Okay, guys, I'm getting ready to buy my first Man-sized TV. I'm still going back and forth on Plasma vs. LCD but I say fuck it. Go big or go home. Surprisingly, the wife agrees! If the one thing we can agree on is a big TV, then I think I have to keep her.

The 2 contenders (ranked in order of preference at this point):

1. Samsung LN52A650 (52" LCD)

2. Panasonic TH-50PZ800U (50" Plasma)

Prices are pretty comparable. I don't have an opinion on Samsung or Panasonic quality. It will be used for sports (primarily football and golf), movies and some Wii action. They are both listed in Cnet's top 5 and the user reviews are pretty positive. Your thoughts?

Also, if anybody knows of any web sites that you know that you can get a good deal let me know. I'd prefer not to go to Best Buy and get ass raped on the price.

Thanks guys.

i know my friend has a large samsung unit. and its been excellent. impressive tv.

as for me, im not upgrading the tv until the one i bought 6 years ago. dies. lol

man up. sheesh. play your games on a 5 inch.


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i have neither. like nigel, my old bulky 32" sanyo has to bite the big one before i make any type of commitment to spending that kind of cash.

my wife used to work for the OTM at the university of illinois and was on the team that licensed and sold the plasma technology .

however....i'm also a tight-ass so i'd spend the $1350 at Target and have the Visio 47" LCD delivered to the house.

Seems to me that LCD is going to end up being the TV of choice. You might notice that plasma's are getting really cheap. I think that technology might be on it's way out.

Go to Costco. You cant beat their prices.

I have a 42" Phillips LCD that I got for less than $1200.

Make sure that a 52" is not too big for your room. You probably need to be 12-14 feet back from a 52". The closer you are the more "pixalated" the image will be.

This might help.

http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/lcdtelevision/lcdtv.shtml

If you're going above 50", go with Plasma.

Plasma looks better on larger screens, because the LCDs start to show unless, as fraggle said- you have a home theatre- not a lot, but enough.

For that size, make sure the TV is 1080p, and, if you really want some show, make sure it has a monitor jack- I run my comp off my 37" Viewsonic using an HD videocard, and the view is incredible, although I do justify it for editing photographs.

Oh, and Costco will have the best price- their return policy isn't as perfect as it used to be, but they still have the best price, and the best warranty in the business.

quote:

I have a 42" Phillips LCD that I got for less than $1200.

If I had a grand to spare I'd get a tantra chair. Probably be a lot more fun...

not having or wanting one, I will ackowledge that big TVs can be kind of cool if you're watching a movie or nature documentary, but 50" commercials are an affront to all that is good on this green earth.

Going outside my area of expertise here. We have a Samsung and overall it's good. I still prefer the old 35" RCA in the bedroom which is 15 years old and never had the first problem, other than its heavy as hell when I want to rearrange things. That's not the sort of dirty talk I like to hear from hubby.

I would go LCD over plasma as well although you should consider the room where its going. A room that gets alot of light is bad for a plasma
I'm told.

We bought at Best Buy and had them set up. We have built in sound system in house that we knew nothing about. Costco may have best pricing but install support was important to us.

I bought a plasma tv six years ago (a 42" JVC) for $3700.00. That blew out 6 months after my four year extended warranty expired. We purchased a 47" Visio LCD from Coscto for $1599.00, which has since dropped to $1199.00. The problem with plasma screens is that they run HOT and use a lot more electricity to operate than LCD's. The high def picture on our Visio rocks - we're by no means aficionados - and the price was right. I say skip the plasma in favor of LCD.

We have a small living room, so the screen looks huge and we purchased a Bose 3-2-1 sound system that mimics surround that works great.

I will say once you get your screen, definitely mount it IN the wall instead of just bolting a mount up. Ours looks like a picture and we built a frame around it.

I went with the Samsung 52" LCD. See it here: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-ln52a650...2887597.html?tag=txt

Cnet gave it a great rating and I've done extensive research and read tons of reviews and concluded that LCD is probably the way to go.

Fraggle, when it comes to TVs, there is no such thing as "too big." It might be a bit large for the space we are currently in, however we hope to move in the next 6 months (hopefully to a bigger place, in a bigger city). I'd rather go too big now than wish I had gone bigger later. Plus, I hope to have this for awhile, so I think the investment will be worth it. Also, for some reason this TV keeps going UP in price. It's very strange. But I take that as a positive sign. From my research I've read that LCDs have caught up quick in picture quality to plasmas. And for our purposes I think LCD will be perfect.

Freddy, that's a great idea. We might consider doing that. Right now I plan on putting it on a stand. I want to go Blu-ray and this surround sound system: http://reviews.cnet.com/surround-speaker-systems/aperio...0871403.html?tag=txt however those are "down the road" items. Just want to get this paid off and enjoy it for the time being.

I hope to have it in a week. I'm pumped. I'll let you know. Thanks for the input as always.

Here's the evidence you CAN go too big with your flat screen televisions!

I LOVE the Extras!