Best TV for $2,000?

June 10, 2007 | MississippiMasterpiece

[MississippiMasterpiece]

I've been setting aside money for a new HDTV and have about $2,000 to spend. Would appreciate any recommendations from Freepers that have made recent purchases. Obviously, I'd like the biggest screen for my buck, but am most interested in picture clarity.

[USMCWife6869]

Remember, if an online company, such as Best Buy or WalMart, has a brick and mortar store in the state of delivery, you will still have to pay sales tax.

I have been saving for a TV as well (to surprise hubby when he gets home), and I have decided to go with Samsung. Every Samsung product I have owned has lasted forever. I’m not overly concerned with TV shows for the HD, but my husband does play a lot of XBox, and we watch a lot of DVDs. I noticed you can get a DVD player now that converts regular DVDs to near HD quality.

[Lokibob]

First of all, thanks for YOUR service (and hubbys, of course). It is greatly appreciated.

LG is making some great products, too.

Have you shopped AAFES (www.aafes.com)? I’m assuming you are a military family. You can get free shipping and no tax on products.

.....Bob

[Daffynition]

You said it! A technophile acquaintance recommends this teevee above all other new models.

Like all this new technology, nothing is static, so it is difficult to decide, until you see it for yourself. UHDV is coming down the pike.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Pinging the list..

[reg45]

I have a 2 year old Panasonic 26in LCD TV. We don’t have the room or the money for anything larger. One of our favorite HD shows is “Sunrise Earth” — a must watch.

[buck61]

Would appreciate any recommendations from Freepers that have made recent purchases.

NO, but I can tell you what not to buy, a Sony.
My daughter purchased a Sony, 1-1/2 years ago, large screen with the extended warranty from Sears. It has taken them two months to repair the TV. The part that was bad!?/ they no longer produce it so, she had to wait for them to make it.
Sears tried to void the warranty, wanted them to purchase another TV. WHAT A CROCK!!!!!!!

[Hot Tabasco]

Check out some of Las Vegas Dave's postings on HDTV topics.......He's turned us on to some pretty good sites where you can get great info

Here is one for starters:

http://www.highdefforum.com/

[TruthWillWin]

First of all size does matter. Get the largest screen that your room can accommodate. For most in the widescreen format a 40" is too small. Most people when asked say they wish they would have purchased a bigger screen. 60 to even 70" is what I'd strive for unless your room is very small. -

The largest TV's at the best prices are the DLP. They are deeper than plasma and LCD but not near as deep as the old projection TV's. Unless you plan on mounting the TV on the wall the extra depth of a DLP should not matter.

[Poser]

Buy the new Vizio 47” LCD and use the extra $1,000 for a new Barcolounger, keg-fridge, hot dog steamer and a keg of Guinness.

Then, all you will need is one of those portable urinals and you won’t have to leave your chair all day.

[RichardW]

I’ve got a 60” Hitachi “Ultravision” that I purchased in 1995 and it has never missed a beat. Although it is not HDTV the picture quality is as good as one could get back then. Obviously it is obsolete today but until I find something as reliable and as good in HDTV I’m going to continue to watch this one until it stops working. But I need a minimum of 60” and 70” would be even better. I also agree about the Samsung LCDs. I have a 21 inch LCD computer monitor and it is the class of the field in my opinion. I can’t imagine what a 60” or 70” LCD HDTV would cost but that would be my choice if I had my druthers. But like most, I don’t have a clue to ask to get the right answers either.

[gondramB]

>>I would not pay $20 for a TV. What do you want to see? Baba WaWa? Perky Korupt? Dan Blather? Fancy Polozzzi? Stupid sitcoms? Alphabet garbage? Oh, I know, you lust for Rozy O DooDoo

There is nothing on TV worth two cents, much less $2000.<<

Really? We watch all kinds of history and science shows - with Hi def you get really current information and incredible pictures. There are all kinds of documentaries and biographies and sports... With DirecTV a dozen science and history channels and we get 30 sports channels and about that many movie channels.

Networks, yeah lots of crap there but we do watch House and Two and Half men with Charlie Sheen. And my wife likes Law and Order

Tivo/PVRs also change everything. For $5 a month you can record two programs all the time and ever how much TV you want to watch whether its 2 hours a week or 10 hours a dayyou can watch the nest stuff whenever you want.

Also new technology makes it easy to monitor multiple channels when some live news event is happening.

[LanPB01]

I have the Westinghouse 42 and 47” 1080p LCD sets. I would highly recommend them. Both are well under $2000, and you’ll have enough money left over to buy an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player.

[gondramB]

>>I've been setting aside money for a new HDTV and have about $2,000 to spend. Would appreciate any recommendations from Freepers that have made recent purchases. Obviously, I'd like the biggest screen for my buck, but am most interested in picture clarity.<<

I shopped for a couple of years and about a month ago I bought a Mitsubishi 57 inch DLP. Its not a flat panel like an LCD or a Plasma but the new Technology makes it only 18 inches deep.

A few years ago a projection TV like this would have weighed 300+ pounds. This new model comes in at 88 pounds.

For that kind of money you want a TV with a native resolution of 1920x1080 that fully supports 1080p hi definition. It should have HDMI inputs and to support protected Hi Def or Blu ray disks it needs to HDCP compliant.

If you play computer games or do movies or graphics on the PC, the presence of a DVI input will allow you to use it as the best computer monitor in the world.

This is the one I chose. The list price is down from the $3099 it was six months ago to $2500. Its frequently on Sale for about $1800. I bought an open box model at HH Greg for $1100. The stand is about $300 but I got mine open box for 90% off.

This is the review that convinced me. I didn't understand why the color looked so much better than other TVs until I read about Mitsubishi's use of 6 color guns instead of the the standard three (red, green blue).

Mitsubishi WD-57731 DLP Rear Projection TV

[gondramB]

>>I have the Westinghouse 42 and 47” 1080p LCD sets. I would highly recommend them. Both are well under $2000, and you’ll have enough money left over to buy an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player.<<

Westinghouse is a good choice too. This is not the American Westinghouse, of course, they are Koreans licensing the name but they produce better sets, particularly the screen itself than their prices would suggest. And you really do want 1080P native resolution. There is no other good choice than 1080p for the future.

[LanPB01]

The only issue with the Westinghouse is you have to remember it truly is just a big monitor; there is no built-in TV tuner. This shouldn’t be a problem for anyone considering a high definition set, though, since I assume most have cable boxes.

Another great thing about the Westinghouse sets (other than the great price) is the number of inputs. VGA, HDMI, 2 DVI, 2 component, and S-Video. It works great for people with multiple electronic devices. I have a PS3, XBox 360, Wii, and the cable box attached to my 42” set.

[Caipirabob]

I’d highly recommend a JVC HD-ILA...

I've had good experiences with mine.

I'd throw in that whatever you do, makes sure you get the extended warantee. These sets are good, but it's handy to have the insurance.

[gondramB]

Good points. The screen quality and the inputs are two most important features and Westinghouse excels at those. But the sets do lack bells and whistles. Westinghouse made a deliberate choice to concentrate on screen quality.

But like you say, most people will have cable or satellites and a PC and those will do pretty much everything for you that Westinghouse did not put in.

[gondramB]

>>The choice is clear: a Sony Bravia LCD TV. I have the 40” set and I’m very happy with mine. For $2,0000 you can’t go wrong with Sony. Its simply value for your HDTV dollars.<<

Sony was actually my first choice. But the 52 inch Bravia was $3,000 even on sale. By going Mitsubishi and DLP I got a much bigger set for much less money at nearly equal quality.

If I could have any TV in the world it would be a Sony, the Sony KDSR70XBR2 70” 1080P Grand Wega Sxrd XBR HDTV but then you are up to $4000 on sale (against a $6000 list).

BTW, I found Nextag.com very helpful at locating online pricing and Salescircular.com to be priceless for finding local deals. For example here is a search for TV’s 50-60 inches between $1550 and $1900.
http://www.nextag.com/Televisions—PRICE-1550-to-1900—a-Screen+Size-_-50%22+-+60%22—zz500014zB4z5-—html
You can narrow the search more if you like. For example that page tells you only one of those has a headphone jack.

For example here is a link that finds TVs 42 inches and larger on sale this week in Mississippi.
http://www.salescircular.com/ms/video/giantp.shtml

[gondramB]

One more thing and I'll stop bothering you.

Nextag has a really cool feature that helps figure out what a good price is for a model. I used this even though I decided I was only going to buy local so I could return it more easily.

[6SJ7]

Also new technology makes it easy to monitor multiple channels when some live news event is happening.

Cool! They showed that technology in the movie 'Back the Future - Part II'.