ADIDAS

Today Im going to buy a brand new 42" Plasma screen television. Its 99% inspired from me getting an Xbox 360 for Christmas. Im going to hang it on my wall and make the whole room into a chillin, illin, drug dealin room, minus the drug dealin of course . So yea, Ive narrowed it down to pretty much this one from Wal Mart. Its a 42" Hitachi Plasma.



I read up on everything about plasma's yesterday. I originally thought, as Im sure most of you still do, that plasma's were the impractical, luxury tvs. That they only lasted a couple years till they go bad. Apparently back in 99/00 when they first came out, they were like that. Now the technology has improved 1000%, and they have fixed all the kinks. The halflife on almost all plasmas now is 60,000 hours. This means, that if I watch tv for 5 hours a day, everyday, it will be half as bright as a brand new one in 33 years. Sounds like a pretty legit number to me to justify buying one. So anyone have any opinions on this matter, or what I should get? That one shown is $1,189 dollars at WalMart, and seems to be that absolute best tv for the money.

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All Day I Dream About Smoking

redeyed

on thanksgiving day my store was selling 42 inch plasmas for $500
i wanna shoot each and every one of them
i came in early (5:45am) to buy some damn oil for my car and i get stuck in a line and a crouded store to get the damn oil cause people are losers -_-

then after 8am the store was clear and i was happy (i did jack shit for 2 hours untill it got busy with morons who do last minute turkey shoppin)



well, have fun with your plasma, personally i rather go for LCD
also tell us how great the video games are now




EDIT:: to S.K.Board post....and Meijer also, in fact..NEVER go shopping there
...if you know what meijer is

Frojoe

I like LCD better too, but thats just my preferance. Is that 1080i, or 1080p. It looks nice dude, 360 games will be so sweet.

S.K.Board

Don't buy from walmart. Either go to costco where they have a lifetime warranty and are just as cheap as walmart. Or best buy where they are cheaper.

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Originally Posted by replica True... it's just a ladder step by step to get your weed to you

good apollo

I work in a SEARS store as a sales associate in the electronics department. If you're going to go plasma, go with a Samsung. I'm going to assume right now that you don't want to drop another $300-400 on a service agreement from Best Buy or SEARS, so go with a Samsung. Why? The number one cause of plasma repairs and returns is burn in. Samsung equips their TVs with a white screen which can reverse burn in (note: do NOT leave this screen on more than 20 minutes, it will shorten the life of the tv), as well as a pixel shift mode. With pixel shift the tv automatically moves pixels around to prevent any one pixel remaining a certain color for too long. However, pixelshift reduces the quality of your picture.

Also, if you plan on playing xbox a whole lot on your tv you probably shouldn't be getting a plasma in the first place. Like I said earlier, burn in is a pretty big issue, and if you play any racing game for a few hours you're going to notice the spedometer and other meters are burned into your screen. If you want a good gaming TV get a DLP. DLP has a much higher refresh rate, so you get absolutely no ghosting, trailing, or motion blur. They are the ultimate gaming TVs. The only downside to a DLP is that on average every 4-5 years you have to pay a couple hundred bucks to get a lamp inside of it replaced. For this I would recommend getting the 5 year service agreement from sears. At the store I work in its a little over $300, covers you for 5 years on all accidental damage and wear and tear, and will cover any lamp changes that have to be done. I hear best buy has a similar warranty available, but more often than not they're just extending the DEFECT warranty, which does not cover wear and tear (the lamp change) OR accidental damage.

In short, go DLP, not plasma. If you do go plasma, go Samsung. If you get a DLP, consider a service agreement.

Happy gaming,
Good Apollo

Frojoe

I thought DLP lamps were pretty cheap, like 50 bucks, but I don't know. I do know however, that they can be changed yourself pretty easily(reducing cost). Plasma burn in isn't permanant in 99% of cases, just playing a video overnight can reverse it. But yea for gaming dlp or lcd is probably a better choice. LCD doesn't burn in or need lamps, but I think they run more expensive for the same size.

k20

Did you get a new TV yet ADIDAS? the Hitachi? it looks real nice.

good apollo

Plasma - Better colors, better refresh rate, temporary (usually) burn in (preventable.)

LCD - Motion sickness (low refresh rate, pixelation in high action scenes), glare resistant, thin and light weight, fairly low color.

DLP - No motion blur, good colors, no burn in, long term costs.

CRT - Ok colors, ok refresh, no burn in, no long term costs, bulky, heavy.

I apologize for the unorganized list, I'm lazy

Throwdown an extra few hundred $ and go with a Panasonic plasma. They were rated #1 in consumer reports, you won't have longterm costs, they're extremely resistant to burn in. Don't cheap out and go with a hitachi, you'll regret it.

Good Apollo

Frojoe

That list is useful for comparing but when you say that lcd's have a slow refresh rate that is only partially true. Cheaper and older lcd's have this problem, but they have lcd's with refresh rates as low as 2 ms. I believe 8 ms is the slowest a human can notice, and only in certain situations, with 12 ms in most situations. I can't find my source though so correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

innervision311

8 ms is the average time it takes stimuli from the eye to travel to the occipital lobe and 12ms is the "fastest possible reaction" to stimuli. I don't believe that that's true but I saw it on discovery channel. I can consistantly (maybe 20% of the time) react to stimuli at 11ms (reflex tests) so I don't know...

So if it is refeshing faster than 8ms it should technically not be noticable but for some people like me who have a hell of a hard time with refresh rates it might be noticable.

It's such a waste of money to spend $1200 on a TV. If I had $1200 to blow you can be sure I'd get a brand new computer that would blow an Xbox out of the water. But even for a new computer, $1200 is still a waste of money. You could have so much more fun with that money if you spent it on other things is all I'm trying to say.