More TV questions

[gr8fl4porsche]

Finally ready to pick out a new TV for a Home Theatre I am building in my basement - no windows.

Tough choice to make. About $2,500.00 budget for around 50in screen size.

I like the Plasma idea as I can hang it on the wall.
LCD's are too small with the exception of rear projection and I am not sold on that technology.
Love the DLP picture quality but the cabinet is large.

Anyone bought a budget plasma or DLP that they love?

I will be upgrading to Dishnetwork HD and am concerned about picture quality on the non-HD channels.

[id10t]

For that money, you can get a *really* nice projector. Just paint the appropriate wall a nice flat white, you'll be good to go.

[Overpaid Slacker]

I'd 2nd id10t's suggestion for a projector. I couldn't tell you which you'd want for $2500, but before you buy a big (or thin) box, check 'em out. They're portable and scalable, too.

For my $, tho, go with a good DLP. The projector I'd want is closer to $4k, and then you have to give serious thought to a $creen.

Plasmas are susceptible to "crawl" in the image, shadowing, have a halflife (tho' it's respectable) and black levels that don't impress me. OK, so you can hang it on a wall. OOOooooooohhhh. Unless you live in a tiny apt. in NY/Boston/SF, who cares?

For long-term investment (5-7 years, which is about my TV replacement timeframe), your image will have degraded by as much as half with a plasma; and they can't be "recharged". With DLP you change a $250 bulb every 8000 hours and you're good to go.* Brand new image.

* One thing to note (as I'm pricing 72" DLPs right now) recently, Toshiba has had bulb life issues. Whether arising from bulb quality issues or power supply/cooling issues, I don't know. It's really too bad, as I think the big Toshibas have incredible pictures. If they'd sort that out, then you could easily get a 62" for your $2500.

As far as "large". My 36" Sony Trinitron XBR Wega weighs 235 lb. And I've moved it with me. Twice. Up and down stairs.

The 72" DLP weighs in at around 135#. Hell, I'll carry that into the bathroom if I know it's going to be a long visit.

JP

[Moneyguy1]

The bulb life can be addressed by a readily available cooling fan that continues to run for a fixed period of time after shutdown of the projector. Don't forget that you will also need a good sound system. That will jack up the price a tad.

[scottmandue]

Originally posted by id10t
For that money, you can get a *really* nice projector. Just paint the appropriate wall a nice flat white, you'll be good to go.

I work with projectors every day... we just replaced some $5000 units with $700 Sharp projectors that totally kicks a$$.

I hear the plasma screen have a limited lifespan, perhaps someone could elaborate.

DOH... JP answered that question!

[Overpaid Slacker]

bob -- if that's the only issue for the Toshiba DLP's I'll be thrilled. I think it goes beyond that, however. They've got cooling fans built in, that are set to run after TV shut-down.

We've got a 60" in the Rec. Room of our Dept., and it's gone through 3 bulbs in 4 months. Now they're replacing the power unit as well as the bulbs. The fan runs "fine."

But, I should mention that, with a DLP, it's wise to invest in an UPS for it, so if the power goes out, at least there'll be enough juice to run the cooling fan for a few minutes.

Scott -- I'd LOVE to hear your opinions on projectors. I'm lusting after an infocus 7210, but they're really really $pendy. I think toshiba actually makes it, and toshiba's clone mtd800 (or something like that) is still north of $4000.

What would you recommend to someone w/ $3500 burning a hole in his pocket (factor in the price of a 7' screen if you think screens are necessary).

JP

[id10t]

scottmandue - we've been getting similar sharp units for classrooms here at work. We have one classroom that has a west facing glass wall, and a large skylight, and with all the flourescent lights on and windows open you can still see the image quite clearly.

Like I said for a screen, consider just painting one wall flat non-gloss white.

[scottmandue]

These are what we got:

http://www.sharp.net.au/catalogue/catalogue.asp?goto=XR10S

We paid $775 but I am told they are hard to find, that is about a hundred bucks more than I paid for my 36" CRT TV!

We have one of these running seven days a week six hours a day, I'll get back to you on durability in a few months.

I'm a run it till it dies kind of guy but I am definitely going to look at projectors when the 36 gets too old.

I work for the state so they keep a pretty tight hold on our spending and we don't get to buy too much high end stuff.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Some good feedback guys - keep it coming.
I need to do some more research on the projectors.
I thought the good ones were around $5,000 plus a screen was required for a really nice clear picture.

[928ram]

Just recently p/u'ed a Samsung 61" 1080P DLP unit, so far we've been extremely happy.

A thought or 2: As HiDef programing becomes the norm, everything will be in widescreen, even 4:3 images are put out with sidebars to fill the screen.
For the forseeable future 1080p will be top resolution (1920x1080?), with the new HDDVD's using 1080P, some hd broadcasts in 1080i, and upconvert DVD players using 1080i max resolution.

Since buying the unit, we've added an upconvert player (which works very nice) as well as attaching an antenna to pick up the over the air HD programming, and I'm glad we went with the higher res. TV because the picture is stunning. There is rumor that OTA HD will come in 1080p in the future.

All that rambling = look to the present plus the future to be sure what you buy now will handle tommorrow's picture and tech.

[mikester]

I've got a Samsung 42" DLP unit that I'm pretty happy with; post the specs later.