What kind of Television do you have?

[jimhelm]

I'm about to pull the trigger on a 60" LED TV. Got it pretty much narrowed down to this one:




it's on sale for $899 at hhgregg, and I have a 10% coupon for signing up for spam emails.

anyone have any advice?

[DanaC]

Yup: 6 pack of becks beer and a paytoview boxing match.

[tw]

Originally Posted by jimhelm

I'm about to pull the trigger on a 60" LED TV. Got it pretty much narrowed down to this one:

It is really an LCD TV. LCDs are backlit by LEDs. Since LEDs sound higher tech, they call it an LED TV. A true LED TV means an LED for every dot on the screen.

Other technology is plasma. Now losing sales to LCD screens.

Two key factors to any LCD TV. First is the viewing angle. Most all have excellent viewing angles compared to a decade ago. Simply walk to the left or right until the picture degrades. That is the viewing angle.

Second is persistence. Often stores will display their 'test' programs by using slowly moving items. Persistence means a world fast sprinter running across the field as a halfback instead looks more like the Flash (from comic books).

A higher refresh rate means the TV can better follow the world class sprinter. However view it yourself to learn if your eyes and brain work too fast for that screen.

[Beest]

I bought the kids a 32" LED fro xmas for their upstairs chill area, it was a cheap make not one od the big names, the LED screen is nice , much more bright and vivid than the Vizio LCD we have as a main TV. I've been adjusting the settings and keep turning down the brightness and backlight becasue it seems too bright to me, but I think that's just the way they are. I need to get hold of the adjustment dvd I used with that tv.

TL: DR LED>LCD

[tw]

Originally Posted by Beest

I've been adjusting the settings and keep turning down the brightness and backlight becasue it seems too bright to me, but I think that's just the way they are.

Screen life expectancy is mostly defined by its LEDs. An LED should work continuously for ten years (or 30 years if using it 8 hours a day). However, the LEDs change with age. Eventually they will dim or become more brownish with age. That degradation is defined, in part, by how bright they are used.

Dimming that TV will extend LED life expectancy. A default setting on most TVs is LEDs at brightest.

Long enough for true LED TVs to finally appear in the market. A true LED TV needs no backlighting.

Another factor I forgot to mention is reflection. In some locations, sunlight or reflections from outside can leave a glare on the screen. TVs are available with a screen that does not reflect that glare. But those screens are hard to find. The term for such TVs, unfortunately, has been forgotten.

[jimhelm]

They talk about glossy and matte screens?

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by tw

It is really an LCD TV. LCDs are backlit by LEDs. Since LEDs sound higher tech, they call it an LED TV. A true LED TV means an LED for every dot on the screen.

Other technology is plasma. Now losing sales to LCD screens.

Two key factors to any LCD TV. First is the viewing angle. Most all have excellent viewing angles compared to a decade ago. Simply walk to the left or right until the picture degrades. That is the viewing angle.

Second is persistence. Often stores will display their 'test' programs by using slowly moving items. Persistence means a world fast sprinter running across the field as a halfback instead looks more like the Flash (from comic books).

A higher refresh rate means the TV can better follow the world class sprinter. However view it yourself to learn if your eyes and brain work too fast for that screen.

what does 'edge lit LED' mean?

[tw]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

what does 'edge lit LED' mean?

LCDs cannot be viewed without a backlight. A line of LEDs is along the screen edge. LED light is diffused across the screen so as to light every LCD pixel.

BTW, IEEE Spectrum discussed the first LCD screens. I believe RCA was manufacturing them in the late 1970s. But RCA had become dominated by MBAs. And so the operation in Raritan NJ had to make a profit immediately to survive. Products included store advertising signs and an LCD adjustable rearview mirror (to eliminate glare from headlights).

Eventually, starved for capital, that RCA division stopped making LCD products. Many years later, the Japanese discovered another American technology stifled by business school graduates. Everyone knows who then created jobs and profits. LCD technology is that old. High tech in LCD screens was LED backlighting.

[lumberjim]

I'm seeing Plasma screens that are touted as being a better picture than like priced LED's. Is the main drawback the longevity? I won't put many hours on a tv. maybe an average of 6-10 hours per week at most. more during football season. They seem to be heavier and consume a shade more electricity, but I don't really care about those things so much.

seems like if you want to spend $3000, you can get an LED that outperforms plasmas, but the under $1500 bunch ....

I may be over-analyzing this at this point...

oh, and could a mod fix my thread title? you, not yo. thx

[tw]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

oh, and could a mod fix my thread title? you, not yo. thx

Cellar is outside of Philly. If "yo" is good enough for Rocky, then it is good enough for yo.

Plasma is slowly losing to LCD screens. Another VHS vs Betamax marketing war.

[DanaC]

One thing to bear in mind as well, is that most of the newer tellies seem to have poor speaker quality (compared to older generation tellies) so you might want to get with some additional speakers.

I have yet to find an LED or LCD type telly that has a proper deep sound to it. There's a kind of shallow insubstantial sound to most of them.

[Clodfobble]

It's because deep sound requires a large woofer, and it really can't be made smaller. Older TVs could fit them in the voluminous back side, but these flat screens don't have anywhere to put them.

[DanaC]

Yeah. I figured it might be something like that. hateful sound quality. definitely needs an external subwoofer.

[Clodfobble]

We used to have artists or game testers tell us that they thought the sound for a particular cinematic or whatever was no good, and we'd innocently say that we were working on something and couldn't come down, but could they come up to our office and show us the part that sounded puny? And they'd hear the same cinematic on good speakers... and then they'd start lobbying for better equipment down in their department.

[DanaC]

I can believe it. I am an audio phreak. I can handle grainy images and slow refresh rate, but awkward or insubstantial sound wrecks a programme. I think I've become more intolerant on that score in recent years with my addiction to audio drama, where sound is everything.