Confusion for the Newbie buying a LCD (1 Viewer)

[KevinKro]

I have decided I am going to buy an LCD and a 37" with speakers on the bottom will fit in the cabinet I already have. I have been looking around and the more I look the more I am confused. As soon as I think I know what I'm looking for I'll see a screen that will have a better look with lower specs. I don't want to spend a fortune either.

One set may have been contrast ratio than another but the other has better brightness. The other thing I'm confused about is resolution two sets almost identical in contrast and brightness, one native 1920 x 1080 and the other 1366 x 768. Any difference without seeing them or only with certain signals.

When looking at the local stores - I thought the westinghouse had fuzzy edges and were not well defined. I have found some online which appear with specs to be very good screens for the money. Soyo Dymond and Protron PLTV37C. Does anyone have any experience or heard of anything about these screens?

Any help you guys might be able lend would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Allan Jayne]

For now I say that you need to both peruse specs and audition the set. The resolution and performance will never exceed the specs, but just because the specs say such and such does not mean the picture will look good.

The 1920 x 1080 set can give a noticeably better resolution on 1080i material than the 1366 x 768 set but it depends a lot on the electronics inside as well.

Also highly dependent on the electronics is how well the 1920 x 1080 set handles 720p and of course how well the 1366 x 768 set handles 1080i.

Perhaps someone will come up with a list of shows and scenes that will reveal the shortcomings of HDTV electronics because so far there are no easily obtained test patterns.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm