Hd Tv

CharlesW

The Rainmaker
While I'm not that much of a TV watcher, I have been thinking about a new HD TV.
Usually, I just end up at Best Buys and buy whatever is on sale, but with the very large price variance, I thought the HD could use a little more research.

Some of my wants:
27" to 30" screen. Not at all interested in anything bigger.
That was pretty easy, wasn't it?:)

Several questions:
LCD or liquid plasma? Most people I have talked to have suggested LCD.
Full tuner or monitor? We have cable TV and they supply a tuner so a monitor seems to be all we would need.
Brands that you are familiar with that are good?
Brands that you are familiar with that are not good?
Any suggestions on what to look for when checking them out?

For the most part, anything I watch usually has a ball or wheels involved.:)

Charles
 
Re: Hd Tv?

We have HDTV in our home. It is the best thing since sliced bread.

My suggetions is to look for an LCD monitor for your home. Good life expectancy with LCD, great picture and reasonalbe price compared to plasma. If I did not already have a projection TV this is what I would purchase. In fact am thinking about a monitor for our bedroom. The HD picture is nite and day difference to regular TV. The problem is not all stations are broadcasting in HD. Once you have seen the Super Bowl, Daytona 500, or the Final Four on HDTV you will not want to watch it any other way.

Although work has been done on plasma TV's as far as longevity is concerned. All the kinks have not been worked out. There is no doubt that the picture is brighter and clearer on a plasma. When you consider that you are looking for 30 inches and under I could not recommend plasma over LCD.

Of course if money were no object I would get the biggest and baddest plasma picture that I could cause the Indy Five hundred is coming up and I would like to feel as if I were in the driver's seat of Jimmie Johnson's car when he wins this year.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

Yea I also recomend LCD over plasma. We have a sony, seems great. If you go to Best Buy or anything, we once bought a TV that regular price was like 1000 bucks and we got it for 800 cuz it had a small scratch on the top. We just sharpied it and you couldnt tell it was there. There are plenty of deals out there, just look around.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

HDTV is nice. Be sure to check you cable company to make sure they offer the channels. We bought a 50" DLP Sony when we moved. The picture is beautiful on HD and regular tv. Check out www.avsforum.com for some gret information.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

1. Thanks for the responses.
2. Our cable company does have HD TV.
3. My reason for not wanting/needing larger than about 30" is where I view it from. Our TV is in our living room that is about 24' long. I sit about 12' from the TV and our present 27" seems about right.
4. Since I don't watch that much TV, it isn't real high on my priority list. A number of years ago, a guest of ours asked if our TV was broken. I picked up the remote, turned it on and it worked fine. She had been at our house for three days and we had never had it on so she thought it was broken.:)
I'll do some research on the AVS Forum and see just how confused I can get.

Charles
 
Re: Hd Tv?

cwcad said:
We have HDTV in our home. It is the best thing since sliced bread.

My suggetions is to look for an LCD monitor for your home. Good life expectancy with LCD, great picture and reasonalbe price compared to plasma. If I did not already have a projection TV this is what I would purchase. In fact am thinking about a monitor for our bedroom. The HD picture is nite and day difference to regular TV. The problem is not all stations are broadcasting in HD. Once you have seen the Super Bowl, Daytona 500, or the Final Four on HDTV you will not want to watch it any other way.

Although work has been done on plasma TV's as far as longevity is concerned. All the kinks have not been worked out. There is no doubt that the picture is brighter and clearer on a plasma. When you consider that you are looking for 30 inches and under I could not recommend plasma over LCD.

Of course if money were no object I would get the biggest and baddest plasma picture that I could cause the Indy Five hundred is coming up and I would like to feel as if I were in the driver's seat of Jimmie Johnson's car when he wins this year.

I bought a 42" Plasma and switched to Direct HDTV, and can't believe how much better the picture is. I think it's true that Satellite signal is better than digital cable.

I was concerned about what I'd heard re: the Plasmas longevity, but after doing alot of research on "Plasma failures" I decided to buy it anyway.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

Coastal Eddie said:
I bought a 42" Plasma and switched to Direct HDTV, and can't believe how much better the picture is. I think it's true that Satellite signal is better than digital cable.

I was concerned about what I'd heard re: the Plasmas longevity, but after doing alot of research on "Plasma failures" I decided to buy it anyway.

I know that longevity has been a point of contention from the start. Although the reports have often said that most of the glithches have been worked out. There are those that think that the plasma can still get an image burn. Wish I could quote the source but I cannot. The only things that I read are Gizmodo and Engadget. So I am sure it was from one of those sites.

I wish that it would have been in my price range. Plasma is the way to go if picture quality is of the most import.

Am glad to here that Direct TV is a quality picture. I know the reason that we have the digital cable service for our TV is because our internet and telephone are serviced on the same fiber optic cable.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

I have a part time job selling HDTVs.

First off if I recall plasma is not offered in anything below 37 inches, at least we do not carry anything below that.

Plasma is a far superior technowlI have a part time job selling HDTVs.

First off if I recall plasma is not offered in anything below 37 inches, at least we do not carry anything below that.

Plasma is a far superior technology than LCD. You will also get a crisper picture, more fluid movement of picture, crisper images and better color. I would take plasma over LCD any day of the week other than the Sony SXRD TVs.

Longevity in plasmas is a myth that was started by those big companies that put all their initial eggs in one basket with LCD. Then it was perpetuated by the companies that put their money in to DLP. The half life of a plasma TV averages 30 years.

The only time you want a tuner built in is if you are only going to receive local HDTV broadcasts. 75% of the time when you get into TVs over the standard 42 inch they all have it built in anyways and 99% of the plasmas have it built in anyways.

TVs that I recommend from my sales experiences in LCD (as plasmas are not made in your small screen range):


LG 32" LCD HDTV (32LX1D)
Sony 32" LCD HDTV Monitor (KLV-S32A10)

Hitachi 32" LCD HDTV (32HDL52)

Also remember that these TVs are in widescreen where you probably have your current TV in standard 4:3 ratio. The widescreen 16:9 is going to look smaller due to its shape.

You are rather limited by only wanting 27-30 inches.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

shineycar said:
DLP is the way to go with the 1080 resolution. or at least 720.

I also have a Samsung 50" DLP and love it. Even though it was my wifes worst nightmare. I just cant wait for the HDDVD and blurays formats make up their mind and finally release something. I am not a TV watcher but a huge movie fan and picture and sound quality is my biggest thing.
 
Re: Hd Tv?

I would recommend a direct view set like the Sony KD-34XBR960 34".
Great picture quality and user friendly. The only draw back to these type of sets is weight(close to 200lbs.) I purchased a 34" Toshiba Direct view over 3 years ago and have been extremely happy with it for use in the living room with multiple windows and higher light levels.
They can be purchased for reasonable prices and should last for years like older style CRT tv's.
When the powers that be make up there mind on technology then I will look into a newer set or a projector and build a home theater but until then this fits the bill. I have not purchased a DVD in two years because of the quality comparison of standard DVD to HD tv.
If you go with HD on cable see if you can get a DVR setup to record HD ,that is really nice. The only draw back to HD TV is the limited amount of programming available.

I1:)
 
Re: Hd Tv?

LG & Samsung where highly recomended . I read this in a magazine from an electronics show.Stay with a reputable brand and a company that will be around a long time.
 
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