TheGame

I have $2,500 to spend. I want the best TV that'll fit into that budget. Must have 1080p, ATSC tuner, and HDMI inputs. How good is LED compared to LCD and Plasma? I looked at a couple of LEDs the other day and liked them but I wouldn't be able to get as big as an LCD of the same price. It has to be 40" +.

Don_M

Part of the choice comes down to where the HDTV is to be located. Is it in a bright room, or one without much natural light or too many lamps that will reflect light off the screen? Plasmas tend to do better in darker rooms because their glossier viewing-surface finish reflects daylight and lamp light. LCD and LED-based sets are better in brighter rooms because their screens typically have matte finishes that diffuse reflected light.

LCD and LED refer to the type of backlight used rather than the display itself. The newer LED-based sets are noticeably brighter and more energy efficient than LCDs, which use fluorescent backlights. The energy savings of LEDs are significant: A recent "road test" of the 46-inch Samsung LED-based HDTV found it consumes 123 watts/hour with the backlight set at 5 on a scale of 10. That's roughly what a typical 26-inch LCD set uses. With the backlight down at 1/10, energy use drops below 100 watts/hour. Significant energy savings like that can reduce power costs by $250 or more over the life of the set.

LED backlights also have much longer life than fluorescent-based
backlights -- maybe as much as 250,000 hours versus 50,000 hours or so.

O-O

Where ever you go to buy, just make sure you do a price check online before you decide to purchase.

$2,500 is a pretty good budget, you shouldn't have any problems getting what you want.

Eureka

Do you use an OTA antenna for reception or do you sub to cable or sat?
If you use OTA and if reception is iffy, the quality of the tuner in the TV may also affect how many channels you can receive.

User99

I just got back from shopping today and I'm glad I haven't bought anything yet! I have one question, how can I truely make a fair comparison of TVs when, and I'm borrowing a from a link you posted: How Retailers Use Lighting To Confuse HDTV Buyers HDGURU.Com there are unfair testing conditions? A salesman today tried to show me the difference between 1080p and 720p but now that I think about it, the contrast seemed turned down on the 720p. I have a feeling that, even if I adjusted the settings, the two TVs were made by different manufactures, so I'd be unsure what to set both of them at.