Flat screen TV's and Computer question...what brands are best.?

Question

I am looking for a Flat Screen TV, but am unsure what to look for. Is HD or Plasma better? Also, not looking for top of the line, but want something of mid range quality that will last. Any brands stick out?

Also need a computer, laptop. What are some of the mid range brands that are reliable? How much memory, and RAM, and such should a person have to have a decent computer?

Thanks All!

Answer 1

First off, by "Is HD or Plasma better?" you mean "is LCD or Plasma better?" (they're both HD, just different technologies).



Okay, starting with the TVs - Sony is generally known for having the highest quality (and most expensive) HDTVs, but a pretty good midrange brand is Samsung, they have reasonably priced TVs (42" in the $700 range, which, compared to Sony's, is a godsend) with pretty good quality. Avoid off-brands like Element and Insignia, there's always something that's really NOT great about them.



Most TVs you'll find these days are LCD screens anyway, but in terms of which is better, Plasma or LCD, it's really up to preference. Plasma, I believe, produced an ever so slightly better picture, but they're also more expensive, and they tend to burn images into the screen if left on too long. LCDs are generally more reliable and don't burn images. You should probably get an LCD TV.



Computers: All modern computers should have at least 2GB of RAM to be able to run smoothly, but if you must downsize from this, 1GB is necessary to even function with today's software. Most PCs should come with 2GB of RAM. For hard disk memory I would recommend you stick with hard drives 120 GB and up, because this 80GB drive in my PC is KILLING ME. One more important thing to look for: processor should be at least Intel Core 2 Duo (no Intel Celeron or anything in that range).



That's all.

Answer 2

HD stands for High-Definition all plasma's LCD's, DLP's are HD some good brands are JVC, Samsung, Hitachi, SONY...but truthfully you cant really go wrong just about every tv you find in a store is of good quality.



The computer question depends on what your getting laptop or desktop....with desktop PC's you can expect greater performance at a lower cost than a laptop but laptops have portability and a battery



But some things to look for is:



Dual Core processors Intel or AMD really doesn't matter which one there both excellent or Quad core although i doubt you need it



a MINIMUM of 2GB of RAM applications are getting bigger by the day and are taking more and more ram to run.



onboard video is slow if running a desktop i would recommend Nvidia 8600GT or better of your getting a laptop they are usually the same speed as the rest of the computer so if you meet the other 2 requirements its very likely the graphics card will too

Answer 3

Yes they could, however typically monitors are made up to 26" because most people don't need anything larger for a desktop setup. However, I am currently using a 32" TV as my monitor because I wanted something bigger!