Need TV Help

[Matthus]

Thinkin of upgrading my Mitsu 57"HD...It is about 3 yrs old and I would like to do 60" to 65". Should I stay with CRT or look at DLP,LCD,plasma? :confused:

[Ogeez]

Well I'm no expert but when I was ready to jump into the HT world I did alot of reading and research and concluded that I maybe better off jumping into the Front Projector World instead. For the price of a 60" HDTV you can get a decent 100" Widescreen PermWall Mounted Screen with an Quality LCD Projector. I bought an Epson PowerLite with Component/VGA/RCA/Digital etc, 3000 hours of bulb use and 1200 ANSI Lumanance for crisp viewing on a High Contrast Cinema Grey Screen from Da-Lite and the best part was it all cost $2000 brand new. Replacement bulb costs from the internet I found was $163.00. Yes it takes patience to initially set up but I did it instead of 60+lbs of heavy TV and I will not get burnout on the screen as in plasma and DLP, and after 5 years I don't need to recalibrate the tiny mirrors in the the TV from regular use. Just one man's opinion. Try AVDEALS.COM and ProjectorPeople.com for a good start on the subject and remember, I am now looking at The Good the Bad and the Ugly on 100" viewing Widscreen <druling>. :D

[woodman]

Thinkin of upgrading my Mitsu 57"HD...It is about 3 yrs old and I would like to do 60" to 65". Should I stay with CRT or look at DLP,LCD,plasma? :confused:

I second the advice given by Ogeez here ... if you can, your best bet would be to go to a DLP or LCD-based front projector. You can have a dynamite display system for $2K or less with that approach. There are no RPTVs that can compete with that, and if there were they would cost 3-4 TIMES as much! Plus, there's NO such thing as a 100" screen RPTV, and there probably never will be.

If a front projector is simply not possible for you, then I'd recommend that you stay with a CRT-based RPTV in the 65" size. DLP and LCD based RPTVs can look very appealing, but they cost waaaaay more than a comparable CRT-based set. As for plasma ....... FUGGITABOUDIT!! They represent the very bottom of the scale when the criteria is value.

Hope this helps you

[omikey]

Yes it takes patience to initially set up but I did it instead of 60+lbs of heavy TV and I will not get burnout on the screen as in plasma and DLP
burn in IS NOT a concern with DLP technology, PLASMA - YES but it is not as big a concern as the news makes it out to be.

First off it takes longer for an image to burn in than what we are lead to belive - it doesn't happen in 2 minutes !! or 20 minutes, but it will happen for sure if you leave a static image on the screen for hours.

IF you buy a quality Plasma, and you watch movies in 4:3 format burn in is not a concern either. With a QUALITY set every time you turn on the set it MOVES the image fractions of an inch to differnt places on the screen to help eliminate the burn in of the bars on the sides. Same thing in WIDE screen viewing for the bars on the top and bottom.

Burn in might be more of a concern if you have KIDS, or play a lot of GAMES on the set ...... if you leave a static image on the screen for an extended period of time it certainly will burn the image onto the screen - for which there is no fix.

[omikey]

As for plasma ....... FUGGITABOUDIT!! They represent the very bottom of the scale when the criteria is value.

Hope this helps you
This depends on your CRITERIA, which you did not qualify

Value is of course very SUBJECTIVE ..... value to you or anyone else is different than shall we say, myself and as such can only be assessed by the individual and their criteria/needs.

In my case - the location for my TV limted my choices. So finding a set that would fit the space (above the fireplace, inside a built-in book shelf, 11 inches deep, and 44 inches wide) dictated what choices I had.

RPTV - out of the question, as you can no doubt tell by the space described above

Projection - out of the question - no place for the projector or screen

LCD - out of the quesiton - not as good a pic as plasma, couple that with the quality of viewing when watching fast action and LCD sucks, contrast is not as good as in plasma - this is because of the difference in the technology between LCD/DLP and Plasma (Woodman I'm sure you know what this is - so discussion of technology is for another thread)

DLP - out of the question - too deep to fit in the space (most are 15" deep - and also has the same problem as LCD when watching fast action, not as bad as LCD but still has the trailing issue - contrast is much like LCD - which is GOOD, but NOT as good as plasma


Now I'm not saying that for anyone else that plasma offers value, but for my criteria and my room - it was the only TV choice that fits the criteria and as such offers me GREAT VALUE - expensive YES - but when it meets the criteria then the VALUE is there

[Matthus]

Thanks for the replies. My problem is I am putting this in a basement with a wet bar etc. A lot of the times we are doing more than just watching movies so the lights are on. That is why I was afraid of a front projection. Any comments?

[AVMASTER]

Thanks for the replies. My problem is I am putting this in a basement with a wet bar etc. A lot of the times we are doing more than just watching movies so the lights are on. That is why I was afraid of a front projection. Any comments?

first of all i'd just like to point out that front projection done CORRECTLY would run more than $2k, but then again some people just want a big image regardless of picture quality. While alot of the new high output front projectors can be viewed with SOME lighting, it's still best in a darkened room
Without knowing you specific needs and judging from what you currently have, i would consider projected lcd hd monitor. There are several to choice from, sony/zenith, panasonic, and hitachi; all of them have similiar picture quality so i'd base my choice on features that benefit you