A/V guys, need advice for new TV - Page 3

salty · 11-19-05, 09:47

Do some research. The last couple of years they have made advances in plasma and LCD and the price is dropping. From the little i have read "they" have said plasma is better for bigger screen size and LCD is better for smaller.

LightngSVT · 11-20-05, 02:00

So I went and visitied a few stores today. I kind of like the Panasonic ED-TV Th42-pd50u, the picture isnt that much worse than many of the HD's and seems it could be had for around $17-1800 with a bit of haggling. Cant argue the value on this one, especially if it'll end up in the BR someday. Best Buy has the Panasonic HD-TV TH42PX50U on sale for $2199 after $400 mail in rebate and said we could work out a better deal if we made other purchases at the same time. So Im leaning towards the HD for a few hundy more. Im pretty sure that one of these 2 will be the TV we purchase.

The BB guy was trying to tell me that power surges and dips are what cause the most harm to plasmas and that we would need to buy a power conditioner to protect the TV. Of course these ran from $200-500 extra, plus $250 for the tilt mounting bracket for the TV. Is this true and should I buy one with a plasma? Oh and BB will install it all and hook up my home theater system for a measly $500!?!?!?!!? Other than being 110lbs I cant see what should be so hard about installing the TV (other than running the cables through the walls? Have any of you installed you own plasma's?

medic · 11-21-05, 10:22

i can't figure installing would be that hard - and definetly not worth $500, but I didn't mount the tv on the wall at my parents house. the power issue is a big deal, but I don't think more than other electronics - a good surge protector and a small UPS could do the same thing a power conditioner for much cheaper I'd think.

take a look at walmart before you buy from BB or CC. If you're getting a warranty for the tv, there was a recent article in business week that said the waranty from walmart was much lower cost than the others even through they used the same company to manage the claims and their terms were more generous - it won't start until after the manufacturers warranty so you're covered for longer.

LightngSVT · 11-21-05, 12:38

They this caliber of TV set at Walmart? I never go there I always figured they were low-end merchandise, kind of like KMart. We already have a $100 Monster Cable surge protector for our A/V gear and I have a few small, computer UPS's around the house. So that would replace a power conditioner, I didnt think they did anything to even out power distribution?

CarWeenie · 11-21-05, 05:39

Wow, $2100 for the px50u. They are in stock?
Can't believe it was over $3000 just a few months ago.
Do it, man!

I personally don't think you would need a $300 line conditioner.

The tv should come with the stand. If you want to mount it on the
wall then you would need a wall mount. Get them from internet place/ebay.
Should be under $100.

LightngSVT · 11-22-05, 04:33

Yes they had them in stock, the price was after a $400 mail in rebate. My local store said they got 150 in stock and as of Sunday they only had 40 left, but they could order more if they run out. Said price is only good until tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.

LightngSVT · 11-25-05, 07:22

Well the search is over, we brought home our new TV tonight!!! We were out Christmas shopping and looked at TV's, I cant say where we ended up buying from but we ended up getting a Sony KDE-50SX955 50" plasma TV. It was a floor display model, but they took it iff the mounts while we were there, so Im sure it wasnt abused. We paid $2350 for the TV plus $850 for the 5 year Sony warranty and the (retail) $350 tilt/swivel bracket ($3200 including 6% tax and everything). So overall I think we got a killer deal, there are a few on EBay going for $3500-5000 for the TV alone.

We checked it out and its in mint condition, We got the manuals and everything, there was no burn in at all and no dead pixels (even if there were we are covered). We werent really planning on buying until the new house is done, but couldnt pass up the deal and Ill probably end up hooking it up in our current family room and moving out the current 57" projection. Funny thing is that this plasma (with speakers) is almost 1" wider than our current TV and this thing is a TANK at 150lbs!!!!