EggXpert

I am interested in getting a new LCD TV.  I found this great chart that will help me decide about size (I'm going to ~40in)

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/298926.aspx

But what I would like from the community here is suggestions on brands, quality, contract, 720 vs 1080 quality, etc.

Thanks in advance! 

Definitly go with a 1080p set. To get anything less now is like buying aging tech. Although most TV programs will be shown in 480 - 720 for a while...some are already 1080 and of course if you plan on getting a Blu-ray player you will HAVE to get 1080.

Also I gotta tell you, since I learned the hard way, if you go to the store and look at their Blu-ray setup and think "damn that looks so friggin smooth"....it's not the player (well it is higher rez which helps) but the real kicker is the TV has to have 120mhz filter. Most have only 60....like mine.

So yeah, when I bought my Blu-ray and LCD TV setup...it didn't look as good as it did in the store, but they won't tell you that and nobody seems to have info on it when your making the purchase.

As for the size of the TV, I have a 46" Sharp Aquos and it is pretty much the perfect size for my living room (which sits 5). If I get another in the future it will probably be no larger than 50". The larger you go the more the image will be blown up and the more pixelation you will see. So for 1080, 40-50" is perfect for an amazing picture.

As for brands, I'd recommend;

Sony has probably the best picture out there but you'll have to take a second mortgage out to pay for it. Very much overpriced but they know they have the best.

Sharp is also a great brand and their prices are competitive. Again watch for the 120mhz filter as most don't have it.

Samsung is ok, I haven't had the best experience with samsung products but they do have good picture quality.

Vizio, surprisingly has gotten very good reviews dispite the walmart price tag...really cheap and apparrently good TV's if your on a budget.

One more thing. If you buy the TV in the store they will talk you into buying the $100 monster HDMI cable for the TV. DON'T, it's a huge waste, if you go to a site like www.meritline.com you can get them for like $10 and it works the same. Same goes for the wall mounts, if you get them at a store you'll easily pay $100+ for them, buy online and you'll pay half that.

The only two cables you can use with a 1080 source (like Blu-ray) is DVI or HDMI....so prepare for this.

Also, your regular TV channels will look like **** so don't be alarmed, you'll want to get the HD package from your cable company or DISH network.

I suppose I should have been a bit more descriptive to help you on making your post...

This will be in a fairly small room.  Seats 3 people that are 6-9 feet distance.  This is why I was looking for something big, but I don't want to go much larger then lower 40".

10% of the output will be from my PC so DVI would be great.  90% of the video output will be from the Xbox360 (via three RCA HDTV plugs) playing video and games.  Content will come from TVersity (a WMConnect alternative) if that matters.  I do watch the free channels semi-anually.  I am one of those people that are required to get a digital tuner by February =P

 Bluray is something I don't expect to use in the near future, though I do want to prepare for it.  I don't know what to expect to do, really.  I don't want to buy an external drive so I will probably end up getting an internal drive for my PC.  Again, most of the videos will likely be decrypted and saved as a "ready to go anytime" file format on my data server.  Is the 120mhz filter relevant in my case (assuming I never watch videos straight from the Bluray disk)?

 I know someone that got an enormous Vizio TV and it looks outstanding.  I noticed Toshiba wasn't mentioned, is there no feelings one way or the other?

When I do my shopping I tend to look for reviews before price and ads.  My normal proceedure is to learn the different tricks of the trade and then start from the top and find one that matches my needs on a page like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2002640411&bop=And&Order=RATING 

 So at this point I am looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889253124 

Well most of what I say still goes. Xbox plays 720 max resolution I believe (not sure because I don't have one) but it will be just fine for that. The TV will accept inputs from anything a standard TV will it's just for the HD Blu-ray you will need to use DVI or HDMI to get the full 1080 resolution.

You can play Blu-rays from your PC just fine as it should work exactly the same...the output of course will depend on your graphics card but that's really not an issue as most PC graphics cards can easily do HD resolutions. As far as extracting the movie and storing it on a harddrive I'm not sure how your doing this and if there will be any loss in quality. Would depend on the how it's stored on the computer.

I do know that to play the movie from the original BR disk, you will need 1080 TV and a DVI or HDMI cable to the TV. A standard BR disk holds about 25gb right now so be prepared if you plan on transferring these movies...your gonna need a hell of a lot of space. It's not just the picture, the audio is uncompressed.

The 120hz filter is an extra feature on the TV that refreshes motion picture images at twice the speed of the "standard" 60hz of most models. The benefit of this is less motion blur and/or choppy frames. This mostly applys to very fast paced action movies but you will see a difference anytime a fast moving object is on screen. The result is the film looking incredibly smooth and life like...you feel like your watching live action rather than film. Some people don't like this but if you've ever seen it in action I don't see what's not to like. Most TV's couple this with some kind of "smoothing" feature, some call it anti-judder....again it's a newer feature and the reason I tell you this is because most displays for HD content in stores use these TV's and when you buy the TV that dosen't have it your like "what the hell?".

Anyways, the point is, it's something the TV does not the source so whether your playing movie or game it should look much smoother. If I had to do it all over again I'd definitly get one with this feature and probably a Sony as they seem to be the best.

As for Toshiba, they are an ok brand. I have one of their TV/DVD combos and it has nice picture. I did have an issue of it not turning on for a couple days but then all of a sudden it worked again...I really can't explain it but that makes me kind of weary about Toshiba. Otherwise I haven't heard anything bad about their products.

The one you linked there is a good TV, but it dosen't have the 120hz....just FYI.

At this point my plan is going to be wait until Black Friday and find a really good deal on a Sony.

 I think the only things I'm looking for are:

~40" display
120hz refresh rate
inputs for HD RCA cables, DVI for my PC

Anything else to keep in mind when shopping?

I wouldn't worry too much about 1080p.  Based on the screen size and viewing distance, and fact you aren't planning to use 1080p sources any time soon, a 720p set will probably do just fine.  You may not even notice the difference.  And it will save you cash for future upgrades.

Sounds good, I think I'm going to wait until Black Friday and hopefully get a Sony.  If not, I will what is available then.

 Thank you for the tips!