New HDTV

[Captaindave]

I am seriously looking at an HDTV...I know there is a thread or two in the archives, but they are a getting a little older now as technology moves ahead.

I'm seriously looking at a Sony Bravia LCD 40" full HD 1080p priced at $1193 and I am pretty sure I can get a 10% discount off that price. Right now, this may be my first choice.

I am also looking seriously at a Samsung LCD 40" model that is 720p for $996 with the same 10% discount off that price. This would probably be my second choice - maybe for the difference in price this may become my first choice.

I've seen both of these sets in operation in a couple different stores and frankly, can't tell the difference as far as the resolution goes on whatever the source material that is being used for demonstration.

I don't want a plasma TV.

I want to get the best brand reliability and that is the price range I want to stay within. I have also looked at Sanyo, Philips, and RCA in 42" models, but I think those are somewhat "lesser" quality brands with lesser warranty provisions and more questionable reliability.

I suppose this isn't a lot of money relatively speaking, but I have never spent anything close to that for any kind of TV in my entire life. I have read some online comments indicating that these products are "disposable" meaning that if they break down you might as well throw them away. Especially if they are out of warranty. And, the warranties are not all equal. Some brands have definitely better warranties than others, with Sony and Samsung seeming to be among the best. Wow - I'd hate to throw away a $1000 TV...

What do you think about these brand names? I've pretty much settled on the screen size and price range. I have no plans for games, and at this point don't plan to get a blu-ray in the near future. I have read that even if I do get a blu-ray, the 720p picture quality of the Samsung will be fine anyway.

Any help, advice, personal experiences, or comments would be sincerely welcomed and appreciated...many thanks.

 

[Rudy]

I'd probably go with LCD myself--I rarely watch movies on DVD anymore, but we do play the video games a bit here, so we wouldn't want a screen that would "burn in" over time. As it stands, I have a 27" Mitsubishi that I inherited, and probably won't upgrade for quite a few years.

One forum to lurk in would be the AVS Forum: http://www.avsforum.com . You might get some good "real world" stories there about models and brands.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Rudy, that is a great forum, I'm there sometimes reading and posting. I have the rare Sony HD recorder DHG-HDD 500 that Sony no longer makes. I use it everyday to record my HD tv shows to watch over the weekend. It's great, no monthly fees.

I bought my HD TV several years ago, I have a 40' Sony XBR Bravia V40XBR1, mine is 720. I am so use to it and to me it's fine, I went from a box 27' tv to this HD 40' and it was like night and day. HD channels are so incredible I still get mesmorized watching it. I think I paid like $3100.00 for it, that was alot and prices have sure dropped since then. I'm sure the 1080 Sony's are just eye dropping but this will do for me now. I have been watching the prices drop since I bought mine and you can get a 46 Sony 1080 for less than what I paid and I'm sure it looks better than mine but there is always something better around the corner. I still have not bought a BluRay player. I was looking at buying a laptop PC soon and just realized that some higher end laptops like Dell are including a BluRay Player drive on your laptop with a connection that you can hook to your TV to get the full 1080. That is also pretty cool. So much technology, it's hard to keep up anymore.

I'm sure this hasn't helped you much but I do love my Sony HD tv, I have Comcast and they have really included alot more HD channels lately. It's got to the point where I hardly ever watch standard channels.

I'm really hoping that my Sony HD recorder holds up past the deletion of the analog channels, my recorder gets the TV guide downloads from an analog channel only and without the tv guide downloads makes it difficult to record anything. As far as I know it takes an analog channel for this machine to accept the free tv guide downloads that are broadcasted through usually a local PBS station (all behind the scenes) so when everything goes digital in Feb next year, I am hoping this thing still works cause I love it by not having to pay any monthly fee unlike Tivo.

 

[Harry]

For recording basic TV, I've been using a hard-drive unit from Pioneer that also writes out to DVD. It only came with an analog NTSC tuner and only records in standard definition.

But with the new government-subsidized units that convert digital TV to analog TV, I've got one of those hooked up to the recorder so I can record the digital channels now. That gives me the option of doing the recordings in 16:9 widescreen or 4:3 square screen depending on the program.

For a widescreen show, I can either record it letterboxed or squeezed, and then either zoom or unsqueeze it on my HDTV. It's still standard def, but at least I can get the correct aspect ratio, and the picture is a lot better than the old analog singnals.

Like Chris, all of that is free, over-the-air, so there are no fees for cable, satellite, or fiber-optics, and I can save any shows I record on a DVD for permanent storage.

The big drawback with this new tuner/recorder combination is that I can't set it to record more than one channel unattended. Well, I could do two if I hooked a second tuner to a different input and had each one pre-tuned to the proper channel.

Like Chris, my TV doesn't do the full 1080i that's common out there now, but it still looks darn good with the full HD pictures I receive over the air.

I'll go kicking and screaming into the Blue-Ray world someday I suppose, but for now, DVD looks good enough for me to enjoy virtually anything on the format.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

The new thing (at least I noticed it) the papers are advertising in like Best Buy and Circuit City is the 1080i HD TV's with 120hz, I think this is suppose to be a huge improvement with moving motion clarity. Sometimes if you are watching a tv show with alot of action and movement sometimes the HD will pixilate ever so slightly, maybe not pixalte but the motion is not fluid but as mentioned this is ever so slight. I think this new 120hz clear motion is suppose to correct that.

If I was buying a new HD TV, I would opt for getting the 120hz clear motion in a 1080i resolution, those are usually the higher end 1080i sets. I'm always for trying to get whatever is the latest at the time I am buying because I usually won't buy again for along time, hence the reason I will most likely be keeping this 720 Sony for awhile.

I just saw a commerical on tv the other day from Comcast that if you have digital cable with them you can "rent" a HD Recorder for $9.99 a month for the first 6 months. I have really saved so much money monthly by having this Sony HD recorder I mentioned earlier. It is not as easy to use but it serves it's purpose.

Harry, I know what you are talking about with the letterbox and recording onto a DVD, it's still standard def but you can get the correct aspect ratio for viewing on your tv and the programs look great, not HD quality but still pretty good. This is what I do too. Once I have a program I want to save to DVD, I import the program from my Sony HD recorder into my Panasonic DVD recorder and save it onto a DVD-R. For standard digital programs the picture quality is the same saving it to DVD-R. For HD program I want to save to DVD-R I don't get the same HD quality but I'll get a widecreen version in standard def quality but it is still excellent quality picture to me, and I can expand the ratio with my tv and get the whole screen when viewing it from the saved DVD-R disc. I wish they would put out a DVD recorder that would save true HD programs onto a DVD-R, of course at a low price.

 

[Rudy]

I may end up getting some kind of flat screen in the next year or two, but probably will use it mainly for gaming (most likely the Wii, and the occasional Xbox 360 when someone brings one over). So, the higher 120Hz spec is probably what I'd need. Until someone makes a universal player, though, I won't invest in BluRay until that happens, as I only want one player for all formats (CD, SACD, DVD, DVD-Audio, BluRay, etc.). And no, there won't be any cable or antenna hooked to it--I just don't watch any of it since I don't have time.

 

[Harry]

A new report shows Sony HDTV's have polled the most reliable by PC World readers:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/12/04/sony-hdtvs-found-most-reliable-in-pc-world-study/

Prices have dropped on flat-panel LCD TV's in the last couple of months. We just recently picked up a new 37" Sony Bravia XBR for the bedroom and I've been thrilled with its picture. It's got full 1080i and is magnificent to view DVDs, HDTV, and even old standard TV looks pretty good on this thing. I wasn't planning on buying it, but the deal at the going-out-of-business Tweeter was just too good to pass up.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I think we are going to jump onto the HD bandwagon after the first of the year. It's kind of a challenge though...we have TVs in 3 places, and want to put in a DVR that we can control from any of the TVs, and we have no "home theater" system of any kind right now, so it's going to be a snakepit of wires and stuff, I fear. I've been out of the home-electronics game long enough that I probably know just about enough to be dangerous!

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

After Thanksgiving I went with my brother in law to Sears as he wanted to buy his first HD, there was an ad in the paper for a Sony 40' full 1080 it was around $1100.00 on sale only till 12:00 noon on Friday. So we both headed over there and the sales guy said there was 2 left, when we got to the pick up area downstairs the wait was over 30 mins, I knew something was up, sure enough the store manager apologized and said all they had was a open box that someone returned (they said it was only because it wouldn't fit in someone's cabinet) they would take another 10% off, however my brother in law didn't want it but because we were inconvienced in the whole process, (waiting literally by this time 30-45 mins just for pick up) the manager opted to get a new in box from another store, still honor the 10% off and include free shipping to my sisters home. It was a great deal all around, they love the picture, there blown away with the HD quality. Once you experience HD you never want to go back.

There are some really great deals going on with HD you just have to be smart and look for them and "know" what you are looking for.

 

[Harry]

After Thanksgiving I went with my brother in law to Sears as he wanted to buy his first HD, there was an ad in the paper for a Sony 40' full 1080 it was around $1100.00 on sale only till 12:00 noon on Friday.

That's a pretty good deal - in line with what we managed to get with our deal. The 37" Bravia XBR came in just under $1000 - and there was this deal in the store that any $1000 purchase would get you a deal on gasoline worth $500.

It's one of those - save-your-receipts for $100 a month and get a $25 coupon each month deals. And now that gas has dropped so much, we might have a tough time spending $100 a month!

Still, the deal on the TV was worth it. I'm thrilled with it every time I turn it on.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I've always owed Sony tv's, before I got my HD TV I had a Sony 4:3 box that was an XBR with an excellent picture.

When I got my 40" Sony HD I also opted for the XBR Bravia I think I paid around $3100.00 (yikes!!) for it but that was quite a while ago and it is only 720 (double yikes) not true 1080, I am using a Cablecard with it from Comcast so I don't need to rent their HD Cablebox and their remote. Still with the Cablecard the picture is amazing and although the tv is not true 1080 it sure seems like it is to me. I love it.

I have it hooked up to a Sony receiver for 5.1 sound and have a Bose accoutimass 5 speaker surround system (small square speakers) I bought a Sony remote that I purchased separately that I programmed to use all my equipment on 1 remote. Then I have a Sony DHG HDD 500 high def DVR recorder hooked up to record all my HD shows and then when I want to keep anything I will dub it from the Sony HD recorder (which is only a hardrive) to my Panasonic DVR recorder to save it on a DVR. Kinda a pain to save anything on a DVR but it all works good. It's also not saving it in HD qualty but its still amazing picture quality.

 

[Harry]

Then I have a Sony DHG HDD 500 high def DVR recorder

I remember that you got that one - I wanted it but couldn't find it at the great price that others were getting it for.

As I recall, that has a TV Guide On Screen system. My new Bravia has that too. When I hooked it up a couple of weeks ago it worked just fine and all of a sudden all the listings data disappeared.

I kept playing with resetting and "rebooting" the TV to try to get the listings back, and finally gave up.

Then all of a sudden yesterday, all of the data re-appeared and seems to be working fine again.

I think what happened was that the system just happened to be taken down for a week or so while it was being reinstalled on our digital CBS station as the "host channel". It may have been piggybacked on an analog signal before.

Harry