Best TV for Digital Frame?

bbjones

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this has been covered in a faq somewhere -- I couldn't find it, but I'm a noob around here...

Someday in the not-to-distant future I'm going to upgrade from my old CRT TV to a flat-screen. Aside from the TV/Sports/Movies advantages to this, I'd like to use it as a giant digital picture frame sometimes as well.

Now, I know it's only going to be 2 Mpixels, so the quality won't be anything like print.

But even considering that, I'd love some opinions/experiences about LED vs. Plasma, or any other considerations that people have found.

Thanks!
-Brian

VA64Skyhawk

I would recommend avsforum.com. You'll get the most exposure to home theater technology. Just about everything you can imagine is covered there.

BradfordBenn

Here is my opinion, but I have just gone through a bunch of looking and selecting before getting the current display. Get a display with a USB port on it that will allow you to simply play images from a thumb drive or other media. That way loading and playing is easy rather than having to hook up a computer, or start up another playback device. I use mine enough that way that I have simply left a USB extender connected to it all the time so I don't have to move around the display.

Now in terms of the display and how it will look and resolution wise. I am shooting at up to 10 Megapixels and things look fine "downsampled". Just remember that the display is likely not calibrated so it will look different than a print. Even walking up to my display which is 1920 x 1080 (HD) presents the images well. Remember that the ratio of your pictures might not match.

If it is a quality display, it should be fine. I would recommend shopping in person and bringing a USB stick with you with some images on it to take a look at. I used the SmugMug calibration print as a reference while looking at images. I have lots of other test tools for video but when looking at still images, look at quality still images.

Then came the most important review - the wife's. She approved.

bbjones

After a stroll through Best Buy, it did occur to me that I needed to bring a memory stick to the store with some images that I know well.

Did you get plasma or LCD/LED?

BradfordBenn

I ended up with a Sharp LCD Quattron non 3D. I liked it the best for video quality, also already had another Sharp (non-quattron) in the bedroom so knew the characteristics. I did not look at the display as a high quality art level display, so I was not super critical. Since we don't host people often it will likely not used for that very often. That is something else to consider, how often are you in the room where the display is when you are not watching video. Is the picture quality as frame very important. Not trying to talk you out of it, just trying to make sure you are not paying for a feature you won't use.

Solaros1

I bought a 50" plasma Panasonic a few months ago - it has an SD card slot and two USB ports that I can use to have digital slide shows. Its one of the best features of the TV and I use it frequently.The pictures look fabulous on the plasma screen - the only downside is that my wife hates that when we have some folks over all of the guys wind up in the living room looking at car pictures on the TV.

kdog

Solaros1 wrote: »

The pictures look fabulous on the plasma screen - the only downside is that my wife hates that when we have some folks over all of the guys wind up in the living room looking at car pictures on the TV.

bbjones

kdog wrote: »

Hey, it's cheaper than buying the cars and looking at them in the garage!