Will , I too went through all of this a few months ago after our two year old was starting to rock our stand mounted CRT Television backwards and forwards and I had visions of it falling on him . I had stayed with CRT technology for so long due to being underwhelmed by flat panel technology , despite fitting dozens of them in the course of my work and getting to see new models as they appear . I also still have a CRT projector which I see no reason to change as it still looks so good .
I had a look round the shops , mainly choosing on the subjective basis of which sets I was happiest with the picture quality of , then comparing on features , available inputs etc , lastly on price ( I would simply have waited until funds were available for whatever I decided was the right set ) .
In the end , I felt that the Samsung LED sets looked 'head and shoulders' above the competition in terms of being bright and dynamic enough to view in normal ambient lighting conditions , whilst still reproducing good blacks and not looking posterised or unnatural . Shopping around , the 'usual suspects' ( Comet , Currys , John Lewis ) were all within a few pounds of each other on price - although , significantly , John Lewis do offer a five year guarantee on all TVs - until a friend reminded me to check out Costco .
In the end , I got the UE46C7000 set for about £500 less than al the other stores were asking and still with the five year guarantee which Costco also give on all TVs .
I'm not saying that you should get a Samsung because I did , but do compare prices in different shops and check out Costco once you have selected the TV you fancy .
The set I got does happen to be a 3DTV , but this feature is incidental and I just leave it turned off . It does have 200Hz refresh rate , 4x HDMI plus a good range of other inputs ( but no S-Video !! ) , internet connectivity ( I use it for iPlayer and You Tube , but haven't bothered with Love Film as yet ) and , of course , has Freeview HD built in . I don't really use it for HD , other than having an Apple TV , which I hardly use , plugged into it ( even though I work with HD at work using sixty grand Sony XD cam HD cameras and a couple of hundred grand of HD editing equipment ) being more than happy with properly setup SD kit in the house - my Sony DVP-S7700 DVD player connected via component still looks superb , as do sources like Laserdisc and Low Band Umatic which are 'only' composite . Another factor was the light weight of the LED set ( about 16Kg for the 46" ) , since the way our living room is set up it was going to be wall mounted in a corner of the room ( up out of Harris' reach ) and would have to be angled round on a bracket ( I already had an articulating bracket , bought for a smaller TV some years ago but rated at 25Kg - all I had to do was make up a metal plate to adapt from the bracket's VESA 200 fixing centres up the the set's VESA 400 ones ) . Although it is too early to tell , I also feel that the low energy consumption of the LED TV is likely to go towards greater longevity ( I have already replaced a number of older Plasma screens at work , aged between five and ten years , due to burnt phosphors , and a couple due to faults - their lifespan being definitely less than CRT monitors ) . We have had no issues with LCD screens , although we only started fitting them comparatively recently when they started to catch up with Plasma on picture quality .
One drawback I have come across is that the amount of video processing that goes on in any modern digital TV delays the picture so much that lipsync goes noticeably out . having done some research on this - it is a recognised problem - the answer is the latest HDMI 1.4 which incorporates an audio return channel . I therefore need to replace my 20 year old AV amplifier with something that will accept all my current sources , upscale them to 1080p , sent them to the screen via HDMI where the audio will be delayed to sync with the picture , then returned to the amplifier .
Since I am also in the process of separating my Hi-Fi from my AV system and 'simplifying' the AV side , this won't happen until sometime next year . I have already 'gone retro' and bought a Quad 77/707 stereo amplifier to go with my Gyrodec and IMF transmission line loudspeakers and am again enjoying my record collection in a way I had not since I put away my previous Quad system for the Sony AV system in the late 1980's .
I'll now be looking for a relatively simple 'all-in-one' AV amp to replace the AV preamp/separate DSP unit and 3x power amps I have currently taking up a chunk of my equipment cabinet .
The point of all this ramble , Will , is DO look into the audio side before you jump in - otherwise you may be disappointed . I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain the lipsync issues to friends when visiting and the topic has turned to their new TV sets .
There are some quite useful filters on that website.
and might have also said " use cables every time"
