big HDTV monitors in bright, sunny rooms

My parents are getting a fancy retirement condo in Florida. Part of this will include a big flat panel screen and fancy surround sound system. To make things tough, the condo will have lots of big windows with nice ocean views. That's great if you want to see the ocean, but it's a problem if you want to see the TV.

Dad's convinced that he doesn't need to get really big. He figures he'd be quite happy with a 40" screen of some kind, and he'd like a flat panel. Right now, the leading contenders is a 40" LCD panel from Samsung, then maybe a 40"-ish plasma of some sort, or maybe a rear-projection set of some kind.

If we were talking about a pitch-black room, a plasma or DLP rear-projector would almost certainly be the winner. However, it's going to be pretty bright in there. When I was last in a home theater store, the salesman helpfully had a flashlight which I was pointing at the screens while watching them. The LCDs had a nicely diffuse bright spot. The plasmas and rear projectors had bright pointed reflections. You could also clearly see yourself and everything else in front of the screen reflected from it.

Now, I know that LCDs cost more and don't have the same beautiful black levels you get from other technologies. However, I'm not convinced any of the other technologies can perform well in this environment.

- Anyone actually seen a 40" LCD in person? There's one from NEC and one from Samsung. The only big LCDs I've seen personally are a 34" from Sharp (clearly lacking in the black levels) and a 30" from Panasonic (truly beautiful, but too small).

- Anyone seem a plasma or other set that does a good job with reflections off the screen? All the plasmas that I've seen have shiny, reflective glass screens. My own rear-projection CRT set is also horribly reflective.

We have until maybe October of this year before they'll be ready to move in, so we can wait a little while, but not too long. (Any idea if bigger/better LCDs were shown at CES? I've heard there's a 42" Sony LCD coming soon.)

Greetings!

I have the 32" Samsung LCD, if that is of any help. I am quite pleased with it, and reflection from bright sources is not a problem at all - very diffuse without any annoying reflections. I would add that the black levels are not bad, but I am a casual watcher at best.

Are projection LCDs out of the question? They're not flat, but at 12" - 18" deep, they beat out some of their large-berthed bretheren.

From his description of the bright room, projection ANYTHING is out of the question. Rear, front, whatever. Only some kind of direct-view technology is going to yield a bright enough image to be enjoyable in that environment.

In fact, I might even go so far as to suggest a regular tube television, perhaps one of the 4:3 Sony Wega units that can also do 1080i or anamorphic DVDs at 16:9.

Blackout curtains?

Blackout curtains?

Sacrelige, for a fancy condo with ocean views.

Okay, then... just watch TV at night. What're they doing cooped up in a condo during the day if they're in Florida, anyway?

Avoiding the 125°, 125% humidity weather?

I know some of the upper tier Sony widescreen projections (XBR?) have an anti-reflective coating on the front. Don't know how well they work. Might just be a glare reducer, not necessarily a cure for reflections.

I know some of the upper tier Sony widescreen projections (XBR?) have an anti-reflective coating on the front. Don't know how well they work. Might just be a glare reducer, not necessarily a cure for reflections.

Remember, with projection screens, you have two separate issues with ambient light:

1. The overal ambient light coloring the screen itself, which is usually a shade of gray. The brighter the ambient light, the brighter the base color of the screen. For instance, the screen is never actually black, you just get the illusion of blackness because all the other colors are very bright next to the dark areas. The brighter the ambient light in the room, the less black the screen will appear and the worse the picture will look. The anti-reflective coating on the protective glass covering a rear-projector screen has nothing to do with this.

2. Mirror reflections of the objects in the room on the face of the protective glass. For instance, if it is bright in the room, then you will be able to see yourself sitting on the couch, mirrored in the glass. A good anti-reflective coating can help with this. But it doesn't solve the other problem.

Have they thought of using electrochromic glass?

- trs

I have the 42" Sony Grand Wega III. It is a LCD RPTV. It works very well in the room with all the shades open. As with all LCD loss of contrast is the biggest issue. I find this set to have a beautiful image. Although Sony was not one of the maybes you listed LCD RPTV's are made by other manufacturers. You might take a look.

We'll certainly take a look at how well the rear-projection sets can do when we finally go TV shopping. I'm still very nervous about reflections. With full daylight, when you sit in front of your RPTV with the TV off and focus on yourself as it if was a mirror, can you see yourself on the other side? This is a noticable problem on my own RPTV even with low room lighting at night.

My real curiosity is whether the latest and greatest plasmas are addressing this issue. You'd think they wouldn't need to have a shiny glass front panel, but could instead use anti-reflective coatings or whatnot.

I have the 42" GWIII also. I specifically bought it because I wanted a TV that would perform well with lots of light. It has a very good AR coating and reflections aren't an issue. It's bright enough for all situations in my room but I don't have sunlight shining directly on it.

I'm happy with the TV overall. It's flaw is a relatively high black level. It's black level is higher then then the best plasmas but comparable to the off brand ones that retail for under $3k. The high black level is only an issue at night with the lights out. When there is ambient light the room puts an effective floor on the black level that is higher then the TV's level. It's not the TV I would buy for movie watching in the dark but it's just what I wanted for a general purpose family room TV that would work well in all situations with all program material.

And now that Mitsubishi took its ball and went home, Sony is the only manufacturer of a 40" 4:3 CRT TV. I like it.

But in my experience, trying to talk someone out of buying a big flat TV and into a tube is like trying to sell an SUV owner on buying an AWD station wagon (or AWD minivan for kids). Maybe logic and common sense apply more often within this board's extended family....

I just bought the hitachi 50" lcd projection the picture is great but if the room is real bright you can see some reflection.Not as much as my old projection.Out of all the lcd projection tv this one had the best picture.It is only about 15" thick and only weight's about 75 pounds.

A lot of RPTVs come with highly reflective protective screens on them. We just got a 65" Toshiba (65H93) and the reflection off the water through the window was really annoying, so we re-stacked the screen layers so that the outermost one is the lenticular lens (the one with vertical grooves); It's much better now. I think they're [re]movable on most TVs if you're willing to get in there.