[Cheeseboy]

What is the best bang for the buck in a 50 to 55 inch LCD TV?  We don't need 3D or some other features as much as just the best picture quality for $1000 to $1200.  What resources should I use to read up on these?  Opinions are welcome but we are convinced that LCD will work best in our really bright family room.  We are really not interested in the LCD versus Plasma debate.  Who can deliver a great picture for $1200.

Audio Circle has helped me find the best value in many categories.  AC can you help me here too.

Where should we buy this technological giant?

Steve

[wilsynet]

Here's some advice I have:

 - Sony, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Vizio have fairly good customer satisfaction numbers.
 - Get an LED based television.  LEDs have longer life and consume less power.  They're also more expensive than conventional LCDs.
 - Try using the site decide.com to do your comparison shopping.
 - I like to read Amazon.com reviews before I pull the trigger.

Taking a quick look around, the Samsung UN 55" LED seems like a good deal.

http://www.decide.com/p/22853649#compare_prices

The ABT Electronics price is going to expire (or already has expired) today.

[ajzepp]

For the past six years I've stood by the following simple guidelines: For LCD, go Samsung. For plasma, go Panasonic. I've followed this myself and made these recommendations to others, and I have yet to have a single instance where someone wasn't happy with the purchase. Can other brands offer good value and reliability? Sure they can. But IMO, and after a LOT of research, these two brands are the best in their respective formats.

[Cheeseboy]

Good Advice.  I have always subscribed to the Samsung/Panasonic philosophy.  I'll start shopping.

[zybar]

For the past six years I've stood by the following simple guidelines: For LCD, go Samsung. For plasma, go Panasonic. I've followed this myself and made these recommendations to others, and I have yet to have a single instance where someone wasn't happy with the purchase. Can other brands offer good value and reliability? Sure they can. But IMO, and after a LOT of research, these two brands are the best in their respective formats.

Good advice.

For the larger screens, the Samsung plasma tv's are basically as good as the Panny, but are much cheaper.  I just purchased a 64" Samsung and it was almost $700 cheaper than the equivalent 65" Panny.

George

[bpape]

I have had excellent luck with Sharp.  I just bought a new 60" LED and the picture is outstanding.  Also fully web capable for Netflix, etc.  BB had the 50" of the same thing for $1299

Samsung and Panny also make good sets. 

Bryan

[nonoise]

Go here:http://hdguru.com/ and check out the reviews.
I'm a Samsung loyalist myself.
Good luck in your search.

[Cheeseboy]

HD Guru confirmed a model that has been getting good reveiws for the money in HD 2D.  The LG 55LW5600.  and the LG 47LW5600. 
I have not landed on the Samsung equivelant yet.

The key ingredients for us are great HD 2D in a bright room with moderate off angle viewing.

[coke]

HD Guru confirmed a model that has been getting good reveiws for the money in HD 2D.  The LG 55LW5600.  and the LG 47LW5600. 
I have not landed on the Samsung equivelant yet.

The key ingredients for us are great HD 2D in a bright room with moderate off angle viewing.

A few years ago while in college, I worked for an electronics store that sold lots of TVs.  LG was one of our main sellers.  Except for a brief period where there were some manufacturing issues, they were very reliable and had a great picture for the money. 

[Cheeseboy]

Looks like the Samsung model would be the UN55D6400.  The smaller cabinent works for me.

[Cheerwino]

Thumbs up  for buying from Costco. They have a very liberal return policy, even for electronics and they add another year to the manufacturer's warranty (I believe). These sets are huge and are really not designed to be shipped by themselves in a box (meant to be delivered on a pallet cube), so shipping for repair is expensive as is in home repair.

When our Vizio had problems, I was prepared to do battle with their customer service. But, Costco's repair people set everything up before turning me over to Vizio for scheduling the in home visit, which was covered by the additional warranty (therefore costing us nothing).

I wanted a Samsung but they were out and the wife was ready to buy, so we went Vizio. In the end, I would still prefer to have the Samsung, even if it meant a slightly smaller screen or cost a bit more. But, the Vizio with added Costco warranty is an okay bet for me. If I'm lucky, it'll break down about this time next year as the warranty runs out and we can get a new Samsung! 

[genjamon]

I spent a substantial number of hours looking at these TV's in show rooms over the long holiday weekend.  My parents' 8 year old Sony LCD is dying, so they needed a replacement.  I was heavily biased toward Samsung going into it, and toward LED LCD's due to the energy and contrast ratio factors.  We ended up going with an upper range Panasonic plasma...

I just found the current generation of LED LCD's to have really unrealistic brightness levels.  Watching some clips of movies with lots of special effects, everything seemed really hokey and almost like we were watching a "making of..." show, where you can almost see the ropes and rigging and such.  The plasmas, on the other hand, were extremely natural looking in both color and flow/movement, and the upper range Panasonics have black levels on the same order as the best LED TV's. 

Of course, the 55" Panasonic VT-30 we went with was $1900, so well above your price range.  The 51" Samsung plasma, which I would put on par with the VT-30 in the showroom, and which many compare as the pinnacle of plasma performance right now, was $1500 on sale.  Best Buy had the 50" Panasonic plasma in the next level down from the VT-30 for $1000 on Black Friday, but they ran out nation-wide and we were told they probably wouldn't be able to restock by the time the new models started coming out next year - otherwise we would have gone for that.

I got a lot out of reading threads in avsforum over the weekend.  You have to become familiar with all the different models first, as that's how they refer to them in the forums.  I found a good strategy was to spend enough time (about 2 hours) in Best Buy getting a sense of all the different models and what I liked/disliked in their images.  Then spend time reading comparison threads in avsforum honing in on a couple options.  Then reading up on those specific options and the kinds of quality control problems users have been experiencing in order to make a risk-informed decision.

For instance, the two plasmas I mention above have been known to have either color blobbing/inconsistencies or brightness flashes/dropouts.  Panasonic seems to have been working to resolve the issues through firmware upgrades, while Samsung owners have been frustrated at a lack of responsiveness from Samsung beyond simply servicing/replacing faulty units.  I have to say that user feedback on the relative responsiveness was a factor in our choice.

[genjamon]

Oh yes, and it is important to note how the technology development in LED LCD's is impacting image quality.  What I learned was that the current force of competition is moving manufacturers toward the thinnest possible screens.  The way they're accomplishing this is through edge-lit technology - the place the LED backlighting around the edges of the screen and use "light guides" to make sure the light ends up on the screen where it needs to be.  However, these light guides are not in an advanced stage of development, and they're inconsistent at providing the right light levels.  This means some areas of blackness end up getting bleedover.  I also strongly suspect that it exacerbates problems LCD's have had with motion, instead of improving the situation.

The best LED LCD TV's in image quality are going to have a similar backlighting strategy to what LCD's had a few years ago before this LED craze began and before the push for ultra-thin panels.  They will have full-array backlighting, where the LED's are actually placed at regular intervals throughout the back of the panel, instead of along the edges.  This leads to greater lighting uniformity.  It also has allowed these units to have "local dimming" where the LED backlights behind the portions of the screen that are supposed to be dark are momentarily dimmed during dark scenes.  This greatly improves contrast ratios.  The only one of these Best Buy had on display was a Sony, but I can confirm that it looked by far the most natural of all the LED LCD TV's I saw over the weekend.  Unfortunately, these full-array approaches are more expensive to manufacture, and they are a little thicker so don't command the higher price premium for thinness. 

In my opinion, the gimmicks of thinness and 3D are winning out over image quality and price in the current market.  Most people want just what the original poster does - good image quality for reasonable price - but that doesn't seem to be what today's marketing game is all about.

[coke]

I spent a substantial number of hours looking at these TV's in show rooms over the long holiday weekend.  My parents' 8 year old Sony LCD is dying, so they needed a replacement.  I was heavily biased toward Samsung going into it, and toward LED LCD's due to the energy and contrast ratio factors.  We ended up going with an upper range Panasonic plasma...

I just found the current generation of LED LCD's to have really unrealistic brightness levels.  Watching some clips of movies with lots of special effects, everything seemed really hokey and almost like we were watching a "making of..." show, where you can almost see the ropes and rigging and such.  The plasmas, on the other hand, were extremely natural looking in both color and flow/movement, and the upper range Panasonics have black levels on the same order as the best LED TV's. 

Most TVs are default at Dynamic or Bright settings.  This helps them stand out in showrooms.  When comparing TVs, if the store doesn't mind, it would be better to change them to a neutral setting.

[rbbert]

I suspect that by 2012 ALL HDTV's will be 3D, so now is the time to save on a closeout 2D set when you can find one.

Edge-lit LED is clearly better than plain LCD; full backlit LED is currently very expensive (typically >$3k for 55").  Although it often requires some research into settings, LED's can have picture quality similar to plasma but usually at a slightly higher price.  The TV's in showrooms are (unfortunately) typically not set up that way though.

[Pez]

Not to rub it in, but this was a sweet deal a few months ago.  I took advantage. 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=98873.0

If you can get a 50" for that price you're doing great.

[jonbee]

A year or so ago I went out looking for a 50" LCD, and saw a lot on display, but the 50" Panny plasma was far more natural looking to me and the wife than any LCD, LED or otherwise. The LCDs I saw seem to have more artifacts which distract; the plasma was more like a window. Cost about $1200 then. It does use more power (around 400 watts compared to ~250 for LCD), but much less hungry than the older plasmas. After a year I and the wife are very pleased with the decision.
Colors are true, HD content is as smooth as glass. After 4 big screen sets in 5 years, I feel this is the one to hold onto.
Here's an HDGuru review of an older version:

http://hdguru.com/panasonic-tcp50g10-50-plasma-review/416/#more-416

I bought the later G25 model.
Good luck, and have fun!

[*Scotty*]

genjamon, I agree with your observations concerning thinness and the compromises it imposes on back-lighting the LCDs. I recently purchased a Samsung UN55D6050 LED edge lit TV and the biggest problem I have observed has been related to gray-scale accuracy. When a scene has been flimmed under low light conditions areas of the scene which should be viewable are lost in darkness, when attempts are made to compensate by raising the Brightness level the color saturation goes to hell when the film returns to normal illumination levels like those associated with outdoor scenes.
  Suggestions on how to better adjust the set to compensate for this kind of problem would be very welcome, I have only recently arrived in the land of High-Definition.
Looking forward technologically speaking, the LCD TV is merely a stop at a way-station on the way to a true big screen LED TV perhaps based on the Super Amoled technology developed by Samsung.
Scotty

[zybar]

genjamon, I agree with your observations concerning thinness and the compromises it imposes on back-lighting the LCDs. I recently purchased a Samsung UN55D6050 LED edge lit TV and the biggest problem I have observed has been related to gray-scale accuracy. When a scene has been flimmed under low light conditions areas of the scene which should be viewable are lost in darkness, when attempts are made to compensate by raising the Brightness level the color saturation goes to hell when the film returns to normal illumination levels like those associated with outdoor scenes.
  Suggestions on how to better adjust the set to compensate for this kind of problem would be very welcome, I have only recently arrived in the land of High-Definition.
Looking forward technologically speaking, the LCD TV is merely a stop at a way-station on the way to a true big screen LED TV perhaps based on the Super Amoled technology developed by Samsung.
Scotty

Go on over to the AVS Forum and you will find calibration (settings) recommendations for your particular make/model.  This will definitely improve things.  If you really want to get the best picture possible, you will need a professional calibration to set the grey scale.  Without the grey scale properly set, all your colors will be somewhat off.

George

[*Scotty*]

Thanks for the advice George, I never thought of looking for settings over there.
Scotty