two years. I'm very pleased with the last one I got, Samsung 65" JS9000 -- it has the best picture I've ever seen (except that off-axis viewing is very bad). It does especially well upconverting 1080i DirecTV satellite video, which is mostly what I watch.

I have a 60" LG plasma that is 2 years old and a 50" LG plasma that is 7 years old (I also have an Epson projector on a 135" screen). I like LG and I love Plasma (sad that technology is no longer available). Both my LG's are 720p (the Epson is 1080p). Most of what we watch on the LG's is cable (news, sports, prime-time dramas, etc).

There are still many issues with 4K that have not been finalized or standardized yet. I'd hold off on 4K right now as the way one person described it, "they are flying the airplane while still building it". 3D has pretty much failed in the home market (as I predicted). Plasma is gone, so the TV manufacturers are trying to push the next best thing to keep sales going (whether it's ready or not). This is a true scenario of putting the cart before the horse. Any one remember Beta, or DVD Audio?

I love my plasma tvs. Even at 720p they both look fantastic. I am not in any hurry to upgrade. Both times the LG was cheaper than the Samsung and picture quality was close with the LG a little better (IMO).

Happy Birthday, Paul!

I will more than likely within the next year have to purchase a new set and if I was to look at the most up to date technology it would have to be OLED. The only problem is, so far LG is the only brand that is getting in to it all the way and it is still comparatively quite expensive. Even LG has stated in their literature, so far, the 4K protocol has yet to be determined for the OLED technology, yet, from what I have seen so far, the current displays are very impressive. We will have to wait and see.

I currently have a Lumagen Radiance video processor and a Darbee Darblet. These two units actually go a considerable way to improving the picture of even the most modest display so I just might ultimately settle for a 1080p model.

Thanks John!