HDTV versus HD-ready TV

HDTV vs. HD Ready TV : HDTV comes with a built-in tuner.

"Plasmas cost more than LCDs". Not necessarily. When you get to 40+ inches of tv, you'll find very few LCDs and many plasmas. Plasmas usually cost less and are more abundant at this point. When you get around 20-36 inches of tv, you're not going to find many plasmas, so LCD's are almost your only choice in which case price becomes less of a factor (for some anyway...)

"Plasmas all are HDTV". No. Some are EDTV and some are HDTV-ready (like many of the commercial-level monitors)

Dell plasmas : go to www.avsforum.com and search their forums for the model number. In the past several people jumped on the Dell plasmas only to find out they were a bit inferior, but I don't know if it was this particular model.

 

After reading the replies, I'm confused on the whole issue...

Still, in the context of the original question, it's very important to note the supported resolutions to whatever set you buy. The model AggieRocket gave sounds like it only supports progressive in Standard Definition.

 

HUGE SALE... in China

Apparently people are working for free there. And Assuming the price pressure would eventually filter down here, Christmas is going to be good this year.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20050614A7042.html

TCL announced it will cut prices on its 44- and 61-inch DLP RPTVs (rear-projection TVs) by about 50% at various locations in China this month, and the company plans to lower its 42-inch PDP (plasma display panel) TV prices as well, according to the TCL.

TCL is now pricing one of its 44-inch DLP TV under 10,000 yuan (US$1,208), down from 22,000 yuan (US$2,658), while the price for its 61-inch model will drop to less than 30,000 yuan (US$3,624), down from 42,000 yuan (US$5,074).

 

This is much needed. A few months ago, there was a round of headlines in the media that TV prices were going to drop. And they did - about $100. But there needs to be a MUCH more significant price decrease for people like me to purchase.

 

I have an HD-ready TV I bought 3 years ago. It is HDTV and I get all the local HDTV and over the air programming without CABLE or SATELLITE.

I bought a US Digital receiver for $199 back last year at Wal Mart and it hasn't failed me since then. The only bad thing is that, since I am in KATY, it receives bad signals every now and then, but the FINALS are in HDTV and all the COLLEGE hoops in March Madness time are in HDTV on CBS, plus, all NFL games on FOX and most on CBS and Monday Night Football is on HDTV. Almost ALL prime time shows are on HDTV as well, as are the News shows.

HDTV does NOT necessarily mean WIDESCREEN, but you can tell HDTV if you have widescreen or not.

try: www.dtv.gov and www.checkhd.com to see what's playing right now.

Are you talking about this 32" RCA HD-ready TV for only $297 ??? (it's $600 for 37", so 27" for 297 is a good deal) I'd buy it.

Then you could buy yourself the US DIgital receiver or the RCA Receiver

 

AggieRocket,

See if you can find the model you saw anywhere online and provide a link.

 

Don't buy plasma, developers are abandoning the technology. I think the life span of a plasma tv is much much shorter than the LCD counter part.

 

May I w**** onto this post and ask who might recommend a good old fashioned CRT analog set, preferably 27" with a flat screen with component and S-video input(s)? Much obliged.

 

Sorry, but your statement about plasma tv life is a bit bogus in the sense that current plasma tv life probably exceeds the time you'll own it. The half-life of several current plasmas are around 30-60,000 hours, so we're talking 12-20 years of picture with your plasma. If taken care of, neither one is going to cause you a problem. Your statement is probably based upon the initial batch of plasmas that came out.

As for manufacturers abandoning plasmas. Bunk. The fact of the matter is if you want a large flat panel tv (> 42"), you have FAR more choices with plasma than you do LCD. If you want something in the 32" and under range, you have far more choices with LCD. The price of making LCD's grows ridiculously as the size of the screen gets larger.

They each have their disadvantages and both will be old news in the next 3-5 years when technologies like SED and OLED potentially take over.

 

Well it also depends on how much you want to change your contrast settings and etc. while it will go on for 12 - 20 years, the picture quality probably is at around 60+% of the original brightness at around the 6 year mark. Which if you spend several thousand dollars investment on, you just get pissed off every time knowing you're just making do watching an inferior product (and trust a poor college student that had to make do with an inferior monitor with extremely low brightness, it's agonizing not be able to see shadows or movements when the scene is set in a dark place). Also, you get burn ins, so if you plan to do gaming on your TV, I would not recommend plasma, a constant ABC symbol on the corner of your screen while watching a sports event can also cause this.

 

I just recalibrated (basic calibration) my Hitachi plasma using DVE. I turned my contrast almost completely down to make it look good - I'm not too worried. The settings you see at the retail stores are jacked up beyond belief. If you bring that home, you'll go blind. Burn-in isn't the problem it once used to be, but it can be a problem. Think about it though : if you go to Best Buy, how many tv's do you see with burn-in problems? I haven't seen too many if any, and those things are on all day long (not necessarily always displaying a static image, of course).

As for LCD's, pixel blowouts are a reality. Heck, you may have dead pixels when you pull it out of the box. Color saturation on a plasma is usually better as well. Black levels are often better on a plasma. LCD's have their own advantage over plasma as well.

The 2 technologies are neck-and-neck and the only thing that really separates them is screen sizes. Plasmas are usually bigger. LCD's are usually smaller. Both are great technologies. Neither will be obsolete in the next couple of years. Hell if you want the best picture quality and don't mind some 200-300 lbs. monstrosity in your room, then go get a CRT. Most still have better pictures than LCDs or plasmas, yet manufacturers are stopping production of new CRT sets in droves.... go figure. The "cool" factor of flat panels seems to be more important to people than actual picture quality.

 

...and a big reason I'm looking for one.

So the story goes like this: my roommate from this past year was supposedly renewing his portion of the apartment lease, that is until he decided to live elsewhere at the last second and without notifying any of us other roommates of that decision.

While irritating in itself, this sudden, inconsiderate departure is resulting in him moving out, along with his big screen CRT which I've learned to depend on GREATLY. Now I'm looking into a big screen plasma for a) better entertainment quality and b) a reason to tell him 'hey, dont let the door hit you on the way out'

So anyone have a specific set ~42" to recommend? Panasonics seem to get a lot of love as far as I know, what other good values are there?

 

I bought a Hitachi 42" because I thought the picture looked the best of any 42" HDTV I saw and played with at the retail stores. It's also got a motorized base if you don't want to mount it on the wall. You really can't go wrong with Panasonic, Pioneer, Hitachi, or the more expensive Fujitsus. I'd buy a 42" from any of those.

 

I’ve got burn-in in my 50” Toshiba. English is my wife’s second language so she liked to use captions to help her. After about 1.5 years I noticed on the top & bottom where the captions are it is a bit darker. If the color there is white or another light color it is easy to see if dark you can’t see it.

I rarely notice it now though.

 

By the way, Dell Outlet store is having a sell on HD Plasma TV:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/promo.aspx/fy06q02wk07_tv_dols?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
Use coupon code K$6RQSTL7?1GDD for another $350 off.

 

That item is "factory renewed". I think that means it's a refurb. I recommend staying away.

 

Agree with droxford. I'd spend a little extra and get a new set.

 

Are you sure that's not the "D27f750T" model (note the missing 7 in the model number you typed above)?

I'm not a big fan of refurb stuff... if it fails, you have to ship that 100-200 lbs. monster back.