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Another thing to think about…

Consider the lighting conditions in the room where your TV will be. If you like to watch TV with the lights turned low (or off), then plasma is a better choice due to superior contrast and black levels. LCDs sometimes offer more murky, grayer blacks when viewed in dark environments.

Conversely, if you like to watch TV in a bright environment, then you’ll prefer LCD due to higher pixel density (which usually means a sharper picture) and the ability to show a more intense white (which usually means improved clarity). This explains why LCDs are preferred for use in public places (e.g. airports, bus depots, etc.) — because the screens are easier to read in bright light.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stand like the one on the back of the Asus MS238H. How stable is it?

The tech specs look good, anyway. And it has very positive reviews at NCIX and elsewhere. Sounds like you made a great choice!

I went for an Asus MS238H. It support true 1080p, has 2 input ports, a refresh rate of 2ms, its price is low and the contrast ratio is crazy !
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=Dtx0yYJeqFRsulIz

Here’s another reason to wait before buying a 3D TV:

The organization that oversees TV standards (The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) only recently began the process of creating a 3D consumer standard. Currently, there are no standards. However, there are several competing consumer 3D technologies from Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic, and other companies who are vying to become the standard. At the moment, none of these technologies is demonstrably better than the other.

Let’s say you buy a 3D TV from Toshiba, but the SMPTE ends up choosing Sony’s 3D technology as the standard, and movie studios and TV networks begin broadcasting 3D signals that can only be viewed using Sony’s method. Then, we’ve got exactly the same situation as Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD.

So, jumping on the bandwagon now doesn’t guarantee that anybody will be “future-proof”. In fact, buying early could end up as an expensive dead-end.

Some people claim not to be able to see the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD, but this is probably due to a lack of proper equipment (i.e. TV is too small), improper cabling (e.g. using s-video instead of a digital connection like DVI or HDMI), or just not paying attention.

Comparisons between high-definition vs. standard-definition screenshots conclusively show that HD has markedly superior video quality. See, for example:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=811102

Personally, it is not really useful to me because I watch movies on my computers. So I can get all those extras with my web browser.

Yeah, the format is still not fully supported by any OS. I’ve own both Macs and Windows PCs and native playback is not available on either of them, yet. Seems strange because both platforms have many easy solutions for reading/writing data Blu-Ray disks.

Oh well, it’ll get sorted out as soon as Blu-Ray gains popularity and becomes standard on more machines.

By the way, my external case supports SATA drives. It also has a removable faceplate to accommodate 5.25″ optical drives. Now, all I need is a bare BD drive.

I must admit that the format is weird. With a DVD, you have a folder named TS_VIDEO and all the files are inside. Not with a blu-ray… You have a lot of files/folder on the disk. The video files are in BDMV\STREAM. It is not an issue; it is just very different.

The real thing I didn’t like is that Windows Media Player can’t read a blu-ray disk. I know Microsoft backed up HD-DVD, but it is not convivial. I searched a little and to my knowledge, there is no plugin available (yet) to allow WMP to play the disk. I had to install another player just to be able to watch the movie. (Technically, I could just browse the disk with WMP and open the biggest file in the video folder, but by doing this, I can’t access the menu). It is a nuisance for me, but it is much worst for Linux users. As far as I know, there is no simple way to play a blu-ray movie on Linux… Proprietary formats are a bad thing…

At least, the picture in 1080p is very great (even if I only watched 30 secs of Inglorious Basterds).

@Derrick
Make sure your case has SATA ports because there is no IDE Blu-ray drives.

Thanks for the info. I’m actually in the market for a Blu-Ray drive for my computer, as well. I’ve got a spare USB/FireWire external drive case that has been waiting to be put to use. This could be the thing that does it.

I hesitated between the reader only and dvd burner. I checked the price. I could get the reader at about $60 on NCIX after a price match while the one burning dvd was at $100. $40 to be able to burn DVD was too much; on sale dvd burners cost $20 and I have already 2 installed in my desktop. So the only choice left was the player. I got a “Liteon IHOS104″ at $62.36. The drive reads blu-ray disks at 4x, but it will be more than enough…

This drive is available as OEM or retail. I choose OEM because I didn’t see the point in paying about $10 more for some softwares I will never use and a SATA cable…

Congrats on the Blu-Ray player purchase! I also think that you’ll really enjoy the extras on the Star Trek Blu-Ray. Some of them sound spectacular.

By the way, mind if I ask which Blu-Ray player you bought and what features you like about it? It could be useful information for when I finally break down and buy one.
:D

I was going to buy the Star Trek two-disc DVD set, but held off after reading complaints about the feature discrepancies between the DVD and Blu-Ray versions. After some research, I learned that the Blu-Ray offers more than 30 extra featurettes and commentaries. There’s a good rundown of the differences at:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Star-Trek-Movie-2009-DVD-Blu-ray-Special-Feature-Differences

p.s. Thanks! It was a pleasant surprise, considering that I never win anything.

I wanted to eventually buy Star Trek on DVD, but if the Blu-Ray version as a lot of extra material, I guess I don’t really have a choice…

For the 802.11n, I will simply wait. The 50ft RJ45 cable will do the job at a fraction of the price.

Congratz on your recent win !

I don’t have a standalone Blu-Ray player, yet, either. However, I might jump on that bandwagon soon because of the increasing frequency of studios to release movies with certain special features on Blu-Ray, but not on the DVD version. For example, the Star Trek Blu-Ray edition has a huge number of interesting extras that will never be available on any of the DVD editions.

Also, since the price of Blu-Ray discs has come down quite a bit, lately. It’s becoming hard to use that as an excuse any more.

As for a Wireless-N equivalent of the WRT54GL, I think we’ll be waiting a while for that because Cisco/Linksys doesn’t seem to be interested in producing such a thing. So, one suggestion is to keep the WRT54GL and add a Wireless-N access point to it. It’s not as seamless as having everything in a single unit, but it does the job.

I think I will even wait before I get a blu ray player. The two movies I really wanted to see in HD won’t come out as soon as I expected. James Cameron will release an extended version of Avatar later this year in theatres and a couple of months after that in DVD/Bluray. I don’t why I should pay for the regular release (that will be available soon) and pay another time for the extended version. Same thing with LOTR. The version that is being released very soon is not the extended cuts but the same version that played in theatres. Not worth it in my opinion…

If I’m lucky, Cisco will have released an N equivalent of the WRT54GL by the time I decide to buy a bluray player… (Or I will have a new laptop with a bluray drive)

I used to have a Linksys WRT54G before upgrading to N. As you said, it’s a great router, especially with third-party firmware. Personally, I think more people should give Tomato or DD-WRT a try.

Yup, the ethernet cable is about as economical as it gets! Nowadays with 100Base-T and Gigabit standard on most computers, fast wired transfers are a cinch.

For the 802.11N, you are right those prices are low but the devices are very cheap… I currently use an old WRT54G with a custom firmware as my router / access point and this is an amazing device: connection never drops even with very high traffic on the network. i could buy one of the cheap router you mentioned (only as an access point) and keep my Linksys but it is not really worth it… I think it would be wiser to wait for Cisco to release a N equivalent of the WRT54GL.

I think it would be a lot cheaper to simply buy a 50ft RJ45 cable considering I almost never move my laptop in my house…

Yeah, pricing is a major issue. The distributor told me that 3D-ready TVs and monitors will be 2-3x the price of 2D-only sets until they become more mainstream. Also, 3D content is still somewhat scarce. Except for a few big-name movies (e.g. Journey to the Center of the Earth, My Bloody Valentine, etc.) that have hit the market in the last few weeks, the bulk of the 3D content seems to be either cartoons or the aforementioned “Hannah Montana” type movies. I think the big push will come when Avatar and similar movies are finally released on Blu-Ray.

Upgrading your laptop and router to Wireless-N might be more affordable than you realize. I just had a quick look at NCIX and found a TP-Link TL-WN811N laptop adapter ($29.99) and some really cheap routers (e.g. Engenius ESR-9752 and Trendnet TEW-652BRP, both for $34.99). Getting an 802.11n router and PCMCIA network adapter for $65 total would have been unheard of even a year ago. Personally, I wouldn’t go with such low-end devices, though. Might be a good way to burn down your house. ;-)

The external drive is a good idea. Then you can watch the movies directly on your laptop.

For my first question, I was looking at the possibility to change my current 22in lcd screen for a 3d. But I didn’t check the price of the special glasses. The “GeForce 3D Vision glasses” costs $250 for one pair… I think I will stay with my 2d screen for the time being and when it is time to change (in a couple of years) look for 3D (I guess the prices will drop when it become more mainstream).

For question #2, it would cost a lot to buy a new router and wireless card for my laptop. I could just buy an external 5 1/4in sata drive enclosure…

Sorry, I forgot to answer your first question…

(@iNetVideo… is there a way to edit these comments?)

I had a look at a demo model ViewSonic 22″ 3D-ready 120 Hz LCD at a local distributor recently. We looked at a couple of 3D movies (Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana, if you can believe it!) using both the cardboard glasses supplied with the movies and with some decent aftermarket plastic glasses. Depending on where we were sitting/standing, the quality of the 3D effects varied. You really need to be sitting within about 3-5 feet of the screen and directly in front of it to get the best impact (probably because the screen is so small). Moving to the side or up/down caused tearing/jumping and headaches for a few people. Watching the 3D without the glasses was as you might expect; just a blurry mess.

By the way, the 120 Hz response rate combined with the quick video response (less than 3 ms, I believe) definitely helps to reduce motion lag. We didn’t notice any artifacts during fast action sequences or bleeding/ghosting during quick jumps.

We didn’t play any 3D games, unfortunately. However, if the effects are similar to that of the movies, then the same conditions apply: try to stay right in front of the screen and within about 3-5 feet.

Also, I should note that regular 2D content looked pretty good. It would be a waste of money to buy such a monitor for only viewing 2D stuff, though. As you said, Jonathan, there are plenty of $200 LCDs that are fine for 2D.

I’ll take the second question first…

According to the Blu-Ray Disc Association, the minimum data transfer rate for video from a Blu-Ray disc is 54 Mbps (=1.5x read speed), which happens to be the theoretical maximum transfer rate of 802.11g. The problem is that Wireless-G can’t sustain anywhere close to that rate. Its average net throughput is only about 20 Mbps. That’s plenty to stream DVDs (which need only about 10-11 Mbps), but obviously far short of what BDs require. The BDRA actually recommends 72 Mbps (= 2x read speed).

So, the simple answer is to use 802.11n. Just as an example, during a test of Draft-N hardware in early MacBooks, Apple was able to show a net throughput of approximately 100 Mbps (with spikes close to 300 Mbps). Results using the final N-standard hardware was even better. 100 Mbps is more than sufficient to stream a BD. As mentioned above, the BDRA recommends 72 Mbps.

Also I have a question about blu ray players for computers. If I install a player in my main desktop, I would be able to share the drive on my LAN so I could watch the movie on my laptop (even if it only have a dvd burner). BUT blu ray is a lot of data… So would I be able to watch the movie if my laptop is connected to my lan by a 802.11g wireless connection or the bluray would transfer too much information and the movie would lag/skip all the time ?

I sincerely hope that the reality lives up to the hype because it seems like just a gimmick as of now. Currently, the pricing is ridiculous and programming is nearly non-existent.

Also, studies show that as much as 10-15% of the population is completely unable to see 3D effects (even with the glasses). Then, there are the people who suffer ill effects (dizziness, nausea, vertigo, etc.) when watching 3D. And, to top it off, there are those who have vision problems (e.g. need corrective lenses, have astigmatism, etc.) that either find the 3D glasses uncomfortable or can’t wear them at all.

So, I agree with Jonathan Sevigny who said earlier that we’d best take a “wait and see” attitude to 3D TV. I sure don’t want to be the first to jump on that bandwagon for fear that it turns out to be a dead-end or niche technology (see: HD-DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, etc.).

You should probably remove the Panasonic Viera plasma from your list until they get a handle on their automatic black level control issue (as reported by CNET, Engadget, Gizmodo, AVSForum, etc.). The picture quality degrades noticeably as the panel ages.

According to a Panasonic dealer I spoke with, the new 2010 models (shipping in the second quarter of this year) will have a redesigned black level control which will increase voltage to the panel more gradually to prevent the black level and image retention issues that have been reported. At that point, you could then re-evaluate Panasonics for inclusion on this list… assuming that this issue is resolved.