Hi oburnwal
Since you reside at Mumbai, you have the liberty to go window shopping to a Vijay Sales / Croma / Reliance Digital and do a side by side comparision with TVs...with the current lifespan of TVs which is anything from 3 - 9 years...you need to choose wisely and take something that fits your budget and has good warranty.
Personally, I did a lot of review research before buying a TV....I went through the below links...
Plasma vs LED vs LCD TVs
LED vs LCD vs plasma TV - Which? Technology
Can LED LCD look as good as plasma? - CNET
CNET's guide to 3D TV: What you (still) need to know - CNET
Whats the Difference Between Active 3D and Passive 3D TVs? | eBay
Then I decided what I wanted in a TV and went to see a few competitive models.....the key is to watch the same channel at a store ....watch the TV from all angels...remember the settings would differ from house to house.....you would need to optimally adjust the same depending on the amount of light in the room etc etc...after a much thought and consideration...I settled for the Toshiba PU 200 series 32 inch LED TV. My viewing distance is almost 10 feet.
I use Hathway Cable set top box ordinary connection....firstly you need to adjust the Set top box settings so that it can output to 16:9 ratio.....secondly in order to inprove PQ, I used a Component Cable (Red Blue Green....Thick high quality one...75k ohms type) and hooked up the set top box to Video 1....then I adjusted the PQ settings as per room lighting etc.....after a good 1 week of use...the PQ is perfect....the TV is good value for money and suits all my requirements in terms of connectivity options, screen size...front soundbar...most important 3 years warranty......
There was no need for me to go for an HD connection as the PQ is almost HD quality now....there seems to be no value for me to spend 8k for Hathway HD connection where there are around 20 HD channels out of which 8 would be used by me...that too only for 3 hours a day as most of us work in the corporate world and make it home only after 8pm....Blu Ray movies work well and there is no issue whatsoever.......
The most important thing is that you check your options before you purchase any brand...Vijay Sales is known to hype the price...my Toshiba was for sale for almost 27k when the MRP was 30k....they were willing to sell the same for 25k provided it was a cash purchase....I checked with my local electronics dealer who gave the same to me for 21k with the same warranty....seeing my TV, I had 5 followers who purchased the same....recently my friend wanted to go for a 50 inch TV....we checked a lot of brands together...based on his requirement and need, we settled for the Toshiba 50 inch LED....Vijay Sales was offering the same for 73k.....we got it for 66k with the same warranty from the dealer in my area.....
Bottomline, there are reviews and posts in HFV on different brands of TVs....all brands more or less use the same components and market their product with some difference here and there...you may want to look at SHARP QUAT series which is a different experience altogether and has 3 years warranty also....There are numerous online complaints / reviews available over the internet where panels of some big brands got spoiled or bad for some consumers just after one or 2 years of use....choose wisely....
Hope this helps....all the best.....
