Posted on 08/28/2009 2:02:29 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
While HDTVs have been popular Black Friday items in the past few years, GottaDeal.com expects that this holiday season will be the a significant one for HDTV purchases by the average consumer. Prices have dropped this year more than any previous year, and with the digital TV transition now complete, a large part of the general public is looking to get a new HDTV, either as a primary or secondary television, and this Black Friday should provide an large number of deals. With HDTVs, quality can vary greatly from the cheaper to the more expensive units. In many cases, the lowest-priced models on Black Friday are stripped-down models made exclusively for that retailer's sale. In many cases they lack features and the quality components used to manufacture higher priced models. That doesn't necessarily mean that these deals aren't great - it's just a case of "buyer beware" as you should not expect $2,000 performance from a $500 HDTV.
The two primary types of flat panel HDTVs in the Black Friday ads will be LCD and Plasma. Plasma HDTVs tend to be cheaper going by cost per inch, but that is not always the case as there are some very high-end, highly rated plasma models out there. The maximum resolution of an HDTV is also something that you'll see in the ads. Most HDTVs will either be 1080p or 720p. These numbers represent the maximum lines of horizontal resolution that the TV can display at once. 1080p is the native resolution for things like Blu-ray, some video games and other sources, and being higher resolution means that these models will cost more.
LCD HDTVs can come with different refresh rates. As of a couple years ago, most models were 60Hz. Newer models are 120Hz or higher. Most consumers won't notice the difference between the different rates, although on some source materials such as movies shot on film, it can be somewhat noticeable. Newer technology such as LED-backlit HDTVs has hit the market, however it will likely be another year or two before these models get the full Black Friday discount treatment from retailers.
On to price predictions. Consumers should fully expect to see 42" plasma and HDTVs in the $399 to $499 range this year. During the last few months on GottaDeal.com, there have been posted deals for 42" HDTVs for under $600 in a few cases, so it's completely realistic to expect at least one retailer to have a deal under $400 on a lower-quality model. These cheaper HDTVs will likely be 720p and will lack features found in more expensive models. Prices on 50" plasma and LCD HDTVs should also fall this Black Friday, perhaps to somewhere around $599 to $699
At first you may think the picture looks wrong if you are used to an oversaturated, pumped backlight, high color temp, then you see some decent source material like HDtheatre Sunrise Earth, Science Channel HD, BBC: Planet Earth or sports with good cams like TBS and you go WOW.
Here's a rundown on calibrating: LCD TV Calibration
This may have been previously posted..
LVD
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News Digest
Black Friday: Blu-ray Players for $49?
TVPredictions.com
Washington, D.C. (October 26, 2009) — Blu-ray player prices have been falling steadily over the past year, with some now available for less than $150. But one research firm says you haven’t seen anything yet.
The NPD Group is saying that Blu-ray players might be available for as low as $49 on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that’s considered the unofficial opening of the holiday shopping season.
And the company says the discounted players will be the proverbial icing on the cake for what has been a surprisingly strong year for Blu-ray.
“We’ve seen very strong growth in Blu-ray players this year. It has been a bright spot in a very gloomy industry landscape,” says NPD’s Ross Rubin. “Nearly all other electronics device categories have been down, such as digital cameras and MP3 players.”
Rubin says that $99 Blu-ray players are a virtual certainty on Black Friday, but some retailers may drop the price to $49.
Only three channels?
What about the Dumont?
Thanks, Dave! I do appreciate .................... FRegards
He’s refreshing at about one “major speech” per day now? Can we take a higher refresh rate before the engines blow?
What we need now is for Blu-ray discs to get down to an average price of $14.99. :)
Netbook gravy train starts to slow as euphoria fades(what's your opinion?)
Do read beyond the title article....
New Smartphone thread:
Droid smartphone unveiled by Motorola, Verizon
Email and web browsing with texting capable....
Thanks LVD. Hey, I gandered at the LED tvs again, a nice display of three different models (all Samsung I believe) at the big box chain store. Also, before that, bought a $160 BluRay player at a warehouse club. I’ve got a cable around here to hook it to this monitor (Syncmaster 2253) but don’t know if I really want to do that tonight. :’)
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