Westinghouse LVM-37W3

[merkman]

Looking for my first LCD TV. Purchased a small condo, and the living room really doesn't have space for a TV stand, etc. So the plan is to mount an LCD on a arm above the fireplace, put a couch across from it, and have TV, movies, HD, and Xbox 360 all out in the front room.

After buying a Samsung 23" LCD TV at Costco on sale for $575, I've done more research. Almost got the 32" Viewsonic at Buy.com for $799, but I just had a feeling I should wait. Since then, I've explored the world of 1080p, and I think I'll be real sorry if I don't get such a set.

Looking at prices, reviews, and quality... the Westinghouse LVM-37W3 seems like a great way to go. But neither Best Buy OR Video Only have them in my area. I can find them online, but they are all basically $1400+ and obviously I can't see them in person first.

Reading dealnews.com, I see the LVM-37W3 was only $1200 at Best Buy back in May when it was 20% off. I'm thinking of waiting until they have such a sale again, and getting one at that time. Should leave me a chance to see one in person before too long.

Anyone here have one. seen one, or have an opinion on one? Thoughts would be appreciated.

Best wishes,

Merk

[stnkygrngo]

they are OEM'd crap dude. get a syntaxBRILLIAN unit if you go low budget. they are not OEM'd. BUT, DO NOT GET THE "3" series. Get the 537V. Its sweet and should be around the same cost as the westinghouse but with better specs, but it is not whored out on the internet.

If you can spring for a Sharp Aquos, the prices dropped, get that. THey have a QAM tuner and that means they pick up your neighbor's on-demand and HD channels. the only thing is you have to search for the channels, they usually get moved to wierd numbers, but dang is it sweet. we take one to hotels on road trips sometimes and you get EVERYTHING.

so if you can swing a unit with a QAM tuner, you can save a boat load of cash, now that is CAG at your finest!

[slvrdrgn123]

how do u know if u have a QAM tuner or not? i have an aquos in the dining room that we got a few months ago on sale. wuts a good way to search for channels? thx.

[stnkygrngo]

Check your manual. Im pretty sure all the aquos have a qam tuner that have an HD tuner (ATSC). hook it up wihout any cable or satellite box, then you should be able to search.

[slvrdrgn123]

cool thanks. ill give it a try later. hope my neighbors have HD so i can watch it, lol.

[stnkygrngo]

if not hd, you should be able to tune in their feed of on demand movies and any premium movie channels, as long as they are not encrypted, but odds are they arent, since the HD rage hasnt really taken off with actual subscriptions with cable companies yet. im in baltimore, free as a bird i say, FREE. now if the oriols would just win a fucking game.....

[roymustang]

A lot of people that think they know it all bash the Westy 37" LVM-37w3 but truth be told it's a very good set for the money. The w1 model was pretty bad but the w3 has fixed most of those issues and the latest firmware on these w3 models fixes some other small issues. If you check out some forums you'll see that most people are really happy with their w3. I planning on getting one soon, I have a friend who has one and dvd movies and 360 games look great on it. I also saw an HD-DVD being run on this monitor at a trade show and it was very impressive. This is one of the few 1080p monitors that actually supports 1080p input and it does this through HDMI, DVI and VGA so that's p[retty amazing. The Best Buy deal was good but if you think about it, $1200 was the price but you had to add 100 bucks for tax and they weren't doing free shipping then either so it was like 100 bucks for shipping and so it actually ran you $1400. You can order it from Buy.com right now for $1479, there's no tax (unless you live in CA I think) and there's free shipping so that's all you'd pay. I think it's the best monitor for the money for sure.