My accessory? a 32" Television...

Anyone know anyhting about TV's? I'm getting one to hook up to a bunch of different stuff, but mainly as a computer monitor. i have no idea about contrast ratios, i have a slight idea about screen resolutions on Desktop monitors, but i don't know about on TV's. Anyone feel like helping me, or having me learn a little bit?

Cable
PS3
Computer... Etc....


alright. here's the dilemna. I'm not sure which of these to pick. I can afford roughly a 600-700 dollar TV. Unless someone can make a different recommendation from http://olums.com, i'm gonna go with one of these. Not entirely sure which i want. I know NOTHING about computer monitors/TV's


i'm thinking between
http://olums.com/view_product.aspx?catid=59&pid=33&productid=2003
http://olums.com/view_product.aspx?catid=59&pid=33&productid=2004


it'll be powered by an ATI 5770 at max resolution. Hope it can handle it.

 

Between those two, definitely get the second one. It's 120Hz, the first one is the normal 60Hz. And the second one has a higher contrast ratio as well, 80,000 compared to 50,000 for the first. I'm surprised it's only $50 more.

LG makes excellent HDTV's, in my experience with them. I have a 42" 1080p HDTV of theirs.

The 5770 should have no trouble driving 1920x1080.

 

the problem is, they put the second one down to a floor model, and dropped it ANOTHER 50 bucks, so they are on equal price. it has a full warranty though

 

In that case, go for it before someone else does!

In the absolute worst case (which really shouldn't happen anyway), you will be able to take advantage of that full warranty. Personally, I would snag that awesome deal on the second TV, considering it's extremely unlikely anything will go wrong just because it's a floor model, and knowing that you'll have warranty to back you up if it does.

Reminds me of the time I bought my drum set from the local music store...this particular kit was available in several colors, but the one I wanted was sold out, except for the display model, which they ended up selling to me at a hefty discount. They even threw in a free set of heads since the stock ones were used from all the customers playing on the display model.

 

i may go pick it up tomorrow then

 

Excellent! I'm happy for ya (although I'm sure not nearly as happy as you'll be when you have that beautiful display all to yourself )

 

i won't be able to use it for another week or two though. my mom bought a house and we're moving in friday then i have to mount it on the wall... etc...

 

Ooh, wall-mounting, fancy. I've never tried that. Get some pics when it's all done!

 

'course. i'll bookmark this page. i won't have the desktop for a few months though. gotta wait for the attorney general to get their butts into gear for my moneh back on this crappy laptop. /sledgehammer

 

Not wishing to burst your bubble but as someone who owns a 100Hz Samsung TV (the UK equivalent of 120Hz), I have to say it's a useless feature.

It just makes normal TV/DVDs look not quite right, it's hard to put your finger on but everyone I've shown it to agrees that it's better with the 100Hz off.
Plus, if you're watching BR films, they use a separate 24p mode anyway (or at least they do on decent TVs), meaning the whole 100/120Hz feature isn't used.

That said, if you can get the better TV at the same price, it's be stupid not to go for it.
But, personally, I'd wouldn't make a decision based on 100/120Hz capability.


Just my two pence (or ~3͑¢ at the current exchange rate...).

 

there aren't very many engines that can reproduce a very good 120Hz picture. the only 2 i've really liked are the sony bravia engines and samsumg's mid-high lines.

for a computer monitor, i would recommend something with at least 1080p and the lowest possible response time i could find/afford. the resolution will produce better, more vivid picture quality, as well as provide plenty of on screen real estate. the response time is what's most important when u are buyin a monitor for sports and/or gaming uses. response times help produce a more fluid/clear image during fast paced scenes and games. anything under 4-5 seconds would be great for sports and/or gaming.

fyi: there's a deal on the first TV u linked at fry's for only $549. but it's the 42" version, so u might wanna check that out.

another tip for all of u guys with HDTV's is to search up yur particular model on the internet. u will be able to find alot of preferred picture settings posted by "professionals" and avid users that have already calibrated their tv's. most of those guys have special calibration CD's that they use to help find the optimal picture settings for yur TV. these calibrated settings really make a huge difference, especially for guys with 120Hz TV's.

 

Well, the TV I have is one of Samsung's Series 6, which are certainly not budget models but neither are they ridiculously expensive.

I wonder sometimes if the fact that I find the 100Hz mode 'wrong' is not really a problem with the technology so much as it is my being used to the way that motion looks on a TV.

Also, I may have been a little premature in saying it was completely useless.
I've just remember I use it to help make old X-Box games played on my 360 less stutter-y.

 

The 120Hz thing will really help when it comes to gaming and anything that involves fast moving images.

 

Empty message

 

it isn't the same TV they have locally here (the upsize), so i can't price match it. this one is an LH30, and the local is an LH40, but the same TV, different series... should they still be able to price match it, you think?

edit: oooooohhhh they botth have the 47 inch... Fry's beats it by 200 bucks, and i think olums will beat that by another 100 bucks

edit again: they won't beat online deals =/

edit again again: bestbuy has the 47LH30 for 800 bucks, and fry's has it for 650. whoever wants it, should pull the trigger. it's a bestbuy outlet item, so they dont have it online. they price match too... Fry's has no tax (in certain states), so you can complain to the best buy manager that they aren't matching the deal because there is no tax on the website..


only 60 hz though, still worth it? i hear that 120 hertz is best for Sports, and video games and such.

 

yea, u just have to get used to it. just think about it, u've been watchin tv a certain way all yur life. all of a sudden u throw in a big refresh rate difference, u'r gonna have to adjust to it.

i have a 6-series samsung (b630n with 120Hz) as well and i had to get used to the faster refresh rates. after i got used to it and calibrated my tv's tho, it made a huge difference.

if u don't feel like spendin any money to physically get someone out there to calibrate yur TV(s) or buyin a calibration kit. i suggest visiting well known sites similar to this one and playin with a few settings those guys recommend. what i did was i just visited a few different sites. read a few different suggestions and found the general consensus and went with that. after puttin in their suggested settings, u can always go back and fine tune it some more to yur liking.

 

i've hit a massive brick wall, that migh actually turn out to be a no-brainer.

https://www.olums.com/view_product.aspx?catid=59&pid=33&productid=2005
https://www.olums.com/view_product.aspx?catid=59&pid=33&productid=2004

37 inches, 720P or.... 32 inches 1080 120hz

screen size, vs quality?

(same price)

 

Without a doubt, the 32". The only thing the 37" has is 4 extra inches.

The 32" has 80,000:1 contrast ratio compared to 30,000, 1920x1080 compared to 1366x768, 120Hz compared to 60Hz. And with lower resolution on a larger screen, the difference will be even more obvious.

 

like i said, probably a no brainer. Thanks for the help guys! Now i just gotta make sure they have it in stock!!

 

damn. they were out of the lh40, so my mom got the lh30 which is only 60 hz, and i'm actually pretty pissed. Will it make that much of a difference? it doesn't have dejutter processing either.

 

Realistically, probably not. TV's and displays have been 60Hz for years, 120Hz is a pretty new thing.

 

so the extra 50 bucks isn't worth 120 hz and dejutter?

 

Refresh rates are an inherent flaw of ALL LCD screens--that's just a product of the technology--and one of the cons when comparing them to plasma screen TVs. However, there have been remarkable strides to help improve upon this problems and 120 hz is it. Consider it an absolute necessity when purchasing ANY LCD TV.

 

Your best bet to work out whether or not it would be worth you paying the extra $50 would be to go to a local electronics store and have a look at some of the 120Hz sets vs non-120Hz models.
If you prefer the 120Hz effect then go for it but if you don't see any difference or even dislike the effect, then don't bother spending the extra.

 

At $50, it is a thousand times worth it. However, it's not necessary if it's not available.

 

my mom keeps pulling the "you got what you got, it's fine" and i keep trying to explain to her that it's NOT. because its NOT WHAT I WANT. because I'm paying for it, which is why I wanted to be there when she bought it. I hate when people buy electronics for you, when they know nothing about them

Tell people exactly what you want before they buy them, and tell them you don't want any other model if they don't have it, and if they don't that you want to choose a different one, because there is a big difference between 60 and 120hz, and a big difference between a 512 MB and a 1GB video card or the same model. that small difference can mean a 15 to 20 frame difference.

/troll


also, she called Olums, and the guy said "oh no, 60 hz is great for gaming!" that'll be the last time i take any advice from anyone there. They have great warranties, just make sure you don't take advice from them. My mom said "I'm trying to save you money! the 120 hz start at 600 bucks, and this one is 500!"


blahhh you guys don't care about our argument, i'm just basically trolling, sorry.

 

Well, in that case it's a life lesson - don't get other people to buy your electronics for you, especially if you're paying.

 

Yep. She goes "I just wanted to surprise you!" i'm thinking of telling her "not with electronics. not anymore."

 

just so i don't flip on her, what exactly is the difference between 120 and 60 anyways?

 

The display refreshes its image 120 times per second as opposed to 60 times per second. With 60, it's still possible to easily distinguish one frame from another in some instances of fast motion. With 120Hz, that's significantly harder to do, the motion is more fluid.

And you're totally justified in being miffed about her buying the 60Hz model on your behalf without authorization. Not just the refresh rate, but the contrast ratio, and probably other smaller details as well.

 

deleted. i was wrong.

 

im pretty sure that the 120hz thing on that television is a bunch of bologna anyway because all this 120hz 240hz Bs is just motion interpolation. basically the "engine" makes up frames on the fly and displays them on screen reducing the ghosting effect making it seem more fluid. the tv isnt actually running at 120 but 60 with essentially 60 more made up frames. this does make it seem more fluid but generally introduces a little bit of latency so having this one for games wouldnt be a good idea if you play online competitive games. personally i find the feature garbage and always have it off as it always makes things "smoother" in an over exaggerated way.(best way i can put it)

i have this feature on my lg and sony bravia xbr and i dont like it on either television.

 

having which one for games, the 60 or the 120, would be a bad idea? i do play MW2 online. alot.

 

I thought that the whole 100/120Hz thing was to intersperse the frames with blank/black ones, so as to smooth out the motion.
That way you aren't going directly from frame to frame and it seems less juddery.

I was under the impression that it wasn't until you got to 200/240Hz that the TVs started to insert additonal frames.

Almost like people/objects seem to 'slide' around the screen in a slightly-disconcerting way?

 

it seems that the TV with the 120 hz is out of production, and that i'll be keeping the 60... how unfortunate... My mom on;y has a credit line with olums, so i'm screwed here.

 

Speaking of 120 hz TVs, why is it that Nvidia's 3D kit doesn't work with any of these?

They should be no different from Samsung's 120 hz monitor, right?

 

the reason why 3d vision doesnt work with these tvs is because they are not true 120hz tvs they just like i said above make up the other 60 frames. i wouldnt be surprised if the two televisions mentioned above are the exact same thing with a slightly different firmware or additional chip added on. dynamic contrast is also mostly pointless when looking at contrast you should only be looking at its true contrast values and then figure out how these values were attained. response time is one of the ones that isnt really tested in the true way (from black to white to black) most manufacturers only tell you the g2g value (grey to grey). fortunately telling the difference from 10ms and down becomes extremely difficult due to human eye limitations. so for games any somewhat modern screen will have a good enough response time.

what i wish manufacturer would do is leave this hz fad behind and work on something that matters like the color depth of a television screen. most are 8 bit panels with the more expensive ones having 10 bit panels. i hope i live long enough for 32 bit panels because the rate they are going i might not lol.

 

Correct! But that doesn't necessarily make it BS. Just think about the way a picture is put on an old CRT (scanning across the screen at a very high rates). The net effect is what you care about (not the computer mumbo jumbo), so as long as it does a convincing job of improving the fluidity of the motion and interpreting the picture, then the 120 hz is well worth the price.

p.s. The effect is less so with 240hz since there is a limit with what the interpolation can do.

 

i can honestly say that i could never go back to watchin 60Hz LCD's, as far as my gaming and main TV's. my bedroom, living room, and gaming rooms will never see a 60Hz again. this might be due to the fact that the main use for my tv's are alot of NFL/NBA, action games, sports games, and FPS games.

the 120Hz was something that i had to get used to. calibrating my tv's really helped cuz it showed me what my 120Hz picture should look like. after that, i fine tuned the settings a bit more to suit my taste and have loved it ever since.

i am definitely not saying that 120Hz is a god sent gift. it's definitely not that. through my personal experiences with alot of different tv's. i have found that i really appreciate the sony bravia engines and the mid-higher level samsung engines. that's about it. the nicer 120Hz engines almost eliminate jutter and artifacts during high speed scenes and sports games.

blu ray's look just fantastic with a properly calibrated tv, and in 24p + 120Hz.

@ OP: check this out.

 

i ended up getting that one locally. i kept the TV my mom picked up, because it's better than nothing, right?

 

It's better than a lot of other TV's. LG makes excellent displays, and their more "normal" models are no exception. Odds are, you'll find that 60Hz model that you got to be superior to many other 60Hz HDTV's from other brands, especially in that price range.

 

Unless you could find a Samsung or Sony of a similar spec at the same sort of price, then it's going to be about as good as you'll get.

 

I have the UK equivalent of the US LH40 (LH5000 over here) and yes on these sets 100hz will add a bit of lag to gaming so best not to use it. I hardly ever use it but I paid £30 more just cause of higher contrast ha ha stupid I know.

 

You really should have opted for the integrated 32" screen.

 

lol

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Maybe it's just the camera angle, but that screen looks awfully 4:3