HDTV Dilemma... Mr. Frugality Battles Mr. Pic Quality Whore - Page 2

I was watching a Sony XBR connected to a BluRay player in Fry's last week. Beautiful picture. I think the Samsung 6 series would be a good buy.

Also, make sure if you purchase at a store to bring the online prices. Most will match the online prices.

A friend of mine bought the Samsung 750 series and had the prices written down when he went to BB. Salesman saw the prices written down and matched the lowest price (amazon) on the spot. It never hurts to try.

Depends on the stupidness of the salesperson. Most stores have it clearly stated they will match any non-internet authorized dealer price.

True, that is what happened when I bought mine. I bought it at tweeter and within 30 days of buying it, Circuit City has two price reductions for almost 600 dollars. Each time I called the store and they applied the difference to my credit card. It was worth staying on top of it. When my friend got it at Best Buy, the salesman knew it was the amazon price, he said it was no problem and applied it.

I'm not going to read beyond the OP, but I recently got a series 5 (60hz) Samsung 46in 1080p and it's awesome. What you see in the store is not telling you much at all, as you probably know. When I got it, we watched Blade Runner on Blu-ray and said "WOAH!" probably 30 times just from how different (sharp/contrasty/detailed) the visuals are. I later found out that that was not just from the re-release or the Bluray or the 1080p but the Samsung has features to add dynamic contrast (like an unsharp mask) and other "woah" inducing visual effects. I turned most of them off/down and played Blade Runner again, and it was a fair bit more subtle. So if you're looking for less "pop" the Samsung can do that too (which I usually prefer). I got a good deal on it ($1000) because it was a floor model and "only" 60hz (hence, on its way out the door), but the 120hz TVs look surreal to me. I prefer 60hz so I lucked out there. And since you say you work in the video game industry (and based on your username) I would assume you might consider hooking up a PC to this set - in which case, 720p would be ridiculous. I can't even imagine giving away that much screen real estate - it's more than 50% less pixels. That's half as much crap you can have going on on the screen at one time. For me, that's completely unacceptable, but I know not everyone cares. Anyway, JMO having recent shopping experience and enjoying something very similar to what you're looking at.

Well if you're hooking a PS3 up why wouldn't you want full resolution on the 1080i/p games or on Blu-ray? I dunno, I simply can't imagine buying less than a full res screen, period. I'd rather eat ramen for a month if necessary than be stuck with half the pixels I could have for the life of the TV. (Which I would assume would also totally destroy its resale value in a year or so.)

Be sure you try the "Movie" picture setting on a Samsung TV. I use it on my 26" Samsung HDTV tube TV and it really tones down the color & brightness.... like looking at a painting instead of a glossy magazine.

LCD = best for daytime viewing
plasma = best for nighttime viewing

I have no doubt that LCD TVs have improved in a last 2 years, but they are still far behind plasmas in picture quality and actual contrast, not to mention reproduction of natural colors.
Why would anyone buy LCD, to save money on a picture quality?

I'm more concerned about the size. 42" is probably too small. You think 50"+ is huge until you live with it for a month.

I have the 46" A650. It's a terrific tv, and more future ready than the 720p Panasonic. Panasonic plasmas are highly rated, but so are Samsung LCD's..Obviously, I'll say pay extra and get the set that will give you more value in the long-run.