OT - 42" LCD for Gallery

I have a small gallery in Estes Park and I'm looking at replacing one of my pieces with a 42" LCD so that I can display more images. Ideally I'd like to put a frame around it so that customers get a better feel for how an image would look on their wall. It needs to be an LCD rather than plasma as we are at 7,500' elevation. I have no experience with televisions, especially for displaying art. I'm assuming that 1080p is what I want. Is that correct? Are there particular models that you recommend for displaying photos? Is there anything I should be aware of? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I don't know answers to all your questions, but one thing to make sure of is that you can hook the LCD up to a computer (if that is how you are going to run the "slideshow"), not all models are capable of that.

We are very happy with our 46" Sony Bravia HD LCD monitor. Beautiful picture, colors, contrast. The model # is KDL46W4100. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio. I think you can change it to a standard 4:3 ratio but it would have black bands on left/right sides. You can get three different levels (res?) on an LCD...60 (good and least expensive), 120 (better, more $$$, this is what we have), and 240 (best, most $$$). I found the owners manual and it is PC compatible...audio too. Manual shows you how to hook it up. Our altitude is similar to Estes, 7,400. I would assume 1080 is perfect for image display. The monitor has a 2" frame around it (you can get black or brushed silver)...would that suffice to imagine a frame for your customers? Great idea Erik!

This may be the way to go:

https://www.pictureline.com/products/15863/Smartparts_SP3200_32%22_Digital_Picture_Frame/

Guy

It looks like they have discontinued this Guy.

Oops.. sorry about that. May be worth seeing if other vendors still carry it.

Guy

Erik - If you go the TV route (as opposed to a large monitor) the resolution to get would be 1080p. All of those are a 16:9 aspect ratio, and they all will likely have several different zoom or aspect ratio modes, but won't look as good on anything but 1080 lines. Ideally, everything you show should be sized to 1920 x 1080 - even if you have to put extra canvas around to get there. Then you won't have any issues with different sized images.

And as for the 60, 120, 240 thing - that would refer to the refresh rate per second, or how quickly the screen can be redrawn. Mainly this can effect how smoothly fast moving objects move on the screen (although that's debatable). For static images it won't really matter.

I have a 37" LG 1080p TV at home. Photos look spectacular on it. The resolution is great, and the images really pop. Definitely go with a 1080p resolution. Agree with David above that the refresh rate shouldn't matter. Mine is 60Hz, and it's just fine.

Thanks guys for all the information! Yesterday afternoon I ran down to Best Buy and purchased a Samsung LN40B640. It is really quite amazing! The picture quality is outstanding and many of my images actually look better on the screen than they do in prints. I still need to make some adjustments to it as the contrast is just a bit too strong and there is a slight blue cast but I'll deal with that soon. This model has no buttons, speakers, or other distractions on the outside, just a nice clean modern looking frame around the image. It says "Samsung" on the bottom of it, but I'll find a way to hide that. My only concern is that people might start asking for screen savers instead of buying prints as they just look so good on that screen. Thanks again for all the input. It was a great help in getting me educated before making this purchase.

My only concern is that people might start asking for screen savers instead of buying prints as they just look so good on that screen.

Just remind them that with the power expended by a screen that large, actual prints are much "greener" in the long run.