Question about HDTV"s and NCAA

[hogfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by razcan

Manufacturer often ships the TV with maxed out values to catch eyes. Sony calls it vivid, Samsung calls it Dynamic, TVs come in shop mode, for plasmas its called "torched mode".

Bingo.


GetYaWeigtUp, I didn't mean to imply that the stores themselves manipulated the settings. Like the previous poster said, the factory sets them to the brightest settings to combat the harsh lights of the showroom. The showroom is not an accurate representation what the tv will look like in your home.

As far as the settings, there are a few things that can be done to improve the picture. Simply messing with the Color, Temp, contrast, etc can yield improvements. Beyond that you can purchase a variety of set up discs that can help recommend the best settings(Avia for example). And still further you can have a professional calibrater come in and dive into no man's land in what could be considered the tv's "registery". It's not actually a registery, but there is a menu which you can access and gain far greater control over the picture settings than what one would normally see in the basic menus.

No disrespect the posters on here, but I would definitely do my own in depth research before I took the advice of one of the sales people at the stores. Not to say that either of you have done this, but on more than one occasion, I've seen the sales staff pushing monster cables on new tv buyers. I've heard other misconceptions relayed from salesperson to customer, as well.

[ramrod580]

I owned a 26 inch samsung lcd and hated it for sports gaming. Too much motion blur. I have a Panasonic 42 inch plasma in my bedroom and burn in hasn't been a problem. If you want something in the 30 to 50 inch range I would go with plasma but if you want to go bigger I would look into DLP. I have a 65 inch Mitsubishi DLP and like it better then my lcd or plasma. I am not saying it has a better picture then the lcd or plasma but it has better overall value. It's much cheaper for its size, no burn in, no motion blur. The only thing I would do is go to the store and watch dark images on one for a while. Some people, including me, can see a rainbow effect when dark images are displayed. It doesn't happen enough to bother me and none of my friends or wife can even see it. Hope This helps.

[loccdogg26]

Being a former Circuit City employee I would agree with those guys. I have a small apartment so I took my elite in the store to see which smaller lcd it would look better on. All you can do is ask if you can hook up your system to the tv you're trying to buy to see it firsthand. If they want the sale it should be no problem.

[hogfan]

That is a good idea. I've known people to do this.

It hasn't been a problem for anyone I've talked to.

Just ask before you start hooking up things.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by kingdevin

Guys, I am planning to make my first HDTV purchase before I get this game and I need a little feedback. I've researched info that indictaes that Plasma TV's could be a problem for gaming because of possible "burn" in the screen. Do any of you guys have a Plasma TV and what have been your experiences. Also, what is the difference if one TV has a 10,000:1 contrast ratio vs 1,000,000:1. How much does that equate to a better picture overall?

Stay away from Plasma if you're a gamer as there are issues with burn-in. As for the ratio you want a higher ratio the better. Go with DLP unless you need to wall mount. DLP offers a great picture and the best value for the money. The only reason to go with LCD is if you plan to wall mount the thing.

[johnrice20022002]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Stay away from Plasma if you're a gamer as there are issues with burn-in. As for the ratio you want a higher ratio the better. Go with DLP unless you need to wall mount. DLP offers a great picture and the best value for the money. The only reason to go with LCD is if you plan to wall mount the thing.

I have to disagree. Ten years ago, I would say stay away from Plasma. But now, burn-in, or image retention, is no worse than a CRT. With the advent of pixel-shifting, white-washing and picture-inversion, plasma's are so the way to go.

Get a Panasonic or Pioneer plasma with these features, and you'll be a happy camper.

On a side-note, if you want a huge screen with an awesome picture, don't rule out DLPs or SXRDs. They may have a 3-5 year life span, but they're the cheapest per square inch with pictures rivaling the best lcds on the market today. Plus, after the halogen bulb dies, you can buy a new one and replace it yourself...Voila! Brand new t.v.

Check out Samsung and Mitsubishi for the better models out there.

[GetYaWeigtUp]

Quote: Originally Posted by hogfan

Bingo. GetYaWeigtUp, I didn't mean to imply that the stores themselves manipulated the settings. Like the previous poster said, the factory sets them to the brightest settings to combat the harsh lights of the showroom. The showroom is not an accurate representation what the tv will look like in your home. As far as the settings, there are a few things that can be done to improve the picture. Simply messing with the Color, Temp, contrast, etc can yield improvements. Beyond that you can purchase a variety of set up discs that can help recommend the best settings(Avia for example). And still further you can have a professional calibrater come in and dive into no man's land in what could be considered the tv's "registery". It's not actually a registery, but there is a menu which you can access and gain far greater control over the picture settings than what one would normally see in the basic menus. No disrespect the posters on here, but I would definitely do my own in depth research before I took the advice of one of the sales people at the stores. Not to say that either of you have done this, but on more than one occasion, I've seen the sales staff pushing monster cables on new tv buyers. I've heard other misconceptions relayed from salesperson to customer, as well.

I can agree with you and the other poster, all of those settings are familiar and I've seen them, but to be honest, when the TVs come, they are in a box and we randomly pick one to use as a display. Once we turn it on, we look at the different settings and we'll turn it to dynamic mode but it really isnt that huge of a difference. Its noticeble but not a TV seller.

I believe that it really depends on how the store hooks up the TVs, whether its with component or HDMI, and we use both, it all depends on how they want the set-ups to be in store. The more expensive TVs usually get more love and get bluray/HDMI, the others get cheap components, usually there are 3-5 TVs that are sooped up. And 1 last thing to know is that 90% of the TVs are usuing the same signal to recieve their feed. Meaning 90% are hooked up to the same cable line/satellite dish. There is a huge splitter thats splitting component cables throughout the store. So the TVs are actually suffering some because they arent even using a solo signal like you would get at home.

And I totally agree with the HDMI cables. I was taught to push Monster HDMI cables but I never thought they made a huge difference so I would tell people to get the cheap ones. Of course the store will tell you that Monster is the best because they are trying to make a profit and keep their jobs lol, but I dont think it matters. Like I said I have 2 cheaper ones and they work great. If I went out and bought Monster Brand I wouldnt notice enough of a difference to justify spend an extra $40-$80.

[ramrod580]

Buy the cheap HDMI cable!!!! It transfers a totally digital signal therefore the quality doesn't matter unless it is so bad it is losing bits. Gold ends and shielding matter with analog signals because matching the exact signal from the source to the tv or receiver is vital. With digital if you get the signal at all it will be perfect. This is why hd tv over a $10 antenna looks just as good as over a $1000 antenna. If you are buying component or composite cabels then get good quality. If you are buying HDMI or optical, go with the cheap one.