HDTV Megathread

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veni veni veni: Jun 5, 2005

Dogen posted:

It's just a cheaper panel. It's not really 'old as hell', and being 'up to' the 9 series doesn't mean it's obsolete or something. That's like saying because the 7 series BMW is out it makes the 3 obsolete or something.

What would the difference between panels be, just out of curiosity?

# ? Dec 28, 2008 22:45

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# ? Dec 13, 2025 03:44

canyonero: Aug 3, 2006

I'm about to finally get off my butt and get myself an HDTV of some sort. I got a Bestbuy gift card for the holidays, so I'm stuck with them for better or for worse. I try to keep up on all this stuff, and I'm pretty sure I have it narrowed down to:

32"
LCD
< $600
720p

Just 1 question about 720p: I've read some conflicting details about 720p sets and connection through HDMI to a PC. Is this something I need to be concerned about?

BB has a few in this range, including a Dynex (which I assume is Best Buy's brand?). Other than a 1200:1 contract ratio, these seem to be fine sets. Am I missing something? Are there brands that I should avoid? Ones worth spending a few extra on?

# ? Dec 29, 2008 02:24

emgeejay: Dec 8, 2007

quote:

I'm about to finally get off my butt and get myself an HDTV of some sort. I got a Bestbuy gift card for the holidays, so I'm stuck with them for better or for worse. I try to keep up on all this stuff, and I'm pretty sure I have it narrowed down to:

* 32"
* LCD
* < $600
* 720p

Just 1 question about 720p: I've read some conflicting details about 720p sets and connection through HDMI to a PC. Is this something I need to be concerned about?

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10101509&langid=EN&logon=

I bought this on Boxing Day and am so far very, very happy with it, although it's my first one and I'm no A/V guru. The thing has settings specifically for having a PC connected (and even a monitor cable port for this very purpose if your computer doesn't output with HDMI).

Haven't used it much yet, but so far:
-- DVDs, on my old, non-upscaling DVD player (connected with Component) look great.
-- The Xbox 360 is sick.

Edit: Also, Best Buy has a policy where you can return it within 30 days if you don't like it, which is why I went with them over The Brick, where I saw the TV first. Screw The Brick.

Edit edit: I do have one minor complaint: The only options when watching an analog 4:3 broadcast (digital cable isn't in the cards for me yet) are Normal (retains the 4:3 aspect ratio), Full (stretches to fill the screen) and Full Zoom (which stretches a little and zooms a little to fill the screen). I wish there was an option to just zoom to fill the screen, for when something is shown letterboxed (or for non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs, although I'm not sure I have any).

emgeejay fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Dec 29, 2008

# ? Dec 29, 2008 04:09

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

NESguerilla posted:

What would the difference between panels be, just out of curiosity?

Between which units? The 500 is basically a lovely version of the 530/550s, it has less inputs and a worse contrast ratio. The 9 series is a whole different thing, LED backlit and such, and a faster panel.

But the equivalent sized 950 costs 2.5 times as much as a 500, so there you are.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 04:54

emgeejay: Dec 8, 2007

Oh, here's something. My friend's had a 1080i LCD TV for about three years now. I went over to his house last summer and marvelled at the picture a bit -- but after a few days, I noticed that the image had a flaw: it was brighter* in the center, in an exactly 4:3 box, like so:

I've exaggerated it a bit for that picture; like I said, it took me a few days to even notice. But once I did, I was constantly distracted by it, especially in the areas right at the line between "lighter" and "darker".

I know what must have caused it: most of his time's been spent watching broadcast TV (with analog cable, in 4:3), and, being a stickler for aspect ratios, he never cropped or zoomed on the image to make it fill the screen. But it's an LCD TV, and I've been told (in the OP of this thread) that LCDs don't have a problem with burn-in -- if this isn't burn-in, what is it, and should I be worried about it? I'll zoom and crop most TV shows without much hesitation, but I'd never do that for watching a movie, and I don't want a "difference area" in the shape of a 2.35:1 image.

*It might have been brighter at the sides and darker in the center, I can't recall for certain.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 05:09

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Max22 posted:

Oh, here's something. My friend's had a 1080i LCD TV for about three years now. I went over to his house last summer and marvelled at the picture a bit -- but after a few days, I noticed that the image had a flaw: it was brighter* in the center, in an exactly 4:3 box, like so:

I've exaggerated it a bit for that picture; like I said, it took me a few days to even notice. But once I did, I was constantly distracted by it, especially in the areas right at the line between "lighter" and "darker".

I know what must have caused it: most of his time's been spent watching broadcast TV (with analog cable, in 4:3), and, being a stickler for aspect ratios, he never cropped or zoomed on the image to make it fill the screen. But it's an LCD TV, and I've been told (in the OP of this thread) that LCDs don't have a problem with burn-in -- if this isn't burn-in, what is it, and should I be worried about it? I'll zoom and crop most TV shows without much hesitation, but I'd never do that for watching a movie, and I don't want a "difference area" in the shape of a 2.35:1 image.

*It might have been brighter at the sides and darker in the center, I can't recall for certain.

are you SURE this isn't a plasma? if it truly is 1080i, the only 1080i flatpanel i know of is the hitachi plasmas.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 05:33

emgeejay: Dec 8, 2007

See, this made me think it was a plasma. But after I bought mine, I asked him about his, and he said it's a 1080i LCD. And I know it's 32 inches. I don't think he'd be wrong about it being a plasma, but I'll ask for a brand name (it was something weird) or model number.

emgeejay fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Dec 29, 2008

# ? Dec 29, 2008 07:59

Tibby: Mar 24, 2004; happy bamboo cup

I really want to replace my crummy 20" mono audio CRT with something nice and flat, I'm thinking around the US$350-400 bracket and I could use some pointers as to what sets are good these days.

I don't want anything bigger than 32", as I have limited space. I'll also probably want to hook up an xbox360 to it after a while, so LCD would be the way to go I think. Beyond that, I don't really know what to look for, so I was hoping for some help in here.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 12:50

Flobbster: Feb 17, 2005; "Cadet Kirk, after the way you cheated on the Kobayashi Maru test I oughta punch you in tha face!"

I'm looking to upgrade my old 21" CRT as part of a move to building a little media center setup so I can stream stuff and ditch my overpriced, underwatched cable. I'm not a serious videophile by any means, and this is my first foray into HD so there's probably a good deal of stuff I don't understand, too. Here's my budget and what I'd like to have:

$800-900 maximum
37" LCD at a minimum
1080i capability. 1080p would be nice for future-proofing but I don't need it and expect to do without it on my budget -- plus I don't have a Blu-Ray player and won't be getting one anytime in the near future, so most of the HD content I'll be watching will be OTA which doesn't broadcast that high anyway, and my viewing distance + my preferred screen size means I probably wouldn't miss much.
I don't do much gaming other than my Wii occasionally, so I'm not going to be anal about gaming performance.

Now just from looking around at places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, it seems like the Samsung sets I've seen in that range consistently have the best color and contrast (and at BB, it was Samsung sets being used to show off the Blu-Ray players), but I realize that's also got a lot to do with the half-assed way they configure the sets, so I'm probably unfairly limiting myself.

When I see that Newegg has the LN40A450 for $799 it makes my ears prick up, but I'm guessing that's a fairly older set, and I noticed that it only lists 720p in the spec sheet and not 1080i. Some other sites do say it supports 1080i, so that makes me reluctant about that one. The LN37A550 looks pretty good too for $879 and is 1080p.

So, I'm looking for any good recommendations, Samsung or not, at this point. I'm tempted to wait until the Super Bowl to see what kinds of deals are available, but it seems like they usually only have the biggest deals on the sets that are outside my budget anyway.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 16:38

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

The 450 will accept 1080i. Honestly, 40" is right on the border line between 1080p being useful over 720p. However, the 550 does have a somewhat better panel (brighter, somewhat faster), so it comes down to whether you want something big or something that will look a bit nicer.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 16:47

Saltin: Aug 20, 2003; Don't touch

Max22 posted:

Oh, here's something. My friend's had a 1080i LCD TV for about three years now. I went over to his house last summer and marvelled at the picture a bit -- but after a few days, I noticed that the image had a flaw: it was brighter* in the center, in an exactly 4:3 box, like so:

I've exaggerated it a bit for that picture; like I said, it took me a few days to even notice. But once I did, I was constantly distracted by it, especially in the areas right at the line between "lighter" and "darker".

I know what must have caused it: most of his time's been spent watching broadcast TV (with analog cable, in 4:3), and, being a stickler for aspect ratios, he never cropped or zoomed on the image to make it fill the screen. But it's an LCD TV, and I've been told (in the OP of this thread) that LCDs don't have a problem with burn-in -- if this isn't burn-in, what is it, and should I be worried about it? I'll zoom and crop most TV shows without much hesitation, but I'd never do that for watching a movie, and I don't want a "difference area" in the shape of a 2.35:1 image.

*It might have been brighter at the sides and darker in the center, I can't recall for certain.

I have a 3 year old Samsung 720p LCD that exhibits something similar. Instead of the bright/dark deliniation along the 4:3 bar area, I simply have a dark line that is static and very visible. This is absolutely an LCD screen. I watch SD content with the 4:3 bars, and some of my HD channels sometimes show "HD" in 4:3.

Here's a crappy shot for reference. The line is right where 4:3 bars would be, is noticeable in bright scenes, and only on the right side of the screen. It makes me very sad.

People can say what they like about LCD not having burn in, but it can certainly retain "forever". The only upside of this is I have an excuse to buy a 1080p set now. I won't be watching content with 4:3 bars on my new set.

Saltin fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Dec 29, 2008

# ? Dec 29, 2008 19:47

napking: Aug 31, 2003

engadgethd has some possible details about samsung's 2009 panels:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/12/29/samsungs-ces-2009-hdtv-lineup-leaked/

# ? Dec 29, 2008 19:56

SlyFrog: May 16, 2007; What? One name? Who are you, Seal?

Thanks for the calibration advice, which I followed.

While I think I like it (I probably just have to get used to it), I do have one question.

Is it fair to say that most correct calibrations end up making the screen considerably darker than the store/default models?

# ? Dec 29, 2008 19:57

jeff8472: Dec 28, 2000; He died from watch-in-ass disease

SlyFrog posted:

Thanks for the calibration advice, which I followed.

While I think I like it (I probably just have to get used to it), I do have one question.

Is it fair to say that most correct calibrations end up making the screen considerably darker than the store/default models?

Yes. But that's only because the store setups are too bright. In the store brighter=better to most people.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 20:10

SlyFrog: May 16, 2007; What? One name? Who are you, Seal?

jeff8472 posted:

Yes. But that's only because the store setups are too bright. In the store brighter=better to most people.

Yes, I think I will get used to it as mentioned, I just wanted to be sure I had not screwed something up, because it is appreciably darker than it used to be.

One think I immediately noticed is that people look like they have less "makeup" on - that is, flesh colors and face tones are not so bright that they blur or look like someone is wearing excessive makeup.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 20:15

Sent from my iPad: Jun 19, 2000

I am strongly considering the Samsung LN52A750. $1,850 w/ no tax and free shipping seems like a drat good price, but would anyone have any recommendations for a 50"+ TV around the same price that'd be much better?

# ? Dec 29, 2008 21:26

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

zapf posted:

I am strongly considering the Samsung LN52A750. $1,850 w/ no tax and free shipping seems like a drat good price, but would anyone have any recommendations for a 50"+ TV around the same price that'd be much better?

Get the 650 unless you really want a no swivel stand, crappy DLNA, or an actual functional PIP (I do wish I had this particular thing). Unless they're exactly the same price, or something.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 21:41

Sent from my iPad: Jun 19, 2000

Dogen posted:

Get the 650 unless you really want a no swivel stand, crappy DLNA, or an actual functional PIP (I do wish I had this particular thing). Unless they're exactly the same price, or something.

The 650 is more expensive from Amazon right now, surprisingly enough.

# ? Dec 29, 2008 22:08

Substar: Jan 20, 2001

I just got the 750 (it was the same price as the 650, weird) and I love it. I'm going from a 30" CRT HDTV so it's a huge step up for me, but still the picture seriously blows me away.

Blu rays look amazing, and even 1080i HD movies on my cable box look absolutely great at 120hz. 360 game are gorgeous on this TV. I reall have nothing bad to say about it at all.

I am still getting used to the 120hz increased frame rate, it looks almost too realistic or something, I can't put my finger on it.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 00:45

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

So, that Samsung deal that's floating around is pretty much the recommended buy? I'm looking to get an HDTV and my upper limit on price is about $2000, and I'm looking for something in the 46-52 inch range.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 02:04

Donkey Kunt: Mar 18, 2006; I'm a cat.

I never saw a 360 or PS3 connected to a Samsung 6 series. Does the games flip the gently caress out because it's refreshing at 120hz or something?

# ? Dec 30, 2008 03:19

Beet: Aug 24, 2003

Substar posted:

I just got the 750 (it was the same price as the 650, weird) and I love it. I'm going from a 30" CRT HDTV so it's a huge step up for me, but still the picture seriously blows me away.

Blu rays look amazing, and even 1080i HD movies on my cable box look absolutely great at 120hz. 360 game are gorgeous on this TV. I reall have nothing bad to say about it at all.

I am still getting used to the 120hz increased frame rate, it looks almost too realistic or something, I can't put my finger on it.

You can turn the AutoMotion type stuff off, that's not integral to the 120hz functionality. The real advantage of 120hz is not having to do any sort of uneven pulldown with 24p content. If you're just watching regular TV or whatever without the AutoMotion on, it'll just look like it should.

edit:

Donkey Kunt posted:

I never saw a 360 or PS3 connected to a Samsung 6 series. Does the games flip the gently caress out because it's refreshing at 120hz or something?

LCDs don't technically have a 'refresh rate.' I would think they'd react fine, as any motion processing that adds an extra 60 frames is done entirely by the TV.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 03:28

TheBuilder: Jul 11, 2001; by Pragmatica

zapf posted:

I am strongly considering the Samsung LN52A750. $1,850 w/ no tax and free shipping seems like a drat good price, but would anyone have any recommendations for a 50"+ TV around the same price that'd be much better?

I got this model for Christmas. Its incredible. Everyone that's seen has been incredibly impressed. The stand is a bit troublesome to remove for wall mounting, but it fit on my old wallmount brackets for my 42" no problem.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 03:44

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Donkey Kunt posted:

I never saw a 360 or PS3 connected to a Samsung 6 series. Does the games flip the gently caress out because it's refreshing at 120hz or something?

No, it just makes it less ghost-y. Also if you turn on AMP it makes it weirdly smooth, which is somewhat more tolerable with games than it is with video/film, but still ultimately annoying.

zapf posted:

The 650 is more expensive from Amazon right now, surprisingly enough.

It was never much more in the first place and I think the stand is an issue for a lot of people, maybe that's why it's cheaper now? Honestly, the only thing I wish I had it for is the usable PiP (you can use it with two digital sources, right? On the 650 it is only cable input + another source). Also does it have backlit buttons? I kind of remember that it does. Nothing is more annoying than trying to turn the thing off from the front of the unit because the buttons have not tactile feedback whatsoever and you can't see them if the lighting is less than full on daylight.

Dogen fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Dec 30, 2008

# ? Dec 30, 2008 05:03

Kenshin: Jan 10, 2007

napking posted:

engadgethd has some possible details about samsung's 2009 panels:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/12/29/samsungs-ces-2009-hdtv-lineup-leaked/

Came to check if anyone had posted this yet. Holy poo poo. I'm gonna wait for reviews but I'm so tempted to sell my LN40A650 next summer and pick up one of the LED-backlit sets with MKV/h.264 support (assuming they don't cost twice what I can get for my current set)

# ? Dec 30, 2008 05:35

emgeejay: Dec 8, 2007

Saltin posted:

I have a 3 year old Samsung 720p LCD that exhibits something similar. Instead of the bright/dark deliniation along the 4:3 bar area, I simply have a dark line that is static and very visible. This is absolutely an LCD screen. I watch SD content with the 4:3 bars, and some of my HD channels sometimes show "HD" in 4:3.

Here's a crappy shot for reference. The line is right where 4:3 bars would be, is noticeable in bright scenes, and only on the right side of the screen. It makes me very sad.

People can say what they like about LCD not having burn in, but it can certainly retain "forever". The only upside of this is I have an excuse to buy a 1080p set now. I won't be watching content with 4:3 bars on my new set.

Ahh poo poo, that's it exactly. Well, mine's a better brand than his (his is a... Proview?) but I probably won't get away clean forever. Unless the effect isn't cumulative -- maybe it only causes trouble if the windowboxed/letterboxed content is viewed for hours at a time, and switching it up will prevent it.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 08:30

Sent from my iPad: Jun 19, 2000

Well, the 750 is back to being ~$75 more than the 650 on Amazon again, so I guess I have a decision to make. Also, it's hard to ignore the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U, which is down to $1,775. (Although it seems like it doesn't support 1080p over VGA, which would be a deal-breaker for me.)

Dogen posted:

It was never much more in the first place and I think the stand is an issue for a lot of people, maybe that's why it's cheaper now? Honestly, the only thing I wish I had it for is the usable PiP (you can use it with two digital sources, right? On the 650 it is only cable input + another source). Also does it have backlit buttons? I kind of remember that it does. Nothing is more annoying than trying to turn the thing off from the front of the unit because the buttons have not tactile feedback whatsoever and you can't see them if the lighting is less than full on daylight.

I'm not seeing anything in Amazon's description saying that the PiP features are different between the two models. Are their descriptions incomplete or am I missing something?

# ? Dec 30, 2008 15:35

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

zapf posted:

I'm not seeing anything in Amazon's description saying that the PiP features are different between the two models. Are their descriptions incomplete or am I missing something?

I guess I was wrong and I'm not sure where I got that impression. On the other hand, in doing the research on that I was reminded 750 has a 16 bit processor instead of a 12, although they both have 10 bit panels anyway. Also the control backlighting and better built-in speakers, but you lose the swivel stand.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 15:47

ZenMastaT: Apr 4, 2005; I dun shot my dick off

Thanks in part to this thread I'm now the proud owner of a Panasonic T-HC50FD18, the wholesale model of the PZ80U. It's a monster upgrade for me from my old set so I'm pretty sure any HDTV would have been fine but I'm more than happy so far.

I'm just starting the 100 hour break in period now - would it make sense to have the TV display some kind of picture slide show from an SD-card, avoiding high contrast images and the like?

# ? Dec 30, 2008 17:04

DarkSol: May 18, 2006; Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.

I'm just about to drop some coin on the TH-46PZ85U and I was wondering, what all do you goons think about protection plans?

code:

Service Plans

4-Year Service Plan for Televisions $1,000 to $1,499.99
In Stock from NEW Customer Service Companies, Inc..
$229.99

2-Year Service Plan for Televisions $1,000 to $1,499.99
In Stock from NEW Customer Service Companies, Inc..
$119.99

That's what Amazon offers. Is it worth getting?

# ? Dec 30, 2008 17:18

iloverice: Feb 19, 2007; future tv ninja

Does anyone have a Samsung 850 series TV? Amazon has the 46" on sale for $1750, which is pretty amazing. I'm a sucker for how thin the TV is. The reasonable part of me says "get a 650 or 750, its way cheaper" while the little school boy in me goes "look at how thin it is! you will be the envy of all your friends." The only other big difference I'm reading is that the 850 has really nice black levels.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 18:02

Sgt. Rock: Jun 7, 2001; Look at me! I'm whacked outta my fuckin' Brain on Whiskey!

iloverice posted:

Does anyone have a Samsung 850 series TV? Amazon has the 46" on sale for $1750, which is pretty amazing. I'm a sucker for how thin the TV is. The reasonable part of me says "get a 650 or 750, its way cheaper" while the little school boy in me goes "look at how thin it is! you will be the envy of all your friends." The only other big difference I'm reading is that the 850 has really nice black levels.

From what I've read, here are the differences:

650: Basic model, very good picture. Matte screen protection, swivel stand.
750: Same picture as the 650, no swivel stand. High glossy screen protection. 2 gigs of memory for storing pictures and the like. Ethernet cable hook-up in the back to get information displayed on screen (weather, sports, stocks, etc). Has some built in kiddie-games for fun, some recipe book for meals, some other niche stuff.
850: All the features of the 750, better speaker, better black levels.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 18:09

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Sgt. Rock posted:

From what I've read, here are the differences:

650: Basic model, very good picture. Matte screen protection, swivel stand.
750: Same picture as the 650, no swivel stand. High glossy screen protection. 2 gigs of memory for storing pictures and the like. Ethernet cable hook-up in the back to get information displayed on screen (weather, sports, stocks, etc). Has some built in kiddie-games for fun, some recipe book for meals, some other niche stuff.
850: All the features of the 750, better speaker, better black levels.

The 650 has the ethernet jack for that info crap but no built in memory or DLNA. I think the screen on all of them is also the same, same panel, same gloss, everything.

Also the 650 is reasonably thin, I don't know. Wouldn't your rather pay about the same price for more screen real estate over thin-ness, or save some money?

# ? Dec 30, 2008 18:24

metachronos: Sep 11, 2001; When I roll, baby I roll DEEP

The 650 has a glossy screen too, it's the 630 and below that have matte screens.

# ? Dec 30, 2008 19:07

Dogen: May 5, 2002; Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

metachronos posted:

The 650 has a glossy screen too, it's the 630 and below that have matte screens.

Yeah the 550/530 are the same as well

# ? Dec 30, 2008 19:16

Jook: Jul 16, 2002

I'm thinking about grabbing a Samsung 46" 630 (LN46A630) - a local TV shop has them for $1399 -- Amazon is at $1480 with Free Shipping but it says it'd ship close to March (wtf). Circuit City is showing up at $1599 and BB is at $1699 so the $1399 looks like a pretty decent deal.

I've been watching Coupons/Fatwallet for a month now waiting for big deal but am not sure if it's worth waiting even longer now just to save an extra hundred bux.

The 650/630 is holding up well in this thread and in reviews online so I'm pretty solid on it, I guess my questions are:

-Am I right that this is a good price at $1399?
-Should I keep waiting for a 'killer deal'? (doesn't have to be on this specific model, I just want a 46-52 1080p that's well reviewed for < $1500)

# ? Dec 31, 2008 04:13

Bad Munki: Nov 4, 2008; We're all mad here.

Okay, here's a quick question. I'm looking at getting this Phillips 1080p 42" LCD HDTV for $800...I want to hook it up to my computer for general use as a monitor (via an HDMI-DVI adapter) and hook it up to my DVD player, receiver, and the rabbit-ears I have in back of the house (that last one I don't really give a flying gently caress about but I might as well if I can.) Is this a reasonable deal? I don't need it to be a super-amazing-blow-your-mind deal, but as long as it's a reasonable deal, I'll probably do it.

In short, it will be 1) a monitor, and 2) for playing DVDs. Thoughts?

# ? Dec 31, 2008 06:49

Bonk: Aug 4, 2002; Douche Baggins

The 60 vs. 120 refresh rate is one reason I'm torn between the model I want to buy. I'm 99% sure I'm going with a 46" Samsung 1080p, but I don't know if it's worth paying more for the 120Hz because I don't even know if I'd miss it if I didn't have it. On one hand, I personally don't like the effect that 120Hz has on film/TV; I've seen it several times and I think it makes everything look like a soap opera. On the other hand this is a long-term investment, and I want to be able to watch things like Planet Earth at the highest detail possible.

BUT, the primary use is going to be a PC monitor, which I'll be playing games and watching movies on. My video card has an HDMI port. Having never had an HDTV or monitor before though, will I even notice the 60/120 difference? I'm not necessarily a quality snob but I'd like to get the most bang for my buck without spending over $1500; or less than $1300 if I can help it.

# ? Dec 31, 2008 17:04

swenblack: Jan 14, 2004

Why does no one seem to mention plasmas any more? I'm looking at getting a new 46"-50" tv soon and was wondering if LCDs won the competition.

# ? Dec 31, 2008 22:52

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# ? Dec 13, 2025 03:44

metachronos: Sep 11, 2001; When I roll, baby I roll DEEP

Bonk posted:

The 60 vs. 120 refresh rate is one reason I'm torn between the model I want to buy.

The interpolation stuff is great for some games, and I got 120HZ for the 1080p/24 blu-rays. You can always turn it off if you don't like it.

Is there a reason why you can't get 120HZ for a PC hookup. I'd like to be able to get above 60fps with vsync still on but for some reason it doesn't work. Is it a limitation of the connections being used or of the display itself?

# ? Dec 31, 2008 23:05

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