Group,
I am about to go out and buy a big 50" plasma or 42" LCD to stick on the wall to show images to prospective clients during first meetings/handovers etc.

Anyone have any experience with showing images on such a format?

What is the resolution on the TV's you're considering. A lot of times, I find monitors to have a better resolution than a TV. Consider a 30" Dell or Apple monitor. While smaller, their clarity is far higher.

Also, for digital signage - http://www.doublesight.com/product/?cid=3 (Expensive though)

The bezel, the installation and the environment are all more important that the screen. Hire a designer and a good contractor.

Just make sure you have a big print price in your upsell as clients will want something big once they see their own images that size.

Perhaps even a package that saves a little money if they take two or three framed prints.

We use a 42 inch Vizeo 1080p TV and it looks AMAZING! The second time we ever proofed on it we sold a 20x30 canvas.

Don't get the Plasma as you have to dim the lights in the room since they reflect everything. The LCD screens are matte and do not reflect the light back. Vizeo is sorta mid range in price and after adjusting some of the colors, it looks almost dead on to my color corrected screen.

Just make sure that you have a computer that will show the images in hi-res. Otherwise you will have to make a disk or something and then you will have a hard time proofing. Our PC screen on our laptop is 1050p, so we can show the images at the resolution in a lightroom show.

Show big and they want big!

Hope that helps!

-Zach

We use a Sony 46" Bravia LCD . The resolution of the TV is 1920 x 1080. Images are crisp, sharp, and look fantastic. We have it hooked up to our Mac Pro via a DVI - HDMI cable.

As Zach stated above... most of the LCD screens are matte, but several of the brands (Samsung, Sony and I think Phillips) are realizing glossy LCD screens. I have a 46" Toshiba Regza 1080P with 120hz refresh rate and I'm 100% satisfied with the picture.... both for watching TV and veiwing my pictures and website.

I have a 37'' full HD samsung and it is quite impressive for the clients to
see my presentations, the best investment in my little studio.

I agree with the decoration around, it has to be inpressive too.

Jaime
www.jmraso.com

LCD all the way, plazmas stink for sure. Toshiba hands down makes the best TV's both LCD and DLP. My college roommate had a 58 in. Toshiba LCD it was huge and it was SWEET! Pictures looked great.
Doug

If you want to get a wow factor a TV may work, may not. If you want to sell big prints, get a projector. TVs, even big ones, are too small.

Why? A typical LCD projector in a 12' room will throw an image 4x5 feet (48x60) or larger. Your 50" TV will be about 24 inches tall. That's not all that big if you're showing a vertical print.

The image of the girl in the corner is a 16x20 gallery wrap. (this is a shot of progress only - as the sidways puppy photo might hint at). Sales and presentation room, view as seen from sofa)

prof_fate wrote:
If you want to get a wow factor a TV may work, may not. If you want to sell big prints, get a projector. TVs, even big ones, are too small.




I have to disagree. A projector isnt the way to go. we tried it for a month and clients did not like it. They were more engaged in wow my pictures are huge but never payed attention to the point of viewing them. I have 4 other local photographers who felt the same. we all got plasmas around 42"-50" and since we all sold 20x30 prints and canvases and larger.

prof_fate wrote:
If you want to get a wow factor a TV may work, may not. If you want to sell big prints, get a projector. TVs, even big ones, are too small.

Why? A typical LCD projector in a 12' room will throw an image 4x5 feet (48x60) or larger. Your 50" TV will be about 24 inches tall. That's not all that big if you're showing a vertical print.

The image of the girl in the corner is a 16x20 gallery wrap. (this is a shot of progress only - as the sidways puppy photo might hint at). Sales and presentation room, view as seen from sofa)

Thanks very much for the replies. Very interesting.

Another question. For those of you that have plasma, isnt screen burn an issue?

If you are considering an HD, I would recommend only the following based on value & performance:

Plasma - Panasonic - best value, highest reliability in the industry, great user interface, great color, better speakers then most TVs.
LCD - Samsung - great value, great color, great screens

Don't get caught up in the high contrast numbers. They are meaningless and in most cases are not always accurate. The numbers are calculated differently by manufacturers and sometimes overinflated.

720p Panasonic plasmas are a great value and picture looks great. You don't need a 1080p. These can be had from $699-$899 if you find a great deal.

Panasonics are also the best in handling what people refer to as burn in. It's non-existent and you won't have any problems with it.

Use frys.com for the best prices. They have sales w/free delivery all the time and you may not have to pay tax depending on delivery state. You may also be able to find a deal at Costco or Sam's Club.

Bottom line, I would stick with the above two brands for the best bang for the buck, with Panasonic being my #1 choice. Even have SD readers built in.

/asim

Hi Morganb4, we have a plasma 42" Panasonic - just for home use haven't got around to tyring it out for photo viewing. It has a non reflective screen over the plasma screen itself, but in my opinion it doesn't reduce the glare that much and TV viewing is better with the blinds closed.

Screen burn DOES occur. And much more quickly than the store assitant said it would. Usually if my children's dvds are on the menu screen too long. It can take only an hour to burn into the screen...but it does fade and it only happens if you leave it on the same image for too long.

My other issue is the power consuption - HUGE compared to the LCD. You can feel the heat radiating from the screen if you stand a foot away. And it will heat up a smaller room.

Why we didn't get an LCD? Well, I ended up letting my husband choose in the end and apparently plasma is better for viewing sports. Like whateva dude.

PS I don't let hubby get away with much otherwise ;-P

louloulou wrote:
Screen burn DOES occur. And much more quickly than the store assitant said it would. Usually if my children's dvds are on the menu screen too long. It can take only an hour to burn into the screen...but it does fade and it only happens if you leave it on the same image for too long.


Screen burn is a permanent issue. It does not sound like you have a burn in issue if it fades away.

Burn in used to be a problem with plasmas years ago. The Panasonics have lead the way in making sure it isn't a problem with their screens. A 100 hour break in period is also recommended with certain settings for any plasma.

More information can be googled and found on AVSForum.com

/asim

asimsoofi wrote:
louloulou wrote:
Screen burn DOES occur. And much more quickly than the store assitant said it would. Usually if my children's dvds are on the menu screen too long. It can take only an hour to burn into the screen...but it does fade and it only happens if you leave it on the same image for too long.


Screen burn is a permanent issue. It does not sound like you have a burn in issue if it fades away.

Burn in used to be a problem with plasmas years ago. The Panasonics have lead the way in making sure it isn't a problem with their screens. A 100 hour break in period is also recommended with certain settings for any plasma.

More information can be googled and found on AVSForum.com

/asim

Thanks for the info I guess I just assumed that it must have been screen burn. I just had a close look at the TV and what I thought was burn is completely gone, not even faded gone. My mistake

Cheers

This is a great thread (from my point of view). Thanks to all who have contributed and I am looking forward to more info from any other users...

Ben