DLP's best bang for the buck?

treker

Here's Consumer Reports take on viewing

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_artic...?storyid=54312

Never really held much in Consumer Reports,but the dollar factor here is right

stchman

The newscast said "rear projection TVs" not just DLPs. They only reviewed one model. Hardly a good sample.

I will say that RPTVs do give a larger picture for less. There are other RPTV technologies out there.

SLedford

I would add a couple of comments in favor of rear-screen projection televisions:

(1) They have been making these things forever and have the "kinks" ironed out. The HD televisions are just updated versions of the big screen televisions your parents (not mine, sadly) had.
(2) You do get more bang for your buck on the larger televisions.
(3) LCD & Plasma are still (IMO) new enough to not know what the long term life is. LCDs (I have a small one upstairs) may have issues with individual pixels burning out over time, which could be very distracting. Plasma televisions are rumored to need "recharging" after time and to have fading colors over time.
(4) The article indicated that bulbs were $200+ and had to be replaced every 2 years. My television is over 3 years old and still going strong, although bulb life is probably impacted tremendously by amount of usage.

In short, when people ask me what to get, I suggest a rear screen projection television. If / when mine finally wears out, hopefully there will be enough history behind the newer technologies to ease some of my concerns. If that is the case, I would probably change to something lighter and thinner.

treker

This was just a clip form the WUSA web site,the news video shown last night was at the Consumer Reports office they had 35 tv's of various types they were testing

stchman

Would that be out in a future CR? If so I would pick that one up.

borromini

It's cool to wait for your current set to croak. After nearly 10 years, I for one am convinced that current generation flat panel displays are worth it and will perform very well...and therefore, worth recommending.

SLedford

borromini,

I have the smaller LCD high def TV (no tuner, just for the DVDs I allow the kids to watch) in the game room. A lot of fairly rough (by my standards) treatment by the kids.

If this holds up fairly well (no dead pixel problems, etc) I will look at a large LCD model when my existing television dies. One issue I have with the rear projection model is that it is difficult to watch when there is a lot of light. Since my great room is over 50% windows, this is always a problem during daylight hours. Closing the blinds helps some, but does not eliminates the problem.

borromini

Lack of image brightness along with limited viewing angle are the main reasons why I can't recommend RPTVs to anyone who plans on viewing with ambient light.

Snejenka

Really? During the SD years I swore I'd NEVER own a RPTV for those reasons, wondering why on earth people would want that (other than size)... but now I own one and am loving it so far. I can't imagine it getting any brighter. I've never noticed any issues with viewing angle either. Could it be that mine is a fairly recent model and so doesn't have those issues? To my right the entire wall is comprised of 10' bay windows. I drop the shades when I'm watching tv usually, but it doesn't stop this room from being filled with a lot of ambient light. The only downside to RPTVs (given that my experiences is entirely limited to the one I have) is that I can't hang it on a wall. I like how that looks. Really, that's not that important to me though. Maybe when I have to change the bulb, or it gets noticably dimmer someday, I will change my tune.