I for one welcome our new LCD overlords

Mar 7, 2008 at 12:28 PM
13 comments

Speaking of things to watch with eyes, I got a 360 and Rock Band this past weekend. So now I should probably get a TV.

Nick and Byrne suggested:

Deciding a price range.
Finding the most expensive TV with good sound in that price range.
Watching slickdeals or one's local equivalent for discounts on that model.

That seems like it'll take a while though. Given I strongly considered buying a TV from Best Buy when I got the other parts, does anyone have recommendations that might get me one sooner?

13 comments

Tags:

Comments

TV's are for video, not sound. I'd get a good 5.1 system from Onkyo for that; you'll probably end up needing the video switching capabilities anyway. Plus movies suck in stereo. I'd decide what kind you want first (LCD/Plasma/Projection) then get the best image/size for your price range.

I'd avoid BestBuy for large expensive purchases, they'll end up screwing you somehow, guaranteed. My dad just bought a huge-ass TV from Amazon, they had the best price and it was hand-delivered.

Yeah, I'd just like not to get an additional part if I can help it. Currently I get my movie experience on my iMac from across the room, so even with tv sound a tv would be some improvement.

I just got an Olevia 747i a couple weeks ago. TheNerds.net had a weekend promotion for $4 shipping on anything, which with no sales tax in CA translates to a pretty steep discount. So far it's great and though I've got it hooked into a 5.1 setup the builtin speakers have gotten good reviews. Only complaint is that the black level could be deeper, but I'm used to a trinitron CRT so that's to be expected.

A bit more than I was planning to spend (I was considering a cheap-o $1000 40" when I was at Best Buy), but looks super awesome!

Consumer Reports just did a big TV review in their March issue and almost all the TVs rated "very good" in sound quality. You aren't going to get awesome sound out of little speakers like that, but they should be adaquate for video games and movie dialog and sound effects. I wouldn't focus on the speakers too much, most of your user experience will be based around the picture.

If you don't already know, analog OTA TV is going away in '09, so make sure you buy something with a digital HDTV tuner (not just HDTV-ready) so it's future-proof.

So what's your desired price range or size? I could make some specific recomendations...

Oh, nice. Good to know I just have to avoid getting a tv with bad sound—and of course I can upgrade to a receiver later!

I was looking at a $1000 40" that I expected was bottom-end, so probably that with generous standard deviations.

These two rated very highly in their size range, both are right around $1K.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-LNT4053H-40-LCD-HDTV/dp/B000N50RXC/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204925145&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-REGZA-42HL67-720p-HDTV/dp/B000MY39HK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204925362&sr=1-1

[this is good]

(in other news, congrats on the 360 and Rock Band!)

+1 everything Henry said, except you don't need to worry about having a built-in HD tuner unless you're actually going to get your TV over the air (as opposed to cable or satellite).

Probably above your range, but I freaking LOVE my Sony Grand Wega, which is a 42" rear-projection LCD. I think I paid $1700 for it through buy.com about three years ago.

Rear-projection LCD is good. You get the great quality of LCD, but since it's projected, it's not as expensive as actually making a gigantic LCD. The down side is that after many hundreds of hours of viewing, the lamp should burn out, and they're a couple hundo to replace.

Plasma is dead. Don't get plasma.

That is all the advice I have for you. Go forth, young man. I will see you on XBL.

Get a LCD at Costco. The prices are the best you'll find and their return policy is grand, if anything goes wrong on it.

In the last five years I've been through three plasmas - each of them crapped out or had noise or display issues. I'll never buy another plasma. Go with LCD.

Go to Costco! Costco will let you bring it back with zero hassle if you don't like it, or if there is an issue.

Please don't go to Best Buy. They have screwed so many people.

I'll definitely look for LCD over plasma!

I was at Fry's today, also just looking, and liked the Samsung LNT4056 (like the first one Henry pointed out on Amazon, but 1080p). I got a different sense of the sizes there than at Best Buy, though, and I think I would spring for the 46" model (Fry's had it for $1700 IIRC, right around Amazon's current $1750).

I'm not already a Costco member. Is it still worth going? Will they have the same items as Costco.com? This 47" Philips looks OK, and they list it for only $1500, but I don't see much else exciting on their site.

I am of course totally biased but Sonys are awesome. The XBRs aren't really that much better than the normal Bravias though (the only major feature they have that the normal Bravias don't is MotionFlow, which IMO you should turn off anyway since it makes everything look very cheap and video-gamey). Of course they're a bit more spendy than the equivalent Samsung.

Also, I have a Samsung at home (I bought it before I became a Sony shill) and it's quite nice. The only thing I dislike about it is that it's only 8bpc, unlike the current midrange/top-end ones which are all 10bpc, but that really doesn't make a difference unless you have a lot of xv.ycc sources (which I don't, and really I'm not sure the few that I do would really be improved that much).

I for one welcome our new LCD overlords

Comments

Post a comment

About Me

One link to my other sites

Neighborhood

Tags