[Neener Neener]

I know many of you have them, and I am in the market. I have read consumer reviews on quite a few, but thought I would ask about your experiences. The Best Buy person told me the top 3 were Samsung, Sharp, and Sony. I was initially looking at LGs because the ones the wife and I have seen have had consistently good pictures. I was also considering a Vizio. We are looking at 32" and 37" sets and do not want to spend over $1000, and have found some really good deals on the 'net, as well. Right now the only things I will be hooking into it would be an Xbox 360 and digital cable. Some of the review I have read on several televisions talk about long delays when changing channels, dead pixels, and sounds issues, such a a "tinny" sound and the speakers not being loud enough. I know most of them are 720 p. There is one Sharp Aquos that is 1080p that got rave reviews. I have been told and read that I won't notice much difference between the 720 and 1080 with the 32" screen, though, unless it is a video game. Also, what is the difference between 1080i and 1080p?

[Elwood]

The way I understand it, the 1080I is "interlaced" where the 1080P is not which should make for a bit more pixelation when gaming or watching fast action. From what I have read, HDTV is broadcast in 720p currently. The difference you see today will be minimal if at all, but when all TV becomes digital, 1080p will be quick around the corner as the broadcast mode for HDTV making your 720p set now quite as good.

Of course, all this is in the eye of the beholder and a 720p set provides and will provide a phonominal picture. I say if you can get a great deal on one, get it!



All this is what I have been reading because we have also been looking at TV's for the new house. Not saying it is the gospel, so take it with a grain of salt. Maybe someone else who has a better handle on it will chime in soon.

[xxxflhrci]

I recently bought a 40" Polaroid 720p television at Walmart for 874 bucks. Sure, some electronics geek is gonna tell me all that is wrong with it, but is sure is an upgrade from the 13 year old 27" that I was watching.

[Dr. Righteous]

Here is a way to save big bux unless you have to have a huge screen.
You can buy a 22" LCD monitor that is HD capable for less than $200. All you need is a tuner. You can get a seperate HD tuner for around $100 or less.
For less than $300 you can have a HDTV with this method.

[abnormal]

I personally prefer samsung. If you look at the cheaper(under $1000) models you will see that the contrast ratio is lower compared to the higher priced models. You mentioned vizio... I looked at the contrast ratio of a vizio and it was 1200:1. My samsung is 10000:1. The difference is huge when you put the 2 tvs side by side. Makes for a much brighter, more defined picture. Try to get something with the highest contrast ratio that is in your $1000 price range but not below 5000:1. I would recommend this...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8423912&type=product&id=1182557417207

Or

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8249683&type=product&id=1169512288825

[PhilipJ]

Be wary when comparing the picture quality in-store. In most cases, you'll have dozens of TV's sharing an input signal which deteriorates with every split. Some stores will even adjust some of the video settings on the demos to make some models look better or worse than others (to benefit whatever model it is they have on sale and are trying to shove you out the door with).

I would agree with those 3 brands being among the top right now. Pioneer and Toshiba would round of the top 5. Tinny sound comes from having to cram small speakers into a slim set which is why a home theater system is the preferred method of audio delivery, especially with HD broadcasts supporting 5.1 these days. Long delays when changing channels is due to the tuner having to adjust to the source signal bouncing from 480/720/1080 formats. It's usually not more than a second or two though. Chances are if you don't know what progressive and interlacing is, you won't even notice the differences between the two. 1080i runs at twice the framerate but half the resolution than 1080p but the interlacing makes it look just like progressive.

[POLBOSS]

When I was in the market for an HDTV, I went to bestbuy, after considering all the options they had, I went to the clearance section, they had a JVC 37" 720p down from $1199.00 to $799, I was ready to buy it, Since it was the last one and on display I asked the salesperson if we could take it outside to look for scratches on the screen or casing, they accepted, so we took it outside and to my surprise there were no scratches or scuffs at all, again I was ready to buy, I just went to take a last look to a Sony 32" 1080p that they had for $1099, the salesperson thought I was leaving and told me, hey my manager said that if you take it(JVC 37") right now we'll give you a $200.00 gift certificate along with the TV, I thought to my self SWEET! told him to wrap it up, lol nothing to wrap, they didn't have a box or remote for it, I told him if he would give me a 20 dollars credit for the remote and he said NO!
I bought a bracket to hold it from the ceiling (bar style but is right in front of my bed).
Gorgeous picture! the sound is incredible, there's a tiny amount of bass (but hey there's bass) the mids and highs sound awesome

[Dr. Righteous]

Don't know if I will take the HDTV plunge any time soon. I really don't have the time to sit and watch much TV. If I was going to buy one it would be a Panasonic Plasma. First a Plasma because of a 10000:1 contrast ratio instead of a typical 2000:1 for LCD. Usually more expensive I know but Panasonic bought the company that invented Plasma screen technology. They owned it, they didn't have to reverse engineer it. The technology has been around for decades but only in the last few years has it become a real market force. The reason is the fantastic picture quality compared to other technologies. Also I was in the electronics business for 10 years and Panasonic products usually had a superior design and overall quality. A close second in my opinion was Toshiba and then Sony. In the CRT days, Toshiba had them all beat on picture quality. Far superior flesh tones. But they were not as reliable as the Panasonic sets.
Sony sets were "over engineered". That does not mean more rugged. It means needlessly complex. When there was a failure troubleshooting and repair was more time consuming and costly. Also you had to buy your parts from SONY which was pretty expensive, caused a lot of their sets to end up in the trash.
A word on Consumer Reports. Toss it in the trash. They constantly rated the worst sets on the market as "BestBuys" It was always because they had a overall good picture but they were much cheaper than a good brand set. Why pay a lot extra for comparable picture quality? The reason is 10 years later the quality brand name set (Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Hitachi ) was still playing with descent picture quality. The BestBuy pick had long died and ended up in the trash, or the tube was so weak the picture was unwatchable.

[SteelBlueTJ]

I would agree and say Samsung, Sharp, and Sony are the top 3 best brands for LCD TV's. Toshiba's and LG's look great too and would be my 4th and 5th picks. I've heard good things about Best Buy's Insignia brand as well (which is made by LG). I recently took the plunge and got a 32" 720p Samsung LCD for my bedroom. Its awesome and I'm very happy with it. Keep your eye out for "open box values", they are typically the best deals. I got my 32" Samsung at Circuit City for $719 and the regular price was $1099. I asked the salesman why it was an open box and he told me that someone bought it new a couple days ago and had just returned it to go larger. I didn't mind the open box so I jumped on the deal and I'm happy I did. Now I'm trying to talk my parents into upgrading the main TV in the living room.

[severous01]

i have a sharp aquos, 28"??? 26"??? whatever. it's a 5ms response time, universal remote, speakers on bottom, black with 1080i capabilities.

it's awesome. love it. dont have to worry about burn it, dont have to worry about anything really. tv is on about 12 hours a day and i have no color fade in about a year's use. i bought it from circuit city used...i knew the guy that sold it to the other guy...and he only had it for about 2 days. i purchased the protection plan and i do plan on somehow burning up the TV and getting a replacement sooner or later. the ONLY problems i have with the TV is my logitech universal remote has timing issues with the tv. it takes forever when i hit channel up/down/volume and select buttons. but that could be the cable box too. the 360 looks great even though it's component, i have no issues with blur or delayed pixelation or whatever they call it.

any way. it's a great TV. sound is great, color is great, setup is extremely easy. i used to have big surround sound and lived in a house, now i'm in an apartment and dont have that stuff...but the tv sounds great by itself.

if i were buying again, i'd look into Hitachi, Toshiba, and Samsung TV's. actually sam would be second, tosh would be third.

[Neener Neener]

Originally Posted by jeep-jeep0190

I personally prefer samsung. If you look at the cheaper(under $1000) models you will see that the contrast ratio is lower compared to the higher priced models. You mentioned vizio... I looked at the contrast ratio of a vizio and it was 1200:1. My samsung is 10000:1.

You know, I asked the sales moron about the differing contrast ratios. He told me all the manufacturers use their own guidelines, so 5000:1 on a Toshiba and 5000:1 on a Samsung wouldn't be the same. He told me I could only compare contrast ratios when comparing 2 tvs by the same manufacturer, not one manufacturer against another. It sounded fishy to me, but since I don't know for sure, I didn't say anything.

[severous01]

Originally Posted by Neener Neener

You know, I asked the sales moron about the differing contrast ratios. He told me all the manufacturers use their own guidelines, so 5000:1 on a Toshiba and 5000:1 on a Samsung wouldn't be the same. He told me I could only compare contrast ratios when comparing 2 tvs by the same manufacturer, not one manufacturer against another. It sounded fishy to me, but since I don't know for sure, I didn't say anything.

complete bs. the higher the better in most cases...but if you remember RCA's tv's back in the day? they had extremely high contrast ratios...over twice the nearest competitors. it was way too much. and that was on a projection tv too...

[abnormal]

They do calculate the contrast ratios different by company. But 1200:1 and 5000:1 is a big difference. Also it is calculated a different way for lcds and plasmas.

[bono426]

go with samsung, great tv. we have the 56" and its really really clear

[19OlllllllO41]

61'' Samsung here and more than happy with it!