Foo - Which widescreen tv to get...

Anyone have any first hand long term experiences with these?
I'm looking at either a 42" plasma or LCD tv but they STILL sell rear projection and this new DLP thin rear projection crap.
I'm planning to have the tv on about 7-8 hours a day on average and only need it to last about 5-6 years. Why are they still selling rear projection, it's the same price and looks like crap.

DLP2 is a good way to go. I can't remember which, but double check which have burn-in issues. 7-8 hours a day? Wow... I'm afraid to ask....

http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Television/HDTV/ChoosingHDTV/CompareDisplayTechnologies.htm

(fwiw, I have a 34" CRT that I've had for 3+ years and I love it, though I hate moving it --it's 210lbs)

is this for home or work? we bought a samsung lcd for our lobby display because it had a higher res for displaying our computer images.

It's for home use. Mostly movies and xbox.
Hmm it seems like DLP has serious vertical off axis problems. http://www.dlptvreview.com/dlptv/dlptelevision.html

dude!? how the hell do you have the time for all that t.v. with a job? do you even have a job anymore?

Heh well I go to bed late and the tv comes on the instant I get home until I go to bed. So 8pm-1am is like, 5 hours for a weekday plus maybe an hour in the morning. Then it's on 8-12 hours a day on weekends. So average that in and I'm guessing a max of about 8 hrs a day all year.

LCD & DLP rear-projectors give you a large display area while only needing a small imager. I was seriously looking at Sony LCD rear-projectors vs. DLP from Toshiba and Panasonic (avoid RCA & Sammy). I searched around and found an outfit with showroom using HDTV source for comparison. I even brought in a DVD with the air-force resolution test-pattern. I'll tell you, both LCD & DLP have sufficient resolution to show any source-material you want with more than enough quality. Under normal viewing situations, I couldn't tell the difference. Only under extreme circumstances like viewing directly from the side or top & bottom would you see a drop-off in brightness. However, you want to avoid the wobulated HD3 or HD4 DLP chips. The earlier HD2 and HD2+ looks better with 1080p sources.

I would suggest going for plasma. Up close they look like crap because of the thick black borders around each pixel (screen-door effect); makes everything look gritty and grainy like high-speed film. But back off 6' or more and it looks mahrvelous! LCD wins out on flat-panel displays as well with minimal screen-door effect, but unfortunately, no one made an LCD in 61", so plasma it was...

Here's a good article comparing the various technologies: ExtremeTech - Display Technology Shoot-Out (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1734427,00.asp)

wow. Thats a lot of tv time heh.

when do you wake up, slvoid?

Anywhere from 6:45-7:15.

Ok... we're now stuck between a 61" thin DLP tv that's 7" thick and a 42" LCD that's 6" thick...

Yo, I'm not going to help you move that to you new pimp pad!

Yo, I'm not going to help you move that to you new pimp pad!

Haha, I just have a few small boxes of books and crap. The TV's being delivered.

If you're serious about resolution you might want to wait a few months when the 1080p tv's start coming out. There are a few out now capable of 1080p, but they dont have 1080p inputs, so its just an upconversion. If you plan on getting a PS3, this will have a 1080p output, and the new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray's are supposed to support 1080p. Hurray for new technolgy! Boo for outdating my equipment as soon as I buy it!

Well, utility value in having it right now is worth more than having nothing... :)

Hehe, well now we're stuck with a few choices.. I finally checked out the 7" thick DLP and its kinda dim compared to the others.
There's a samsung 56" dlp that goes up to 720 and a 50" that does 1080p native, which should look REALLY sharp, especially considering it's only 50" but the extra 6" do seem handy...

Can I suggest that you watch less TV, and take up a good outdoor sporting activity, like biking! :p

Anyone have any first hand long term experiences with these?
I'm looking at either a 42" plasma or LCD tv but they STILL sell rear projection and this new DLP thin rear projection crap.
I'm planning to have the tv on about 7-8 hours a day on average and only need it to last about 5-6 years. Why are they still selling rear projection, it's the same price and looks like crap.

Sony 42" Wega DLP - it runs Linux as the menu system, and you'll find a copy of the GNU GPL included in the handbook...

lamp is $180 and user-replaceable with a 2,000-hour life (although we've been using ours for 7 hours a day for nearly two years)...

unit cost has come down to less than $1,900 IIRC...

Hi,
don't go much over 50 inches. You started talking about 42 and ow you are up into King Kong territory. The weaknesses of all TVs get worse as they get bigger.

A good plasma Tv is hard to beat. But I am not talking entry level stuff; although the price for a quality plasma has dropped a lot. I have a fifty something Mitsu DLP. I am pretty happy with it. In fast scenes you sometimes get a big splash of pixelization across the screen. I don't know if other tvs do that or not.
I have liked the LCDs I have seen in the showrooms, but don't know much about them.

Pick a size, or a budget, and go from there.

Rather than correct the wrong guidance you received in the above posts, I suggest you check out AVS.com.

I have never seen such misguided advice in one thread in my life.

Sony 42" Wega DLP - it runs Linux as the menu system, and you'll find a copy of the GNU GPL included in the handbook...Really? It's not an LCD projector?