[oldeguy]

Finally moving into the 21st century, researching the purchase of a HD TV. Nothing too huge, no larger than a 32 inch, maybe 37 inch.
So far, the LG tru motion 32lh40 seems the most attractive, any experts out there who can give me their two cents worth?

[Gravter]

What is your budget?
Then, let's talk. ;)

[oldeguy]

Gravter,Oct 1 2009, 08:18 AM Wrote:What is your budget?
Then, let's talk. ;)
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For the TV itself, $2,000.00
However, being of Scottish decent, the more frugal the better, hence the 32-37 inch size preference

[Gravter]

Great budget. That LG is waaay below your budget, lol.
Any reason for staying below 37"?

[Scorcher000]

I dont have one myself but go with a 42 if you can. High res ratio's too and 1080i is a crock of s*** 1080P is the real deal but really not needed. <_<

[Gravter]

1080i or 720P is nice, but once you go to 1080p you'll see the difference.
Most are 1080p nowadays anyways. If you ever buy a Bluray player, or PS3, you gotta have 1080p.
I have a Sharp 52D64U (52") 1080p that I bought 2 years ago and still love it.
I paid 2200$ for it then, so not too bad. Today, I would go with a Samsung but nothing under 37" if going 1080p.
Let me look up a few models and I'll get back to ya.

[oldeguy]

Gravter,Oct 1 2009, 08:37 AM Wrote:Great budget. That LG is waaay below your budget, lol.
Any reason for staying below 37"?
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Two reasons. TV is being placed in a fairly small room, no need for auditorium seating.
No offence to all who have a large TV, we all have our reasons, but I'm confident in my masculinity, no need to compensate....... :D
Actually, I'm being frugal, have to save money for my Focus repairs :blink:

[Flofocus]

stay the f*** away from Sony.

My Bravia crapped out on me after 1 year and 4 months. Sony wanted $900, yes $900 to fix the TV because it was 4 months out of warranty. The kicker? Same TV sold at future shop for $750.

That was after waiting 4 weeks, they gave me that price. Then after i told them they were fuct in the head if they thought I was going to buy that, they took another 2 weeks to get back to me on what they were going to do for me. Turned out, I had to pay $300 for an upgraded version. Kind of screwy if you ask me, told them fine, dont have much of a choice if I want a fawkin TV in my house hold again, but, I am never buying a Sony product again. The "upgraded" version actually had s***tier colors and less features than my old one. :angry:

they didnt care, but it is my duty form now on to make sure people know how s***ty custoemr service is at Sony. Dont buy a Sony Bravia TV, theyre crap.

[skifreak69]

I personally am a fan of Panasonic and Samsung. I've had a Samsung plasma for 3 years now, and have no regrets (other than the continual price drops on all the tv's that followed after my purchase, though those have settled down a lot the last year or so.)
ONe thing to remember is with the flat panels they sit further back, closer to the wall enlarging the viewing area so you can get away with a slightly larger tv. 42" is a great size and very popular.
I personally am not a fan of the 120/240 Hertz LCD push. I've always found them to look funny especially on Blu-ray playback, really choopy with fast action. So I've usually turned it off.

[darkpuppet]

My tips/observations:

- if you're buying anything smaller than 52", you don't really need 1080p. If you're a purist, sure, but research has shown that people, standing 10' away from the TV don't notice the difference between 720 and 180 on sizes < 52"

- Go LED backlighting... longer lasting, better colour gamut, and many handle dynamic contrast better than CFL backlit TVs

- don't be fooled by dynamic contrast* -- it's nice sometimes as it enhances dark scenes, and LED backlit panels can oftentimes darken only needed areas of a scene, but in reality, the panel's true contrast ratio is the true measure of performance... this can be used as a bargaining chip as a newer model TV may have a higher dynamic contrast ratio, but the same true contrast ratio -- meaning, the older tv, all other things (refresh rate, contrast, resolution) being equal, is the better deal. (or you can talk down the newer tv).

- don't be fooled by higher refresh rates. 120hz panels display the same 30 frames per second (60 fields interlaced) tv signal that 60Hz TVs display. Video games can pump out as much as 60FPS from a game console, so the fastest panel anyone needs right now is 60Hz -- cinephiles may appreciate a 240Hz panel in the future tho. Check the panel's response time (measured in milliseconds).

- watch out for brand-quirks -- check out the TV in store with a video containing both light and dark scenes -- Sony Bravia's have dynamic contrast that doesn't play well with quick switches between dark and light scenes, and can look downright horrid... samsungs seem to handle dynamic contrast better... you'll still want to check in a light room that dark scenes are visible and there's no horribly discernible brightness changes from light-dark transitions.

- watch prices for at least 2 weeks before you purchase. This is a big one... and your greatest bargaining chips. Find a TV or two that has the size/resolution and true contrast ration you're interested in... do a price search on the web to mark an absolute low price, and then watch major retailer websites (like futureshop and best buy)... Their TV prices can fluctuate significantly depending on which store has a sale coming up -- the price of my 52" samsung went up nearly $800 the week leading up to a sale. The pre-$800 price should be your starting negotiating price when you go into the store.

- you can save more on your TV if you're looking for a new TV stand, cables as well as the TV.

my buying experience
I bought my 52" samsung LCD lastyear. I had been watching it on the web for about 3 weeks.. watched the price go up nearly $800 over a week at futureshop.

Best Buy and Futureshop then had a sale on LCD TVs' Best Buy had a model on sale for the original price ($2099), and futureshop had a newer model on sale for 2999.

Both TVs were 60Hz panels with the same contrast ratio (2000:1 IIRC), number of inputs, etc.

The tv at futureshop had a 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and the one at best buy had 30:000:1 contrast.

I was also looking at a TV stand for $500, 2 monster HDMI cables (which are overpriced to begin with) for $75/ea, and looked for an HD PVR.

In the end, I got the newer model TV, the HDMI cables, TV stand, 4 year warranty, HD PVR with 6 free months for $3200 all-in after tax... well over a grand in savings.

Sure, I had to talk to 3 people (the sales associate, his supervisor, and then the manager), but I got a pretty decent deal.

The trick is to always negotiate....

BTW.. I do electronics consulting on the side if you want someone to do the legwork for ya...

[oldeguy]

TV will be used for TV, HD and regular with sports being an important consideration, real auto racing, not NASCAR and movies, no gaming. Small room, and not straight on viewing.
Leaning towards LG, 32 or 37 inch with "trumotion"
1080p, real HD
widescreen, 16 by 9
120hz or 240, can't remember
response rate? of 2.7 milliseconds.
The Source is selling it for $1,000.00

[darkpuppet]

The LG TruMotion is a 240Hz display -- which is nice if you're a cinephile watching 24FPS video sources.. (some movie DVDs).. because 240Hz is divisible by both 60 and 24.

To be honest, though, if you bought the Samsung 37" 1080p LCD HDTV** (LN37B530) (on sale at Futureshop for $799).. you won't notice a difference because all of the specs are about the same, except for the refresh rate, and as I mentioned before, you don't watch any sources that display more than 30 frames per second.

And you should be able to negotiate another $100 or more off the samsung and LGs.

and FYI -- the human eye, though not digital, has a hard time discerning anything over 110Hz... so other than making your TV play 24FPS movies from a poor-scaling DVD player better, it's up to decide if the greater Hz is worth the extra cost.

To 99.9% of the population, based solely on perceived quality, the 60Hz tv is the best bang for the buck... and you're really paying extra cash to be able to tell your friends how fast your TV's refresh rate is.

And that's not a criticism or anything for those who do pay the extra... because I'm a techno weenie who loves his numbers -- but if you're looking for bang for your buck -- you get just as good quality for $200 cheaper if you ignore a couple of the marketing numbers.

[oldeguy]

so, basically, besides all the numbers, if I like the way it looks, it's the one for me?

[darkpuppet]

oldeguy,Oct 1 2009, 02:11 PM Wrote:so, basically, besides all the numbers, if I like the way it looks, it's the one for me?
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pretty much!

one other thing I would suggest doing is have the sales guy take the TV that's on the shelf off 'demo' mode (changes the backlight and colour settings to make the TV appear more appealing in stores).

From there you can check a totally white screen and a totally black screen and make sure you're happy with the evenness of the lighting. Not as big an issue on small TVs as it is on larger ones, but may make the difference in your final choice.

[NefCanuck]

Based on your stated needs, it looks like you've found the model that you are after, aside from maybe bringing your own material to view on the TV (say a DVD that you like) the only trick now is not to get burned on the price.

Just as an aside to Flofocus: I have a Sony Bravia XBR800 50" DLP TV that I purchased back in '03 that has never given me a speck of trouble and is still on its original bulb believe it or not. I can even use it at 1080i to play BluRays because the DVI connection is HDMI compliant (an adaptor fixed the connection issue)

I think you may have stumbled upon the electronics equivalent of Anthony's initial experiences with the Focus. A TV that was built on a Friday combined with horrific after sales service.

I would still recommend Sony, with the provisio that you are paying more, for maybe less features, but features mean zip when the TV itself is crap.

NefCanuck

[hardk0re]

37" Viewsonic here, $799 @ costco a year ago, its an ok TV for the money, i'm going to be shopping for a new TV sometime soon as I want something bigger like 52-60".

Quality is OK for its price, but todays TV's are in the same price point now for 37", and higher quality. But I did the same, I bougth 3-4 TV's at that time, took themhome didn't like them and returned them. Finally I found one I could live with and left it at that.

I ignore specs, its whatever your eyes like...don't get carried away with all the specs and such.

[OAC_Sparky]

I have had 4 Sony TVs in my life, a 29" that I dropped from 3' high when I was moving, replaced the broken part of the case and 15 years later still it still works. It's destined for the garage now for watching the game while I'm puttering around out there.

I have a 48" projection that's the downstairs rec room TV and it's fine and it's 9 years old.

My main TV is a 60" 1080P XBR2 SXRD that's in the family room, the optical engine went on it but it was replaced gratis even though it was 3 months out of warranty. That's the only problem I had with it.

My den TV is a 46" Bravia flatscreen but it's only 4 months old so I can't vouch for its longevity yet, but so far so good.

Other Sony products:

-2 receivers
-2 DVD changers
-CD changer
-Dolby S cassette deck
-BluRay Player (this one had the ethernet module replaced under warranty even though I think the cause of the issue was lightning hitting the neighbour's cable line because I had to replace my router as well)
-PS3
-2 PSPs

So I've owned a lot of Sony products over the years and had very few problems. I prefer them over any other brand. Of course, your mileage may vary.

[Flofocus]

glad you had good experience, sounds like me and Toshiba. My $250 CRT flat screen has been going strong for 5 + years now.

I was just completely turned off by Sony after what I went through, horrible service. Pissed me off more than when I had 18 recalls on my 2 week old focus. LOL

[paolo]

Most HD programming on Cable is in 720P and 1080i anyways. But if you can afford it, go for the 1080p HDTV. Some video game consoles and DVD players support this, but.. the catch is, you need to use an HDEMI interface. I dont know if component goes up to 1080P but my DVD Recorder/player supports up to 1080i only via HDMI to the TV, otherwise with component i only get 480i/p

For the other news, most TV broadcasts are still in Standard Definition (480i) You will notice these shows may not look so great on your HDTV, so you may have to play arround with the settings, stretch/zoom, etc or upconvert method to get the best picture quality.

I watch my HD programs in 16x9 and set my STB to output to 1080i even thogh the program may be in 720p. This saves your HDTV from constantly changing resolutions and allowing you to change channels quicker. You may prefer to watch the SD channels in 480 or most people still watch them upconverted in 1080i, but you will notice video artifacts on these types of broadcasts that are there but not visible on CDT and 4:3 Television sets.

[CanadaSVT]

What ever happened with this. The wife just got us some early Christmas presents and mine (ours) is a LG 42" plasma 720 somethingorother with Sony BlueRay ipod theatre. Works great with the Shaw HD. She got one of those expensive food mixer things for free, which will probably cost me a new kitchen soon because we're running out of room for all her toys.