New TV

If you haven’t heard, I’m in the market for my own place.  I was thinking somewhere around a May time frame however, my parents started getting involved and it’s looking more like a now time frame.  Gee, does it sound like they want me out?  Anyway, when I move out I’m going to need a nice TV.  Can’t have a living room with some non 1080p television sitting in it after all.  I had planned to buy one in a few months, just before moving out, but seeing that the move out may happen sooner than later I went ahead and bought that TV now.  You know, while I’m not making mortgage payments and can afford it.

20080121_IMG_0170I picked up a Samsung 46″ LCD TV; model LNT4665F specifically.  It’s Samsung’s highest end 46″ LCD other than the new ones that just came out which boast a 120 Hz refresh rate, which btw is a joke and a waste of money (I can tell you why later if you really want to know).  I got a pretty good deal on it off NewEgg for about $500 off the big box store price.  Add the fact that I didn’t have to pay any sales tax and that shipping was free and I saved even more. 

Now for how much the TV cost I could probably have gotten a 60 inch DLP or SXRD online, but I decided to go with the smaller TV for a couple of reasons.  First off is  shear size.  While the screen being larger is not a problem the added depth a projection TV has is.  It’s just easier to fit a flat TV into places than a non-flat TV and depending on how big the place I get is, that can be a huge factor.  Add in the 65 pound weight the LCD has and the TV is movable by one person where as a projection TV… well is not.

The second reason and for me the biggest reason I chose the smaller LCD over the bigger DLP/SXRD was for the sharpness.  When it comes to sharpness, there is nothing currently available on the consumer market that is sharper than an LCD.  The reason LCD’s are the sharpest is because LCD’s are the only TVs in which the pixels are directly on screen itself.  DLP/SXRD and other projections have the problem of that the pixels are projected on screen.  The image is produced on a small “screen” at the back of the television set and is projected onto the front screen.  This projection of the pixels blurs the edges of them and thus softens 20080121_IMG_0168 the whole picture.  Plasmas… well I’m not sure exactly how they works, but from looking at them closely I still find them not as sharp.  Yes both projections and plasmas still look great and HD movies will look amazing, but take a look at some fine print text on screen.  What may be a little tough to read on these TVs is easy to read on an LCD.  If you’ve ever hooked a computer up to your TV then you know exactly what I mean.  The text on the TV just is not as clear as it is on the monitor.  Since an LCD TV is essentially a computer monitor, bam!  How can you get any sharper?

Now me being the type of person who will hook his computer to the TV (see previous post about Media Center), having things super sharp is very important.  Also being a gamer, this sharpness is great to have with my PS3 as it makes even the finest detail HUD perfectly readable on screen.  If you’re a gamer then LCD is really the way to go as games often have plenty of fine detail elements where you need the sharpness to really see it.  Of course all this sharpness does come with some minor drawbacks.  Because the image is so sharp, you can see every single flaw in the video if you take a good look.  If you’ve watch broadcast HD stations, particularly any kind of sporting event, and you’ve looked close enough you have probably noticed digital artifacts caused by the relatively low bit rates of broadcast HD television.  If you haven’t, then go watch a you tube video and notice the bad image quality there.  It’s the same thing.  The LCD, because it’s so sharp, does not blur these away like a projection or plasma does.  Because of this, low bit rate video and standard def will actually look better on a projection or plasma.  Now pop in a Blu-Ray or turn on INHD… those Bikini Destinations girls never looked so good!

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