Audioholics Article "Best Bang for the Buck?" Midrange system-ERROR-ERROR-ERROR-BANG

[GreenJelly]

http://www.audioholics.com/showcase/systemguide/5KRecommendedhometheater.php

States that they recommend the Westinghouse LVM-42w2 1080p 42" LCD

I have heard nothing but horrible reviews from people who work in the industry. When ever I mention I want a inexpensive TV solution, they ALWAYS seem to refer to the Westinghouse as the worst. Constant problems they say.

Too bad they recommend them, it is the one Item on the list that I highly disagree with.

Mike

 

[Audioholics]

There's almost no markup on this monitor, so a lot of sales people & dealers have no use for them. Secondly, they have poor off-axis response. Thirdly, only the one DVI-D input supports full 1080p bandwidth.

So why do we recommend it? Because this 42-inch monitor still looks fantastic in most practical home viewing scenarios and costs less than $1500. And the 47-inch runs less than $1900. That's pretty tough to find.

 

[jonnythan]

I looked at a lot of low-cost 42" and 50" screens, and the Westinghouse 1080p 42" LCD looked like crap to me.

*shrug*

 

[Audioholics]

In a retail store I'm sure it did. Defining "crap" gets a lot tougher once you start to mess with the settings and get it into a home environment.

 

[jonnythan]

In a retail store I'm sure it did. Defining "crap" gets a lot tougher once you start to mess with the settings and get it into a home environment.

It was running the exact same Discovery HD feed that was on every other HD set in the store. I played with the settings for a while and couldn't get it to look acceptable. Many of the other sets looked great to me, so I shrugged and moved on.

I'm no expert or nuttin tho.

 

[Bigfishe]

It was running the exact same Discovery HD feed that was on every other HD set in the store. I played with the settings for a while and couldn't get it to look acceptable. Many of the other sets looked great to me, so I shrugged and moved on.

I'm no expert or nuttin tho.

Take what Clint said into consideration though,
If Dealers aren't making much on the unit why would they try to make it look as good or better in store then their Mainstream units.... I know if I was running a business it would only make sense to push the units that have the highest profit margin, and wouldn't put it past Managers/dealers to "adjust" settings accordingly. Again. the educated consumer has more bargaining power...Educate yourself before you go buy.


Now....Not saying I would try to sell Crap but If extensive test weren't done on OPPO DVD players do you think people would be making such a big deal out of them? Some people only trust "mainstream" brand names and can't see past that.

 

[jonnythan]

Take what Clint said into consideration though,
If Dealers aren't making much on the unit why would they try to make it look as good or better in store then their Mainstream units.... I know if I was running a business it would only make sense to push the units that have the highest profit margin, and wouldn't put it past Managers/dealers to "adjust" settings accordingly. Again. the educated consumer has more bargaining power...Educate yourself before you go buy.

I adjusted the settings on the TV myself, just as I did with every other TV I looked at. Every one of the store-set TVs had the brightness, contrast, and color turned up way too high.

In any case, I wasn't able to adjust the settings on the TV in question so that it looked acceptable to me.

I do own the Oppo 971 and am extremely impressed by it. FWIW

 

[Audioholics]

Gotta drop that backlight way down, too. Hey, that's why these are just recommendations - and we try to include plenty of alternates (that Olevia 542 is looking good at under $1000 this week). I'm actually redoing the system guides now as a matter of fact. They should be quite a bit different, and we are targeting many systems as audio- and video-centric and doing two at particular budget points.

 

[GreenJelly]

My only issue is that this product has been known to have a short life span. A smaller tv made by Sharp, Sony, Philps or allot of other companies would have been a great choice.

Mike

 

[Sleestack]

My only issue is that this product has been known to have a short life span. A smaller tv made by Sharp, Sony, Philps or allot of other companies would have been a great choice.

Mike

I can vouch for the Sony and Sharp LCD panels. I have them and both are excellent. I do, however, think the Sharps offer a better value.

You might try to find a Sharp or Sony that isn't one of their latest products. Many of them will give you a great picture. The technology moves so fast that the last product cycle may have only been a year ago.

 

[GreenJelly]

Look... go to a few stores, and ask the sales man what he thinks about the reliabilty of the TV's he sells. If he says he doesnt know, and hes at Circuit Sh-city or Best Pie, then hes telling the truth. If he works for a good store that ONLY sells A/V stuff, and no Games, Computer Equipment, Refriges, etc... then he is a dum *** and you should go to a different sales man.

Then when you get one who claims to know the answer, get his opinion... Then ask him what he thinks about Monster Cable...

If he tells you Monster Cable is ok, then moves onto other topics... he is worth listening too. A sales man shouldnt crap on the products they sell, but if he is honest he will avoid that topic...

When I bought my TV, I played dumb and asked him what that big Power Device with "Monster" on it does. The sales man briefly said that it conditions the line for power to your AV equipment... thats all he said... he didnt try to sell it to me, he seemed to try and avoid the topic all together...

This is a huge rarity in the industry. You got two types of salesmen... the ones that sell to make money or simply out of ignorance. Then their are the salesmen who are honest with you. If a sales man is honest with me, I take his advice and I usually buy, and buy, and buy... if he bull-sh-cities me, then I walk out, or ask for another sales man.

I have found a few guys that I trust around my local dealers. But I just dont buy much locally, cause the prices at retail stores are expensive compaired to online.

I guess if you buy a 2 or 3 year warrenty with it, then you have a good shot at owning the tv for 10 years. Most problems happen in the first few months of usage. It then seems to be a linear curve downwords. Thats why if you have a 7 year old TV... it will probably last until someone drops it, or lightning strikes.

Of course Plasma and LCD arent the same... they definately have a difinitive lifespan, but if you count out the hours they are suppose to last... you find that these TV's should run for 10 years if you watch TV for 6 hours a day.

Mike

Now with that said... yes, westing house has allot of problems... lots of TV's going dead... They are probably getting better, but personally I would trust Viewsonic's for LCD's and some of the other companies for the Plasmas.

 

[GreenJelly]

My Panasonic is the 9th generation Plasma TV...

I trust Panasonic for Plasmas...

 

[Audioholics]

We've been very impressed by Panasonic so far as well.

 

[evilkat]

My Panasonic is the 9th generation Plasma TV...

I trust Panasonic for Plasmas...

Ditto! I just got the 42" x60 and it's awesome so far! Have it hooked to my computer and it's behaving exceptionally well. The only thing wrong with it out of the box was the color...it seems to have a strong blue-push to it...so I've had to warm the colors up a bit. At any rate, it's far too early to do any sort of calibration on it. It's by no means as fancy as the Pioneers, but for $1400 shipped, this is a heluva deal.

 

[GreenJelly]

I got my Pioneer for 1299... 42"

From Circuit sh-city... they actually matched NewEggs price, which is a bit of a miracle.

Mike

Price was wrong...

 

[evilkat]

Wow, GJ, that's awesome! I wish I could have gotten it in-store too They wouldn't price match anything online though. You really pulled off a miracle!

 

[GreenJelly]

sorry, I put the wrong price on the item I got it for... I got it 1299 and not 1400...