Looking for the best 52 inch LCD HDTV

[RedIsNotBlue]

Well my 40 inch Samsung display has black horizontal bars on it now and the repair place said it could be as expensive as $400-$500 to repair but I have always wanted to upgrade to a 52 inch and maybe this can be my excuse. I figure maybe I could sell this one for $500 to a friend and have him worry about getting it repaired and put the money towards a new HDTV. I have always really wanted the Sony KDL-52XBR4 and I have heard nothing but great things about it but sadly it is a out of my price range. So my question to everyone here is what is the best recommended 52 inch LCD HDTV for someone who has a budget of around $2,000???

[Y3k Bug]

If you want to stick with Samsung (I quite like mine even though it's so "old" now) Their latest gen LN52A650 can be had for just over $2k.

Here's a LINK.

[warpig]

get the samsung 6 series it really is amazing.i love mine

[FIDDYPOP]

I have the sony xbr 4 52'' and I love it! dude this tv is awesome. it is on page 61 of the home theatre pics my name is fiddypop. I love it.

[RedIsNotBlue]

Originally Posted by FIDDYPOP

I have the sony xbr 4 52'' and I love it! dude this tv is awesome. it is on page 61 of the home theatre pics my name is fiddypop. I love it.

Yeah like I said I would love that tv I read nothing but good things but I am not going to spend $3,000 for it. If you can tell me where I can get it for around $2,000 I would be thankful...haha.

[RedIsNotBlue]

How about this one???

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-LN52A5...6752199&sr=8-3

[allstar780]

question: why LCD specifically?

[RedIsNotBlue]

Originally Posted by allstar780

question: why LCD specifically?

Don't want a plasma. I leave my tv on constantly and from the horror stories I have read about plasmas I don't wanna risk dealing with that.

[allstar780]

oh ok... well i would not recommend the new samsungs as from what i've seen they aren't as good as last year's models... maybe take a look at the new toshibas, we have this one at my work and although it is not 120Hz i've yet to see any motion blur... atleast give it a look.

[Y3k Bug]

Originally Posted by RedIsNotBlue

How about this one???

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-LN52A5...6752199&sr=8-3

Looks like a solid buy, but it doesn't do 120hz. Not sure if that's important to you or not, but it's something to be aware of.

[RedIsNotBlue]

Is 120hz worth the extra money?

[allstar780]

Originally Posted by RedIsNotBlue

Is 120hz worth the extra money?

a faster response time is better but the way Samsung does the 120Hz makes things look artificial... or like they were filmed with a cheap camcorder that only does 60 frames per second... it doesnt feel cinematic

and the Toshiba I posted has a response time of 5ms... which is pretty damn good

[Y3k Bug]

Originally Posted by RedIsNotBlue

Is 120hz worth the extra money?

Sorry can't help you there. Maybe you could scope out some 120Hz sets at a store and see if it impresses you. Some people really like it and some think it makes things look funny.

(I haven't seen one in person yet, so I don't have an opinion).

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by RedIsNotBlue

Don't want a plasma. I leave my tv on constantly and from the horror stories I have read about plasmas I don't wanna risk dealing with that.

Most of those horror stories come from LCD owners.


120Hz is only worth the extra money if it actually does 5:5 pulldown on a 1080p24 source. If it uses interpolation, or incorrectly performs 3:2 pulldown then 2:2 pulldown which in essence is simply doubling judder-prone 60Hz signal, it's a bit of a scam OR it looks artificial.

Look at some model numbers and go through some of the tests and see what you're getting. There's plenty to look at:

http://www.hometheatermag.com/hookmeup/1107hook2/

Here's a list of sets that pass both 3:2 cadence and de-interlacing tests:

Fujitsu P50XTA51UB 50” Plasma
Fujitsu P63XTA51US 63” Plasma
Hitachi 55HDS69 55” Plasma (in Auto Film Mode only)
JVC HD526887 52” LCOS
JVC HD56C97 56” 1080p LCOS (with HDMI only)
JVC HD56S998 56” 1080p LCOS (with HDMI only)
Maxent MX42HPT51 42” 768p Plasma
Mitsubishi WD-73733 73” 1080p DLP
Pioneer KURO plasma (all sets – in 72Hz Pure Cinema mode)
Pioneer PRO-950 50” 768p Plasma (in Advanced mode only)
Pioneer PDP-5070 50” 768p Plasma
Pioneer PRO-FH1 50” 1080p Plasma
Polaroid FLM3732 37” LCD
Samsung LN-T4081F 40” 1080p LCD
Sharp LC37D62U 37” 1080p LCD (with HDMI in Film Mode only – advanced user menu)
Sharp LC42D62 42” 1080p LCD (in Film Mode only – advanced user menu)
Sharp LC42D63 42” 1080p LCD
Sharp LC46D64U 46” 1080p LCD (in Film Mode only – advanced user menu)
Sharp LC52D64U 52” 1080p LCD (in Film Mode only – advanced user menu)
Sharp LC57D90 57” LCD (fails deinterlacing in Fast mode, passes in Slow mode)
Sony KLV32U100M 32” LCD
Sony KDL32S3000 32” 768p LCD
Sony KDL32S130 32” 768p LCD
Sony KDF37H1000 37” 720p LCD
Sony KDL40S130 40” 768p FPLCD
Sony KDL40S3000 40” 768p LCD
Sony KDL46XBR4 46” 1080p LCD (DRC set to “off” and not in Vivid or Standard mode)
Sony KDL46XBR5 46” 1080p LCD (DRC set to “off” and not in Vivid or Standard mode)
Toshiba 40RF350U 40” 1080p LCD

[RedIsNotBlue]

Yeah I dunno. From what I know the whole 120hz thing I could live without. 1080p on a 52 inch LCD screen sounds like enough for me.

[callas01]

This would be my list if it were me, I have seen both of these and think that they are both excellent, so if I were you I would go down and look at them and see what makes you tick

1 Sony 52" KDL-52V4100
2 Samsung 52" LN52A550

[PNF]

Originally Posted by callas01

This would be my list if it were me, I have seen both of these and think that they are both excellent, so if I were you I would go down and look at them and see what makes you tick

1 Sony 52" KDL-52V4100
2 Samsung 52" LN52A550

My pick if I were you!

I personally would not get korean brands, although Sammys does have come a long way!

Or, I'd also look at Sharp Aquos or Pioneer Plasmas (the burn-in issue seems to be less apparent for new models)

if you're located in the US, I'd do pricegrabber.com first before I buy.

I got an excellent deal on my TV and I literally saved $1000+ for a brand spankin new tv

[RedIsNotBlue]

Thanks for all of the help, info, and opinions guys I really appreciate it. Right now I am leaning towards the Samsung LN52A550. I have a third of the money already to put towards it now its just time to scrap together what I can to get the amount I need.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by PNF

I personally would not get korean brands, although Sammys does have come a long way!

Samsung's factory in Korea makes all of Sony's LCD panels.

[derekcfoley]

I have a 52" Samsung 1080P LCD LE52M86BD. And felt I had to comment, because this kind of stuff and real-world experience and opinions is virtually impossible to figure out until after you buy kit. Unless you spend hours in a store and take all your AV gear! So if this helps someone decide if LCD is for them then great. My model is about a year old, so things might have improved.

Generally after owning the TV, after 6 months after the initial wow "I can see hairs on people's arms" and "particles" of snow factor has gone, the reality sinks in. I've decided that yes it was a vast improvement over the old CRT, but generally the LCD TV technology at the momennt is a compomise in terms of quality. The serious problem with LCD is horizontal movement "blurring" which nobody ever seems to discuss on forums. I've even seen the same thing at my local "high-def" digital cinema - which obviously use LCD technology for projection - most notably when watching shows featuring handheld camera shots, e.g. Cloverfield.

Perhaps this problem is made worse by the fact that with "P" displays there is no screen redraw in the interrrupts, which used to be the key to displaying smooth motion on computers in the old days of interlacing. Consequently I you can see diagonal shearing patterns onscreen sometimes when large single coloured objects move, as the screen redraw from the source is out of sync with the display redraw cycle.

You can see the same thing watching video "fullscreen" on a PC too. The higher the resolution, the worse it gets. So this effect might be related to the speed of the pixels being pumped onto the graphics card (be it blu-ray player, pc or console) Don't forget, we are talking of 2million pixels, 24, 50 or 60 times a second. Thats a lot of data.

So even if you have a TV or monitor with a 8ms response time as my TV is supposed to have, its important to realise that the signal getting to it has to be fast enough to get good results. The 8ms refers to the reaction time of the LCD cells in the display reacting electrically to a signal change - and not the speed of data getting to it.

So the weakness could be elsewhere. I'm still not convinced its not the HDMI interface either! Even component video from the XBOX 360 at 1080P has the same blurry motion. I had hoped the £200 quid hardware Blu-ray player might be better, but I haven't seen anything yet on my display that looks amazing.

How fast is the technology inside the set, can it even deliver enough pixels fast enough to the screen for smooth motion? Who knows where the point of failure is in terms of horizontal motion. Its a hard one!

My Samsung has Movie Mode, and DNie which sort of helps, but it introduces an odd effect of cutouts around objects when watching SD clips, so generally I'm not that impressed. Sure the detail is amazing on slow camera tracking shots! Movie Mode makes the picture look unnatural.

These TVs have a ridiculous mass of settings - the Samsung interface, is quite annoying to configure, even for a techie like me, some options are only available in some "modes" and not others.
I imagine most people use the standard setting and get poor results.

Perhaps its misconfigured somehow... I'd love to be proved wrong in these theories! And hopefully nobody else sees this effect like I do, perhaps I'm too picky. Having splashed out a lot of money, its going to be a long time before I can justify upgrading, and unless I see vast improvements with LCD technology with my own eyes first, I'm not going to buy anything like it again.

Hopefully the later Samsung model is better! - Can anyone comment who has one? Perhaps later DVD players as source will be better and improve it.

I'm at a loss on this one.