What is the best Big Screen TV?


O.K. Here's an old audio guy that is about to put together a home theater system....and:

What is the best tv in the 35" to 45" screen size range? I saw a rear projection Sony at a store recently that looked better than any big guy I have seen...but would love to hear some opinions..on..rear projection, plasma, LCD...etc.

Thanks.
whatjd

Showing 2 responses by wolf32

Gaudio_eek is definitely on the right track. 1080p is definitely going to be where it's at. A lot of really good 720p choices out there right now, but if you hang on just a little bit longer, this coming year should offer some truly excellent sets. As to which technology to go with, well that's hard to say, as each one has it's pluses and minuses. DLP is really picking up speed with better and better performance and larger screen sizes coming. D-ILA looks very promising (but it's still too early to tell how it's going to fare with consumers).

Plasma has a loyal following with a lot of folks (especially the female variety), as Plasma sets are very sleek and thin as a wafer(which is great for space limited areas). So the W.A.F is very high for Plasma sets. Performance wise Plasma is a bit iffy, at it's best it can deliver some incredible images, but on the other hand, it's prone to a variety of problems like pixel burn out and it can look a bit artifacty. And prices for high quality Plasma sets over 51" are still up in the stratosphere.

LCD has a proven track record, and is capable of doing 1080p(sets are either just being introduced or will be soon). And screen sizes for LCD are getting bigger and bigger, and prices are coming down, so that's a definite plus.

Good ol' CRT is the granddaddy of them all, but CRT still has some life left in it. New sets are still being offered (as to how much longer I don't know), but as I see the trend going, the future is definitely going to be digital. So as to which technology you should adopt (be it LCD, DLP, D-ILA, LCoS {Liquid Crystal On Silicon}, or Plasma), you need to look, look, and look, and only then will your eyes lead you to that holy grail of TV display.

Let's see what 2005 offers us, should be fun :)

SV
Some really good questions Darrylhifi. I'll do my best to try and answer them all :)

First off, I read the same thing about Intel bowing out of LCoS. Very interesting.

As to whether Plasma and D-ILA will do 1080p, from what I've been told yes they will. Some D-ILA front projectors already do 1080p so I think that D-ILA RPTV's that are 1080p capable are going to be appearing soon. As to when Plasma sets will start 1080p, I'm not sure.

Re networks broadcating in 1080p, yes they will eventually do this (a few are already in talks about doing this), but it's going to be a while. With many stations just barely starting to change over to either 1080i or 720p, it's unlikely that many will want to spend even more money to make a change once again to go to 1080p (even though we know that's the ultimate). Probably really large metropolitan areas (like NYC and LA) will offer 1080p first.

Re Hi Def DVD, yes it is my understanding that it will indeed be 1080p. All the more reason to get a 1080p set :)

I hope I was able to answer all your questions. Thanks for picking my brain :)

SV