Wired offers flat panel buying advice, and quotes yours truly about plasma burn-in and the analog TV reception at my in-laws house: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70349-0.html?tw=wn_index_2.
A lot of that interview didn't make it into the article. For example, the "gotchas" of buying a flat panel include:
- Not budgeting for a wall mount (which can cost up to $500 plus installation)
- Spending more to upgrade to a 1080p display (instead of 720p) in an environment where the extra resolution will not be visible (either because the user sits too far away for the eyes to resolve the added detail, or because most of the programming is 720p sports content which gains nothing by being upsampled to 1080p)
- Stretching the budget to buy more video and assuming that the panel's speakers will be "good enough" to provide a satisfactory audio experience. With all the good on-wall speakers coming out from reputable brands like Definitive Technologies and Polk, there's no longer a stylistic excuse not to get a good set of speakers. On-walls also tend to be more affordable than in-walls for similar audio quality.
-avi
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