Q. I haven't bought a tv in about 9 years. I'm completely overwhelmed when looking at tvs today. I know nothing about the specifics. I have cable. I need a 37" screen size. But...
Plasma, LCD, or LED?
Brands? Is Panasonic a good brand?
720 or 1080 p? what is that?
60 Hz? What is that?
A. (1) Take your time then and learn about new technical specifications so you can be an educated buyer. Don't rush into a purchase.
(2) Go to cnet.com and look at their HDTV buying guide - http://reviews.cnet.com/tv-buying-guide/
(3) At 37", you don't have to be too worried about a lot of the confusing specifications out there. The reason being is that a lot of the fancy options out there are really only better suited on larger sets (50" or larger). They are just hard, if at all possible, to see in smaller sets. Most good buying guides will tell you that you don't need to spend money on those features in that size.
(4) LED is just a form of LCD. The "standard" LCD TV uses fluorescent based lights as the light source. LED LCDs simply use LEDs as the light source. This is considered a premium feature though and will cost you more.
LED lights provide a lighter weight, less power consumption, and can provider truer blacks. That's why they have become a popular choice in LCD buyers.
(5) Standard LCDs and LED LCDs can have issues with fast motion playback. That's where you'll see the feature called Refresh Rate (60Hz vs 120Hz vs 240Hz). The higher refresh rates are meant to try and help with fast motion playback. You need to look at fast motion on an LCD though before investing in a faster refresh rate set. Everyone's visual sensitivities are different, so some people don't even really pick up on the LCD flaw at all, and so don't really benefit from paying for the premium option. Also, some people find the 120Hz or 240Hz options to have a peculiar looking motion playback.
(6) 720p and 1080p are resolutions.
Think of your screen as being a drawing composed of tiny little pixels. A 720p image is drawn using 1280x720 pixels and a 1080p image is drawn using 1920x1080 pixels. So in theory the 1080p picture will have more details because it has more pixels (more subtle information).
But again, your visual perception makes a difference. In reality in smaller sized sets you can't notice the extra pixels (they become so small they aren't visible really). Also, again, we all have different visual sensitivities so you need to look for yourself and not rely only on theoretical specs. I know people who have 50" sets at 720p and are 100% satisfied with the HDTV viewing experience.
(7) Plasma has a lot of great features inherent to the technology, so can sometimes be cheaper than an LED LCD. It naturally produces very good colors and blacks. LCDs brought in LEDs to help try and match Plasma. Plasma has an inherently super fast response time, so it can playback fast motion flawlessly (like an old CRT/tube TV set). That is one place Plasma definitely beats LCD.
Plasma though is glass. So it can be an issue for glare if the room you're putting it is very bright and you can't control that light easily. Panasonic has a really good anti-glare screen, but it is still glass, so will have more glare than say an LED LCD.
Plasma isn't made in smaller sizes. You would have to jump to at least 42" to get a Plasma.
(8) Panasonic is an amazing brand. They are the world leaders in Plasma TV technology. If you go Plasma, they should be your first consideration (and maybe your only consideration). They have one of the strongest reputations right now in television for both quality of image, but also quality of product. Panasonic LCDs are also very good quality TV sets (if you do go 37", Panasonic does have LCD offerings you might want to consider).
Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, LG, and Vizio are all also considered "top tier" brands. They too would be worth your consideration. Other brands would be considered "second tier" brands and frankly, I would tend to avoid those if possible.
(9) Shop around for prices. Most places will price match each other, so you can buy a set from the place closest to your house and just get them to price match the best price you can find out there.
Amazon.com is a great place to look for prices (or even buying frankly). I would always check prices there first. ABCWarehouse is also a good place to look for prices. I would take a peak at their online site for prices as well.
If you're getting close to your TV purchase, but can wait a bit, wait until late february and early march. There will be a release of some new TV models at that point. So you can either consider those or you can look for some big sales as the last year models (which are still perfectly great sets) are liquidated. June is the other big sale period (revving into Father's Day and also the second "new TV models" release phase). The final sale period is Black Friday. It always has good prices, but not always good models. The March and June sales I find can often result in better buys on the good models.
What is a reasonable but powerful gaming computer?
Q. i dont want lag when i play flight simulator x and a want to see almost all the scenery and goodies when i play
A. BUILDING A GAMING PC.
would you be comfortable, or do you know some one who could build it for you ?,
as this is a good way to save money and get a better gaming desktop
for a better understanding of what a gaming pc is and what specs/parts you should aim to use,
try these keywords in a google search "building a gaming pc" & "budget gaming pc" and read
some of the articles that show up, but to help you save some time i have also included a few
of the links that i found to be very help full.
link 1.
this site was packed with loads of good info but involves a lot of reading but as a result
when you have read as much as you can then you will have a better understanding of what it is that you are trying to build.
http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/index.html
the next 3 are a bit less reading intensive and you will quickly find there suggested parts list.
link 2.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/The-500-Gaming-Machine,1147-9.html
link 3.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2270998,00.asp
link 4.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/111990,building-a-1500-gaming-pc.aspx
the most recent system i built aimed towards every day use with an outlook towards gaming
with a budget set at $2500 consisted of these parts.
( mid December 2008)
motherboard - Asus M3N78-VM AMD Mainboard - 4x DDR2 / 5x Sata Raid / 1x IDE / Gigabit Lan / Onboard VGA/DVI/HDMI $141.90
processor - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750 2.7GHz (AM2+) - Black Edition $143.00
ram - Corsair DDR2 4GB PC-8500/1066 (2x XMS2 2GB) TWIN2X4096-8500C5 Ram $159.50
graphics card - XFX 9600GT 1GB, DDR3, 256bit, PCIE, Dual DVI, HDTV HDCP, SLI (PV-T96G-ZHF4) $256.10
hard drive - Western Digital Caviar SE 750GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA 3Gbs x2 $170.50 (each)
optical drive - Pioneer DVR 213LS Lightscribe DVD Re-Writer (20x - Black) $50.60
power supply - Corsair HX-1000 1000W ATX Modular Power Supply $371.80
case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Ultimate Gamer Case (No PSU) $198.00
o/s - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit DVD - OEM $188.10
monitor - Samsung 24" 2443BW BLACK LCD - 5MS / WUXGA 1920X1200 / D-SUB / DVI $457.60
keyboard and mouse - Logitech Cordless 1500Rechargeable Desktop USB (OEM) $96.80
total cost $2406.40
(note all prices stated are in australian dollars)
i hope that the above information will help you in achieving your goal.
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