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New Display - Need Input

Haywood

Haywood

Well-Known Member
Famous
My new house has a family room and I need to buy a display for it. My budget is limited and this is not going to be my main HT. This room will mostly serve the purpose of giving my kids a place to hang out, watch movies and play video games with their friends. I am trying to balance screen size with picture quality. I am planning to go with an LED back-lit LCD set due to the significant power consumption savings they offer vs plasma. Samsung and Sony are reputed to have the best displays out there right now, but I'm finding some very good deals on LG, Toshiba and Sharp. In particular, I came across a Toshiba 50L2400U 50-inch 1080p 120hz set for $559 with free shipping. It is exactly what I want in the sense that I do not want to pay for 3D or Smart TV features that I am not going to use. The problem is that I cannot find any reviews on the set and have no idea what the picture quality is like.

Do any of you folks have experience with more recent displays from LG, Toshiba, Sharp? Are there other lines I should look at, such as Vizio? Any suggestions on good deals for basic sets?
 
I used to feel the opposite but having seen them in person, I think Vizio presents some of the better values on the market, esp above 60" but at those sizes they still be more than you want to spend...I've benefitted a bit from being on the Panasonic Club's email list. I just got a 60" led for $500 off during a Memorial Day sale. But that ended last Monday @ midnight. I don't know your time table and I'm sure you already know that Amazon is a good baseline for pricing, if you're matching or beating them on price for a particular model you're doing all right on the price. Being somewhat on the inside doing the occasional install and buying from distributors often enough, margins are razor thin on most TVs anyway...so amazing "values" can be especially hard to find. I'd say to pull the trigger on what appears to be the best set for the $ you are prepared to spend.
 
i guess id consider costo as a great retailer for your purposes, you get a better extended warranty (last time i checked it was another year added on top of your manufacturer.)

toshibas were one of the units i wanted, as well as an LG as well. as much as id love to, i have a limited budget from the beginning, and well, i think thats what matters to me.

most of the LG and toshiba units are great, but ive heard that toshiba has some problems with an even black level and LG had some crushing at one point. this was two years ago when i was trying to find reviews for a tv.

i ended up with a lower end Samsung unit from costco, reviews were almost moot since you get some on avs but also have to take em with a grain of salt. i DID tho find out that the viewing angle is limited, and well, as ive mentioned earlier, its within my budget for both screen size and what i needed it to do. i still hold on to my first optoma HD70 (i think thats the model) and its at my sisters house.

most tvs from costco will have 'name variances' so you'd have to see its main brand counterpart out in best buy or what not.

since its a secondary unit, i think whatever you choose wouldnt really be too bad since its not your 'main theater' unit. i hope this helped out.

*edit

the samsung 60 on their website doesnt show the price, but it might be something to consider,

http://www.costco.com/Samsung-60%22-Cla ... 10098.html

they also have a vizio 50 inch,

http://www.costco.com/Vizio-50%22-1080p ... 95770.html

but has smart technology on it. another one to look into while there...
 
I ended up going to Costco and scored a 55" JVC 1080p 120hz set packaged with the original HDMI-powered Roku Streaming Stick for $649. It got decent reviews. General feedback is that the picture is outstanding for the price point with very respectable black levels. It looked good in the store. Unfortunately, when I got it home and turned it on, all it would do is flash solid colors on the screen and the only command it would respond to was power. I am going to call JVC in the morning, but will likely have to take the set back to Costco and get another one. What a pain.
 
Haywood said:
I ended up going to Costco and scored a 55" JVC 1080p 120hz set packaged with the original HDMI-powered Roku Streaming Stick for $649. It got decent reviews. General feedback is that the picture is outstanding for the price point with very respectable black levels. It looked good in the store. Unfortunately, when I got it home and turned it on, all it would do is flash solid colors on the screen and the only command it would respond to was power. I am going to call JVC in the morning, but will likely have to take the set back to Costco and get another one. What a pain.
Click to expand...

sorry to hear that haywood. just take some pictures or video showing what goes on with the unit when you return it. return it as early as possible. do you really need to take video of it? do you really have to return it early? no, not really. but out of good faith it just helps speeding up the process at the return line. their return policy is outstanding, but sadly had to change due to people abusing the system back in the day.

anyways, hoping it all turns out well. keep us posted bud!
 
Just return it to Costco they will gladly exchange it no problems. Best place in the world to buy TVs actually.
 
If you sour on JVC, and go back to your original question: I came down to either a Toshiba or a LG, both 47" LEDs with local dimming. The sales clerk pointed something out to me, which I hadn't considered and Sound & Vision still won't report (despite a couple emails from me): the LG had a matte screen while the Toshiba had a glossy screen, and the clerk told me both companies got their screens from the same supplier. The Toshiba had slightly deeper blacks (from a glossy screen, that makes sense) while the LG showed reflections from windows much less (which also makes sense). Considering my viewing room, the matte LG was the set for me, and I've been extremely happy with it ever since.
Just something to look for/be aware of.
 
I returned the JVC and got another one. I brought it home, hooked it up and this time it seemed to work. Then I started watching stuff on it and discovered that there is a very serious problem with the picture. This is not a configuration issue. It looks like very extreme compression artifacts, the kind you get when color gamut goes down to nothing. This was true with both broadcast TV and content from the Roku streaming stick. I am NOT happy. This set will be going back.

I'm really bummed, because the one in the store looks great and the price is extremely reasonable ($650). I just can't seem to get a unit that works correctly. I'm going to have to go up in price a bit and get an LG for $800, I think.
 
Go plasma. Far superior picture for what, maybe $40 extra a year in electricity, if that? Take a look at the Samsung PN51F5300...
 
sears would also be my second choice when it comes to displays. great pricing, and if you check the set early within purchase, you pretty much can return it easily compared to other bigger stores. i also like their warranty policies too.
 
If I go with the plasma, do I need to worry about burn in with video games? Also what is the phosphor wear like? Any idea how long these things last?
 
I now have three plasmas:
1. An 8+ year old Dell that's usually used to watch sporting events which almost always have a ticker.
2. A mid-tier Samsung (can't remember the model number) used mainly to watch sporting events and play Wii games.
3. A new top-of-the-line Samsung for our primary viewing which is mainly sporting events but sees a little more variety than the other two.

When we fire up the Dell I usually notice a little image retention (usually the Dish logo from the channel guide) for 15-30 seconds before it disappears. I have yet to notice any IR on the Samsungs.

You'll want to download this zip file and extract to a USB stick and play as a slideshow with random transitions for 100 hours before watching anything with banners or static images. This will break-in the phosphors evenly but doesn't really do anything to prevent burn-in. For that you do need to be a little smart about how you use - take it out of torch mode and don't leave a static image on the screen all day long (I usually don't go more than 4-6 hours of gaming or watching movies with black bars before making sure there's a full-screen moving image). I suggest checking out this AVS thread for more info about the F5300.
 
^ also in addition cmonster's advice many of today's plasmas have a pixel orbiter built in that incrementally moves the images left,down, right, up or whatever to also help with IR or burn-in....
 
On the Samsungs, it's usually recommended to set the picture size to Screen Fit since it provides 1:1 pixel mapping. However, Pixel Shift isn't available when in this mode.
 
I ended up going with a 50-inch Toshiba 1080p 120hz LED set for $559. Picture quality is really not bad for the money and I think it will serve its intended purpose nicely. I'm looking forward to getting my stuff here, so I can hook up a Blu-Ray player and dial this set in.

I am using a Winegard Flat Wave Amped antenna, which is essentially a Mohu knock off that I picked up for $40 at Costco. The TV has a five bar signal meter. I'm getting either four or five bars on every major network. It will be interesting to see how well it works in bad weather, but it seems to be good so far.
 
I have the TV and am reasonably happy with it. The Winegard antenna seems to work well. I bought a 1.5TB USB 3.0 HDD that is known to work well with Tablo. I have a Roku 3 and an HDMI cable coming from Amazon tomorrow. My 4-Tuner Tablo arrives in a couple of weeks. If I have money left over after the move, I am going to replace my media server PC and buy some Power Line Network modules. I also plan to ditch the Verizon router and go straight Ethernet off of their panel into my Asus N900 router. If needed, I will get a couple Power Line Network N300 extenders.

I will initially run only two systems: the main system in the living room and will consist of the same setup I've been running for years with a PS3, Squeezebox and Roku 3 as source components. The family room system will include the 50-inch Toshiba, an Onkyo 506, five Insignia speakers, an old Energy 12" sub, a Polk 10" sub, a PS3 and a Roku 3. I may go 6.1 if I can fix the binding posts on one of the Insignias. I suspect that will do a fine job for what amounts to the kids room.
 
Haywood, we went through 2 47" led toshibas in less then a year. They both did the same thing, loud screeching sound then dead. We bought the first one at SEARS so they replaced it free of charge and when the second one went SEARS gave us a full credit to buy another set. We spent more and got the Samsung, I now have three Samsung LEDtv's a 55" a 60" and a 75". They are absolutely fantastic sets and well worth the extra money.
 
I've had my toshiba 46" LCD for probably five years now, no problems. Granted though, it hasn't seen heavy use.
 
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