Plasma, LCD, OLED, LED, best tv for next gen

vpance said:
55 is nearly perfect for that distance. I'm about 7 feet away and sort of wish I went for 60". But as far as sub 1080p content goes it would undoubtedly look better on a 46", that is if you can't move further than 7 feet away.
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Omlagus said:
Buying too small a tv is the #1 source of buyer's remorse. And for that viewing distance, a 55" would actually be better. So if you have the budget, go for the 55.
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vpance said:
Agreed with Omlagus, go for the 55, you won't regret it. Sure a lot of content out there is still sub 1080p but you'll learn to adapt to the quality difference. The pluses outweigh the negatives.
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Thanks for the help, guys. This has been bugging me for some time, and it's good to finally have this resolved.
 
kanuuna said:
So I owned a Panasonic ZT plasma for a bit. Things looked just awesome. But then there was IR. It scared the shit out of me, and I became afraid of actually using the device for pretty much anything. Perhaps my fear was, and is irrational - but I had some chat with the dealer and I'm in the progress of returning it and getting a refund. So that's my first experience with plasma, and probably the last for a bit.

Now I'm thinking of something else. Or rather, something familiar - the return to LCD. It comes with obvious drawbacks. For the time being, I'm using a sibling's 'left-over' 32'' bedroom telly, which plainly shows all the cons of aforementioned display technology: Shallow blacks, terrible viewing angles, awful screen uniformity, clouding and a bit of blooming - the kind of things that can kill the experience of watching a movie in the dark.

Granted, this is an old TV - a fresh Samsung from 2009 and even then it wasn't exactly top of the line. And to be honest, I don't recall these issues being as prevalent with my last 'big' TV that was a 46'' Samsung D8000. But enough about my old displays. I'm looking for a new one. With plasma being off the table for the time being, despite it's superior general IQ, all roads seem to lead to Sony's W905. I wish I could see the TV live for myself before dishing money out for one, but reviews seem positive, especially with the heavy gaming use.
Besides that, I was also looking at some projectors. However, given the space I have to work with (which is plentiful, but very open) the Sony HW50ES I was looking at doesn't seem like a viable option for my living room.

So I'm leaning towards the W905 in 55''. I already read about the viewing angles being shite to say to least, so I'm more curious about the screen uniformity. When I had that 46'' Samsung, I read that panels were hit and miss. Mine wasn't perfect, but from what I understand, it wasn't exactly borderline worst. So if anyone's got one of those Sony's, I'd like a few words. Or a picture - although those rarely show issues like clouding as they actually appear.
On the other hand, I'm looking at a big pile in refund. I could blow that same amount I spent on ZT without any initial regrets on any other high-end display in the price range, or just push the button on the Sony (which actually comes with a 500GB PS3, which I guess is kind of neat. Better for all those PS+ games I have to constantly make room for) and save a few. Towards a new PC next year, or something. It's a shame the W905 goes only as high as 55''. I'd really like something 60'' (because I'd hate to move backwards) or slightly above the mark.

This was a long one. /rant
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Just buy a Panasonic S64 or ST60. They're about 1/3rd the price of a ZT60, and you won't have to worry about it. Also, IR goes away after an hour or two. You're pretty much just overly paranoid.
 
NoLoveForFailWheelDrive said:
Just buy a Panasonic S64 or ST60. They're about 1/3rd the price of a ZT60, and you won't have to worry about it. Also, IR goes away after an hour or two. You're pretty much just overly paranoid.
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TBH I find it to be a perfectly legit complaint. When you pay a lot of money for a device you want to be satisfied with it. There shouldn't even be a reason to fear IR, but yet it still happens. Some people are more sensitive to it than other, similar to how some people are more sensitive to the drawbacks of LCD TVs.

I've personally stayed cleared of plasma TVs because I cannot be bothered about ever thinking about "what if..".

I don't spend money to be worried and neither should he if it bothers him.

But that's just my opinion. Personally I think it's important to just be happy with a purshase despite what others might say and think. :)
 
So after much deliberation and nearly giving myself an ulcer, I finally decided to order the 65" S64 from Costco. There are things I'm worried about, but for the money, it seems like the best option after weighing all the pros and cons.
 
Pinktaco said:
TBH I find it to be a perfectly legit complaint. When you pay a lot of money for a device you want to be satisfied with it. There shouldn't even be a reason to fear IR, but yet it still happens. Some people are more sensitive to it than other, similar to how some people are more sensitive to the drawbacks of LCD TVs.

I've personally stayed cleared of plasma TVs because I cannot be bothered about ever thinking about "what if..".

I don't spend money to be worried and neither should he if it bothers him.

But that's just my opinion. Personally I think it's important to just be happy with a purshase despite what others might say and think. :)
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1. They have a warranty on it.

2. Being worried about temporary IR is like being worried that your hair is wet and might stay that way forever. It's temporary. It's been gone over time and time again. If it disappears shortly, any fear is just irrational.

Plasma TV's are like high performance cars I guess... they're not for everyone if you can't deal with being an enthusiast and paying attention. But like I said, temporary IR fades pretty quickly and isn't even noticeable.
 
lostsupper said:
The TV's "job" is to display a correct image. IR is the TV failing to do its job.

'High performance."
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If that's your criteria, given the halos/blooming, motion blur, juddering, etc on the LCD side, a good plasma is more often doing its "job" well than an LCD when gaming.
 
lostsupper said:
The TV's "job" is to display a correct image. IR is the TV failing to do its job.

'High performance."
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No, its not. Its a temporary image artifact. It comes with the tech. Let me guess, you're another guy who's never used plasma and only reads about it on the Internet.

I'll say this: if thats failing to display an image properly, LCD's horrible motion resolution and poor image quality is 10x worse, to me at least.
 
NoLoveForFailWheelDrive said:
They're about 1/3rd the price of a ZT60, and you won't have to worry about it
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Had price been the real issue, I never would've considered the ZT to begin with.

As far as IR issue goes, I had two horizontal lines sticking out on lighter colors two weeks in. Those didn't fade away. I was in contact with customer support and I had someone to come check it out, but things moved at a snail's pace. My dealer tried to settle things and speed things up, but they didn't budge. By the time it had been three weeks without action, I was supposed to be contacted by the guy from Panasonic in charge of the little operation, but he never called. The TV's been at a capital area shop now for a week where they're checking it out, but as far as I know, they're doing the exact same thing I, and the local repair guys that I was initially in contact with did - take pictures, send them to Panasonic, wait for reply. I don't intend to wait forever, especially if they decide it's something they wouldn't fix.

Before anyone takes this for just a slamming on the manufacturer or the display technology and calls me an idiot who watched content Vivid picture mode
(which, I believe it or not, didn't)
, I want to be clear: the IQ was the best I had ever seen for myself. And had Panasonic been more enthusiastic about resolving my issue, I probably wouldn't have looked the other way. But even then, if I couldn't feel comfortable about playing something like Dragon's Dogma for two or three hours straight, it's probably not a great fit for me. Let alone GTA V for hours on end, when it finally launches next month.
 
kanuuna said:
So I'm leaning towards the W905 in 55''. I already read about the viewing angles being shite to say to least, so I'm more curious about the screen uniformity. When I had that 46'' Samsung, I read that panels were hit and miss. Mine wasn't perfect, but from what I understand, it wasn't exactly borderline worst. So if anyone's got one of those Sony's, I'd like a few words. Or a picture - although those rarely show issues like clouding as they actually appear.
Click to expand...

The W9 has noticeable DSE when displaying a plain white screen. Most noticeable is the vignetting along the sides. Seems to come with the territory for edge lit LCDs. When displaying a plain black screen the LEDs shut off completely. If it's a black screen with a few details, then the uniformity depends on how you set the Dynamic LED (local dimming) feature. With dimming off you may notice some LED light bleed in the corners. Turning dimming on will take care of that and improve overall black levels, but can lead to noticeable blooming. You pick your poison. I prefer dimming on personally, the black level improvement really benefits darker games.

I dunno if I'd recommend it for dark room movie viewing, plasma is king in that area. The W9's selling point is that it's a worry-free gaming TV with very low input lag, and vibrant color that's up there with plasmas.
 
lostsupper said:
The TV's "job" is to display a correct image. IR is the TV failing to do its job.

'High performance."
Click to expand...

They also buzz, ALL of them, which is another thing you're just expected to deal with as a plasma owner. It's bullshit. The image quality is just NOT worth the headache.

- "IR goes away after a while" (a while can be minutes or hours, no big deal right?)
- "Burn-in isn't really an issue anymore......"even though it is, even on the high end models.
- "All Plasmas buzz to some extent. Deal with it"

All nonsense. Stop letting the people on CNET/AVS forum make you believe that Plasmas are the best tvs for everyone. They aren't. They're exclusively for extreme, EXTREME videophiles who don't play a ton of videogames.

Fact is most people are incapable of telling the difference between a good-high quality, properly calibrated LED and a Plasma.

Get the W802 or W900, they're outstanding for gaming and look amazing.
 
I usually play 10-12 hours of videogames a week on my 50" plasma.
-I had IR ONCE because I had the game paused for a few hours and forgot to turn the tv off
-Buzzing? I had to mute everything, tell my gf to shut up and stand right next to my tv to hear it. Yeah, this seems like a huuuuge issue /sarcasm

I have an LCD as well, but let's be honest: they're for children and the elderly.
 
EasyMode said:
The W9 has noticeable DSE when displaying a plain white screen. Most noticeable is the vignetting along the sides. Seems to come with the territory for edge lit LCDs. When displaying a plain black screen the LEDs shut off completely. If it's a black screen with a few details, then the uniformity depends on how you set the Dynamic LED (local dimming) feature. With dimming off you may notice some LED light bleed in the corners. Turning dimming on will take care of that and improve overall black levels, but can lead to noticeable blooming. You pick your poison. I prefer dimming on personally, the black level improvement really benefits darker games.

I dunno if I'd recommend it for dark room movie viewing, plasma is king in that area. The W9's selling point is that it's a worry-free gaming TV with very low input lag, and vibrant color that's up there with plasmas.
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I pulled the trigger on it. I placed the order on a site that's got a 30-day return & refund policy, so there's really no losing there.

I also had another look at the Sony HW50ES projector I had been eyeing earlier and a possible screen for that. If I had the perfect environment for that, I wouldn't hesitate. I still might ask what they'd charge me for one of those and a 100'' Stewart Cima screen (grey, since some ambient light remains an issue for me) bundled. Then again, that would be my primary display in the house, and I'm not sure that's the best way to casually watch TV or sports. It would be killer for movies, though.

I really want to get a place where I can set up a dedicated home theater in actual closed space one day.
 
Ghost_Protocol said:
All nonsense. Stop letting the people on CNET/AVS forum make you believe that Plasmas are the best tvs for everyone. They aren't. They're exclusively for extreme, EXTREME videophiles who don't play a ton of videogames.
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I don't think anyone has said that plasmas are the best TVs for everyone, and they are also certainly not only for EXTREME videophiles either.

While I would like to not have to worry about how my wife and/or kids are using the TV (as I would with the an LCD) the reality is that even compared to my "old" 720p Samsung plasma, most LCD sets I've tried have left me disappointed and not willing to spend the money to upgrade from my current set. In my family room, most of the seating is on an angle from the TV and most LCD sets look much worse on angle than straight on while my plasma looks almost the same from every angle.
 
kanuuna said:
I pulled the trigger on it. I placed the order on a site that's got a 30-day return & refund policy, so there's really no losing there.
Click to expand...

Hope it works out for you. When you get it you're going to want to turn the light sensor off since it dims the picture. I believe it's found by pressing Home Button > Preferences > Eco > Light Sensor. Took me a while to find that :P
 
Poker360 said:
As someone who works with TV's every day, and just bought a 2013 f8500 plasma, you have to understand that sometimes televisions will break. Could happen to any brand, not just samsung.

4K Is extremely unnecessary also, unless you play on getting a 50" for <5 feet away or a 80+ for <10 feet away.
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How are you liking the f8500 for movies/tv/gaming? My really old plasma (pio 5020 from 2003!) is dying and looking to replace it in the next few days. VT60 and F8500 are top of the list but it is a very bright room so thinking f8500...
 
kanuuna said:
Had price been the real issue, I never would've considered the ZT to begin with.

As far as IR issue goes, I had two horizontal lines sticking out on lighter colors two weeks in. Those didn't fade away. I was in contact with customer support and I had someone to come check it out, but things moved at a snail's pace. My dealer tried to settle things and speed things up, but they didn't budge. By the time it had been three weeks without action, I was supposed to be contacted by the guy from Panasonic in charge of the little operation, but he never called. The TV's been at a capital area shop now for a week where they're checking it out, but as far as I know, they're doing the exact same thing I, and the local repair guys that I was initially in contact with did - take pictures, send them to Panasonic, wait for reply. I don't intend to wait forever, especially if they decide it's something they wouldn't fix.
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What kind of lines were they? Did they actually come from a certain piece of content or just a couple random lines?
 
dallow_bg said:
What kind of lines were they? Did they actually come from a certain piece of content or just a couple random lines?
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I couldn't tell. Basically two rectangular lines on the bottom half of the panel. The repair guy suggested it was probably due to subtitles from the way they lined up. I didn't quite buy it.
It's not something that you'd notice watching most content with fast motion, but once you see it, you don't really unsee it. Even though we're not talking black holes here, I found them to be distracting.
 
Look what I found on Sony site

50" LED for...$599.99 US Dollars :)

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...&productId=8198552921666590655#specifications


They got also a 3D version that used to be $1,300 for $899.99

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666519659

Specs look great even brings glasses

If you want a smaller version 40"

$449.99!

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666519115

Looks like they gearing up for PS4 with these
prices!?
 
Ghost_Protocol said:
All nonsense. Stop letting the people on CNET/AVS forum make you believe that Plasmas are the best tvs for everyone. They aren't. They're exclusively for extreme, EXTREME videophiles who don't play a ton of videogames.

Fact is most people are incapable of telling the difference between a good-high quality, properly calibrated LED and a Plasma.
Click to expand...

It's possible to prefer one form of technology without outright denying the benefits of another.

The picture quality of a good quality plasma screen is a sight to behold, and in my experience from buying a plasma after owning an older LCD set, there are massive improvements to black levels and contrast ratio when opting for a plasma TV in comparison to LCD.

That's not to say a great picture cannot be achieved on an LED set, it surely can be. However, plasmas offer exceptional performance at a more affordable price depending on the model.

Oh, and by the way, I do play a ton of video games on my plasma set, and the games look incredible on it!
 
Buckethead said:
Anyone use their TV like a monitor sitting at a desk?

Impressions/opinions?
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I have the Sony 46" W905A on my desk, but I don't use it for general windows computing. pixel density is way too low and it would hurt my neck from looking around all the time. I use my surface pro for browsing websites and being productive etc.
 
runningjoke said:
I have the Sony 46" W905A on my desk, but I don't use it for general windows computing. pixel density is way too low and it would hurt my neck from looking around all the time. I use my surface pro for browsing websites and being productive etc.
Click to expand...
Yeah I would basically only be using it for gaming.

I have an iMac 27'' (2560x1440) which I love and will use 90% of the time but it doesn't have an HDMI port so I have to use a converter which means only 720i.

I wasn't sure how big of a difference I'd see, so was somewhat hesitant to pull the trigger.
 
I saw Sony's 82" 4k screen yesterday.

Oh my freakin god.

I'd love to see what our living rooms are going to look like in about 10-15 years.
 
I have a bottom end model 42in plasma tv, it only does 720p. I might go with an AOC or a Samsung 27 inch monitor, instead of keeping the TV.

Has any switched from a couch/TV setup to a monitor/desk setup?
 
dropbear said:
Very interesting. I see that the set is 60hz but has Motionflow XR 120 - is that supposed to emulate 120hz?

Also, can someone explain why 120hz is irrelevant for gaming? Or not?
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it does 120hz from the looks of it, but hdmi only supports 60hz. so with motionflow you're getting interpolation to get the extra frame, or the best use of 120hz is to do 5:5 pulldown (i think that's the correct ratio) to display 24hz source with less judder.

120hz with hdmi is irrelevant for games, because your tv is creating extra frames of data from nothing.
 
Help.

I think I just made a dumb decision. I special ordered in-store this Sony 47" TV.
http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/prod...480a5fa8eccda10a1d6a530en02&SearchPageIndex=1

I could've gotten this 50" for the same price plus a Blu-Ray 5.1 player
http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/prod...spx?path=5e9ad8befb6bb0d748f17ef370c573f7en02

However the savings appear to be greater on the 47" and I care more about the picture quality than the 5.1 system (which is probably too cheap to sound good). And I already own a PS3 and getting a PS4 so I don't need a blu-ray player.

Did I make the right decision?

I was planning on getting the 50" ST60 instead, but it was just about 2 inches too big in width to fit next to my computer. And I'm going to be using it as a second monitor for playing PC games, and someone told me not to buy a Plasma for computer monitors.

Do you foresee me returning this in the future? My wallet is crying.
 
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