New TV's - Need Info

[Smokum]

Good points guys.

We have a Costco as well as a Sams Club close by, so those might be options but I am not currently a member of either place and I believe you need to be to get in don't you? Anyway, we have Best Buy and American TV as well. I will stay away from Walmart as I knew about the cheaper quality. They do that with a lot of things. I stay away as much as possible.

The DLP in the house now is a Samsung, and it seems to be good quality. The ones I've seen in the stores also appeared of good quality, but I didn't look that close. Vizio and LG also appeared that way, but I am not set on any brand yet.

Grizzly - The youtube and pandora are good points. That would be sweet to have on a TV. WiFi might become a necessity. Still not sold on 3D yet though. I need to check it out in person.

How does everybody determine the size. My thought is bigger is better, but do you lose any picture quality by going bigger?

 

[Josh2002cc]

Good points guys.

We have a Costco as well as a Sams Club close by, so those might be options but I am not currently a member of either place and I believe you need to be to get in don't you? Anyway, we have Best Buy and American TV as well. I will stay away from Walmart as I knew about the cheaper quality. They do that with a lot of things. I stay away as much as possible.

The DLP in the house now is a Samsung, and it seems to be good quality. The ones I've seen in the stores also appeared of good quality, but I didn't look that close. Vizio and LG also appeared that way, but I am not set on any brand yet.

Grizzly - The youtube and pandora are good points. That would be sweet to have on a TV. WiFi might become a necessity. Still not sold on 3D yet though. I need to check it out in person.

How does everybody determine the size. My thought is bigger is better, but do you lose any picture quality by going bigger?

Walmart sells Vizio, same stuff IDK?? Sams membership is $30.00 a year...go for it.

 

[Forever]

I found this link today that was pretty cool. It seems to have alot of information. http://www.televisioninfo.com/?su-2

 

[fajitatone]

How does everybody determine the size. My thought is bigger is better, but do you lose any picture quality by going bigger?

No loss in quality. My 55 is INSANE. Used to have a 50 rear projection in the same place. There is sooooooo much more picture. The black levels look great. I have a calibrated 46" TVLogic LCD monitors at work that cost $10,000.00 and my 55 Samsung looks better to me, for a 10th the price.

There are times that the picture looks a little TOO real, like looking in a window. But I have gotten used to it.

In any case, good luck in your search. The best TV is the one YOU think looks best to YOU.

 

[dmaxdaddy]

extended warranty

I have a 50 inch plasma. I have had for about 4 years or so. I purchased the ext. warranty for it. About 3 weeks after the original warranty was out we had issues with it. They had to replace the main board in the back of the tv. The repair man said it was about a $800-900 replacement cost. It worked well for about another year and then it would not turn on. We would have to unplug the unit and wait for about 5 minutes before it would turn on. Same repair guy came out and said the ext. warranty company would contact me. They did and said it would not be cost effective to repair the tv. They wanted to replace it with a refurbished one although they did not have the exact same size and they didn't have any plasmas, only lcd. I said no and after some back and forth they cut me a check for the purchase price. Here is the crazy part, the problem has gone away. The tv has worked flawlessly ( knock on wood ) for well over a year. I'm not usually a big ext. warranty guy but I would have been smoked without it. My tv cost me the price of the ext. warranty ( $189). I would highly recommend it to anyone. Also, I asked the repair man when he was at my house what he thought the best brand was. (thinking I would need a new one and that's what i'd get!) He said that internally they have about 90% of the exact same components with small variations from manufacturer to manufacturer. So, I asked what brand he had and he said he had three different brands. Anyway, just my .02 cents. Good luck!

 

[MACKIN]

I'm on the Plasma wagon! Best TV I ever owned! I bought a Panasonic myself and the picture quality hands down is the best. Not happy about sound quality ,certainly my Sony LCD blows that away. If I was to buy another TV today it would be Plasma and only a Plasma. I don't get the whole heat thing ,ya it gets warm and the added cost to run it as in electricity use age who cares! Plus no matter the size they are hangable.

My nieces boyfriend is into all the newest greatest electronic gizmos and bought one of those LED TV's not sure of the brand nor have I seen it but he told me that any TV viewed other than HD is undesirable. We're also in agreement that 3D is over rated. For the amount of actual 3D television that is available and that you have to purchase glasses to view at this point isn't worth having one. Say your a family of five,you ,wife ,couple kids and a few friends over and what you gotta buy 8 pairs of glasses at $200 bucks a pop to watch Jurassic Park as a example.

Theres a sucker born every minute they say!

Until the day comes that numerous channels are in 3D and possible technology comes where you don't need goggles to view ,if that will even be possible, then perhaps I'd bite but for now I'll stick to 2D.

 

[Smokum]

Thanks for the link Forever. I'll have to check that out closer when I get some free time.

The warranty thing never works that way for. I usually don't bother w/ them unless the are reasonably priced. I will definitely look into it though when I purchase.

The 3D is out for sure for me.

What do the hookups look like on the back of the TV's these days as far as audio/video ins and outs. Are there mutilples or have the switched to other types. I have a nice surround sound that I planned to continue using as I am happy with it and don't want to drop the coin for a new one this year.

 

[duratothemax]

I have to say Im still a sucker for the "rich" picture quality and deep blacks of a good old top-of-the-line tube...

No, they arent big, but there is something about a professionally calibrated high-quality CRT picture that even the newest flat panels cant match IMO. I guess kinda like how audio nerds say that a high-quality record player produces a richer sound than even the latest high bitrate digital audio equipment.

My own TV is a Sony 34" widescreen (so its 16:9, same format as the current flat panels) CRT with the "superfine pitch tube". They only made it for about a year IIRC, and it was their last ditch "pull out all the stops and make the CRT go out in style" effort at a tube TV before they switched to making only flat-panels.

Yes, its a fairly small screen, but the picture quality is so smooth and the blacks are so deep/dark that I just love the thing and will never get rid of it. It doesnt have that "artificial/enhanced" picture feel that the flat panels have. And because its a CRT, it looks good no matter what resolution source you are feeding it with. CRT's dont really have a native resolution like flat panels do, so if you are watching a source that doesnt exactly match the native resolution, the comb filters and de-interlacers dont have to do any crappy digital reformatting etc

Yet its not so old that it lacks video inputs...it still has component video input, HDMI, DVI, firewire, built in ATSC (over the air HD) tuner, optical audio input/output, and all of the other modern stuff that a current flat panel has. As far as I know, it was the only tube TV made that has HDMI inputs.

And it cost me less than 250 bucks used on craigs list.

 

[fajitatone]

high res/quality CRT monitors are not cheap either. HERE is an example.

Do YOU have $41k for a monitor (no tuner)?

 

[othrgrl]

From what I have researched, read, seen, and been told Samsung is pretty much the top TVs out right now and the other companies are constantly trying to catch up.

I"ve had a 650 series 46" LCD in my living room for over 3 years and moved houses twice with it without problems. My parents have the same TV in a 40", my wife's parents and her sister each have it in 52" - all with no problems. On Black Friday I bought a 55" Samsung LED like Fajitatone's for $1200 at Best Buy to go in our bonus room.

 

[ROGUE GTS]

just snatched a sharp 60le835 with 3D blue ray player for $1499 from frys, best deal I have seen yet on a high end 60" led. I didn't want the 3d but it was less than the 832 standard unit.

 

[rickettzusaf]

55" LED Samsung 6500 series. Bought it last year during Superbowl weekend. Have it in my living room. Had a 50" Plasma 720 tv before and the ex-wife took it. So I decided to upgrade. Night and day difference. Go LED. We just upgraded ours at work and got a 55" LED Samsung 6300. Even with a SDTV directv box it still has a better picture than our LCD we had before. I have an insignia 42" 720 plasma in my bedroom and my Samsung is much better picture.

 

[ripmf666]

I'm on the Plasma wagon! Best TV I ever owned! I bought a Panasonic myself and the picture quality hands down is the best. Not happy about sound quality ,certainly my Sony LCD blows that away. If I was to buy another TV today it would be Plasma and only a Plasma. I don't get the whole heat thing ,ya it gets warm and the added cost to run it as in electricity use age who cares! Plus no matter the size they are hangable.

My nieces boyfriend is into all the newest greatest electronic gizmos and bought one of those LED TV's not sure of the brand nor have I seen it but he told me that any TV viewed other than HD is undesirable. We're also in agreement that 3D is over rated. For the amount of actual 3D television that is available and that you have to purchase glasses to view at this point isn't worth having one. Say your a family of five,you ,wife ,couple kids and a few friends over and what you gotta buy 8 pairs of glasses at $200 bucks a pop to watch Jurassic Park as a example.

Theres a sucker born every minute they say!

Until the day comes that numerous channels are in 3D and possible technology comes where you don't need goggles to view ,if that will even be possible, then perhaps I'd bite but for now I'll stick to 2D.

The 3D TV's come with 2 sets and each set are 27.00 each for Samsung.

 

[MACKIN]

The 3D TV's come with 2 sets and each set are 27.00 each for Samsung.

Ya but are they the paper and plastic blue and red lenses like the ones they use to give you in school the throw out ones? :roflmao:


I know they have cheaper ones just I've seen them that high in price.