Re: HDTV suggestions
 

The majority of the things I own are the "not known/top brand" or I buy used/second hand on eBay, etc. There is a large mark-up on things just because they have a name on them, and for other things as soon as they have "rolled-off the lot" they loss the majority of their value.

I would rather spend $350 (or similar) for a TV that is under warranty for one year with a no name brand than a TV that costs $1500 under warranty for one year and have the same thing happen to it - Break!



As for the CostCo deal. Unless you yourself is a CostCo shopper the majority of the time, it may not pay off. The executive membership is $100, whereas the regular membership is $50. You get 2% back on all purchases. Therefore you need to spend $2500 (correct?) in order to get that extra $50 back. Everything else you buy during the year after that you get cash back on too.

Thats why I noted if you happen to know someone, or can get someone to go in on a membership with you - its a win win.

We have been eying a new 50" ($1200) I believe at CostCo for some time now. One benefit of that is it comes with a nice little surround sound system. Nothing fancy, but good enough for movies.

I'll post some links if I can locate them.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

I know our TV allows you to choose between the ratio you want to display in.

I have the benefit of having both the HD channel and the SD channel. If I decide one is not displaying how I think it is 'correct' I just switch to the other channel to get rid of "squashed heads"

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Corey,

If you are looking for the best quality tv (i.e. sharper image, longer life, etc.) i'd stick with the following brands:

Samsung
Panasonic
Sony

These are the top 3. They are a bit higher in price than the rest of them, but i'd say spending an extra $100 would be worth it. And remember you only get the most basic cables when buying a tv, so you will have to get the HD cables etc.

Right now you can get the following for under $1500

Samsung 42" $1100 - only 720p however.


Samsung 32" $1000 - 1020p.


Panasonic 42" $1400 - 1020p


Sony 40" - $1150 - 720p only


Sony 40" - $1400 - 1020p

* I use the Circuit City Website simply because i have worked their and know it the best.*

I would suggest looking around stores such as Best Buys, Circuit City, and the manufacturer's websites as well to see where you can get the best price once you figure out the TV you would like.

I'd also recommend not only getting a set of HD cables, but also getting an extended protection plan. (i know i sound like i still work for them). But in all honesty the number's of tv's that we would have people come in and talk to us about that had broken say a year or 2 after they got it was amazing. (most manufacturer's protections plans only cover 3 - 6 months on TV's)

Good luck and let me know if you need anything else.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

I forgot to mention one of the most important things. Trust your own eye.
Sony's may have amazing color and the Samsungs may have a contrast ratio through the roof but if they look the same as a Visio or LG or NoName brand to you, consider it.
You're going to be the one watching it the most. Trust your eye.
Also, bring a DVD with you to the store when you go looking and ask if they can play it (no offensive material). The signal that stores run to every TV in the place is not always the best quality. Use your own signal to judge.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Yeah, the wide screen TVs generally let you select the way you want to view--either "normal" (with bands at the sides when viewing 4:3 material), "full" which is how widescreen video should be, or "zoom" also called "fill" which crops the top and bottom of a 4:3 show to fit the full width of the wide screen, or "wide zoom" or "wide fill" which stretches out the edges of the 4:3 show to fill out the whole width of the screen.

I generally watch 4:3 stuff in the zoom mode.

Also, we have a couple digital TV tuners that do SDTV, not HDTV, and they also have a zoom feature, so you can select how the display looks. Typical choices are "set by program", "letterbox", "cropped", "sqeezed". I usually set it to cropped, so the sides of the widescreen content is cut off on a 4:3 TV.

What's fun is connecting the SDTV tuner to a widescreen TV, watching content that was originally HDTV (widescreen) and figuring out how to get all the zooms set so that it shows up like it should. Works well once you get it figured out...for example, I watched the Carrier show on PBS on the widescreen in full digital clarity, although it is pretty low resolution because the only PBS transmissions we get are from an SD repeater instead of the HD transmitter (the problem with living 75 miles from a big city)

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Phillups and Magnovox are giving up their naming rights, their pulling out of the US TV market, so some of their TV's will go on clousout later this summer

Sony TV's are expected to get a price cut sometime in June...

If Best buy comes out with their HD Advantage deal, you can get a 42" 1080p tv for as low as $400, as long as your willing to do a bit of work for it.....(i did this....)

one of the best places to find deals on tv's and other things is www.slickdeals.net , check out the forums there, their set up A LOT like ChiefDelphi. your gonna find all sorts of deals there

personally, i have a Westinghouse 42" 1080p LCD HDTV, and it works great

hopefully my $0.02 helps you out.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

If you go the Costco/Sams route, be aware that they often are carrying older models. When I got our Sharp Aquos LC37D90U LCD last year, Costco was carrying a year-older model with fewer features. I'm quite happy with the Sharp, BTW.

You can get the Sharp LC37D64 for $1275.55 at Abes of Maine (where I got ours).

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Unless you are OCD about things, ask employees at stores if they have any "damaged" televisions.

Back in August, my dorm room floor pooled money and bought a "damaged" 42" 1080p Visio LCD television for $800. It was about $500 cheaper than normal retail price at the time because there was a two inch long scratch on the plastic stand, that was purely cosmetic. Literally, that was it; everything was still 100% functional, but it was still given the "damaged return" label.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Also when considering a HDTV, be sure to see how it looks like with standard analogue TV. Some HD TVs are horrible at converting analogue NTSC signals. Problems like pixelating, aliasing, and color matching could occur. Digital SD signals are much better if you can get those. If you have DirectTV then it shouldn't affect you that much. But if you have cable (Cox, Comcast, etc) it will most likely definitely affect you.

Sony seems to be the best with this, with Vizo being in the middle of the road.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Although we only have less than a year of most analog broadcast...except that repeaters, low power, and Class A stations will be allowed to continue broadcasting analog after Feb 2009.

http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#faq22

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Yes and cable companies also have to keep there analogue stations until 2012

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

I would get a Sony Bravia xxV3000 or xxW3000 Series or a Samsung xx61f or xx65f series (replace xx with the size you want). AVS forums is a very good resource for anything A/V related

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

-edit Last time I did any research on HDTV's was last Christmas when my family got a Bravia 46v3000. It looks like since then, newer models have come out such as this Bravia v4100

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Bravia-KD...44547& sr=8-2

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Also, if you do buy some HD cables, don't go for the expensive cables they sell in the store as they are incredibly overpriced. Just look for some cheap cables online... you really won't see the difference between them.

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

I just bought this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...E=WEBLET03SHIP

and installed it this morning.

47" 1080ip LCD for $1100 bux, can't beat that.

And don't be scared by the Olevia name.... It's really an LG panel inside.

It looks STUNNING.

Plus, this is a glass front, which provides better color, and more scratch resistance.

-Jacob

EDIT: Yes, I misquoted. It's listed at 1080p, not 1080i

Re: HDTV suggestions
 

Just because a panel can accept an input, does not mean it can natively display it. I'm pretty sure thats a 720p panel. LCD's do not display interlaced images which is a CRT thing, but rather display progressive images. LCDs do not have to redraw the image line by line like CRT's, but twist/untwist crystals for only the pixels that change from image to image. The speed in which they can do this is the response time (usually about 12 ms). I'm pretty sure that TV will just scale the image the 1080i image down 540p (sub HD), then stretch it back to its native resolution of 1368X768. A native 1080p display can just reconstruct a 1080p image from a 1080i source (typical for HD broadcasts) without the need for scaling.


As for cables. Get them at monoprice.com. If you pay more than $8 for an HDMI cable, you were ripped off. Digital is digital. There is no difference in image quality, you either get a signal or you don't. STAY AWAY FROM MONSTER CABLES!