Topic: New HDTV (and other stuff)

[charlie]

Backstory (skip if my rambling annoys you):

So my dad offered to help my wife and I get a new computer, but I told him we didn't need a new machine, our 4 year old lavender sony vaio was working just fine. He offered to help with a new TV, which my wife had begged me for a few months earlier. I said that we really didn't need it right now, our TV worked fine even though it wasn't HD and was only 32 inches.

So right after my father said this, we came home to find our TV on the fritz. The Initial Setup screen kept coming up. Some research online indicated it was probably due to a defective part that Sony no longer makes. In other words, it might not be easy to fix. We started our research then. I'm not one to make quick decisions on anything other than moving homes, so even though my wife was ready to buy that weekend I was not. We did get some research done and I settled on a brand and model (or two) I liked. Later that week the old TV started working again, so I stopped worrying about the new TV.

Well, the TV is on the fritz again. Now, instead of just flashing the Initial Setup box, the remote doesn't work and it keeps flipping the Tv/Video on its own without us doing anything. It is no longer watchable. So we ordered the new TV.

What we got:

Samsung 46in 1080p LCD TV (LN46A550) - http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-ln46a550/4505-6482_7-32815315.html

Why? Because Samsung got high marks in several reviews and it also looked best in the store. We went with 46 because when my dad indicated how much he wanted to help it bumped up our potential price range a bit. I can't remember why I picked LCD over plasma, but probably because we originally looked at 40 in screens and there aren't a lot of plasma choices.

We decided to upgrade from 40 to 46 instead of upgrading from the 550 to the 650 or 750 because I didn't see any features in those that I liked as much as the larger screen size.

We paid $1550 through amazon which sucks a little because I believe it was $1450 when I first started looking a few weeks ago. Still, it was a better price than other places I looked.

I also got a cheap ($115) Toshiba DR410 upconverting DVD player/DVD recorder to record TiVo'd shows and upconvert our existing DVD collection. I hope that works out. It's tunerless but I don't imagine that will be a problem.

So did I do good or bad?

[ober]

I don't know much about TVs, but I do know that Samsung will always have my business.

[Steve]

Very nice choice man. You cannot imagine how much of a diff blueray makes compared to dvd on a nice tv

[charlie]

Yeah, we thought about Blu-ray. My wife (apparently the technology freak in this house) wanted it at first and understood that Blu-ray meant that we would likely end up with the PS3. But we decided not to spend money on it yet. We watch more TV than movies, and we would have to build up a Blu-ray disc collection before it started being worth it. I figure we'll wait a year or two until the players are cheaper and more established and then dive in.

[Steve]

as long as she doesnt buy a HD-DVD player then u are good. They suck and they are soooooo done for....

[micah]

I too have a 46" Samsung... although we bought the "cheaper" and wider DLP tv (with 780i HD)

So far I love it.  The blu-ray player is on my Christmas wish list, as i hear the price is dropping over the next year.

[Steve]

They will drop because its becoming a more mainstream thing. just like when DVD came out they were up there and the next christmas boom, 30 bucks a pop

[Perspective]

bah, even if the players come down a little the discs are still more expensive. I'll stick with DVD for at least another year or two.

[Steve]

its so worth it

[webwhy]

my buddy has a samsung...better tv than many that are more expensive

[charlie]

I finally hooked my laptop up to this thing. Very nice.

Since it's not possible to get ABC with DishNetwork or over the air where I'm at, I tried watching an ABC show over the internet. It looked pretty darn good. Much better than standard definition looks on this TV, but not quite HD quality. Still very watchable in full screen mode.

[KnuckleBuckett]

Excellent choice.   

[charlie]

By the way, so far so good...

• Picture quality is great on most HD programming.
• Some fast moving action can be blurry or pixelated. It's hard to tell whether this is due to the TV or the source. This is not bad enough to diminish my enjoyment of those programs.
• Standard definition programming is difficult to watch, it does not look nearly as clear as it did on my old TV. I'm not sure how to describe the difference. It's kind of like the ghosting effect you used to see on TVs using antennas. This is something I'd seen before on others' HDTVs, but had forgotten about and was disappointed by.
• TV options and settings seem reasonable and helpful (I use Cinema setting for movies and Off for other shows).
• It connects to my new DVD player mentioned above through something called Anynet. This actually works well for us (although my dad got the same TV and it causes issues with his setup). My wife plops a DVD in the player and the TV automatically switches over to play it, then when the DVD player is turned off the TV switches back to the satellite input.
• At first, 46 inches seemed like it was too big. After a couple months it's grown on me and I think it was the right choice (our couch is 10' from the TV).
• Overall very happy with the purchase so far.

[charlie]

• DVD upconversion makes a noticeable difference. Still not Blue-Ray or HD quality, but great looking movies that will be plenty good for a few years until we're ready to consider blue-ray.

[Perspective]

>Standard definition programming is difficult to watch,


this is the part that kills me... how many channels do you have in HD? It seems like the majority of people with these types of TVs end up watching regular cable most of the time, which actually looks worse than a cheap old TV.

I think I'll stick with my old 27" tube until HD becomes more common for everyday shows.