You can also check out home theater magazine websites for reviews. They don't always have a lot of reviews on line, but you can get an idea of what is good, not so good, what to look for, etc. Check out:
www.guidetohometheater.com
www.hometheatermag.com
There are also some TV specific magazines, but I don't know their websites off hand. I believe there is one magazine called Widescreen Review. I actually just pulled up their website (I love high speed internet!). It is:
www.widescreenreview.com
Looks like they have a subscriber and non-subscriber site, so it may not be a whole lot of help depending on how they split things up. Like stated before, check out audioreview.com, but take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes I don't find on there a review for a specific model I am looking for, or one review of someone bitching about it. Just like cars, you will always find someone who has that model and doesn't like it, and they are ususally the people who write and complain. I would probably stay away from plasma due to cost/size ratio. I might even shy away from LCD because it is still relatively new and still fairly expensive, plus issues with black levels, etc.. I think right now DLP is all the rage and prices are coming down. I bought my 48" widescreen Mitsu HDTV last year (actually an engagement present from the wife) for $1750 (it is a CRT display). At the time, the least expensive DLP was $2800, and it was a 42" Sony Wega. I think prices have gone down a good amount. The best piece of advice I can give - go to a reputable high end audio/video store and ask questions. Most of the time they are very helpful. You are taking chances at Best Buy/Circuit City, etc. because the person working there that day may not be the most knowledgeable or tryiing to push certain models. Prices at high end stores usually aren't much higher, and the people know what they are talking about (except in rare cases, but I won't get into that :ticked ). I have been dealing with the same guy for the past 4 years and bought roughly $5000 worth of audio/video from him. He gives me good deals, extra money off (5% off of sales prices), etc. We have built a good relationship and it pays off (for both of us). Well, hope this helps and sorry about the rambling.
-Neil
- depending on how much you want to spend, get a LCD or an LCD or DLP projection. Plasma suffers from burn in and they only last 7-10 years. LCD's can be as big as plasma but they cost a lot more. I have a 50" LCD projection from panasonic - it was 1999 and I got it one year same as cash - it has a ton of inputs, DVI, 2 rgb, 4 component and svhs. You can check out audioreview.com for comparisons and customer reviews.
