I had a lengthy post typed up and the forum crapped out on me, so here are the cliffnotes.
- Finally ready to pull the trigger on a 60" S60. No go, they don't exist anywhere anymore. Crap.
- Budget is around $1,500 - looking at 55"-60" with at least 3 HDMI inputs. I have no interest in 3D, smart tv capabilites, or any other features like that. Just give me a big beautiful picture.
- Big fan of Panasonic plasmas. All the LCD/LED sets I've seen are unimpressive and overpriced. All seem to have some kind of dealbreaking issue whether it be vertical banding, edge bleeding, etc. I don't understand why plasmas are being phased out when this is the alternative. The only sets I saw that rivaled a plasma were all out of my budget and still weren't that impressive. I just went through the top rated LEDs on AVS and didn't really care for any of them.
- Looked into the ST60 but the lag issue kills it for me since this will eventually be my gaming tv when my 42" 85U craps out.
- The VT60 looks like my next viable option but now I'm starting to pay more for features I'll never use and people are complaining and actually returning this set because they all have some fan issue that causes the tv to make a "refrigerator whirring/buzzing" sound. I'm no stranger to plasma buzz, it's just one of the tradeoffs you make with that tech, but this seems to be more prominent than your typical buzz and for that kind of money I don't blame people for returning them for something else. I haven't heard it myself but it is apparently bad enough that Panasonic has attempted to address it in the newer runs of this model and still haven't corrected the problem.
- The ZT is another option but it's too expensive for features I don't care about.
So that's pretty much it. Even though I haven't been impressed by LCD/LEDs I'm certainly open to them. There have to be some older LED sets that were top of the line at one point with great PQ that have now been replaced with newer models. I'm open to any and all suggestions.
I have a virtually perfect condition 60" ST50 that I'm looking to sell for about 1500, but the shipping would cost a bit unless you live in Colorado. Was manufactured Oct 2012, model TC-P60ST50-2.
I want to use the money to trade up to a different Panny for Christmas!
