Advice of HD televisions (serious comments please)

[Valve Bounce]

I am looking forward to replacing my 20 years' old TV with a new flat screen HD TV. I understand they now come with set top box function in the TV. But what else is there new? do any of them record or permit delay viewing functions? I need advice particularly on which brands to avoid, because of price or just poor quality.

I know very little about the new TV's, and I am appealing to members here to give me advice on what to get and where to get them. My new TV must measure less than 33 inches wide to fit into the hand carved Rosewood cabinet which I am not willing to part with.

Also. COSTCO is about to open in Melbourne on 17th of this month so I am looking for a good price in town.

Thanks!

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Are the integrated digital TV's integrated with HD digital? Even if the TV says it's HD you usually have to buy a separate HD set-top box.

[GridGirl]

My first HD television was a Sony Bravia which after about 12 months developed a number lines down the screen. I called on the insurance who sent someone out to have a look who then said it would cost too much to fix and took it away there and then even though it was watchable. I was left without a television for 5 week while I waited for the shop to send me a voucher so I could get another. I then spent my £1500 voucher on a Samsung HD televison which after 18 months also broke last week so yet again I have no television. This time it just went off and makes a weird buzzing and clicking noise. The insurance sent another man out the other day and told me something about it being a common fault on my model but seeing as the tv doesnt actually work they actually left it this time.

In short....dont ask me about HD televisons.

[markabilly]

Just for you only, I bother and for no one else

check it all out here, more information than you need:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

[airshifter]

Just for you only, I bother and for no one else

check it all out here, more information than you need:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

I'd like to reinforce this comment, as that is an excellent forum. I used it to research purchases before buying some home theater gear, and ended up getting great value in my purchases.



Valve,

One thing I would do before looking any further is consider the sizes that will fit in your current stand. We had a similar situation when we went to a flat panel big screen, and found that unless we did something about the stand we would have ended up with a smaller vertical picture size.

Due to the fact that almost everything made is now in the wide format, any older stands simply won't leave you much room to work with. What you would end up with would most likely fall in the 30-32" range.

[Valve Bounce]

Yep!! and because the cupboard is hand carved Rosewood, and the old guy who made them probably now no longer in the trade, I will have to make sure whatever I buy will fit into the 33" wide cupboard. So I will be going looking tomorrow with a tape measure.

What brands do you fancy, and which would you avoid?

[markabilly]

Yep!! and because the cupboard is hand carved Rosewood, and the old guy who made them probably now no longer in the trade, I will have to make sure whatever I buy will fit into the 33" wide cupboard. So I will be going looking tomorrow with a tape measure.

What brands do you fancy, and which would you avoid?

Consider hanging on the wall....and using the cabinent for something else.frankly at 30 inches or so, the HD is not that big of a deal and you can buy a 720 p and save,

THree years ago Sony LCD was by far the best when it came to skin colors and overall performance and plasmas were way higher and heavy and hot, but now not true although you need a darker room for plasma.

but the latest samsung plasma will blow away the LCD with colors and depth of image and overall natural appearance with an image like thr older and great crt, even the 240 hz led LCD can not compete at double the price, and as you go up in size the square inch price goes down

Panasonic was considdered number 2 behind pioneer, but now the latest models of sammie are rated higher

And on this forum you will find some great dealers who will make you some excellent deals. The sammi we bought cost us $1100 less through amazon when they had one of their specials compared to costco

[Jag_Warrior]

I was curious so I put a tape on the 32" diag. Samsung I just bought recently. It's 31.5" wide. 32" is a common, standard diagonal size, so I assume most of them are about the same width.

I got frustrated looking at and comparing TV's when I decided I wanted one for the bedroom. I like to shop for cars, but I can't do the electronics thing these days. A gal-pal of mine keeps up with what's hot & what's not in electronics, so I turned it over to her. I set a $1K max price and let her run with it. We ended up going to Best Buy and getting a Samsung 32" 1080 that happened to be on sale that weekend. It started out as $799 and I think I got it for $650 something. I even let them sign me up for a credit card and I financed the thing for 18 months at 0% interest. Let me use your money for free for 18 months? Uh, OK.

That looks like a really good site that Markabilly linked. The models might be different where you live. But I've heard good things about LG, Samsung and most Sony models. I've heard some bad things about Vizio(?), but I don't know. What pissed me off was I'd read about a model one week, only to find out it had been discontinued and "upgraded" to another model the next week.

[Robinho]

similar forum no doubt, but UK based http://www.avforums.com/ also very good, i've recently made the plunge after a good bit of research.

my tips are 32" widescreen is enough if viewing distances are less than about 6 - 8', anything over that well worth considering a 37" or larger.

the smaller sizes (32") you'll do well to find more than a couple of plasma's, the LCD market seems to have taken over that size range.

make sure if you go for LCD get a full HD 1080p reolution and preferabley 100hz (min, some are doing 200 - 600hz processing now)

if your budget is no real issue then i'd reccomend the new breed of Sony and Samsung LED backlit LCD's - their clarity is unreal from what i've seen.

Panasonic also a premium brand, whilt LG and Toshiba certainly make some highly rated stuff now too (avoid any brands you've never heard of peddled by supermarkets and the like)

most have in built freeview digital tuners, but you'll need an external supply for HD in most cases (sattelite or cable package), although panasonic do some Freesat enabled TV's which have HD channels, although i don't know what is available outside of the UK in terms of HD packages.

to get the best out of the package you'll want a blu-ray player (PS3 or just a player) which will upscale your normal DVD's and will blow you away on actual Blu-ray discs.

suggest you check out a few in the shops to gauge your preferences - some prefer the sharpness of LCD's, some the softness and depth of picture from plasma.

finally must consider the piture quality in standard definition, which most of your telly viewing will probably still be, as some of the larger panel HD models seem to look amazing in HD but a bit rubbish on standard def. some upscale the picture and make a decent job of improving the quality.

also think about your viewing angles, the LCD tellys lose a lot as you move away from the straight ahead, some are better than others, and if you'll be doing your viewing from mostly in front then you'll be fine.

for what its worth i've just bought a Toshiba 37RV555DB and cannot reccomend it highly enough, great telly - the new models of which (rv635db) are not as highly specced (no 100hz)

[Mark]

You can get built in HD recievers I have freesat HD in mine but you only get BBC HD and ITV HD of course only in the uk. To find out which ones fit then just go to the shop armed with a tape measure.

Sound is also important and impossible to judge in the shop. My Panasonic is excellent but my Mum's Samsung sounds very tinny despite it being a bigger TV.

Also get 1080p not 720p.