Advice for a first-time HDTV buyer

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lunatic_pandora

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A few of my friends and I are considering buying an HDTV for our apartment when we go off to college (6 months - and counting!). We are looking for an HD in the $1000 - $1200 range and we need some advice on what would be a good buy. Anyone have any recommendations?
 
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Yeah be sure the screen isnt reflective of any light or it will hinder you viewing. I personaly am a Samsung person. HDMI screen size and picture is what you need to look for. I suggest going to Best Buy or somewhere and find the TV you want and go on www.nextag.com and watch the prices on it.
 
is it cheaper to get the hd ready and get a top box, or just get the built in? how do i avoid sets that are likely to burn out?
 
[quote name='dracula']is it cheaper to get the hd ready and get a top box, or just get the built in? how do i avoid sets that are likely to burn out?[/quote]

Get one with a built in tuner. LCDs usually have 50,000-60,000 hours of life, plasmas are lower but when you do the math its still years of use.
 
my recommendation is to go LCD, and not DLP. DLP ones burn out...and cost like 200+ each time to replace, cept they last like 2-3 years.

Besides that...I'm not sure what to suggest. I have an Olevia 37", and it looks great...I can tell you that much. :)
 
I got a 1080p 32" Sharp Aquos for $899 from Dell on-line. Aside from shipping being a little scary, the TV works perfectly and my 360 games look amazing on it. Don't get a 720p set. Only get a 1080p set. Anybody who says that doesn't matter doesn't know what they're talking about. And remember, standard TV broadcasts won't look great unless you get HD cable or Direct TV HD or whatever.
 
[quote name='bpetestrange']I got a 1080p 32" Sharp Aquos for $899 from Dell on-line. Aside from shipping being a little scary, the TV works perfectly and my 360 games look amazing on it. Don't get a 720p set. Only get a 1080p set. Anybody who says that doesn't matter doesn't know what they're talking about. And remember, standard TV broadcasts won't look great unless you get HD cable or Direct TV HD or whatever.[/QUOTE]

360 games are natively 720p. But even if they were 1080p, you couldn't tell the difference on a 32-inch set unless you were viewing it at arm's length.

If you've got the scratch, spring for an ambilight set. College girls love bright neon lighting effects. ;)
 
I would get the infocus 4805. I have one and it kicks ass. The image is awesome and its HUGE. I got mine about a year ago for less than $800
 
Well I recently purchased a Panasonic TC-LX32700 and it is amazing. Perfect size for college, 120Hz refresh rate and 360 looks amazing. Only HD sources i've seen are a few football games from local networks and it is amazing! I got it last week on sale at Best Buy for $900 plus a coupon and stuff and got a really good deal.
Just throwing a quality set out there.
 
[quote name='Slinky2397']Well I recently purchased a Panasonic TC-LX32700 and it is amazing. Perfect size for college, 120Hz refresh rate and 360 looks amazing. Only HD sources i've seen are a few football games from local networks and it is amazing! I got it last week on sale at Best Buy for $900 plus a coupon and stuff and got a really good deal.
Just throwing a quality set out there.[/quote]

I'm guessing you mean the Panasonic TC-32LX700.

I know nothing of the TV, just correcting you so that it's easier to find what you're talking about.
 
[quote name='Dro']You can get '42 Panasonic Plasma for $850 here.
http://dealnews.com/lw/artclick.html?2,204377,496819[/quote] i picked up that tv during black friday. It looks and works great, was worried about the whole image retention/burn-in issues with plasmas but with common sense, it shouldn't be a problem. Theres always some sort of image retention after gaming and will dissapear with normal tv show viewing
 
goto costco, they had a 61 inch panasonic 1080p rear projection screen with stand for 1249.99 with the added costco warranty best buy for the money that i found and had a 5 year warranty on the lamp. was either that for a 1080p lcd that was 42to 47 inches

it was something like 1 of these

http://www.nextag.com/61-inch-dlp-television/search-html

costco 1 had 3 hdmi ports also and a SD card ready for picture display
 
everyone will say that theirs is a best. I like mine and its not listed in this thread (sony bravia s3000)

When buying a lcd screen look for a few things.

How dark is the darkest dark? (note look at the wide screen black bars and compare it to other sets.) the darker the set, the more vibrant night time videos look.

also check to see what one has the most detail in shadows. Its common for detail to be list on dark clothing or night shots.

check to see how bright the brights are on the set. You want to make sure that you can get a decent dark with lots of contrast without loosing bright whites, while at the same not sacraficing picture quality. some sets cheat and use filters to make the image quality seem like it has a more contrast then it does by sacraficing steps between the darks and the lights.

check the flesh tones and make sure they are not too flat. Humans have a very subtle color too them, and you want to make sure its producing that.

Alot of these things are hard to see if your just looking at your set alone. Go to a best buy or circut city so brows the tvs, even if you don't intend to buy it their.

how well does it view sd content? This was important to me. it might be to you.

With that said, don't go with a cheaper set for its size, you get what you pay for.
 
[quote name='bpetestrange']I got a 1080p 32" Sharp Aquos for $899 from Dell on-line. Aside from shipping being a little scary, the TV works perfectly and my 360 games look amazing on it. Don't get a 720p set. Only get a 1080p set. Anybody who says that doesn't matter doesn't know what they're talking about. And remember, standard TV broadcasts won't look great unless you get HD cable or Direct TV HD or whatever.[/quote]

I agree with getting a 1080p set. Even though most TV broadcasts are not in 1080 someday they will be. Don't forget Blu Ray and HD DVD are 1080p signals along with PS3 and some 360 games.
 
panny 42" 700u (the one i got)....amazon has it for $1399 last I knew with free shipping and no tax


i bought mine from invision displays for $1500 shipped no tax two months back, it might be even cheaper than amazon

its been widely picked as the best tv at its size, and also is the tv that holds its resolution the best with moving pictures (comparison the best: the 700u plasma held 880 out of 1080, where as the best lcd the sony xbr4 only held 600 out of 1080)


plasma's still offer better size per inch in price and picture quality, just keep settings low for the first 100-200 hours and you'll be good to go, panny and pioneer are the best plasma's, id stay away from anyone else as they tend to have actual burn-in or more prominent image retention problems

to compare, i played super paper mario (a bright game) for about 6 hours straight one night on my tv after "breaking it in" and didnt even notice any IR (a stuck image that will disappear after watching some other moving content)


two things will hold true no matter what though when it comes to tv's (not talking PQ really here either), bigger is better you'll understand when you don't get the smaller tv(s) you are considering and that you get what you pay for (get a cheap brand expect a worse picture, shit customer support, and problems with the product itself)


three companies known to be good with customer service and quality in every aspect are panasonic, pioneer and sony, tv's, specifically HDTV's are one area where the big boys still hold their pull


check avsforum.com for opinions from people who own tv's there, people there own all ranges of hdtv's, just watch out as like anywhere they have idiot fanboys who jump into threads to bitch


dont impulse buy either....RESEARCH!
 
I got a 32" toshiba regza, remember to pick the contrast rate you're comfortable with like someone already said(how dark are the darks and how bright are the brights), it would be best to find the model you want, then check it out in a store of some sort, and look at it at different angles and see how it feels, and 1 last tip i would give is that its better to get a good quality named brand tv rather then a low quality store brand for cheaper. anything from samsung, sony, panasonic, sharp, etc. because i work in retail and i see alot of people just going for the cheap price and forgetting about the quality, which is a very big mistake. and about 720p or 1080p i'd say try to go for a 1080p if your budget allows, otherwise if you have a 32" or under 720p should be fine because 1080p isn't gona make too much difference in a smaller sized screen, but if you get something like 37"+ 1080 should be a must. also try to look for a good refresh rate and response delay.
 
also don't go by contrast numbers and assume that means the one with higher numbers has a better picture, dynamic ratios don't have a standard measurement, which is why everyone's are different


static contrast ratio is the only one with a universal standard, and since companies can easily inflate dynamic ratios (cough samsung) they do, a lot of other companies have followed suit to try to compete in the crap numbers business (which is also why you don't really see static ratio numbers anymore)




also play with settings in stores, any tv is set on torch mode, which is unrealistic and nothing you'd watch it in at home, lcd's are the worst offenders with this, with having bright backlights and the ability to brighten their pictures even more than RPTV's (DLP/SXRD/etc), PDP's (plasma's), etc they use it to grab attention, but holy shit you use anything close to store settings on an lcd at home and not only will it look ridiculously unrealistic and bad, it'll kill your eyes if you watch it for any length of time



its a big purchase, so ill say it again, research!
 
Stay away from any TV that says SOVA.
Yes they maybe low price, great inputs, but no universal remote will ever work, and if you get dust between the glass and the LCD throw it away.
 
[quote name='T3ntman']you cant go wrong with a 32" olevia 720p hd. you can usually find them for around 400 or so.[/QUOTE]

Damn straight! I've had the same TV for about 10 months now, and it is the best 600 dollar purchase I've ever made.
 
[quote name='bpetestrange']I got a 1080p 32" Sharp Aquos for $899 from Dell on-line. Aside from shipping being a little scary, the TV works perfectly and my 360 games look amazing on it. Don't get a 720p set. Only get a 1080p set. Anybody who says that doesn't matter doesn't know what they're talking about. And remember, standard TV broadcasts won't look great unless you get HD cable or Direct TV HD or whatever.[/QUOTE]
I'm thinking of getting a 32" Aquos as well, it would be nice to see my PS3 games and Blu-ray movies in 1080p.
 
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