New T.V on a budget

okay… so a few tips of advice, I did a lot of research when I bought my new tv a while back.

First, if you want a cheap tv, plasma is the way to go right now, most places are ending manufacturing these and are trying to unload them…  They get really good contrast ratios, which gives you great colors, but theres a few issues.  They burn in real easy, so never let it sit on a still screen for more than a half hour to an hour (you can fix this by switching to a “snowy” channel for a couple minutes at the end of a session, causing all the pixels to alternate rapidly between white and black).  They are susceptable to glare, so lighting can effect how well you see the screen.  They are a little heavier than the LCD and LED models.  Thats about it. 

Don't bother with 1080p unless your screen is going to be 60″ or larger.  You will not be able to tell the difference in resolution on a smaller screen, unless you're literally two inches away from it.  Its a waste of money, especially when right now a majority of games only run at 720p or 720i. 

The single factor that will effect your image the most is the contrast ratio.  The contrast ratio is a measurement of the brightest whitest white that can show on the screen vs the darkest blackest black that can show on the screen.  There are two ways of measuring it, or two types: dynamic and static.  Static (this is the important one) is when the ratio is found on the screen by measuring the white vs black at the same time.  Dynamic (the one most manufacturers list) the two measurements are made at different times.  This means that they can fiddle with the settings to get the tv to show really white whites, and then adjust them again to get the blackest black.  This gets them really big numbers that seem really cool (if you see 1million:1, its dynamic).  If you can find a tv with a static contrast ratio of 5000:1 or higher, you're doing pretty good. 

The last thing you really need to think about is your refresh rate.  This effects things more than you would, because different input signals run at different fps.  As long as the refresh rate is a multiple of the fps, you get a smooth clean running image.  120hz is currently the lowest one that will do that.  Most plasmas get really good refresh rates of 600hz (mine does at least).  LCDs can do 120 easy, but you'll pay a lot more for 240 or more.  Really I would just make sure to get at least 120 and not worry more than that.  I heard a rumor a while back that if you have a higher refresh rate, your tv may be 3D ready, but I'm not sure theres any truth to that.

Hope that helps, took me a bit to type that, but it took me a couple months to come up with all that information reliably!  Beware of salesmen, they'll always try to get you to pay for what you don't need.  Beware of professional calibrations, they do improve your image quality but I don't believe for a second that they're worth $300.  You can buy a blu-ray calibration disc and do it yourself on your ps3 for about $30, its not as good but it does what you need.  Good luck.

Update:  I googled it quick, since its been a year since I've looked at tvs.  It appears to be near impossible to find plasmas under 42″, so they're out of the price range.  Here's a tv the shows the difference between contrast ratio:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Proscan+-+32%22+Class+/+720p+/+60Hz+/+LCD+HDTV/9329336.p?id=1218086176589&skuId=9329336

If you look in the overview you can see that it lists both that static and dynamic (neither are very good here, but LCD's kinda suck for that).  Most of the time your lucky if they tell you the static, usually only the dynamic will be listed, and often times they won't even list that (bullshit! that should be standard!).  As another example, my current tv has 10,000:1 static, but 1million:1 dynamic.  So if they show dynamic ratio, its a blown up number.

I suppose it depends on your income, not sure how old you are, i'd say wait too but that depends on how long your parents are prepared to put up with you taking over the tv, the longer you wait the better your tv will be, there's loads of good deals around but definitely buy new, not ebay or a friend. i have a 37″ phillips 1080p, not that big but it's a quality tv, it was around £700 2 years ago, u can pick up a decent 28″ for around £300 these days so bide your time and don't rush in, at the end of the day it's your gaming that will benefit. Good Luck!!!

I'm not sure what your local stores are being in another country and all but when you do have the cash to get a new TV always make sure you barter, it helps if your paying in cash as most salespeople are enticed by the sight of money. I bought a new TV just last week and I got a 55″ Samsung LCD and they're asking price was $3400 I talked them down to $3200 plus the manager threw in 10 Blu-Rays of my choice so just make sure you know what you want before buying. Also do some research on the TV because most salespeople don't expect you to know what your talikng about but if you do know it'll help you to barter for a fair price.

$3200 on a 55″ TV?  Holy Expensive Cakes Batman!!! There are 70″ LCDs available for $3000… 

At that price, it should wipe your ass after you take a shit!  

@KoG – right now I think you're better off waiting to get something bigger anyways – with sony's new 3D revolution on the way, you could wait until the 3D tvs have saturated the market a little more, and hopefully by then they'll have made some improvements and dropped the prices, so maybe you could get one of those and really take advantage of the power in your ps3.  At least, thats what I'm waiting for.  My tv is only a year old and has a good lot of life to it, so I'm just going to watch how the 3D market goes for a while and plan on my next tv being involved with that.

The General said:

I know “they” are trying to make it the next big technology, but I just don't see many ppl wanting to wear those goofy glasses all the time…

Right – however, one of my supervisors told me recently that while walking through the hospital we work in, he saw a 3D monitor.  Ahem… let me reiterate – while walking around he saw a 3D image on a tv.  He wasn't wearing 3D glasses.  I don't know how they do it, and I haven't seen it myself, but it probably has something to do with holographic imaging.  As far as my searches go I can't find one marketed to the public – I'm sure its enormously expensive and probably only used for diagnostics, this is generally where you'll find the best imaging tech in the world.  But if it exists now, I predict that one day in the distant future it will be in our homes for an affordable price.  That would be AWESOME.

But holy crap – proof that its in the works (and this article actually explains sort of how it works).  Note its two years old, I'm sure R&D has been working on it since.

http://www.markstechnologynews.com/2008/05/phillips-presents-3d-tv-without-glasses.html