Reasonably Current HDTV Tech Comparison?

[ESPNSTI]

Now that I've paid off my car, and I since got a healthy bonus coming my way, I'm looking to buy a HDTV before the end of the year, if not in the next few months, so I'm looking in to things...

Does anyone have a link of a reasonably detailed, reasonably current breakdown of the up- and down-sides of the different types of HDTV? (DLP, Plasma, LCD, etc...).


FYI, what I'm looking for: (somewhat in order of importance)

• - POWERRR!!!
  - Picture quality (Duh). Good intelligent upscalers and such. Ability to display black properly.
  - Supports 1920x1080 natively, so no downscaling.
  - At least 50" in size.
  - Durability / longevity.
  - Has multiple digital video and digital 5.1 audio inputs (HDMI /DVI).
  ..Ideally, I'd want 1 for Sattellite, 1 for Game Console, 1 for Blu-Ray / HD-DVD player, and 1 for the PC.
  - Has at least 1 digital 5.1 audio output.

What I'm not too concerned about:

• - Price. (Still within reason though obviously.)
  - Internal speaker's audio quality. (I'll probably hook up an external surround sound system.)
  - If it's thin or not, or if it's light or heavy.
  - Viewing angle. I'll probably always watch from the same spot.

What I'm not looking for:

• - A ceiling mounted, or any other type of projection system that requires me to put a box somewhere.
  - A standard ( CRT ) type of TV.

Anything else I should be concerned about?

[sns2015]

Well, at that size, a CRT is most likely unavailable. Even so, all the CRT HDTVs I've seen are all 720p and you want the full 1080. Your best bet would probably be DLP as far as picture quality goes, but I would suggest just walking into a local electronics store that carries a large variety of HDTVs and see which ones look good and then see what kind of technology they use (DLP, Plasma, LCD, etc...). Then, once you've found the method that looks best to you, then you can narrow it down to the inputs you want and then choose a brand/price. Unfortunately, since my current economical situation doesn't allow me to actually get an HDTV (even though I have one of those Sony HDV cameras...) I don't really know much about them. I mainly just know about the technologies in general and not specific models. Right now I just watch all my HD stuff on my computer's 22" CRT which goes up to 1080p.

[ESPNSTI]

Unfortunately, the closest store that caries more than one of any sort of recent type of HDTV is a Best Buy that 60 miles away. (Not counting a store that I refuse to go to since they act like used car salesmen.)

Last time I went there, most of them had only a non-hdtv sattellite channel showing that appeared to be hooked up with analog connections.
FYI, a 1080p Mitsubishi (forget which specific model) looked absolutely terrible with that channel.

From what I've read so far I'm leaning towards DLP.

[Buba]

Sharp does have some really big 1080p LCDs...

How far away are you sitting from the spot you wanna put it later?? If its like 4 or 5 meters your eyes can't make out if its a 1080 or 720 resolution... And I promise you that a really good 720p model does have a better picture than a cheapo 1080p one, but then you aren't interested in price...

What you basically want is a set with 3 digital inputs. I don't know of any current TVs that have that. But then you don't need a 3rd HDMI if you get the ps3 since it has a bluray player... 360 only uses component...

Durability / longevity - > most DLP need a new bulp after 8000 hours, so if you really use it A LOT that could be after 3 years...

[cvrefugee]

Nothing will be broadcast in 1080p for a long time. I would get a semi-decent HDTV for around $2000 such as the Sony 50" RP-LCD or the 50" Samsung DLP. In about five years or so you can buy a newer set for cheaper and 1080p will actually exist. I heard the new Sony SXRD series are going to be beautiful.

You cannot future-proof with HDTV. I bought mine about 2 & 1/2 years ago when HDMI didn't exist, only DVI. Thankfully, you can easily get DVI to HDMI cables for pretty cheap.

[Peter3hg]

Go for Philips, Panasonic or Sony imo. Don't know if they're available in your country though. Don't get a Plasma, they have very poor lifespans.

[sandor_]

i would go for rear projection - most likely Samsung w/ TexasInstruments DLP, but i would buy as late as you can, as the tech will be better, and prices lower. Post December prices will probably drop quite a bit.

I have had a 46" Sammy DLP for about 2 1/2 years and i love it. HDMI, DVI, 2 component inputs, 2 SD video, it looks clean and nice, only about 12" deep, only "problem" is that at that point no one had built in ATSC tuners, so it only has NTSC, but i use a SageTV box as a FreeVo, and dont need a tuner (only DVI inputs). Best part - even then the tv was only $1600- 720p, but that isnt much of a problem at this point.


I honestly think rear digital projection is the way to go.

[ESPNSTI]

At the moment, I'm looking closely at the Samsung HL-S5679W and the Sony KDS-55A2000 both out later this year.

The only "problem" with the Sammy that I can see is the wobulated chip. (The chip really "only" has 960x1080 mirrors, and "wobbles" them horizontally to make the 1920x1080 resolution.)

From what I understand, Sony's current SXRD models had color uniformity problems (and they couldn't accept a 1080p input).
They fixed the input problem with the new model, but I don't know about the color uniformity issue.