Is an upgrade from a 6 y/o 55″ rear projection 1080i to new 1080p worth it?
Hi I have a 2003 55″ Mitsubishi rear projection 1080i tv (not pure hd, it upconverts). Would there is a big difference between the picture I am getting with this and the picture I would get with a new 1080p 1920 x 1080p native resolution television with all the new technologies? A lot of freinds say there wouldn’t be a big difference… but I’m not sure, and can’t really tell without a side by side comparison.
If it would be a big difference I would have a budget of $3,000.
I play a lot of xbox 360 and also have a blu ray player, and I have high def tv programming if that matters…
Thanks in advance!
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Whether this upgrade is worth the money is up to you.
That said, if I owned what you’ve got, and had 360 and blu-ray, it would be a no-brainer to get a 1080p television, probably LCD. Back in the day the only thing I liked about a projection set was its size versus tube TV’s. Now they can be big AND crisp.
With $3,000 to spend, you can get a sweet-azz viewscreen. BUT if you can hold out, the deals will keep getting better, and the technology will continue to improve. So honestly, if you’re used to your old set and it doesn’t bother you any or you don’t feel like you’re missing out, then stick with what you have for now. When you DO upgrade, it will be that much sweeter.
It depends on your eyeballs basically. Some people are super sensitive to video differences. Others can’t tell the difference between SD and HD. And most probably fall somewhere inbetween.
So you can’t go off just tech specs or what friends say. You actually need to check this kind of stuff out in person and see what you think. See if a store can show you something you watch a lot of (sports, a DVD, whatever). Then you can try to compare it against what you’re getting at home.
Personally, I think with a BluRay player, and looking a TVs in the sizes that you would want (plus your budget), you should get a Panasonic Viera Plasma TV. I can’t frankly think of any better set you would get now or for the next few years. I would look at a G10 series TV if you’re looking at 50″ or 54″. If you want to up the size, then go to the V10 series for 58″ and 65″ (though I think those aren’t out just yet, but hopefully any day now).
In those large sets, definitely go Plasma over LED LCD or regular LCD. You’ll get better color, deeper contrast, and truer blacks. Also, Plasma has a inherent response time that is near instantaneous (like a CRT or DLP), so it is amazing at fast motion playback.
LCDs are inherently bad a fast motion playback and suffer from motion blur (ghost trails). Its more obvious the bigger you go in TV sizes. They compensate for this with 120Hz or 240Hz refresh rates. This helps a lot, but doesn’t entirely solve the issue. And you pay a heavy price premium for this.
LCD blacks, color, and contrast with a CCFL backlight are the weakest performers out there. CRT, DLP, and Plasma all destroy CCFL LCD on those fronts. So LCD compensates for this with the LED LCD. This is a major upgrade on the lighting (using LEDs) and improves those categories in a big way. But again you have to pay a huge price premium for this.
Plasmas only suffer from myths and misconceptions. They no longer suffer burn-in. If you are concerned just crank the brightness and contrast way down on it for the first 100-200 hours and then optimize. They work in high altitudes. They are not all power hogs, there are loads of modern models that are energy star certified. Lastly, they do not have short life spans. The Panasonics are rated to like 100,000 hours which is equal to or better than an LCD (any basically means that it would likely over 10 years before you lost even 10% of the brightness, let alone saw a decrease significant enough to warrant replacing the TV).
Iam surprise that you old Mitsubishi is still running, mine has a power switch problem and the repair cost would have been $500, gave it away. Yes, upgrade to a Sumsang 58″ Plasma 1080P now for $1,999 at best buy and also Costco (costco provides you an extra year of warranty and have 90 days return policy for $45 membership fee for 1 year) and still have money left over. I bought the same size tv for $2,700 over a year ago and at a discount price from Circuit City.
Sheesh, EVERYBODY is happy to spend YOUR MONEY, that’s for sure….
Look, you have HD….but you ONLY HAVE ONE HD INPUT on your TV set to connect everything up to.
Easily solved with a Component Video switch…
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10112&cs_id=1011201&p_id=3027&seq=1&format=2
Gee…a whole $20.00.
Now, if you don’t have a good stereo amp, check this out…
http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3510.asp
Now the 3808i unit takes Component inputs and outputs Component, PLUS it upscales Component inputs into HDMI output too !!
That’s flexible…you will use this unit in the future with any future TV set !
And you should check out the Denon 4808i too, But this unit is just right at $1700.00. Leaves $1300.00 for speakers !
Now understand that ALL TVs upconvert the Low Def 480i TV signal to 960i….YOUR TV set is a 1080i TV, so your component input can easily accept a 1080i signal from your DENON and deliver it without any Conversion, and the Video Switcher built into it will work fine with your Xbox and Blu Ray player.
But it has Dolby Surround which the AV switcher can’t provide….All you need for Dolby surround is either the Digital Coax (orange connector) or the Optical cable from your Xbox /Blu Ray units.
You can bet you’ll be shaking the walls with that choice…plus you still have a big HD screen grabbing your eyeballs with 1080 !
I’d do that instead of being redundant and getting ANOTHER 1080 TV set….