Big screen LCD TVs

I looked at these for about 5 months before making a decision. Based on size 60" and desire for HD I contemplated over sony grand vega III 60"lcd, samsung 60"DLP and Phillips LcoS 55". Sony won. I found sharpness, color and blacks close on all three. Sony did not have any motion artifacts,less reflection in a bright room, adequate brightness (I have lots of windows) and standard non HD brodcasts were still reasonable. When you compare you should look at that if the dealer can switch back and forth. Most of them do not like to do this since a large screen can look very poor in standard brodcast. I compared NCAA basketball and it helped to finalize the purchase.

Although I'm not a videophile, my understanding is that LCDs are generally not as bright as plasma displays, and may not have as much contrast, either. The industrial LCDs I have seen are back lit with fluorescent tubes. I have seen some LCD computer monitors which are readable in direct sunlight, but they are very expensive. Also, when you turn up the brightness, the black background also gets brighter. If you alwaysw watch in the dark, this won't matter, but if you have sunlight shining on your screen, it may. I must state again that my knowledge is very limited in this area, but maybe this will kick off some input from people who know more than I do.

I think the first post makes a great point. Always be sure to see how the display performs with standard def {analog} programming. Thats good for CRT , DLP, LCD, any high def capable monitor. When I bought my Hitachi HDTV ready TV 2 years ago, I was surpised how bad analog programming looked . I was able to make it much more watchable with a DVDO Iscan Pro.

Exactly.
These new sets are no different then hi-end audio: garbage in, garbage out. You really need a digital signal from cable or satelite to appreciate them. These sets will really expose poor analog signal.

I finally ended up with the 60" Wega Sony and I love it!
Believe it or not I actually purchased the 65" Mitsibuishi CRT unit first, but after the first day I pleaded with the store to take it back for exchange.
High def signals looked great but... Video tapes looked ugly!!!
Now, I know that is not the ideal medium to play on such a large image , but the Sony seems too handle that input much better.
Again,High def broadcasts are awesome, so I find myself watching very little Video Tape now. But, lets face it, we probably all have treasured tapes of our early lives, some sets will display them fine (like the Sony) and some sets make it look like a big blur with smeared colors! (Even with SVHS Tapes!!!_
The 60" Sony picture in High Def is as good and as bright as any Plasma set I have seen (in 50" version.)
The only drawback with the Sony LCD is on extremly dark scenes the detail gets lost.
I am not sure how the Plasma units handle the dark scenes,but the Mitsuibuishi CRT did fine .

I have the Sony 50" lcd. After getting over the fact it had to be serviced within 30 days, I like it. I agree with others that some standard def stuff is unwatchable, really unwatchable. And I have had no luck with the internal line quadrupler or whatever, it seems to have no impact at all.

What about "ghosting" or some call it "tracer" effect? Is it really a problem with LCDs?

Emil,

Were you asking about direct view LCDs? I noticed some of the replies discussed RPTVs.

One suggestion I would make is to determine your viewing priorities and personal preferences, and match those against the strengths and weaknesses of each set. There is no ideal TV. What's best for me may not be best for you.

In my own case, watching SDTV was a distant 3rd priority to viewing DVD and HDTV, as this was for my home theater and I watch SDTV in other rooms. I ended up with a Samsung 61" DLP TV, and a critically important reason was its synergy with upconverting DVI equipped DVD players (I have the Pioneer DV-59AVi). The native resolution of the Samsung (1280 x 720) matches one of the HDTV native resolutions (720p), which matches one of the standard upconversion resolutions on DVI equipped DVD players. This makes the (DVD) picture quality really stand out.

Another suggestion I have is to view as many sets in as many different stores as you can. For example, I was mainly comparing the Samsung DLP to the Sony GWIII when I did my test viewing. Sometimes the Sony looked better than the Samsung, but at other times it looked washed out and much worse. The Samsung had a more consistent PQ to me.

Bruce

I thought all LCD's were rear projection.

Dsk,

I don't claim to be the expert, but I believe most if not all flatpanel PC monitors and laptop screens are direct view LCDs. In addition, there are direct view LCD TVs available from Sharp and others, although they seem to be limited at the currrent time to smaller screen sizes; e.g., 20".

Bruce

That might explain how it can be that my laptop screen is so thin. I have not paid any attention to the small lcd tv offerings other than to conclude they are still too expensive just to save a little counter top space in the kitchen!