So long story short, I just moved across the country, selling my really old TV in the process. Now I'm looking to upgrade to a HDTV for movies and xbox360 play. My question is what's a good size TV that isn't too expensive. I've heard anywhere from 27 inches to 40 inches being the minimum. Also, does anyone really notice a big difference between 720p and 1080p? I've heard that you need at least a 40 inch TV to see a difference between the two. Any advice is appreciated.

The difference between 720p and 1080p is pretty significant even on smaller screens but you really only need a 30"+ 720p tv for a xbox 360. You need to make sure it has the right input ports though depending on what xbox you get.

I have a 32" 720p DLP tv and it works perfectly for playing xbox.

On a 65" TV we were reviewing we had staff members walk out of the room while we switched it between 720p, 1080i and 1080p. They were standing about 12-15 feet away when they took their guess and no one could confidently tell which it was evey time and that's on a huge TV. Suprisingly 1080i won out overall for preference but since it's interlaced it's not as good for gaming.

Get a 42" plasma, Samsung & Panasonic make great plasmas (except the Panasonic X1, skip that series) that will cost you less than an even smaller LCD, plus you'll get far better contrast and no worries about motion lag. 120/240hz helps with motion lag but it's a problem inherent in the technology of LCD panels and will never be completely eliminated.

It all depends on how far you sit.
For me, I use a 26" LCD tv that doubles as a 2nd pc monitor. I'm either sitting at my desk chair or a recliner loveseat, max 10' away. Much larger and I'd simply be too close (32" would be ok I think) but would be too much as a pc monitor.
There is a formula of some sort for figuring your ideal size based on distance but I can't remember what it is.

Not many games are actually 1080P, but might be more in the future.

I bought a 42" Samsung Plasma in the summer of 2007 and it's been a great choice. I think Samsung has great picture quality. The unit I bought (720p) was on display on a wall with 1080i and 1080p models from other brands and the Samsung looked better than everything else on the wall with one exception (that being a 1080p Samsung plasma).

I paid about $1300 for this TV 2 years ago and the price is virtually half that now. If I were looking for my first Hi-Def TV without breaking the bank this is the one I'd be buying. In fact, two friends of mine have since bought Samsungs after seeing mine. And my father-in-law bought another brand (Sharp) and regrets it, saying he wishes he had bought a Samsung like mine.

Just my 2 cents.

I have a Panasonic plasma right now, my next TV will be a Samsung plasma. We review a lot of Samsungs and they make quality sets. Easily as good or better than any other brand save Pioneer who stopped making TVs and some of the boutique stuff like Runco.

I love my Samsung. I had a cheap brand before this and another in the bedroom. Noticed that anywhere I went that if someone was showing off picture quality, movies, games...they all put it on a Samsung and it looked a lot better than what I had at home. LOL
Got one myself not long after that and the difference has been like going from SDTV to HDTV.

I have a 52" Sony 720p LCD and I love it. Gming looks fantastic on it. Never have had an issue with motion blur while gaming.

I presently have a Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ85U 50" plasma screen and.....I LOVE IT!!! 1080P picture quality and I have a 360, Playstation3 and a Wii all hooked up to it. The PS3 and 360 are hooked up with HDMI cables and everything from dvd's, to blu-rays to games look phenominal. 50" was a perfect size for us for the room it is located. The TV is mounted on the wall over our fire place and we sit approximately 8-9ft away. We've had the set for about 18months and we have no complaints what so ever.

One thing to consider is that if you have any windows directly across from where you will have the TV, the glass on the plasma will relect the light which could be annoying and the picture can get somewhat washed out with a lot of light. Not a deal breaker by any means but just something to consider. If I remember correctly, the rule of thumb I was told when comparing LCD and plasma was:

Bright room go with LCD Screen
Darker room go with Plasma Screen

I'm not up on all the tech behind the magic so if this is no longer true please chime in. Just repeating what I was told 18 months ago.

Base on my experience so far, I would go plasma without hesitation.

Not so much anyore, you can get either with anti-glare screens but anti-glare screens have a pretty serious negative effect on contrast and picture depth. I'll just pull the blinds.

I've got a 720p 37" LCD and I can't play from my couch. I have to pull a chair up in front of the TV. I'm justing waiting for the price to drop a bit on a Panasonic 50" 1080p plasma before I pull the trigger. Plus, future X360 games will cease support for 720p. Every game I've bought or considered in the last year has offered 1080p.

I play on the couch with my 42" plasma but when it's time to get serious I move to the floor about 5 feet away from the TV.

Thanks for the advice all. Guess I'm gonna be looking for a 42 inch Samsung that isn't going to break the bank. Oy, TV's are expensive these days.

102 inch looks pretty good Seriously a couple years ago I installed a projector and a home made screen in the game room and turned it into a theater room. You can now get a 720p projector for under a grand. Here are some pretty crappy pics of my room.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=9796602&postcount=2222

Me too ! I have an Epson TW600 and a 100 inch screen, and of course a fullsize 5.1 system like you.

It is mostly used for movies, but here is a really crappy picture taken while i play IL-2:BoP (I had to put the light on, so the contrast and color is totally gone)

I got a 40" Samsung LCDTV at 1080p, perfectly happy with playing my 360 on it, but then again, I only keep it around 2 meters away from me when I don't have friends over.

Sadly though, I do not have enough space in my small room for a good full-sized surround speaker setup, so I use 300 USD surround headsets(Note, these are PROPER Surround headsets, 3 speakers and 1 subwoofer in each cup, none of that 'emulated Surround' crap that you get with cheaper "Surround headphones" which are only 2.1 rather than 6.1)

Sure, it can't compete with a properly tuned and setup full surround system, but it beats the hell out of playing with stereo 2.1, I mean when I play CoD4 with these headsets I can literally hear the enemy crawling behind me, that's all the surround I need.

I had one of those in the cheap category, with mini-buttkickers in them. Used them for PC gaming in the apartment we had before we moved to the villa.

Maybe you could post a link to the set ? There are probably people hunting for proper surround headsets, like I did some years ago.

Sure thing, http://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRIGA611.htm that's the set I have, it's substantially cheaper in the US I think, with NEWEGG charging only 150 USD for'em.

Considering I was satisfied with mine even though I paid 300 USD for'em, I reckon 150 is EASILY worth it.

The only downside is that there's a lot of cables since they're not wireless and they come with their own dolby decoder.

Reason I paid so much for'em is the huge VATs we have on products from outside of EU in order to promote our populations to buy products from EU nations, thus keeping the cashflow inside EU.

Interesting !

Here in Norway the online shop CDON charges just under $270 for it.

Looks like å good gear, and mathches well with the optical 5.1 from X360. Might come in handy if my wife gets tired of the sounds from the battlefield

I just bought a set of those last week, they are great but I'm running into a problem where my mic constantly buzzes on the 360, it's fine on the PS3.

Excuse me? I think only like 3 games on the XB360 actually run natively in 1080p.

Did you mean natively? Far from all XB360 games even run natively at 720p, Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST runs at a lower res than that for example.

So not sure where you're getting your info from.

Future 360 games won't "Magically" stop supporting a 720p TV, that makes no sense whatsoever from a business perspective.

It will simply be like on the PS3 where games that natively run in 1080p can be scaled to run at 720p.



Haha, didn't know CDON existed in Norway too! That's where I bought my set from, bought'em this April, I guess price might have dropped a wee bit since then.

There won't be a lot of 1080p games until the next generation of consoles. Even the massive tech showcase Uncharted 2 is 720p native. The current gen consoles just don't have the horsepower to run graphics like that at 1080p. The consoles will scale the games but you get artifacting, it's better to run the games at their native res.

On the subject of 5.1 for space challenged, I use a Logitech Z-5500 pc system. One of the best for your pc, and it's also got an optical input and a coax. Switch sources with the remote. Wall mountable speakers, nice sub, very small control unit/pre-amp that connects to the main hardware mounted to the sub. Sounds better than any home theater in a box I've heard for even double the cost. No full sized receiver to take up space. Sounds great with the 360, and put it with a good sound card in your pc and it gets even more amazing.

Yes, I have bought all my DVDs and some games and CDs from CDON for the last 3-4 years.

The price is actually a bit lower than it seems when in $, because the NOK is strong these days.
1470,- NOK if i dont remember wrong.

Z5500 is great value for money. It uses chip-amp modules from National, similar to those you will find in high-end Jeff Rowland amps. It can even fill a small home-theatre with sound.
Recommended !

Sound isn't a big deal for me, considering I have very little hearing left.

Yeah, though IMO the PS3 does a worse job of upscaling games than the 360.