Can somebody point me to the TV buying discussion thread?

[stevew]

I'm probably not as picky as most. And there's probably no way I can touch a 1080p projector.

[CU Tiger]

Yeah you are getting to the size where it will really become apparent to even a non-picky eye.

That said I hate projectors...always have.
Hell even the new movie theaters look like shat to me.

[MJ4H]

Ordered this tv last week. Great price, good size. Looking forward to it arriving sometime this week.

46" Sceptre LCD HDTV, 1080p, X460BV-FHD - Walmart.com

[gstelmack]

Bought my 55" Panasonic ST-30 Plasma yesterday. Target had it on sale for $1000, which is the best price I've seen it since starting to watch just after Christmas. No one else seemed to be running Super Bowl sales on it. Got it home and set up, avoided the hernia when moving the 200 pound 34" Sony CRT it was replacing. The TV is absolutely beautiful. I loved that it asked if I was using it for home or a store demo before running, and set the brightness and contrast to much more reasonable levels when I picked "home". I'm getting some saturation / lost detail with bright red bits, and losing detail in deep blacks, but otherwise the picture is gorgeous. I'll run through the basic bits of the Disney WOW Blu-Ray to see if I can clean up those 2 issues.

Looking forward to the Super Bowl this week...

[MacroGuru]

Bought this

E470VLE | VIZIO

Last week from Walmart, on sale and I can not complain..it is almost to big for my apartment living room. But it is nice having functioning HDMI again for Satellite and XBOX360.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Bought this

E470VLE | VIZIO

Last week from Walmart, on sale and I can not complain..it is almost to big for my apartment living room. But it is nice having functioning HDMI again for Satellite and XBOX360.

Not a bad price, part of me really wants to get a 52" 3d, all the good stuff- but really I don't think I'd use that, and 52 might be to big for the room it's in. This one has me thinking now- looks pretty nice for what I need. Right now I have a 42" DLP from 2005, and the picture just isn't that great anymore.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Here's a 55" 1080p for $600 at Target right now............

55" Westinghouse VR-5525z 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV $599 + Free Shipping - Target Deals, Coupons and Promos

[stevew]

"store" mode generally defaults back to settings if they are changed. You definitely won't want that.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Doug5984

Not a bad price, part of me really wants to get a 52" 3d, all the good stuff- but really I don't think I'd use that, and 52 might be to big for the room it's in. This one has me thinking now- looks pretty nice for what I need. Right now I have a 42" DLP from 2005, and the picture just isn't that great anymore.

It's about 580$ right now at Walmart, It was on sale for 568 when I bought it. It is the perfect size for my room...I honestly think anything lager would take over the room.

[Carman Bulldog]

I picked up this 51" Samsung plasma for $469 on a Boxing Week sale, although I'm not scheduled to physically get it until this Friday (right in time for the Super Bowl). Felt it was a pretty good price.

What is the latest on having to do an initial hundred hour run to prevent burn in? Is that all in days of the past or is it still recommended?

[stevew]

I wouldn't bother, but I would make sure that the complete screen is filled with content(no black bars) for awhile

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Ordered this tv last week. Great price, good size. Looking forward to it arriving sometime this week.

46" Sceptre LCD HDTV, 1080p, X460BV-FHD - Walmart.com

Set this up Monday night. Spent some time fiddling with the picture settings last night and am now extremely happy with it.

[stevew]

Is there any rule/pricing method to determine how much to sell a used TV for? I would like to upgrade to a 60" panny, but should probably sell my 42" one first. Wife probably won't sign off on a grand, but probably on 6-700 if I get a few hundred for selling the other one.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I just did something really stupid & bought this:
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...umber=NSX40GT1

Can I afford it? No. But I'm currently watching a 19" tv I dumped in my mom's basement a few years back when I updraded. Had to leave that 110 lb Sony in NYC when I moved. Watching the 19" Zenith has been painful... This thing looks great! (Too bad it won't be here before Sunday...) At Target.com it is $569 right now

[stevew]

Nice. I have the 24" version of that and it is pretty sweet. Especially since the new google tv upgrade.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

42" TV for $330.

42" Sharp LC42SV49U 1080p LCD HDTV $330 + Free Ship To Store - Best Buy Deals, Coupons and Promos

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

42" TV for $330.

42" Sharp LC42SV49U 1080p LCD HDTV $330 + Free Ship To Store - Best Buy Deals, Coupons and Promos

Not really relevant to that TV- but I love slickdeals. Have gotten more than a few "great buys" using that website.

[sterlingice]

If not for the horrible, horrible ethics of most of their members, I'd be a lot better with them

SI

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

If not for the horrible, horrible ethics of most of their members, I'd be a lot better with them

SI

Very true

[CU Tiger]

HH Greg is doing a select market SB deal.
60" Panny plasma TCP60S30 for 899....smoking deal imho.

Grabbed 2 tonight

[stevew]

Trying to get my wife to let me do that. I'm sure it misses a few features of the "better" panny models. But I don't care.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by stevew

Trying to get my wife to let me do that. I'm sure it misses a few features of the "better" panny models. But I don't care.

Yeah no 3d, no built in apps (beyond the veirra stuff) and has the B grade screen coating not the gold...but its a quality set. Its got the expected (old) Panny blacks, handles glare like you'd expect, blah,blah,blah.

Thing is Panny puts more thought and innovation into their packing box than other manufacturers do into their set.

[stevew]

I managed to broker a deal for my older 42S1(or S2) 1080P panny so I was able to get a 60" for 898 at Wally world. Total upgrade is like 600 bucks after selling the older one. It's going to a good home as well. Probably won't unbox it for a week or so, right now I have nowhere to put it. And nothing strong enough to hold the weight.

[stevew]

Average power consumption for my 2009 42s1- 173 Watts.
Average power consumption for the 2011 60S30- 139 Watts.

That's kind of crazy.

[JediKooter]

At that rate, they'll be down to almost under 100 in 2 years.

[GrantDawg]

Alright, any advice on fixing vocal sound quality on a flat screen? I am going insane trying to watch movies, and having to turn the sound to max to hear people talking just to have my ear-drums blown out when music or sound-effects happens.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Alright, any advice on fixing vocal sound quality on a flat screen? I am going insane trying to watch movies, and having to turn the sound to max to hear people talking just to have my ear-drums blown out when music or sound-effects happens.

I have this problem a lot, it seems to be somewhat of a problem with the movies themselves. But having a 5.1 speaker setup helps a lot, where you can have a separate center channel that voices go to, and depending on the receiver an opportunity to boost it or whatever.

But then again nothing will overcome some movie deciding the score is most important, or having the main actor whisper a lot...

[stevew]

Depends on the TV model, but it's probably worth experimenting with different presets. AVSforum probably has a thread on your specific model that might be worth searching thru

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by stevew

Depends on the TV model, but it's probably worth experimenting with different presets. AVSforum probably has a thread on your specific model that might be worth searching thru

+1

but like said the stock speakers suck and a good A/V r will solve mosyt of this,

[gstelmack]

Solve most but not all. Was re-watching Sherlock Holmes last night, and it's amazing how much louder the music is than everything else, even the special effects. And it doesn't help that Holmes is played as soft-spoken. Compared to, say, Jurassic Park where with the same setup you can hear everything just fine.

[Hoya1]

just bought this LG 60" 1080p 600Hz Plasma for my basement.
picked it up for $899 plus the kid gave me $60 off the price and even gave me 2 yrs free service agreement. So far it looks pretty good!

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Ordered this tv last week. Great price, good size. Looking forward to it arriving sometime this week.

46" Sceptre LCD HDTV, 1080p, X460BV-FHD - Walmart.com

Our 46" Sony is taking hours to warm up enough to rid itself of ghosting images on the screen, only 3.5 years old too.. never again Sony! I've figured out it's the LCD board, which is more than the TV is worth. When it works, we love it..

Anyway.. found this 50" TV at Walmart and even though it has only 6 reviews, all of them are 5*, so for $500 I'm thinking about picking it up this week.

Walmart.com: Sceptre 50" Class LCD 1080p 60Hz HDTV, X505BV-FHD: TV & Video

How has your Sceptre been?

[sabotai]

Quick question.

Am I going to notice any difference between 1080p and 720p on a TV that's around 30"? I'm finally ditching a TV in the bedroom (old CRT) and ~30" is all that will fit on the desk. I'm wondering if spending more for 1080p would be worth it.

EDIT: According to what I was able to google, it might be. Close up (playing video games), apparently the difference is clear. So I guess 1080p it is.

[CU Tiger]

27" the differentiation length is ~ 3'. IF you sit closer than 3' to the screen then yeah you may notice a difference.

That is if they were side by side.
AT 40" you literally couldnt pick which is which assuming both were tuned properly, cable and signal quality equal etc.

[CU Tiger]

Spectre is another multi china TinbAwn.
Westinghouse, Spectre, Sylvania, and any of a dozen store brands'

[sabotai]

720p it is....went to the closest store (Walmart...should have taken my camera...) and they only had one 1080p with all the bells and whistles I didn't care about (3D). I really didn't feel like heading to another store (started getting a migraine and was going to probably get 720p anyway) so I grabbed the Samsung 32" they had and got out of there.

27" the differentiation length is ~ 3'. IF you sit closer than 3' to the screen then yeah you may notice a difference.

Only when I play Xbox 360, the maybe I'm around 3 feet away. Otherwise I'm on the bed a good 8 feet away, maybe more. And if I don't like what it looks like, I'll just keep using my computer monitor for the 360.

(5 minutes later)

Just gave it a test run. Looks plenty good to me and there's no way I'll be sitting within 3 feet of this TV.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Just gave it a test run. Looks plenty good to me and there's no way I'll be sitting within 3 feet of this TV.

Yeah, 99% of the population wouldn't be able to see the difference between the 1080p60 & 720p60 models side by side with the same content & appropriate settings on a TV that size (or even 50"+ in some cases).

And don't feel bad about any other bells & whistle "image enhancement" features. I turn as many of them off as possible.

[stevew]

I always thought it would be cool if the evil Spectre organization from the Bond movies had given up on terrorism and switched over to making TVs. Or if the Spectre organization made all these TVs in an attempt to gain market share and then flip the switch to turn them into mind control agents.

[lungs]

What's the biggest, baddest, TV $3000 can get you?

My old 65" Hitachi rear projection TV has the ESPN logo permanently burned into the corner. I'd like to reward myself for being debt free (next month after I pay last of student loans off) by blowing a bunch of money on a new TV. Budget is a soft $3000.

[stevew]

I think you could get the highest trim Aquos for that money in 70", but the 80" is like >4000. I think that's possibly overkill on the budget, you can get nice stuff in the 2000 range.

[lungs]

No kids, no wife/girlfriend means I'm free to bust my own budget if I want

[stevew]

Oh, in that case spring for a 70" and surround it with 4 32's

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by lungs

No kids, no wife/girlfriend means I'm free to bust my own budget if I want

How much room ya got?

Amazon.com: Mitsubishi WD-92840 92-Inch 1080p 3D Projection TV: Electronics

[CU Tiger]

3k will get you a 70" sharp aquos quattron 240hz at costco right now
And I mean really, its as good as anything you'd want.

If it were my money ID save a few $$$ and go for the non 3d version.
Thats 2300 at bestbuy

[gstelmack]

As the proud, couldn't-be-happier owner of a 55" ST30, I highly recommend the Panasonic Viera Plasmas for picture quality, gaming latency, and all the other bells-and-whistles. So with a $3K budget I'd get:

Amazon.com: Panasonic VIERA TC-P65VT50 65-Inch 1080p Full HD 3D Plasma TV: Electronics

[MizzouRah]

Don't waste your money on anything over 120hz and seriously.. don't spend money on a big brand name without doing some serious research. Fuck Sony, don't waste your money on a Sony TV either.

When I was in the market for a 3D TV, the Panasonic Vera was by far the best, imho.

I'm going really cheap this time though. I'm still pissed after 3 years, I wasted $2000+ on this TV and it's shit unless you wait hours for it to warm up and work.

[cartman]

I've had the exact opposite experience with Sony TVs. I currently have 4 at the house, a 14 year old 36 inch Grand Wega tube TV, an 8 year old 42 inch rear projection (KF-42WE610), a 4 year old 46 inch LCD (KDL-46XBR5), and a 6 month old 55 inch LCD (XBR-55HX929). I've had zero issues with them. I'm sure I'm going to have to replace the projection bulb at some point in the 8 year old TV, but it is still running strong.

[MizzouRah]

I have 3 Sony tube TV's, one is 20 years old.. in fact, and all them have been great. My 46" Sony LCD HD TV however has limited time left and it's just over 3 years old. Sony told me it would cost more to replace the LCD board then it would to buy another TV. Sucks and gives me a sour taste for any might have been future purchases. It started to get lines on the left side, but would go away about 15 minutes after it was turned on. Flash forward to about 4-5 months.. it now has bad ghosting images on the left side upon switching it on and takes anywhere from 1 hour to 4-5 hours to clear up. When I researched that issue, seems like many with Sony Bravia TV's are having similar issues. It's too bad, because when it works, it has a beautiful picture.

Seems to me like I'd rather gamble on a $500 TV and if that happens, throw it in the garbage.. it's going to hurt to have to do that with this TV that cost me $2000.

[CU Tiger]

I was a Sony Premier dealer for 5 years. I dropped the line in 08, because frankly their quality control had gone to shat. Very hit or miss. In 1 years time we had 17 bad out of the box, no powers. Thats 17 out of ~45. And no they were not concurrent serials, they were dispersed through an entire year.

That said I know plenty on the 15+year range.

For my money you cant beat a panny plasma, but plasmas aren't for everyone. But yopu can get a 60" Vierra non 3d for sub $1500...thats what Id buy and what I did buy 3 of in January.

Id disagree strongly with MizzouRah on the 120hZ deal, if you are getting into the 60+" range it will make a difference. Especially with the processor difference, maybee more so than the actual screen refresh.

[MizzouRah]

There is too much made out of Hz and with today's tv's, 60hz sets are fine. I'm not expert though, so maybe at 60" and beyond, it is noticable. Remember, the source footage is never greater than 60hz.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379206,00.asp

Do You Need Super-Fast Refresh Rates?
When flat-panel HDTVs were in their infancy, they suffered from motion blur. LCDs in particular tended to display distinct blurriness during very fast on-screen movements because of "ghosting," or the afterimage left after the image on the screen has changed. LCD technology has progressed a great deal over the past several years, and now ghosting and motion blur have been all but eliminated. If you've purchased an LCD HDTV in the last two years, it probably won't show noticeable blur at its standard 60Hz refresh rate.
Tastes can vary, and you might enjoy the potential judder-reducing, motion-smoothing effects of an HDTV with 120Hz or 240Hz modes. But they don't add any actual detail to the video, and they certainly shouldn't be considered dealbreakers when you're shopping for an HDTV. Even if you get a set that supports 120Hz or 240Hz (or even 480Hz or 600Hz) video modes, you might want to disable them, and watch the video without any interpolation or judder-reducing effects.