Best TV for viewing

[Devin Johnston]

My firm wants' to put a TV at my desk so that clients can view animations when they come in, we're looking at something around 50" that's LED. If anyone knows of a good TV to go with that will work best as a computer monitor and has good color rendering please let me know.

[Scott Schroeder]

Samsung and LG are quite good for the higher end models. You'll want to shoot for anything 120 hertz or higher.

 

I have an LG 42" near my station, specifically this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LG---42%22-Class---LED---1080p---120Hz---3D---HDTV/4853629.p?id=1218552486855&skuId=4853629

 

It works quite well, though if I use it as a traditional monitor it becomes oppressive. It's just sooooo much desktop or I have to sit miles away. But it works very well to switch over to show videos on. It's also very compact if space is an issue.

[Devin Johnston]

What about these TV's that have 240 Hz refresh rates, would the video look any different and do you need a special card to take advantage of it?

[Dimitris Tolios]

What about these TV's that have 240 Hz refresh rates, would the video look any different and do you need a special card to take advantage of it?

 

The source signal won't be fast enough to make a difference. A screen drawing 240 fps, on a 15-30 fps video playback is kinda pointless.

 

The 60 -> 120 Hz was different, as some trained human eyes can actually see the difference in graphic fluidity. Some PC gamers "swear" by 120Hz monitors and SLI/CX cards to maintain >60 and some times >120fps, but any large screen @ 100-120Hz with good contrast and viewing angles will be perfect imho. Even APUs / build in GPUs should have no issue with 1080p video playback.

[Tommy L]

240Hz is mainly important for alternate eye steroscopic 3d, when each eye can then get a 120Hz playback.

You clients are probably not going to pick up on color issues in a demo. Its when its their own project and they have a good knowledge of the materials that its going to be color critical and you wouldnt want to play back a master file on a TV.

[Devin Johnston]

Its when its their own project and they have a good knowledge of the materials that its going to be color critical and you wouldnt want to play back a master file on a TV.

 

Why?

[Jeff Mottle]

This may be a bit on the pricey side, but if color and quality image are THE most important factors, this is the unit to get: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/test-report-sharp-elite-pro-60x5fd-3d-lcd-hdtv I have the 4 year old (now discontinued) 60" Pioneer Kuro Elite (that is the technology predecessor to the Sharp Elite) that still holds it's own against 99% of the displays on the market today. I can attest to its superb color and image quality. When I go to to the store I cringe at the crappy images I see even on the most expensive sets when I compare against the Elite.

[Tommy L]

We have a viewing room for stuff going to broadcast and we bought a relatively high end TV to go in there. We cant calibrate it properly. All color correction is done on calibrated Apple displays here. That said, the big telly is perfectly fine for clients watching the first viewing of their animation, or the viewing the reel for a sales pitch, or the footy, or topless Spanish darts...

Color is a massive subject not best broached in half measures. Either go all the way or save your money and get consumer grade like you'd get for your front room, the cost benefit just isn't there for a high end solution for your application, unless Ive got the wrong end of the stick.

[Devin Johnston]

As much as I'd like that TV Jeff posted it's out of our price range. We woulden't be judging colors on it we're just looking for a better option than having people stand behind me while I show them their projects. It's also a little more impressive to the clients if we can show them their projects on a big screen that a whole group can see instead of a small 24" screen. This is one that I'm thinking of getting.

 

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=LG47LM7600&ref=dealtime&omid=113

[John Dollus]

It's a bit silly looking to have a giant tv sitting on the desk of a typical open office environment so i hope you at least have a decent edit suite or office/conference room where you can control the ambient lighting.

[Devin Johnston]

Our office has 8 conference rooms and they all have either HD TV's or projectors in them, we also have 2 80" portable touch screen TV's with integrated computers that can be rolled anywhere in the office. I personally have 3 24" Dell monitors and one of the reasons is because I always have clients at my desk either looking at their work or I'm showing off past work to potential clients. When you have 8 or 10 people huddled around a single monitor trying to see what's going on it can be frustrating so we're looking to make the viewing process at my desk easier. I'd love to have my own edit suite, I'd most likely get much more work done but our whole office is cubicles and that's not going to happen.