Posted on 07/18/2007 7:55:12 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Okay, I am going to spend some of my mad money for a large screen HDTV. I want either a LCD or Plasma TV, no projection tv's. I want 1080p resolution. I'll have around $2000 to spend. What I need is advice on what is good, what sucks, what breaks, what keeps on working, plasma tv life expectancy, etc.
Hit me!
Ouch. I’ve been watching HD for 7 years now. Balt/Wash area.
you can go to http://www.projectorcentral.com/ for some good info and reviews. We love movies and decided to go the Home Theater Projector route. I have a Panasonic projector and Oppo upconverting DVD player. The 720p images projected on the 133” screen are gorgeous.
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LOL!
Rock on!
I prefer LCD over Plasma. I bought a 42” Sceptre thru Costco and have been happy with it. A plasma TV will give you headaches with the reflections on the screen, if it’s facing a window. If it’s generally in a dark room, it may not be too bad.
The price is more like $200 - $220 on line and replacement is simple. Remove on screw on acces panel. Lift of panel, unplug bulb assembly (Bulb is in a metal frame) and plug in new assembly. Replace cover and screw. Turn on TV. 3 to 4 minutes of intense labor.
I bought the Toshiba 57HM167 on Fathers Day from Sears, good luck finding one but its been the best set I have owned, its HDMI, 1080P its a DLP and Toshiba isn’t making any more DLPs but instead LCDs. Picture quality is amazing and I paid less than $1400 for a 57” widescreen with all the bells and whistles.
Keep in mind currently TVs are in a technological flux of new types and are evolving rapidly, even what was new 5 years ago is being phased out. LED DLP is a hot item, LCD is getting bigger and Plasma getting cheaper. Buy it like a computer and figure if its up to date it costs too much and if its affordable its obsolete. I would say 5 years from now you will think about changing again to bigger or better anyway, I passed a 65” Mitsubishi because it was over $4,000 and thats way too much for a TV, a person can get a decent home 100” projector for half that.
I spotted this a few weeks ago when Costco sent out a book of coupons to its members. One coupon is for $200 off the above TV, effective August 20th through 26th. If you don't have a coupon you can buy one cheap on eBay.
From what I've been able to Google, this TV is expected to sell for around $2,200 (or $2,000 with the coupon). Vizio has an amazingly good reputation for a low cost leader. I've seen Vizio's 47" LCD TV on display at Costco, and it looks great. Most reviews I've read online sing Vizio's praises. And apparently their sales are skyrocketing.
I also trust Costco. Costco stands behind its products, and it offers extremely good quality at unbeatable prices.
So Monday morning on August 20th, when Costco opens its doors, I'll be there with my coupon to haul off this apparent bargain.
All TVs fade with time; always have, always will.
I've had my Sears CRT TV since 1987. No problems with fade whatsoever!
Thanks!
Sharp Aquos was (a few months ago at least) touted as the one to get.
You don’t have to switch through the inputs.Pinging the HDTV list...
My 60 inch Wega had by far the best picture available when I bought it in ‘04. It’s needed a replacement bulb once, but it made it good as new. The worst is anything by RCA.
I have the 42 and 47” LCD 1080p Westinghouse televisions, and I’ve been very pleased with them. They’re some of the cheapest on the market, but I’d gladly compare their picture quality with the more expensive brands. They also have a great variety of inputs (HDMI, 2 DVI, 2 component, one VGA, one S-Video, and your basic L/R RCA style input).
The Westinghouse sets don’t have a built in tuner, but since you’re looking for a 1080p set, I assume you have an HD cable box (that’s what I have hooked up to both of mine, and a variety of gaming systems/HD DVD players). For $2000, you could get either Westinghouse and still have enough left over to buy a Toshiba HD DVD player and maybe even a blu-ray player.
It hasn't happened in a while but I can find nothing else wrong with the TV.
Make sure you get a unit with plenty of HDMI inputs, which is fast becoming the standard digital input port. My 50 inch Sony LCD HDTV only has one HDMI input, which I have my cable box/DVR hooked up to. Now I can’t hook up my DVD/Home theater system, nor my Playstation 3, nor a DVD Recorder; they are hooked up through vastly inferior other connections (RCA cables, component).
I have a Sony 40" KDL 2500 1080p LCD in the and a 46" Sony Bravia LCD in the living room and I am able to lock out the unused videos so it will scroll only the active ones.
Both have been excellent and have made me very happy.
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