Thank you for your help. I do not have a large den; and I am afraid if I wall mount it; when dogs are out of crates pounding on door they will knock it right off the wall or hubby will. That’s 225 lbs of hubby and about 300 lbs of dogs. LOL No kids; so no worry there. There is some morning and afternoon light; but most of the light comes from lamps which can be bright; but they can turned off. I don’t like really dark; but hubby does and he watches it a lot; however buying a sectional so everyone can lay on it at same time. Might be viewing at angles if on sectional; however room is not a really large den; and it’s usually straight on right now. I would say about 6 to 8 feet from where we sit. Could be very wrong there. My electric bill is already outrageous and don’t wish to put more on it. Really want something that will upgrade to HDTV and have really good picture without paying a premium price which I did for my last tv and you can see what happened there. TV will sit on long chest which used to be a buffet. Bottom half. Anything out there with good warranty or they mostly the same.
Great information; you should be able to find something you’ll love well within your budget. You could get by with a 42” but as you can get a 50” Panasonic for under $1500 (if you click on the link from savedbygrace in post #133, you’ll find one of the highly respected internet dealers; the set on that particular web page, though, is above your budget, but if you click on the Panasonic brand link in the upper left corner of the page, it’ll take you to a page with other Pannys that are within your range). There’s a lot of debate as to whether Panasonic or Pioneer make the best affordable sets; I went back and forth before getting my Pioneer (which was the right size at the right price for me), but if I’d found a Panasonic dealer at the right size and price I would have been equally happy with that brand. Partisanship aside, they’re both terrific.
At your viewing distance, a 50” 720p set will look great, and the price premium over a 42” is pretty minimal. The good 1080p sets in the 42” to 50” range are too expensive right now (and the ones you can get under $1600 are not worth it); moreover, 720p is a high definition resolution under ATSC, so if you get HD programming with your satellite package you’ll be very pleased. Visual Apex also sells LCDs, as you’ll see on their site; unfortunately, though, even with the VA discounted prices, which are typically amongst the lowest in the business for authorised dealers, the good LCDs in the 42-50” sizes run over budget.
I understand your concern about wall mounting; however, if you look at the wall mounts next time you’re out shopping, I think you’d be surprised at how amazingly sturdy they are (as they should be - the good ones made by Peerless and Sanus run more than $100!). You’d actually have to knock down the wall to dislodge a properly mounted one - and if you or your husband know how to find wall studs and can handle simple tools, mounting is a 15 minute project. The TV is held by hefty bolts, and I’ve so far never heard of one that was correctly mounted falling off a wall. I’m only mentioning that because your enthusiastic pooches :-) might be more likely to tip over a TV that sits on a TV stand or table.
One other thing to mention, as your satellite box probably has an HDMI output, is that you would need to buy an HDMI cable to run from the sat box to the set. These are VERY expensive at places like Best Buy (they will charge you $100 without batting an eye!) - BUT you can get better cables for far less at pro sites like Monoprice, where professional broadcast standard (i.e., very high quality) HDMI cables will cost between $10 and $20, depending on the length you need. Much higher quality than Monster Cable, at 10% of the price, is a very good deal.