Deals on 1080p Displays

Exactly.

DWA, or anyone else curious about LCD panels, you may find the following sites to be a very useful starting point for understanding differences among various types of LCD panels:
In addition, because high quality accurate color reproduction displays are critical to photographic and video editors, Digital Photography Review (arguable the best source for reviews and information on digital cameras) has a thread on it's forum specifically for identifying what model LCD displays use what types of LCD panels... as this information is rarely ever revealed in the specs.

The thread is simply titled: The list...



You can also get a lot of useful information on LCD displays at Be Hardware.

Vincent Alzieu wrote an excellent 6-page article on 100hz LCD technology, and also includes some good info on other aspects of LCD panels:
While it's an 8-page indepth review of two specific LCD displays, the reviewer goes into some good detail on various forms of LCD technology that applies to many different types of LCD displays, so it's worth checking it out as well:

Hope you find these sources useful for more easily identifying the best display for your needs. 👍
 
I went to Fry's today to check out the LG and ended up staring at all the tvs for about an hr and a half... I'm clueless again. :grumpy: :dopey: :crazy:
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Sorry for the double post, wanted to get some attention.

When you go to the store, say Fry's and look at their tvs what source are they using for what you look at?? I say this because some of the 1080p tvs even look bad, jaggies and all. :odd: Does the source make that big of a difference or is it because of the processor/decoder or what?
 
If it's coming from an analog input, like cable tv or regular antennas it will look pretty bad, worse than CRTs. If it comes from digital inputs like Directv or DVD players it will look better, but the quality will still depend on the resolution of the source.
 
Okay, I am now in the market for a new TV. I'm currently running off of a Dell 2007WFP, which is nice, but I'd ideally like a 1080p. I was browsing Amazon's selection, and came upon this excellent review: (I'm aware that consumer reviews should generally be taken with a grain of salt, but it seemed helpful.)

Sorry, it a lot!

By Jack Bourne (Southern California) - See all my reviews
I had recently purchased the Samsung LN-S4095D 40" 1080p LCD HDTVfrom Amazon, but it had a good amount of back light issues exactly like the Sony XBR's. I have read that it sometimes goes away by itself after a few weeks of use. But after 3 weeks it was still cloudy. I shipped it back and received a full refund. I'd heard that the LNT-series of Samsung's were coming out in March and that the problem had been resolved. After many in store demo's at BB and CC by asking the sales associates to hook up a blu-ray 1080p DVD (luckily they all had "Happy Feet" so they were exactly the same movie compared) I product tested the Samsung LNT4061F 40" 1080p LCD HDTV, the LNT4065F, and LNT4066. Along with two Sony's that caught my eye Sony KDL-40XBR2 40" Bravia XBR 1080p LCD HDTV,Sony KDL-40V2500 40" Bravia V-Series 1080p LCD HDTV. All were within my price range. But the Sony V2500 wasn't even close to standing with the Samsung LNT's. The XBR2 is great, but watch out for clouding which Sony will NOT admit is a problem, I recommend googling the XBR clouding problem before buying from SONY. If you're looking for the best all around TV (price, sound, picture quality, no CLOUDING, hook-up versatility(3x HDMI)) then the LNT4065 is the perfect TV for you. It has hidden side speakers that sound very rich and full. If you already have a sound system and prefer a matte finish to your TV get the LNT4061. The LNT4061 has poor sound from its hidden bottom speaker, but the matte screen is excellent to prevent glare. The LNT4065 has a semi-gloss screen, which makes the 15K:1 contrast ratio look amazing! I haven't had any glare problems at all. The only difference between the LNT4065 and LNT4066 is that the 66 has a different chasis. The internals are all the same. I've confirmed this through extensive research. The 65 has buttons on the top of it, while the 66 has pressure sensitive buttons on the bottom left corner. Not worth the extra money to me. PS2 and Gamecube games look fantastic on it. I don't have a Wii or PS3 to try on it yet, but I'll submit another review when I do. This TV is so versatile. So many features for sound, gaming, and picture quality. You can adjust everything you want. LCD is the only way to go, with this TV you get the CR of plasma without the ghosting! This is the TV to buy!
Big plus to Amazon. I bought the TV for $2199 and saw that a week later it was 1905 and they refunded the difference.

JUNE 5, 2007 UPDATE: I purchased a PS3 and a Wii and both look fantastic! The 1080p HDMI 1.3 look crystal clear, I've played Fear(720p), and Ninja Gaiden (1080p). The 1080p upconverting that the PS3 does with the recent firmware upgrade makes all of my regular DVD's look great, and my PS2 games look just as good. The Wii only uses RCA but it looks great with 480i. Zelda and the Wii Sports look fantastic. Having three HDMI ports really comes in handy with a PS3 and DirecTV (HDMI 1080i).

The price at the moment on Amazon is $1624.00, the review was written in May. I've actually found it for $1535 though. Any thoughts? I intend to use this for gaming and DVD's.

Thanks!
 
ceiling_fan
The price at the moment on Amazon is $1624.00, the review was written in May. I've actually found it for $1535 though. Any thoughts? I intend to use this for gaming and DVD's.
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Samsung makes great displays and some great LCD panels of which the LN-T4065 is one of. However, their DLP displays are even better.

If you are willing to spend $1,500-$1,600 I would definitely recommend you consider Samsung's HL-T5087, 50" 1080p DLP "Slim Depth" HDTV. Not only is the screen 25% larger than the 40" LCD, but thanks to the DLP chip, you’re going to see a significant improvement in black level and shadow detail, and absolutely no pixel grid as compared to the LCD TV.

The other huge benefit to the HL-T5087 is that it doesn't use a lamp based light engine like almost all RPTVs. It uses LED lights, which offer many advantages over lamps.

The obvious advantage is that you will never have to replace the lamp, which generally cost between $200 and $400 dollars and last between 2,000 and 6,000 hours. Of course for those TV's using lamp engines that last 6,000 hours, this really isn't a huge benefit, unless you plan on spending over 8 hours a day using your display.

Unlike lamps, LEDs wont gradually lose their luminance (brightness). So while a lamp based RPTV may lose 25% of its brightness after about 2,000 hours, and LED based RPTV wont.

Also, unlike a lamp, LED lights can be turned on and off instantly. Lamps must have a warm-up and cool-down cycle, or else they will not last very long.

For videophiles, LED light engines also allow for greater calibration control for color accuracy.

While obviously not as thin as an LCD flat-panel TV, unless you are hanging an LCD on the wall, it's nearly the same depth (14") as a flat panel LCD when you take in account the needed base for the LCD TV.

As for cost, Amazon is currently selling it for $1,655 (just $31 more than the LN-T4065) and yet you will get a 25% larger display and one with significantly better picture quality. 👍👍

Now if you really want to get the most out of your PS3, you might even want to consider getting Samsung's HL-T5689, as it comes with HDMI 1.3 while all other displays come with HDMI 1.2 - but the 56" model costs a good deal more than the 50".
 
Thank you SO much for this information! TV companies should give you commission! :sly:

edit: okay, I've read the listing, I'm leaning towards the 5087. D-N, I can't thank you enough for steering me in a direction I wasn't aware of. 👍

I was looking up the differences between HDMI 1.2 and 1.3- they were a lot larger than I expected:

"HDMI 1.3 - This version includes improvements in both audio and video capability. With the advent of Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, version 1.3 adds the ability to transfer the digital bitstreams for the new high resolution audio formats: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD."

This is pretty drastic, right?
 
ceiling_fan
Thank you SO much for this information! TV companies should give you commission! :sly:
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I'm just happy to try and help people make sense out of an increasingly more complicated world of display technology.

In the old days it was relatively easy... walk in, tell them the size of TV and general budget and off you go. Most TVs even ten years ago where fairly simple to understand and all shared similar advantages and disadvantages as they were all pretty much using the exact same display technology.

Fast-forward to today, and you now have to consider the advantages and disadvantages of CRT, Plasma, LCD, DLP, LCoS, and soon OLED among other emerging technologies. Then you have to consider light engines... phosphor tubes, phosphor panels, backlight LCD panels, lamp rear projection, LED rear projection, laser rear projection, and of course front projection.

Any one of these could be an ideal choice for any one particular person with particular wants and restrictions... thus making all the more difficult for consumers to make the right choice - and with some technologies dropping rapidly in price, deciding when is the right time to get that display is also much more difficult to know than ever before.



edit: okay, I've read the listing, I'm leaning towards the 5087. D-N, I can't thank you enough for steering me in a direction I wasn't aware of. 👍
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Glad I could help. :)



I was looking up the differences between HDMI 1.2 and 1.3- they were a lot larger than I expected:

"HDMI 1.3 - This version includes improvements in both audio and video capability. With the advent of Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, version 1.3 adds the ability to transfer the digital bitstreams for the new high resolution audio formats: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD."

This is pretty drastic, right?
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Yes and no. :)

If you have, and will likely eventually have, a receiver or audio processor that decodes Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD, then yes, you'll need HDMI 1.3... but not on the display. You'll need it on the player, which is one of the benefits in having a PS3, as very few players have HDMI 1.3 including the X360's add-on HD DVD player and even the current X360 consoles.

There are other audio related benefits to HDMI 1.3, but again, these aren't going to really impact a display having HDMI 1.3 inputs.

The advantage to having a display with HDMI 1.3 is that it can take advantage of HDMI 1.3's support for 30, 36, & 48-bit xvYCC with Deep Color (basically much higher color accuracy from the original source with a much wider gamut of colors). At this time, a display with HDMI 1.3 is certainly not critical, and why I personally wouldn't pay an extra $500 for one that had it. In a few more years I suspect things will be quite different though, and by then HDMI 1.3 will likely be the norm.
 
Okay, I've thought about this a lot, and I'm most likely going to get Samsung 50 incher! But before I do, does anyone have any other recommendations? Sorry about all these questions, but I don't want to buy the wrong TV! :dopey:

Digital-Nitrate: I would premium you if you weren't already. :) It's the least I could do.
 
ceiling_fan
Digital-Nitrate: I would premium you if you weren't already. :) It's the least I could do.
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I appreciate the thought. If my suggestions result in you finding the right TV for you, maybe you can give a little Premium to someone else... that way GTP get's some additional support as thanks for providing such a great resource where we can all share our ideas and help each other out from time to time. 👍

At the very least, I look forward to hearing about your final decision, and how happy you are with that choice.
 
ceiling_fan
Cheapest HL-T50875 I found: (50 inches, better picture)
http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/...bber-_-Samsung-_-RPTV - 50 60 Inch-_-HLT5087S
($1452)
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Nice find!

There are a few things you might want to keep in mind when price shopping besides the price. You want to be sure your buying form a reputable retailer, and one that is authorized reseller of that product. Other wise you may get stuck with a 'lemon' that isn't covered by the manufacturer's warranty.

In this case, Butterfly Photo is both very reputable and an authorized retailer for Samsung. 👍

The next thing you want to be sure you know is if they have the product in stock, what kind of shipping method they use, and of course how much they will charge you for shipping, and if any sales tax is applicable.

For instance, while I don’t know your location, thus I don’t know if you’ll have to pay a sales tax, at the very least, if you buy it from Butterfly Photo, you’ll have to pay an additional $187 shipping charge (Ground: 8-14 Business Days = 2-3 weeks). That would bring your total (without tax) to $1,639. That's only $16 less than what Amazon is currently charging, because they are currently waiving the shipping charges, and they ship in 3-5 business days. So you may want to keep that in mind as well.

Fortunately, some product & price search engines, like www.pricegrabber.com will add shipping and any applicable taxes to the total cost listing (sometimes called "Bottom Line Price")... but keep in mind, these P&P search engines will often overlook many retailers.

As a prime example of this, doing a search on Pricegrabber for the Samsung HLT5087S it wont show the great deal Amazon has on this TV. This is why it pays to use more than one P&P site, and if you don't see a listing for one of the big retailers, it might be a good idea to check those sites directly. 👍
 
I just got in the mail notice of upcoming sale at Costco (Sep 4-23) and includes three 1080p displays:
They are also selling Panasonic's TH-50PE700U 50" 1080p Plasma, for only $2,700... but I left it off the list as for most uses, I simply can't recommend Plasmas.
 
In case you were wondering Digital-Nitrate, I will likely buy that Samsung 50" sometime in September.

:drool: <- Not on the screen though!
 
Ok... I was looking though the sunday ads and there was a newegg ad. They had a Westinghouse 37' 8ms 1080p LCD for $1000 but when I went online to find info on google or look at it on newegg it wasn't there... :odd: Model #lvm-37w3se

Do you think it's better than the Viewsonic 28' monitor I got?

Thanks
 
I know about Vizio... Thanks though. I don't want to sound snooty but I'd rather stick to name brands at this point.
 
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose; by any other name would smell as sweet."

Seriously though, sometimes "name brands" are far worse. If you do some searching on opinions and reviews on Westinghouse TV's over the last five years for example you'll find many very dissatisfied people, especially when it comes to reliability. Not that every model they make are below average, but as they say YMMV.

At the same time VIZIO has very quickly garnished quite a lot of praise for the value, even from diehard videophiles... :embarrassed:

Personally, I try not to get influenced by the name on the box, as more often than not, many of the key parts are often coming from the same sources. :)
 
:sigh: I don't know what it is about HDTVs but while I get what you're saying I've heard the opposite that Westinghouse is good and Vizio not so much. I dunno... I guess that's why I went with my Monitor to bypass all this crap. :grumpy:
 
DWA
Some news
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Yes, aren't those super sweet! :drool:

Most importantly it appears they have resolved the banding problems they had with this year's models. I also hope they offer it in the matte black finish, as the high gloss finish (like the PS3) that they are using in this year's models shows dust like you wouldn't believe, and can be easily scratched from dusting if not very careful. That, and I also do not like the reflections it causes.

If Costco has the new 52" model for $2,000 and it doesn't have the high gloss finish frame, I'm going to replace the 46" Samsung DLP RP-HDTV we have in the family room for this one! 👍
 
Digital-Nitrate
Excellent choice. 👍

Where did you decide to buy it from?
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First i thought to order it cheaper from Germany, but decided to make warranty dealings easier by buying it from here, Finland. I asked it from my local AV/PC- shop(http://www.ostosmesta.com/mediakulma/index.php?page=detail&id=50416&catid=19) in Tampere and said they contact me when they know availablity. My friend also goes to find out from his local Expert store(http://www.expert.fi/) in St Michel.
Price(2100&#8364;) at mediakulma is decent;about 400&#8364; under msrp.
Though i have no idea how those locations would make any sense to you.
You are from internet, not from Finland :)
 

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