As photograhers, which type of TV do you want/own?

[burancap]

Slave to television, admittedly... and could not answer the poll accurately as I have CRTs, LCDs, and plasmas all over the place, including the garage.

My brand is the "rangefinder manufacturer" of the A/V world from a little town called Struer.

 

[PaulW128]

Gary;

Check out Cnet.com for loads of reviews, info & specs. Excellent resource!!!

Paul

 

[fotomeow]

Slave to television, admittedly... and could not answer the poll accurately as I have CRTs, LCDs, and plasmas all over the place, including the garage.

My brand is the "rangefinder manufacturer" of the A/V world from a little town called Struer.

This is my first time doing a thread, but I thought I gave the poll responders an option to choose multiple TVs if they have them.
My bad if I didn't.

Gary;

Check out Cnet.com for loads of reviews, info & specs. Excellent resource!!!

Paul

Good suggestion, and I have. I think CNET offers relevant info, but was also curious
what "rangefinder photographers" might have a penchant for. It doesn't mean I will follow suit,
but am just trying to be open minded and willing to learn.

 

[burancap]

This is my first time doing a thread, but I thought I gave the poll responders an option to choose multiple TVs if they have them.
My bad if I didn't.

Correct you are... my apologies. I placed two votes and one in absentia for my beloved CRTs.

 

[fotomeow]

Quote:
Originally posted by ChrisPlatt;
"Proton 37" LCD. Used to have a Proton 31" CRT. "

Television sucks. We do watch movies on the computer from time to time.

Watching movies on the computer sucks.

Chris

thats funny, man ...... he he he

 

[clayne]

No television in this household - but if we were to get one it'd definitely be a plasma.

 

[bigeye]

Don't own a TV. 1400 channels and you have to work too hard to find anything somewhat interesting which is then interrupted by loud ads.

Kids can watch Shaun the sheep from Netflix on their tabs.

He even mucks about with those who do not bleat.

.

 

[Avotius]

We have a 46 inch 1080p Sony LCD from back before LED's came out, either way its good enough for us.

 

[ninjaslim]

We have a CRT because until very recently the picture has been better than the affordable / high street alternatives. We now have a couple of spares lined up... But then the modern alternatives are beginning to reach a point of catch up in terms of sharp motion pictures, which is what you have a TV for really eh?
Part of it is that so much digital footage is still filmed on less than the best camera gear and then sufferers quality drop off in transmission.

 

[axiom]

I don't own/want a TV

 

[paulfish4570]

we have a samsung flat screen for netflix movies. our grown children also own samsungs. they are not plasmas. must be one of the other kinds. all of us do recommend that brand; seems to last well ...

 

[bobbyrab]

So at the moment we have about 47% with either an old CRT or no telly at all, but at a guess half of those who are in that category, judging by those who have posted, don't have a TV. That's a remarkable ratio, here in the UK TV ownership must be around 98% of households, I think the official figure is 95%, but there are a number of those who'll simply be trying to avoid the TV license. What percentage of North American household don't have a TV? Anyone any idea.

 

[bobbyrab]

I meant to add, up until fairly recently, it may have changed now, but plasma screens can use about four times as much power as CRTs or LCDs. Which is why I went with LCD.

 

[Schlapp]

I have no television and have not had for 20 years at least! Why bother?

 

[fotomeow]

There's a bigger story here - which is how generally terrible the picture is on both plasma and LCD TVs.

I am not sure how much is the source, or the various decoders in the tuning section, but it seems the public have all been conditioned to accept compression artefects, over-sharpening and blocky skin tones.

we have a Sony Bravia, which is better than many of the others I've seen - but I still wouldn't recommend it!

Paul: good point you are making, I thought we were over that "hump" of tech, but apparently not.

Very true!
The photographer's sensitive eye is not target group. 🙂

Agreed! but at least i thought the fotog's sensitive eye would guide them to be more discerning with TV choices,
but so far the responses indicate the opposite. I was basing this poll/thread on the presumption that fotogs would be more discerning,
but perhaps this premise was faulty from the beginning. Maybe the TVs offered these days are simply not as advanced at a proper price point
to get fotogs to buy them. And instead, the fotog is simply sticking with a good ol' CRT?

 

[fotomeow]

I don't watch TV. Among my social group it does seem I'm the only one without TV and cable though, so maybe I'm weird.

It would be interesting to know why the OP wants to watch a television instead of actually doing stuff?

Ah, the good old internet, the perfect venue to pick fault with other people's lifestyles!

I drink coffee. I've heard some idiots drink tea. What is up with them?

In fact, Paul, the other gents comment was fundamentally inaccurate in the first place.
Why would they presume that the OP doesn't "actually do stuff".
This echoes some other responses implying that people who dont watch TV are intellectually/morally superior.
Its ridiculous.
The thread topic is not the pros and cons of TV or the people who watch them,
but rather the TVs performance in and of itself in the opinion of visually trained amateur and pro RF users.
I am just trying to keep the thread on point.

 

[j.scooter]

There is a wealth of information regarding TVs over at http://www.avsforum.com/

 

[Trius]

We have a 50" Panasonic plasma. I chose plasma because of the colour fidelity and viewing angle. Room brightness isn't really a problem, but we have no direct light to deal with, just filtered, diffuse daylight.

I recently had a tech come in just to do a check and cleaning, part of an extended warranty which we are cancelling anyway. His opinion is that Panasonic is at the top for plasma, and he did not have good things to say about Samsung in terms of getting replacement panels should they fail. And they do, though he didn't mention the rate.

He also jotted down all my colour and brightness/contrast settings. Guess I did a good job of setting it up -- I must be a photographer or something. 😀

 

[fotomeow]

We have a 50" Panasonic plasma. I chose plasma because of the colour fidelity and viewing angle. Room brightness isn't really a problem, but we have no direct light to deal with, just filtered, diffuse daylight.

I recently had a tech come in just to do a check and cleaning, part of an extended warranty which we are cancelling anyway. His opinion is that Panasonic is at the top for plasma, and he did not have good things to say about Samsung in terms of getting replacement panels should they fail. And they do, though he didn't mention the rate.

He also jotted down all my colour and brightness/contrast settings. Guess I did a good job of setting it up -- I must be a photographer or something. 😀

Sounds like you nailed the TV settings on your own. I was at Best Buy playing with the color/contrast/brightness/etc settings via remote.
I felt like I would be able to optimize the settings on my own at home as well. However, if I didn't have a photographers eye,
Best Buy would be "willing" to send a tech to my home for $200 to optimize the settings for me. How generous (!!?)

 

[Trius]

Sounds like you nailed the TV settings on your own. I was at Best Buy playing with the color/contrast/brightness/etc settings via remote.
I felt like I would be able to optimize the settings on my own at home as well. However, if I didn't have a photographers eye,
Best Buy would be "willing" to send a tech to my home for $200 to optimize the settings for me. How generous (!!?)

If the 'tech' had certification (can't remember the exact acronym right now,) it would be worth if for a lot of people. There are additional settings in the service menu that allow tweaking of the geometry, as well as other things. My contract didn't include that, and I doubt that the Best Buy service would either. But unless the set is really out of spec, you can probably live with using the consumer menus and calibrating those yourself.