TV is ruined for me

Swass · Guest

I was drooling over a Sony 52" 1080p HD LCD yesterday. I was mesmerized. It was absolutely phenominal.

How can I be expected to watch my dingy, dreary CRT now? Crying or Very sad

Life is SO not fair.

Dpierce37 · Ladies Man Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 7659 City: Austin

Swass, you can never go back. I was ruined after the first time I got to watch Football in HD over at a friends house. Now that I got my 46" 1080p LCD, my life feels complete.

ontrider · Ladies Man Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 16491 City: Russia

What's the cost of a good HD LCD now anyways? I've only got crappy TV's in my house.

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

ontrider, depends on size, brand, and features. Anywhere from 1000-2000+

You can get a damn nice 1080p set for 1500 or less.

ontrider · Ladies Man Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 16491 City: Russia

Damn... that's still a lot. My TV was free since my neighbours were throwing it out. (they got an HD). Laughing

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

ontrider, if you want a smaller HDTV - good 32" widescreen sets can be had for around $600.

FWIW, my TV is a 32"....

J-Ro · Posted: Sep 25, 2007 8:12 am Post subject:

ontrider, $1599 for a 47" 1080p LCD by Vizio. Been really happy with it so far.

ontrider · Ladies Man Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 16491 City: Russia

Cool, I'll have to see how they actually look. Having a larger one, you probably get accustomed to it and want the 52" or whatever... mine's only 30something, so I might look into a smaller one.

Zach M · Posted: Sep 25, 2007 8:16 am Post subject:

I was in the same boat a couple of weeks ago. I had been thinking about buying one for a while, but wasn't seriously looking until I went and watched football on a friends 52 inch LCD. I lucked out, because our company sells Sharp products and they had a promotion for 50% off their new line. I got a 46" 1080p Sharp Aquos LCD for $1300 with free shipping and no tax.

Now the real question, should I go with Blu-Ray or HD DVD.

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

Zach M, neither, wait until the market sorts it out.

ontrider, we went from a 53" non-HD Tv to the 32" HDTV. I am about 1,000,000x happier with the 32".

At some point I will be getting either a 37 or 40" set (whatever fits the armoire), and moving the 32" upstairs to the bedroom. Until then, the 32" is just fine.

ontrider · Ladies Man Joined: 30 Jul 2003 Posts: 16491 City: Russia

chavez, sounds like a plan. I'm gonna wait until after christmas.

Zach M · Posted: Sep 25, 2007 9:47 am Post subject:

chavez, I think that's what I'm going to do. I might pick up an upconverting dvd player for under 100 bucks in the meantime. Although, I think it may be years before they pick a standard. With all of the movement in support lately (Blockbuster drops HD DVD, Viacom/Paramount drops Blu-Ray), it may be a while. I think that Blu-Ray will ultimately win, but their players are so damn expensive

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

Zach M, I'm not picking Blu-Ray to win. Sony has a bad record of screwing up format wars thanks to their forcefed proprietary nonsense.

Anyhow, an upconverting DVD player is a good idea. You will notice an improvement - but the best part is that a good number of movies will fill out the entire screen instead of having some amount of letterboxing. Others will still letterbox, but not as badly. Depends in what ratio they were filmed.

ChrisG · Posted: Sep 25, 2007 9:53 am Post subject:

I just purchased a 65" Toshiba 1080p rear projection for $1599 on Tigerdirect.com. It's being delivered today. My 50" Sony SXRD is moving to the bedroom. Like they say, once you go HD, you never go back. In fact I can't stand watching SD television. It's like using dial up.

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Swass · Guest

Damn you all to hell. Evil or Very Mad

Jensen · Posted: Sep 25, 2007 1:35 pm Post subject:

Zach M, if you have a xbox 360 just get the hd drive that comes with 5 or more hd dvd movies for 150$, pretty sweet deal considering hd movies are 25-30 dollars a piece.

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Swass, just get Nick and Andrew to accidently throw a football at the TV. Wink

Swass · Guest

That'll just reduce my dingy, dreary options down to a measly 26" TV in the office. I guess I should be happy it's still in color.

Pity me. Crying or Very sad

Zach M · Posted: Sep 25, 2007 2:47 pm Post subject:

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Swass, Must I think of everything for you..........have them running through the house playing catch and tackle..... after watching a rugby game Wink

of course other thing may have to be sacrificed in order for this ply to work. Twisted Evil

Swass · Guest

But, but...you don't understand. I just got reamed for spending ~$100 on a camera bag.

There are other forces at work here. We have a big entertainment center that we paid lots of $ for (solid cherry). We purchased it a long time ago (must be 10 years ago now), so it's not designed to accommodate a flat TV. I don't want to simply ditch the entertainment center and slap a TV on the wall. I want to turn the unfinished basement into a man cave, complete with huge TV. So, what I really want is $20-30K to finish the basement, not including electronics. She knows that any discussion of a new TV is really a pre-cursor discussion about finishing the basement, so I'm met with a rather curt "tell it to the hand!" Laughing

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Well then, just have the kids aim for the one in the office. Wink

jhilly8982 · Addict Joined: 04 Oct 2006 Posts: 782 City: Northville

Swass, if you are looking to spend up to $30k for a new basement i am sure you could slip in a $5k new entertainment system. Does that 20-30k include a theater as well? like designated room, slanted floors and big recliners?

Swass · Guest

For $30K, I could probably work in the TV and surround sound, but I don't think I could do furniture, too.

It's just a bathroom, bedroom, storage/utility room and man room.

J-Ro · Posted: Sep 26, 2007 7:35 am Post subject:

Man room = lot's of porn and a clean up sink

Bowen · Posted: Sep 28, 2007 9:52 am Post subject:

ChrisG · Posted: Sep 28, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

Swass · Guest

Sony doesn't make a 52" Bravia (or whatever it's called). It was only 46". What a piece of junk. Laughing

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

Swass, my uncle just bought a 52" Sony LCD. Wasn't a Bravia.

Swass · Guest

The one I was looking at was a Bravia. About $4K for the 46". Shocked

I'd have better luck asking my wife if I can have a mistress. Laughing

Swass · Guest

Actually, the TV would serve that role just fine.

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

Swass,

Seriously, you can find a good 46" or so LCD for about 1500. I was very impressed with the picture quality on J-Ro's 47" Vizio.

Anyhow, should be 2000 or less even for a big name like Sharp. You just have to look around.

It's a heck of a lot easier to convince her to get a 2k TV than a 4k TV!

PimpinD2 · Posted: Oct 07, 2007 3:03 pm Post subject:

Personally i feel that the brands really do make the screens... im not sure about those vizio and viso brands as ive never been a fan of cheaper electronics...

I picked up a Samsung 40" LCD 1080i/720p almost 2yrs ago for $1400 out the door with tax and 4 yr warrenty...

What are the contrast ratio on some of the cheaper LCDs?
1366 x 768-pixel resolution, 500 cd/m2 brightness, super-fast 8ms response time, 4000:1 contrast ratio, 170-degree viewing angle

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

PimpinD2, keep in mind that many of those "other" brands are really just repackaged mainstream brands.

My current "Polaroid" is a Samsung. My previous "Polaroid" was Sharp.

Anyhow, don't knock it till you try it. I was impressed with the 1080p Vizios when I first saw them last year - and I am one picky SOB with this stuff.