HD TV's

i just bought a sanyo at Wal-mart and so far it is fantastic. 968 for a 42 inch. the hd is so clear my eyes almost hurt from taking in all the colors. ESPN HD is great to watch college football on!

the vizio hdtvs at sam's club are good too. They are about the same price as the sanyo's at walmart. No need to spend lots of money on a higher end tv like sony or pioneer.

refurbdepot.com has an excellent deal on a Samsung 40-inch 1080P lcd. I did a lot of research, and the upshot was, these tv's often had more quality control than anything new, as they are "new" but returned for some reason. The tv shipped in huge box with custom foam insulation.

The TV had some blemishes on the frame, totally unrelated to picture quality and they cleaned up easily with a little car polish.

The sound sucked on the particular model I got, but this is not an issue since I run the sound out to a SRS system. No buyers remorse at all.

Sadly, their website appears to be down right now. But I also had a thumbs up for their customer service.

Just a different option to the Wal-Mart sets. Nothing wrong with them. But I did want 1080p because of my PS3.

I've got a 62 inch Samsung DLP at 1080p.... greatest phucking thing I've ever purchased... my ps3 and blue ray... amazing... and the sports... its worth it just for that...

Like the others you want a 1080p LCD for starters

Just say no wrote:

Like the others you want a 1080p LCD for starters

Actually, 1080p is not worth the money for what you're considering. You can't tell the difference in 720p to 1080p below 50" at the recommended viewing distances. Also keep in mind that the only 1080p sources are PS3 and HD-DVD. High definition programming from cable and satellite are not in 1080p.

I'd recommend starting your research here:

Prepare to be amazed with whatever you get; it's going to look light years better than what you've got now.

actually ur mistaken...u will notice a HUGE difference from 720p to 1080p, there is 6x the pixels. the problem is, and u did touch upon that, is that u need a 1080p source to appreciate the native resolution of the TV. ps3, xbox 360, HD-DVD (the A-20 model, not the A-2), and Blu-Ray are the only available 1080p sources. But, in order to utilize the 1080p from xbox unless u have the elite version is to buy a Sharp Aquos since 360 can put out 1080p through component and the sharps can accept it through component. all the others require HDMI.

Do not buy tvs from sams club or walmart! they are different models than the ones in larger retailers and they are made to be of a lesser quality.

It most definately is worth buying a Pioneer, or a samsung or sharp because of the quality. You will not only get better performance, but longer performance. The higher end tvs are rated at over 60,000 hours of usage (20years at 8hrs/day) while lower end ones will not last as long. They degrade in quality a lot before the completely die as well.

so spend a little more and get a decent tv instead of trying to save a few bucks.

in the know, you don't know. I have worked in the IC industry for > 10 years and can guarantee that the TV will not last 60k hours. I bet the display is the weak link in terms of life time (it will die, degrade in quality or just iritate the hell out of you due to burn-in, dead pixels, etc...) and the ICs in the tv are only rated for somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-10k hours of operation, and that is usually being generous. Anyway, in 20 years today's tvs will be so antiquated you will not want to watch them so if you can save a couple hundred bucks, why not buy one at Sam's club or BJs if it looks as good as the other name brand tvs.

Personally, I saved quite a bit by buying last year's 60" Sony XBR rear-projection LCD (up to 1080i) for ~$1500 and watch free HDTV over the air with an antenna in my attic. Kind of feels good not paying Comcast's ransom money each month. If the tv dies I will not feel as bad as if I spent $5-10k on the latest, greatest, power-hungry plasma or LCD that I got screwed on at BestBuy.

I'm not going to debate reliability and longevity of cheapies vs. expensive ones since 'no way' already covered that, but I will second that 60,000 hrs sounds ridiculous, I've always heard about a sixth of that...

in the know... wrote:

actually ur mistaken...u will notice a HUGE difference from 720p to 1080p, there is 6x the pixels.

6 times the pixels? Really?

SDTV = 640x480 = 307,200

720p = 1280x720 = 921,600 pixels

1080p = 1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels

2,073,600 / 921,600 = 2.25x difference between 1080p and 720p

921,600 / 307,200 = 3x difference between 720p and SDTV

So, your idea of 6 times the pixels is way off. In fact the jump from 720p to 1080p is significantly less than the jump from SD to 720p, and that's IF you even have the programming, which most people don't.

Besides that, the original point was that you don't see the difference at regular viewing distances unless you've got a huge set (50" or bigger"). This is completely true.

Bigger isn't always better...oh well, I'll let you people buy the newest thing with the biggest numbers on it...I can't understand why anyone, no matter how much they make, would want to spend such a ridiculous amount of money on a TV.

Isn't $1000 for a big old flat screen enough? There will always be bigger and better for just a little bit more money, but you have to ask yourself, is there any reason why I should spend $2000 on a TV? Is TV that important to me?

WTF is wrong with our society?

in the know... wrote:

actually ur mistaken...u will notice a HUGE difference from 720p to 1080p

Take it from someone who owned both, this is one of the biggest marketing gimmicks out there.

I don't notice any difference whatsoever. I had a Samsung 42" plasma and now have a 52" 1080p Sharp Aquos.

I don't regret the purchase, but you most likely will not see any difference in the picture between 720p and 1080p. These companies are just trying to use numbers that most consumers don't understand to buy the more expensive product. Sure there are more pixels, but that doesn't mean you are going to notice them all.

hold one everyone....

if you watch a broadcast in 1080i or 720p and compare it to a Blu_ray and u tell me there is barely a difference u r blind

as for the 6x the pixels i dont have an exact figure so im sorry if im off but there is a significant jump between the amount of pixels i just havent done the math

and for the 60k hour thing, i am saying what the TVs are RATED at...and that is a straight fact. no one knows what they will last at but i can tell u that lower end TVs do not last as long. i am talking about Phillips, Westinghouse, LG (LCDs..their plasmas seem to be decent)

i am not trying to sell anyone i am just stating facts. if you buy a low end tv, u get low end quality. personally i have a panasonic 42" plasma and i love it. dont get me wrong, a low end tv can look pretty good but a higher end can produce better longevity, that simple.

whoops. LG plasmas suck...their lcds r decent

my mistake

just to hop on the bus of everyone pointing out the issues in this post:

in the know... wrote:

Do not buy tvs from sams club or walmart! they are different models than the ones in larger retailers...

Sams Club is owned by Walmart, which is the largest retailer on the planet, so these "larger retailers" don't really exist.

And with the 6x the pixels thing, someone just did do the math. And it wasn't 6x.

That's because most of those broadcasts that 'come in at 1080i or 720p' were not material recorded originally in a format conducive to a good conversion to HD. Some were recorded digitally at lower resolutions, and then upconverted. Others were converted from old film. Still others are recorded digitally and in Hi-Def, but by people who are still learning the new equipment/techniques, not by the experts who are making the movies. The more time and money someone puts into production, the better it should look, so of course Blu-Ray is going to look better than 30Rock or your evening news. Hell, ESPN sports in HD looks pretty damn good when you consider that it's live. You're kind of proving our point, and that is that 1080p is not worth it unless you have HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, or some other true high quality 1080p source.

And then it's debatable. A true test of whether you can see the difference is to take a good 720p set and a 1080p set of the same size, and watch the same material on them. Run that same Blu-Ray through both of them. Yeah, the 720p unit will have some some downconverting going on, but the issue is how much of a difference can you see. I bet the difference isn't near as big as you think, unless you're using a huge set (50" or bigger) and sitting really close.

Then go ahead and do the same thing with your Sportscenter in 720p. Your example above makes the mistake of comparing the content, and then drawing conclusions about the TV based on them. If you want to decide about the TV, you have to keep the content constant, and compare that way.

If you recall, the original poster is looking for a good TV to watch sports on. So you've informed us that expensive TVs are slightly better at watching 1080p movies than cheap ones, IF you have a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. That's great, but not relevant to him wanting a TV to watch sports on.

Are you trying to pretend I didn't do the math for you, plain and simple? Your 6x figure was way off. Period. Anyone who can use Google to verify what these resolutions are and knows how to multiply and divide can tell that.

Fair enough. I've never looked at what TVs are 'rated at' so I'll take your word for it. I usually don't trust the manufacturer of a product to tell me how reliable it is. The general info I've heard and read is quite a bit less than that, but who knows? Lots of products get a bad rap early on and then get better with successive versions, so maybe the new ones last longer than old ones.

I am still skeptical of 60k hours, though, no matter how much they may have gotten. Even if the LCD panel lasts that long, you'll probably have to replace a lamp/backlight well before then, or have some smaller circuit in the TV fail. When someone's looking at a several hundred dollar, out of warranty repair 6 years from now, knowing they can buy a new set that's better for just a little bit more, do you think they're going to repair it? That LCD panel may as well have already died, because that customer is going to pitch that thing for a new one without a moment's hesitation. I worked retail just long enough to learn that almost all people will do this.

i apologize if i was trying to make it seem like i was trying to push 1080p...there really isnt an argument to be made about the superior quality of lets say a bluray or hd-dvd over a regular broadcas right now, plain and simple, and you agree. i was merely trying to point out that there is that jump in quality.

as for the OP, i actually wasnt really answering that question but i would actually recommend looking at a TV for much more than its native resolution, since that is much more important. Personally, i have a 720 plasma, since i do not have a 1080 source, if i did, i would have gotten something that does 1080.

and sorry, if you look at a 1080p TRUE source, like something recorded in HD like for instance Planet Earth, u really cant say the difference is there, and i will not concede to that fact.

i again apologize about sending some confusion with the 60k figure. first of all we are just talking about HD tvs and not anything specific like plasma or LCD. if you know how plasma tvs work, they essentially use gas between the glass that has a radioactive decay. the halflife on that gas is going to be constant for all the tvs, you cant change chemistry but what the rating does is take that halflife, which will tell you when the tv will be at 1/2 the original brightnes, coupled with what they THINK the components will do. LCD panels, in all honesty, are just rated on how the manufacturer will think they perform. But i CAN tell you that a lower end tv like the ones i have mentioned break much easier. its plain and simple; if you buy a shitty tv, yes you will see an improvement over the tube dont get me wrong but you will have a (on average) shorter life.

to respond to the "larger retail" post, again i do apologize for stating it how i did. i dont know why i was thinking of sams or walmart as a smaller retailer but i meant to refer to larger retailers in electronics, or specializers in electronics. if you take say a panasonic plasma model th-42pz75u, this is a good tv but i have seen it sold looking identical but with the model th-42pz75uw. so it is not the same set. that is just something u need to be aware of before hand. you very well might get a great long life out of it, but u might not.

and i agree, once a TV goes, whether it be 6 years or 20 years, there is going to be something better out anyway, which is again why i would say to spring for a little better of a set now, so when ur tv does go, it at least lasted long enough so that something much better is out. I am a big believer in investing in a good product off the bat. i kind of follow the whole you get what u pay for model.