What to look for when getting a new TV?

Question

My parents have had the same TV for ten years now. Its old and outdated and recently stopped working. I've decided to buy them to a new digital TV but have no clue what is good. I walked into a store the other day and a 32' Plasma Vizio with 720p caught my eye. No idea if its any good or not. The salesperson wasn't very helpful.

Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated. Please keep the cost under $600. Thanks!

P.S. Which would you recommend, LCD or Plasma? And why?

Answer 1

Do they watch TV a lot? How about DVDs?

Basically, Plasma TVs are more expensive, and also images can burn into the screen. So if you're watching widescreen DVDs, those bars could burn into the screen.

But that doesn't happen with LCD. But, LCD is really only good if you're looking at it straight on. From an angle, you could lose view of the images on the screen.

Try going to online store sites that have reviews on products. And also go check out Consumer Reports and see their ratings on TVs.

Different brands and models have different pros and cons. Some images might be sharper, brighter, etc. etc.

Answer 2

Wow again with misinformation on this thread.  First off Plamsa TV's have tackled the burn in problem a few generations ago with things like pixel shift, screen savers and automatic shutoof.  You would have to leave the TV on a stationary bright object for like 10 hours before burn in to occur and on that one and a million chance it does happen, playing a bright white screen for a few minutes would take care of the burn in.

Okay, there are good and bad with both types of TV's  With LCD there is no glare screen and is brighter and is best played in bright room, the bad is it suffers from motion lag (pixellation) and ghosting images of fast moving objects.

Plasma has a glare screen so lighting has to be controlled in some ways (don't have a light directly in front of the TV or watch in a sun filled room.  But plasma generally has better picture quality (deeper black levels) and suffers from very little motion lag.

Again burn in is a non issue nowadays.

Anything 720p or higher is HD, but you do need to subscribe to HD service or install an OTA antennea to get the broadcast HD local signals.  Because the screen is smaller than 55" the human eye cannot distinguish between 720p and 1080p unless you sat three inches from the TV, and since manufacturers are going more with 1080p, you can buy 720p sets for very cheap.  Again the human eye cannot tell the difference at certain screen sizes.

For under 600.00 you are very limited to either Vizio or Olivia (sp)  (neither one is really top of the line) but cost being a factor, i would go with the Vizio.

Answer 3

For $600, you might have to drop down to a 26" to get any quality. Vizio, plasma or LCD, are third tier, disposable junk. Don't waste your money on Vizio, or any of the other cheapies, such as Element, Insignia, Dynex, Olevia, or Polaroid. http://www.hdguru.com/your-new-disposabl...

For anything under 42", you want an LCD, not plasma, just based on availability of manufacturers, if nothing else. The two top brands, in 32" and 26" LCD, for BOTH performance AND reliability, are Panasonic and Sony, but they also tend to be the most expensive. A little bit less expensive, but still good quality, is Toshiba followed, perhaps, by Sharp and Samsung. For your budget, try to find a Toshiba Regza 32HL67 (2007 model) or even a 2008 32AV500. Just stay away from all the cheap junk out there! If you can't afford one of these suggested brands, wait until you save up a little bit more so you can buy quality. One way to save a bit is don't fall for the 1080p marketing hype. All you need in native resolution for a screen under 46" is 720p/1080i. Good hunting.