So what the hell should I get?

[Frank Gunn]

Argh! You guys dashed my hopes with the thread about plasma TVs going to hell inside of three years, so what should I get when I finally get around to trading up from the ol' 27" Philips?

[MurDiddlyUrdler]

How much are you looking to spend? How big is your viewing room? How far would you sit from the display?

[Frank Gunn]

Ah, ya know, it's your basic living room, the couch is *maybe* 15 feet from the TV... I suppose I could get creative and move the couch back a few feet, but this is pretty much what I'm talking about. For now, anyway.

And let's get really crazy and say that price doesn't matter.

[MurDiddlyUrdler]

Originally Posted by Frank Gunn

And let's get really crazy and say that price doesn't matter.

If price is no issue, then this is what you want the Mitsubishi WL-82913. Only $20,000 or so and it has an 82" screen with the following features:

-- LCoS micro-display projection technology for true 1080P x 1920 HDTV performance
-- Full computer input compatibility, up to native rate of 1080P x 1920, as well as input capability for VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA, WXGA, with multi-format scaling.
-- Simultaneous viewing of windowed PC and HD/ED/SD/Analog content
-- 200 Watt user replaceable lamp for dramatic brightness

1080p could be really, really sweet.

[tomdkat]

Have you considered a front projector, Frank?

Peace...

[Frank Gunn]

I have, as a matter of fact. But I wasn't sure if 15-20' was enough to get a decent picture. Actually, I don't know much about them at all, but I'll definitely look into it more thoroughly, since these startling developments about plasma TVs have come to light.

[I 8 Piglet]

15 is just fine for a FP setup. My room is 15 x 13 and it works out perfectly. You actaully have quite a lot of play. If you have any particular questions you can ask here, I just went through the process, there are a few people here who have FP setups as well. But if you really just want to learn all there is to know about everything, you should try heading over to the AVS forum. They have topics and experts on every kind of technology you could want, they even have a forum dedicated to screens.

As with everything else youll find that your price range is a huge factor but a basic break down goes like this

CRT - Best picture quality by far, but most expensive, and require quite a bit of work to get going and maintain. They are also large and heavy.

LCD - Much cheaper, hugly popular. Blacks are supposedly not very good, although people will argue that. Some people complain of a "screendoor effect" Plug and play setup...almost not calibration required.

DLP - Same price range as LCD maybe little cheaper, better black, PJ with slower color wheels tend to suffer from a rainbow effect. Just as easy to use LCD.

I dont no much about Lcos, but from what I have seen its really expensive and not a realistic alternative just yet.

I think when it comes down to it LCD and DLP are very close and in the end it comes down to personal prefference, both are perfect for someone starting out. In both if you spend more you can elimate the inherent problems, but most people find that the screen door isnt that big a deal to them, or that the rainbows are not that big a deal. I went DLP (infocus x1) and have no complaints. I have the slowest color wheel on the market (2x) and while I saw rainbows when I first demoes it (mainly because I hunted for them) I rarely ever see them anymore, and PQ and shadow detail far make up for it.

People say it all the time and I never really took it to heart but watching a move on such a big screen is really 100x better. After showing my setup to my parents my mother made my dad go out and get one .

[Frank Gunn]

Cool, Piglet. Thanks for the info!