Topic: Pyro's TV thread

[PyroMenace]

Well its that time for me. About a couple weeks ago my DLP had a couple dead pixels show up followed by more and more every week. Now they are all over the screen.

Its about 5 or 6 years old now and I never did need to replace the bulb on it as the picture had never faded to a point where I really noticed it.

Here's a pic of it.



My DLP is a Samsung and I'm currently looking at their LEDs and some of the Vizios as well since they seem to be the best TVs on the market for the dollar. Currently aiming for a 55 inch, its really hard to downgrade since that DLP was 56 inches. But man, I paid a hefty price for that thing, I think it was $1200 when I got it, but prices for LEDs now are crazy cheap, so its a better time than ever to pick up a new one.

[gpw11]

I would also like to start talking about tv's as I will probably be picking one up around December

[Cobra951]

DLP is a strange beast.  It's electromechanical, while every other TV tech I know of is purely electronic (or electromagnetic, in the case of CRTs).  My head explodes when I think of a zillion little mirrors physically moving to project pixels individually on to a screen.  I'm not surprised that they'd eventually start dying one at a time.

For pure video watching, nothing beats plasma, imo.  LCD is hardier, and so it's better suited to static displays like PCs' and consoles'.  Have fun shopping!

[iPPi]

Aren't OLED TVs available now?  I'd get that if it was available.

[Cools!]

Did you do this yet?

[W7RE]

I'm still using a monitor as a TV. I've yet to own an HDTV.

[scottws]

Aren't OLED TVs available now?  I'd get that if it was available.

Yes but they are very expensive.

[Xessive]

Yes but they are very expensive.

OLEDs are still quite expensive.

LEDs have dropped in price significantly since they first launched. Admittedly, the majority are still more expensive than LCD and Plasma but you should still be able to find some at competitive prices.

[scottws]

LEDs have dropped in price significantly since they first launched. Admittedly, the majority are still more expensive than LCD and Plasma but you should still be able to find some at competitive prices.

Are you referring to LED-backlit LCDs?  That's what "LED TVs" are.  Regular "LCD TVs" are LCDs backlit by one or more cold cathode bulbs.

[Xessive]

Yeah, as opposed to "Organic LEDs." The LED panels are slimmer than traditional LCD TV's though they are technically the same technology as LCD but somehow more efficient, as I understand it.

[Cobra951]

Scott's point is that so-called LED TVs are still backlit LCDs, except using LEDs as a light source instead of some sort of fluorescent bulbs.  OLEDs have self-illuminating pixels, which is the holy grail since CRTs went extinct.  Anything which separates the light source from the pixels creates unevenness and viewing-angle anomalies (however slight on the best sets), plus contrast issues because of the inability to produce a pure black level.  Plasma is also self-illuminating.

[gpw11]

Plasma seems cheap these days and my current set (actually roommates) is plasma...are there any major disadvantages to the technology?

[Cobra951]

An issue with plasma is image retention.  Although the problem is usually temporary, displaying a static image for a long time may burn it in permanently.  Supposedly, burn in is not as bad now as it used to be, but it's still something to worry about when using plasma for computer displays.  It also uses more power and generates more heat than similarly sized LCD screens.

[Pugnate]

While modern plasmas have resolved the problem mentioned by Cobra thanks to technological advances and pixel shifting, still not recommended for computer use where images are static for hours at times.

[scottws]

Yeah, I've heard that if you get a plasma TV, it instantly becomes the most power hungry device in your home. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I've heard it more than once. By comparison, LED-LCD TVs are very power efficient.

I don't think OLED is the holy grail it used to be. Many smartphones have OLED screens and on those devices people frequently complain about inaccurate color reproduction and prefer phones with LCD screens.

That said, my phone is a Galaxy Nexus, which has an AMOLED screen and I think it is fine. But this has a 4.65" screen, nothing close to my 55" at home so I am not sure what it would look like scaled up.

[Xessive]

Btw, I'm really sorry about the title removal issue from TapaTalk.

For me pixel density matters quite a bit. I hate looking at a 40" TV (let alone a 55" TV) and seeing the screen-door effect.

[Cobra951]

Yeah, I've heard that if you get a plasma TV, it instantly becomes the most power hungry device in your home. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I've heard it more than once. By comparison, LED-LCD TVs are very power efficient.

I don't think OLED is the holy grail it used to be. Many smartphones have OLED screens and on those devices people frequently complain about inaccurate color reproduction and prefer phones with LCD screens.

That said, my phone is a Galaxy Nexus, which has an AMOLED screen and I think it is fine. But this has a 4.65" screen, nothing close to my 55" at home so I am not sure what it would look like scaled up.

I meant self-illuminating (more accurately, self-emissive) pixels are the holy grail, not necessarily OLED.

Sandy's 42" Viera plasma has 2 computer fans pulling air out of the back.  To feel the heat, all you have to do is stand close to the screen.  You don't even have to touch it.  Yeah, it's a power hog, but man, does it look good.  She got it just in time for the Winter Olympics, and the image on those events was just about the best I've ever seen.

[K-man]

With plasmas image retention and burn in are still very much issues.

I have a 2012 Panny ST50 and I have at best long-term retention from the Dark Souls HUD.  At worst it's permanent burn-in.  about six months worth of watching full screen stuff and it has yet to fully disappear.  It is much less noticeable now, in fact only really noticeable under solid colors.  But it's there, and I know it's there.

I don't necessarily regret my purchase, but I wish I had taken a little more care when I first got the TV.  Despite already having 300 hours on it as a floor model, I should have taken further steps to reduce retention (screen wipe, pixel flipper dvd, etc).  Instead I bought in to everyone telling me that burn-in was no longer an issue and that it didn't warrant worrying about.  Then I see blobs where the drake sword and estus flasks sat on my screen for 60 hours.  The pixel orbiter at least kept it from becoming a well-defined burn-in.

There is no denying that good plasma TVs still offer the best picture, though.  But if video games were my main use, I'd probably look elsewhere.

[Ace_O_Spades]

I would also like to start talking about tv's as I will probably be picking one up around December

Yep, getting one on boxing day this year and will be getting a PS4 shortly after that.

[PyroMenace]

Here's an update on how its looking after a week or so. The second pic was taken a couple days after the first one.





Anyway, looks like I'll be getting a new one this week. Best Buy has a sale on the one I'm looking at so I'm gonna bite.

[K-man]

if you donate that thing to goodwill you might get a decent donation credit toward your taxes next year.  Might want to check, though.

[PyroMenace]

So I ordered the new TV a couple days ago, it's a Samsung LED 6150. I was going to head to best buy to pick up the base 6 series but found a decent deal online for a slightly better model that has 3 HDMI over the 2 that best buy had plus it has apps. Here's some videos on it if anyone cares:

I've been window shopping a handful of times but I really haven't gone into the nitty gritty of the image display stuff, like banding and the like, I prefer to remain blissfully ignorant and pick out something that looks good to me. My DLP has this faint half circle on the screen that you can only notice in blacks, it annoyed me at first but I eventually learned to ignore it. So anyway, I'm in full on anticipation mode now. 

[Cobra951]

Looks excellent.  I'd need more legacy video inputs, though.  I have a feeling in the future, I'm going to be needing some sort of converter boxes for that kind of stuff.  Besides HDMI, I have VGA, composite, component and S-video on my little Samsung here, and I use most of them.  One I'm not using at the moment is HDMI, so I'm definitely behind the times.  I could use HDMI for the Xbox, though.  Haven't bothered to switch over from analog RGB.  If my set gives up the ghost, I think I'm in trouble.  The newer sets are leaving the older formats behind.

I just got into a conversation with Sandy today about "LED" TVs.  I was telling her that they are no such thing.  They are still LCD TVs, using LEDs to illuminate the LCD panel from behind (instead of using fluorescent bulbs).  Scott points that out above as well.  For a true LED TV, I'm guessing OLED is it these days.  "LED" has become the buzzword, however inaccurate it may be.

All that smart functionality on that set is very cool.  TVs are like dedicated computers anymore.  Want!

[K-man]

Legacy inputs were a problem for me as well.  I ended up grabbing a Sony 27 inch CRT TV from craigslist a year or so ago, and all my classic systems are hooked to it in the office.  They were meant for a CRT anyway.

[scottws]

I'm only using one composite cable and one component + stereo cable in my whole house.  Everything else is HDMI.  I'm actually using all four HDMI ports on our main TV.

[Xessive]

I'm only using one composite cable in the house (for my mom's old satellite receiver). Everything else is HDMI.

Despite that, I still hang on my old CRT TV for the PS2 and occasionally watching certain classics. For some reason, there are things I still vastly prefer the CRT screen for; the pixels are just so massive that they smooth things out, making them look fantastic (except of course tiny text intended for HD screens).