Widescreen TV's

[Dave]

I am in the market for a widescreen projection tv, somewhere between 47 and 53 inches. I can't afford plasma, flat screens and all those other $12,000 sets.

I looked in several stores and Hitachi and Sony both have some quality models in the size I am looking for, priced round $1,600.

I am also looing into a surround sound system, looking to spend around $400, Panasonic and Sony both had systems in that range..

Any advice for me on these big boy toys would be much appreciated

[Eagle3]

We just picked up a 51" Toshiba 51H83 a week ago. We looked at many sets before settling on the Toshiba. I did not care for the picture on the Sony or Hitachi's. There was a Panasonic model we liked, but then the Toshiba went on sale for an extra $100 off.

Here's a website (http://www.onecall.com/PID_18400.htm) that lists the features pretty well. We got ours from BestBuy.

[gopsdragon]

Honestly Dave,

If you're cheap like me, and have any patience hold off a couple of years. Of course if you're not cheap, get a plasma or HDTV now.

I just looked at TV's and was looking at Plasma's although they were a bit steep at $3,000. My dad is way more into this stuff than I am and reads all the trade mags. Plasma's are replacing projection screens for a reason and even the Plasma's are supposed to get blown out by HDTV's by 2006.

Either way I wouldn't get a projection set. I don't know how much they've cleaned them up but they used to have problems with everything from video game consoles to the projector.

[Dave]

Originally posted by eagle3
We just picked up a 51" Toshiba 51H83 a week ago.

Eagle, it's so hard to tell when you are standing in front of 25 TV's and trying to judge which one has the best picture...some are fuzzy, some are darker, some have a lot of glare.......are you happy with the Toshiba so far?

[Dave]

Originally posted by gopsdragon
Honestly Dave,

If you're cheap like me, and have any patience hold off a couple of years. Of course if you're not cheap, get a plasma or HDTV now.


Gops, there will always be new technology coming out to replace the old, so how long do you wait??

There are some pretty good sales out there along with some attractive financing options...am I cheap?? no, that's my problem..I spend too much, more than I have.....but I want this now so I will buy it now (another one of my problems)

[gopsdragon]

Originally posted by Dave
Gops, there will always be new technology coming out to replace the old, so how long do you wait??

Well, if you're against spending over $1600 bucks, wait until plasma's hit $1600. If price is not as much of a concern, I would get the plasma.

You'll never win the technology war to stay ahead of everything, but I've just heard about too many problems with projection sets.

[Eagle3]

Originally posted by Dave
Eagle, it's so hard to tell when you are standing in front of 25 TV's and trying to judge which one has the best picture...some are fuzzy, some are darker, some have a lot of glare.......are you happy with the Toshiba so far?

We love it.

One thing you gotta do is crouch down so you're looking directly at the set, just like you were sitting in a chair or on a couch. You're out of the preferred field of view if you are standing above them and looking down from less than six feet. Also ask to look at the set you're interested in with HDTV signal, a DVD, and a regular analog source like cable or satellite. From across the room regular TV looks as good as it did with our CRT set. DVD's look fantastic though. Eventually we'll get a HDTV satellite receiver. Those are still running $500-600. It's not worth it for just a handful of channels. We'll wait on that purchase.

[Seaman Stains]

The trouble with $pending big buck$$$$$$$$$$ on a bloody telly is it still gets the same crap programs as a cheep one!

[Dave]

LOL. so true Seaman

But, think about how good DVD porn will look on 51 inches of screen

[Seaman Stains]

Originally posted by Dave
LOL. so true Seaman

But, think about how good DVD porn will look on 51 inches of screen

Jeez! The bloody close ups will be truly frightening!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gopsdragon]

He says in spite of the past problems of projection screens, the plasmas are starting to show some problems. I asked him would he rather spend $1600 on a projection or $3000 on a plasma. He said projection easily. Too much price with not enough reliability on the plasmas.

HDTV is not big screen yet. It's LCD big screens that are supposed to take the market in 2006. My bad. (But at least I cared enough ask.):rolleyes:

[Dave]

I appreciate it gops, and if I had the $3,000, I'd spend it cause my motto is....if ya got it, spend it!

[robb]

There are a couple of good forums to look at, this is a good one to start with:

avsforum (http://www.avsforum.com)

Some people are succeptable to certain light problems with certain projection TVs, so make sure you spend a lot of time looking at it before you buy it. Keep in mind that you might want to get it calibrated once you get it as well.

Also think about front projection.

I think I am going to wait until after XMas and get a 52" HDTV plasma. There are a lot of EDTV which are not quite HDTV, but are perfect for DVDs out for under $3k.

Either that or I am going to buy a good projector and screen and have a 100" display.

[Freak]

*performs thread resurrection*

Since I was going to title a new thread the same anyway...

I have been kicking the idea of getting a new widescreen tv for a while now. I will glance over the links in this thread, but for now, I'll ask here.

If i get a new wide screen, it will be either an LCD or plasma. I like the slim look. For me, as I watch maybe 3 hours of tv programming a week, it will only be for movies. Whenever we buy or rent movies, we only get the wide screen versions. The thing is, I hate distortion. i.e having a full screen movie stretched to fit wide screens. Or having wide screen shmooshed into a regular 4:3 box.

Once in a while, when I am going through stores, I see a letterboxed movie playing on a wide screen, but there still is black lines on the top and bottom. What's the point? shouldn't it fill the tv? What about the rare occasion I watch CSI or something. The picture will be jacked and stretched right?

[Dave]

Some movies get the "black lines" cuz the movie theater screen is bigger than the TV's and to keep the quality of the picture thats the format its played int

HD programing, like CSI, takes up the whole screen and is crystal clear....non Hidef programming sucks on an HDTV. Digital channels aren't too bad but the old analouge (sp) channels suck.

Unless you have a blue ray dvd player, the dvd's you are watching are digital, not hidef...and, you have to get a cable or satellite receiver to get your hidef channels.

[Ojive]

Sounds to me I'll need to wait another couple of years on a TV upgrade. I refuse to upgrade my cable to digital so I can watch TV in hi-def. See if the folks doing all this digital and flat screen stuff would have been on the ball they would have reduced drastically the picture of the current TV’s and pretty much made it a necessity to upgrade. But thankfully for them they didn't and I won't have to shell out any extra money for now. I'm at point in life where computers, TV’s and other hi-tech stuff changes so fast it is a waste of money and time because of the marketing it would have me thinking I'd need to upgrade every few months to keep up with the latest and greatest gadget.
I appreciate these posts because for one it is from a true consumer like ya’ll and it is your unbiased opinions that make it better than paying for a magazine only to receive half of the story about a product.

[Dave]

I would say, just from watching the prices of tv's over the last couple of years, prices on widescreen plasmas, lcd's or dlp's have dropped a lot.

You can get an 60 inch LCD HD Wide screen for about $2,500...3 years ago that would haven cost more than twice that.

[Ojive]

I will eventually upgrade to a flat screen plasma in the next few years. I guess when I review my bills and I look at how my meager phone bill is now like 60 bucks a month, and the cable is going up and it is basic that i've had for 10 years and everything is just going out of control (under the pretense of my meager ways) it pisses me off. I could afford things but IMO why? I'm not like the Jones having to have top of the line things. So I'm slowly upgrading things in my home and my wife said she wanted a flat screen and we'll keep looking.
Like I said it is you all that make this resurrected thread so good because of the products and first hand experience and for that I can't thank you all enuff.:thumbsup:

[Spotter]

Todays woot is a good one.

http://www.woot.com

[Ojive]

Refurbished?
Ah hell no.....

[Ether_Elemental]

Todays woot is a good one.

http://www.woot.com

awwww man.... i want one...... and i have noooo problems with refurbs, my printer is one.

[JBMoney]

I think most of the newer Widescreens upsize pretty well. Also, upsizing is starting to become a standard feature on DVD players.

On a 50-inch, I have run across a few analog shows that looked bad, but most were acceptable. It really has not been an issue. I've seen some analog programs that looked better than some HD programs. Not all HD programs are created equal. Depends on the compression, etc. After you watch your first Discovery HD channel program and find your mouth keeps dropping open, you'll be glad you got an HD set.

I think the general rule at this time, which is subject to change, over 40-inch Plasma, under 40-inch LCD. I know nothing about the new standards coming out.

Stuff I'm happy with:

Oppo DV-981HD Universal DVD Player with HDMI, 1080p Up-Converting, DivX & SACD (http://reviews.cnet.com/OPPO_DV_981HD_DVD_player/4505-6463_7-32327927.html?tag=prod.txt.1)
Highly reviewed and hard to find in stock.

TH-58PX600U 58" HDTV Plasma Screen TV (http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/panasonic-th58px600u-review.html)
You can find the 50 inch (TH-50PX600U) for a bit over $2000. Great TV, great picture, good speakers for a TV.

[JBMoney]

Oh, on a widescreen, during 30MM, Rachel Ray looks like Jabba the Hut. That could be a feature.

Change the aspect and she's back to herself though.

[Ojive]

Rachel Ray looks like Jabba the Hut
not so delish:p

[Freak]

So wide screen TV's are 16:9 right? If, on the widescreen DVD box, it says that the aspect ratio is 16:9, there will be not black lines, right? Thanks for the new links, I will check them out as I have time.

Found the answer. Good info if people are wondering.
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/Misc/anamorphic_dvd.htm

[JBMoney]

Anamorphic would be a good character name on LOTRO.

[Freak]

An elf name, heh.

[robb]

Todays woot is a good one.

http://www.woot.com

That's not that great of a deal. Costco has them for about $1k pretty regularly, and with Costco you can always return it anytime.

The woot one does not even have an HD tuner.

BTW, you don't always have to upgrade to digital cable to get the HD channels. Many of the cable companies broadcast the HD locals over the cable, and if you have a TV with an HD QAM tuner you can watch the unencrypted HD channels.

[brianw13a]

For what it's worth, we bought a Toshiba Regza a couple of months ago - 37 inch LCD. With the satellite it looks great on normal channels and with a true HDTV program, it is incredible. It even had a couple of other features that we didn't expect - ability to play mp3's and display pictures from network server.