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As the thread title says. I see a lot of odd brand names for LCD TVs out there, and it occurs to me that I've been out of the loop a little too long. Does anyone know what the good ones are, what the bad ones are, etc? I've never heard of companies like "Insignia" and "Olevia".

I have Sony rear projection LCD, and it is a beautiful TV (despite the fact Sony's execs are high on crack), and I've been impressed with their LCD units. I've seen the Sharp Aquos used as a monitor, and its absolutely stunning. LG Phillips, Westinghouse and Samsung also make great products. IIRC, my 24" Dell LCD is an LG Phillips panel, it has excellent picture quality. Beyond that, I'm not too sure.

The best resource I've found for any kind of home theater equipment is the AVS Forum. The users there will bitch and moan if somethings not right (but there still is some bullshit to wade through). Here's there LCD forum.

Hopefully that's a good start for you.

IIRC, Insignia is Best Buy's 'house brand'.

Might as well ask here, whats better these days? Plasmas or LCD? It does seem plasmas only occupy the high-end spectrum so it's not really a matter of choice for those of us who will want something smaller.

Plasma still has burn-in issues. If you're not going to play games on it, or leave a DVD or DVR on pause for very long and you want a big screen, they're probably the way to go, since IIRC they're cheaper than LCD for large screens. Otherwise, you'll want the LCD or the LCD Projection. Now if SED would ever see the light of day...

His Divine Shadow wrote:Might as well ask here, whats better these days? Plasmas or LCD? It does seem plasmas only occupy the high-end spectrum so it's not really a matter of choice for those of us who will want something smaller.

i still crave for HD-ready CRT: not too much expensive, SD video looks great on it, blacks too. On the other hand: they weight a ton and they are more hungry space than their LCD counterparts

Arrow wrote:Plasma still has burn-in issues. If you're not going to play games on it, or leave a DVD or DVR on pause for very long and you want a big screen, they're probably the way to go, since IIRC they're cheaper than LCD for large screens. Otherwise, you'll want the LCD or the LCD Projection. Now if SED would ever see the light of day...

Plasma's tend to bring out motion better as response time isn't an issue. They also give better contrast in low light conditions. LCDs give better contrast in high light (like in the shop) and are usually better if you intend them to double as computer monitors as well.

At least in the UK, Toshiba, Samsung and LG are the brands I'd be looking at if I were to buy a flat panel. Having said that, that's based on features and picture quality, not necessarily reliability or support.

the No-brands you mention are likely to be the same TVs in different shells (certainly when I worked for Dixons, all the cheap-ass TVs appeared to have the same remote controls and operating software). While I think the actual display panels should be OK (there's not that many factories for these things out there, after all), the controlling electronics, as well as build quality, aren't that good.

I have a Westinghouse which I bought simply because it was cheap (for a large LCD). From talking to others and from my own experiance, I can tell you that they tend to have really bad response rates, dead pixels, and poor color. But, they also tend to be pretty cheap.

My laptop screen has an LG, and I really love it.

We have a big HP DLP TV which we love. If you're looking for anything like that .

Just a note, before, we had a Sony projection big-screen. The thing died after 5 years of use, and we found out that that's about their average lifespan.

Well everyone knows rear-projections suck.

Do the newer plasma screens still have their ridiculously short lifespan? A few years ago they would die after a few years of use, making blowing thousands on one absurd. LCDs (at least, good ones) are cheaper, better contrast and more consistent quality across models and brands. Some plasmas are very good, but some are really, appallingly crap image-quality wise. While they don't have response time to worry about, I don't really like the blotchy way most plasma displays look if you get within a few meters. Of course, at the larger sizes LCDs become extremely expensive.

EDIT - I have a Samsung LCD, which I bought due to the very high contrast of Samsung LCDs and my experiences with Samsung LCD monitors. I'm happy with it: it's high-response, loaded with inputs, has excellent software and looks cool. However, Samsung LCDs are only average overall brightness, and some of their signal processing thingies are not so flash. There's some 'DNIe' rubbish that you can't turn off, and when you do the promo split-screen demo for it, the non-DNIe side looks better when you're watching low-quality signal like SD cable. If you leave the colour settings on default, it constantly adjusts the brightness, causing the screen to suddenly get darker if a shot pans from shadow into light.

I work for a company that sells tv's and deals with repairs.

So i can tell you which ones we get back more often.

Sony. Always a sony, worst quality control in the business, i can't recommend it for anyone.


Good makes for LCD's are Toshiba and Panasonic good prices and above average quality quality.

LG are a good budget brand, but the picture quality isn't the best, for the price its excellent. Pioneer are excessively expensive and not really worth the extra cost.

Samsung are a quality make, i've never seen a samsung come back for repair within the first few weeks, however not saying its not impossible. But they aren't expecially cheap. They also look nice.

I'm thinking about getting a widescreen computer monitor and a TV tuner and use that as a TV in the future. 20 something inches will do me just fine.

I really really like my sony bravia...but I haven't really compared it to any others.

I also noticed many of the weird alternative and cheaper brands that I'd never heard of before. A quick query revealed that many of them are Korean in origin, while others are American. I haven't seen any on consumer lists of yet, suffering from having new technology with an as-yet unknown long-term quality rating.

I can't remember which one, but at least one of the odd-name-out ones they had at the Best Buy occupied a bizarre stratum in product quality between claiming to incorporate major name parts in locally-produced housings, but I don't know how much of that is bullshit. It could have easily been a Sony power cable or some such.

Personally, I prefer Toshiba or Samsung. Although, we've been purchasing more and more LG brand among our minor electronics and appliances and thus far they're all hits and no misses.

If it has some funny brand name and sells for cheap, you likely want to pass on it. Sonys, other than the Qualia pretty much suck. They've been coasting on name recognition for many years now and are in danger of becoming the Bose of TVs and other consumer electronics, in some cases they have. I can't stand the colour balance on any Sony other than the Qualia, it's impossible to get the red/green balance correct and the picture always looks a bit fake.

Best I've seen so far are Sharp and Panasonic, Sharp does have a slightly sharper and more detailed picture while Panasonic has the edge in colour balance. Those 2 are the ones I'd go for, find an audio/video store, bring some of you own DVDs including a calibration disc and see which one you like better. Personally I'd be happy with either one.

And those funny brand names, not that funny. If it where me I'd make a name like "The Långtbortistan 2000" for a 42" LCD.

Zac Naloen wrote: Samsung are a quality make, i've never seen a samsung come back for repair within the first few weeks, however not saying its not impossible. But they aren't expecially cheap. They also look nice.

Samsung aren't that pricey. I have a 40" Samsung HD LCD, and it was pretty cheap for it's size and the time I bought it. It's a nice telly, Samsung's DNIe image afterprocessing is good stuff, and gives you great contrast and reasonable black levels for an LCD.

I also noticed many of the weird alternative and cheaper brands that I'd never heard of before. A quick query revealed that many of them are Korean in origin, while others are American. I haven't seen any on consumer lists of yet, suffering from having new technology with an as-yet unknown long-term quality rating.

Regardless of brand, 90% of LCDs are Korean. Count on it. They're either made by LG or Samsung somewhere down the line.