Need advice on a HUGE HDTV.

[Swish]

Actually, I'm trying to give some decent advice to a brother-in-law who needs to replace the piece of crap that currently resides in his very large living room. It's a 75" wide-screen that has seen better days and the picture is horrible.

He's looking for something about 70" to 80" and that size is entirely appropriate for the space. A projector and screen won't work, by the way.

I was going to recommend the Sharp Aquos 80" LED for about $4,000, but was wondering if there are better choices out there. I love my Panny 60" plasma, but that's not nearly big enough for his room and I don't believe Panasonic has a plasma bigger than 60" in the US.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any recommendations you geniuses could give me. I did some research on the net but can't really find anything definitive.

Thanks in advance!

[bfalls]

If I were considering a TV that large, I'd wait until 4K was more prominent and affordable. With that large of a screen @ 1080 the pixels would be noticeable unless seated a substantial distance away from the screen.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Actually, I'm trying to give some decent advice to a brother-in-law who needs to replace the piece of crap that currently resides in his very large living room. It's a 75" wide-screen that has seen better days and the picture is horrible.

If it is a CRT based television, I would guess it is a Mitsubishi. If I am correct that television is worth saving. I had a 2004 65" Toshiba(their last big screen model) that also had a horrible picture(not to mention it was huge and bulky) after only about four years of use. I was ready to get rid of it when I came across a thread on AVSforum.com on saving your old CRT's. I inquired on how to do this, and I was led to a gentleman name Mr. Bob. I explain to Mr. Bob how the picture was dim, the colors and convergence were off, and black levels too high. I made an appointment with him, and he stated that if he could not bring this television up to 100% of new, he would not charge me anything(it help that he lived ten minutes away). I'll be damned if he didn't do exactly what he said he would do. When he finished, the picture was phenominal. Quite frankly I had never seen picture quality of this caliber on any CRT based RPTV. After that I just could not get rid of the television, and it is still in use today. You would be surprised what a lense cleaning and basic calibration can do for those older RPTV's. Now here is the caveat. If it is a pre-HDMI set, then it really is not worth saving. If it does have a HDMI input, it is worth saving. The other caveat to this is you can get a HDMI input installed that meets HDMI 1.3 standards. Check out the thread, and post some questions if you like. This is just one option you could check out.

Don't dump your CRT RPTV!

He's looking for something about 70" to 80" and that size is entirely appropriate for the space. A projector and screen won't work, by the way.

I was going to recommend the Sharp Aquos 80" LED for about $4,000, but was wondering if there are better choices out there. I love my Panny 60" plasma, but that's not nearly big enough for his room and I don't believe Panasonic has a plasma bigger than 60" in the US.

Actually Panasonic has a 65" Plasma 3D and 3D ready panels ( I own three 3D panels). You might want to look into Mitsubishi's Laservue(75") and DLP models (73",82",92"). Big screen, and a shallower cabinet compared to your friends current television. I think these might be great choices. I have an issue Sharp televisions especially their LED models(and most LED models for that matter) is the edge lit models have a flashlight effect that leads to uneven light over the entire panel. With the local dimming models(which have great black levels) it is the haloing you get when you have a bright object set to a black background. You don't just see the bright object, you also see a ring around it as well. Aside from that, there is the fact that Plasma models are better performers than LCD LED models in every visual perimeter.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any recommendations you geniuses could give me. I did some research on the net but can't really find anything definitive.

Thanks in advance!

You know me Swish. My recommendation would be to first look into saving the television he already has(if it has a HDMI input of course). A good cleaning and calibration creates such a good visual image, no Plasma or LCD model can touch it. Especially in color accuracy, contrast and true black levels. In a dark room, the black levels are so good on my Toshiba(or what used to be a Toshiba before the rebuild) that the screen disappears totally into the darkness.

My second recommendation is to look into Mitsubishi laservue and large DLP sets. They don't do blacks as well as plasma's, but they are better than LCD's that is for sure.

Some of Sharps set produce excellent images. However the price versus performance in many cases is very poor. Samsung offers a 75" model that I highly recommend. No Sharp panel can touch a Samsung product in overall performance.

I know this is more than you asked for, but I like giving a lot of options to folks.

[bfalls]

I agree with Sir T on calibration. I'm ISF certified. The only trouble with getting someone to do it for you is it can be expensive. They normally charge per input. Using a calibration disc may provide a good result and it's not that hard to do. Digital Video Essentials and Avia both provide good quality calibrations discs from $10-$25. They explain how to adjust each of the user adjustable controls to get the best picture. Using a disc instead of a video generator isn't perfect for other inputs except for the DVD since it puts the player and cable in the stream, but in general is still very good over a non-calibrated TV.

I don't remember if it has anything on convergence, but many TVs during that time had the utility available from the user menu. For me, it was just a matter of accessing the screen grid and selecting each color's gun adjustment and moving it until it aligned with the grid. What it doesn't provide is instruction on how to use the service menu. I would use the service menu to calibrate each control so the default user control was the calibrated state. This way if someone made adjustments you could always select default to get back to optimum.

At Sony our media test center has several large screens. Most Sony, of course, but we also bought Samsung (7000 series) for 3D which is several years old. Our Samsung looks very good, edging the Sony out slightly. I have older Sony XBRs (LCD) at home. The picture doesn't compare with the newer models, but it's a difficult sell to my wife to replace them. They're fine, just not as good as I see on current models.

[Swish]

If it is a CRT based television, I would guess it is a Mitsubishi. If I am correct that television is worth saving. I had a 2004 65" Toshiba(their last big screen model) that also had a horrible picture(not to mention it was huge and bulky) after only about four years of use. I was ready to get rid of it when I came across a thread on AVSforum.com on saving your old CRT's. I inquired on how to do this, and I was led to a gentleman name Mr. Bob. I explain to Mr. Bob how the picture was dim, the colors and convergence were off, and black levels too high. I made an appointment with him, and he stated that if he could not bring this television up to 100% of new, he would not charge me anything(it help that he lived ten minutes away). I'll be damned if he didn't do exactly what he said he would do. When he finished, the picture was phenominal. Quite frankly I had never seen picture quality of this caliber on any CRT based RPTV. After that I just could not get rid of the television, and it is still in use today. You would be surprised what a lense cleaning and basic calibration can do for those older RPTV's. Now here is the caveat. If it is a pre-HDMI set, then it really is not worth saving. If it does have a HDMI input, it is worth saving. The other caveat to this is you can get a HDMI input installed that meets HDMI 1.3 standards. Check out the thread, and post some questions if you like. This is just one option you could check out.

Don't dump your CRT RPTV!





Actually Panasonic has a 65" Plasma 3D and 3D ready panels ( I own three 3D panels). You might want to look into Mitsubishi's Laservue(75") and DLP models (73",82",92"). Big screen, and a shallower cabinet compared to your friends current television. I think these might be great choices. I have an issue Sharp televisions especially their LED models(and most LED models for that matter) is the edge lit models have a flashlight effect that leads to uneven light over the entire panel. With the local dimming models(which have great black levels) it is the haloing you get when you have a bright object set to a black background. You don't just see the bright object, you also see a ring around it as well. Aside from that, there is the fact that Plasma models are better performers than LCD LED models in every visual perimeter.



You know me Swish. My recommendation would be to first look into saving the television he already has(if it has a HDMI input of course). A good cleaning and calibration creates such a good visual image, no Plasma or LCD model can touch it. Especially in color accuracy, contrast and true black levels. In a dark room, the black levels are so good on my Toshiba(or what used to be a Toshiba before the rebuild) that the screen disappears totally into the darkness.

My second recommendation is to look into Mitsubishi laservue and large DLP sets. They don't do blacks as well as plasma's, but they are better than LCD's that is for sure.

Some of Sharps set produce excellent images. However the price versus performance in many cases is very poor. Samsung offers a 75" model that I highly recommend. No Sharp panel can touch a Samsung product in overall performance.

I know this is more than you asked for, but I like giving a lot of options to folks.

About repairing it?

It does indeed have HDMI so perhaps getting it repaired makes sense? I don't know anything about them, but here's a link I found from Sony...


KDS-R70XBR2 | 70" Class Grand WEGA™ XBR™ series SXRD™ Rear Projection HDTV (69.5" diagonal) | Sony | Sony Store USA

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

About repairing it?

It does indeed have HDMI so perhaps getting it repaired makes sense? I don't know anything about them, but here's a link I found from Sony...


KDS-R70XBR2 | 70" Class Grand WEGA™ XBR™ series SXRD™ Rear Projection HDTV (69.5" diagonal) | Sony | Sony Store USA

It is a LCD RPTV, and based on that I would say no - move on to something else.

Check out my other suggestions. I think your friend will certainly be pleased with the results as all of the sets I mention most definitely perform better than his old set.

[Swish]

It is a LCD RPTV, and based on that I would say no - move on to something else.

Check out my other suggestions. I think your friend will certainly be pleased with the results as all of the sets I mention most definitely perform better than his old set.

The Laservue is a little more than he'd like to spend (somewhere north of $3,500), but I found him the 73" DLP for about $1600 from some place on line that offers free delivery and no tax since it's out of state. I think he already placed the order. I'll be sure to help him get it set up properly and thanks so much for your help and copious amount of information! I'd expect nothing less from you lol!