TV's

[ACMF74]

I would stick with the major name brands and look for at least 120Hz. Try looking at Cnet for some ideas and reviews.

I personally like Sony.

[Car Addict]

Plasma's are much better than they initially were when talking about burn in. Even when they first came out you really had to try to burn an image in. now the only way to have an image burned in to a plasma is to leave the same image (AKA paused game, or movie) for hours and hours on end. A guy I used to work with who ran an A/V equipment installation company on the side, had only seen 2 sets with an image burned into them that is out of the hundreds of sets he had done. With regular use there is no reason to be concerned about burn in.

Personally I love my projector's but if I had to choose a regular television I would either get a plasma, or a Samsung LED LCD TV.

[equate975]

You can probably get a vizio within that price range, they are pretty good for the money. I just picked up a 42" one on the cheap, it's basically just a decent display, nothing for extras which I don't care about.

I honestly wouldn't waste the money on a 720p tv at this point. With 1080p being out for so long I would just jump to that and be done with it. Obviously there's a huge difference between SD 480 and 720p, 720 to 1080p is a little more negatable in my mind. We're only a few years away before 2k4k will be the best a consumer can reasonably buy, anything 720 at that point will probably be gone.

60hz to 120hz is a huge difference, sports games look awesome on 120hz. 120 to 240+ though is harder for me to tell the difference, you can see it, but it won't be as huge as going from 60 to 120 would be.

As far as the brands go I know that dynex/insignia are just rebrands of "big name" tv companies. It's a crap shoot on what hardware is really in it, might be LG, Samsung, Toshiba, anything. Back when I worked at bestbuy at the time most of the insignia's had samsung panels in them, but like I said this changes constantly.

You will never get a straight answer about plasma vs lcd, each have pros and cons, apples and oranges. Some people will swear by one and not the other, but everyone has a different opinion on what's "better."

Sit on fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net and you will find a good deal pretty frequently.

[HellzMindPlaya]

Just to add a little something on the topic of Plasma vs. LCD or LED... When they say that the Plasma has a 600hz refresh rate it isn't really 600hz, it is 10 line drivers at 60hz.

That said, about a year ago I bought a 47" LCD Toshiba that I love, so I would say be sure and check out the Toshiba brand. I think they are a little less expensive than the competition but quality seems to be great.

Edit: Did some research... 600Hz Plasma uses 10 subfields each at 60hz (must have heard line drivers from an under informed salesperson)... I found some cool images explaining this!!!

[Eric]

I know this is nitpickey, but the USB port on my 46" Sony Bravia is proprietary to Sony equipment. The 40" Samsung has a USB port that you can stick anything you want into it. We had to buy a WD media player box to watch stuff on a USB stick at home, while you can just plug a flash drive into the Samsung at work and it fire's right up.

I'm looking at buying a 30ish inch TV for my place while I'm at school, which will then turn into the garage TV, and I won't be buying a Sony!:up:

[StereoInstaller1]

If I were buying today, I would go for the mid level panasonic Plasma. Gorgeous image, decent features, great color and especially the black levels.

[AndrewBird]

Just to clarify as well, an "LED TV" is still and LCD, it is just back lit with LED's instead of CLF's.

[TheEtaUnderdog]

check out avsforum

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=9

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[BDSax]

i love my LG, i had an LG AC window shaker from home depot go bad, called LG and they said buy a new one and we will refund you. lied to me and swore id never buy another LG product. bought a 55" LG cause it was too good of a deal to pass up.