Best buy, Circuit City, or Target

[deaf leppard]

What would be the best buy for an LCD or HDTV 42" or above at one of the chains listed above (check their websites)? The budget for the television is approximately $1300. I ask because my friend is starting his HT and is using credit card cash back he has accrued to start with and he currently has NO T.V. (should be shot, probably, but I'll help him out anyway).

LCD vs. Plasma in this price range? Does size matter (small apartment at this time, but not forever).

He really likes Sony. However, if he puts too much into this he won't be interested in the suggestions I have for his reciever, speakers, and dvd player due to cost constraints.

Thanks for the help,

Deaf Leppard

 

[avaserfi]

Is the room a dedicated HT or just one where there is no light control. Also, what is the budget on the tv and approximatly how far away will he be sitting?

Another thing that would help will be viewing angels and what the tv will be used for (games, movies, HD material etc...)

 

[deaf leppard]

sad answer

the sad answer is I have not been to this friends new apartment. I know he currently does not have cable (since the no t.v. thing) and the room will be dedicated to his hobby of watching dvd's and i-pod music listening much greater than all of the other HT hobbies. I'd guess he has a rather small room and sits no greater than 10 feet from the t.v. space. I'd say the budget is around 1500, but closer to 1300 is appreciated. I plan on suggesting an upconverting dvd player to him in the near future after he gets this purchase and a few others out of the way (currently watches many movies on his computer).

 

[AlphaWolf]

I paid $1,259.99 ($1,358.19 after tax) for my 47" westinghouse LVM-47W1 from BB. Very good TV, one of very few in existence to take a 1080p input, and its picture quality puts some $2,500-$3,500 sets to shame. In fact the picture is so accurate, it makes a great computer monitor as well (this is my primary use for it.) Unfortunately they are a bit hard to come by these days if you are like me and you only buy at local stores. If not, you can still get it for around $1,500 to $1,800 plus shipping, which is still a really good price for this.

 

[deaf leppard]

small concern about the westinghouse

My friend and I looked at the 42" westinghouse and the picture looked great and the price was the lowest of all the 42" plasma or lcds. However, he is not likley to get a cable or sattelite and will likely use an HD antenna for any television/cable channel needs and since it doesn't have a tuner (?), will it work with that type of antenna? He will be using an ONKYO tx-sr804b that I'm selling him, will that have any bearing on it?

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

deaf leppard

bump

 

[Adam]

Some Westinghouse TVs have tuners, some don't. If it doesn't have a tuner, then an antenna isn't going to do you any good unless you get an external tuner. You might consider getting a newer DVD recorder that has a built-in ATSC tuner and use that for over-the-air TV reception.

 

[deaf leppard]

Let's say I suggest the dvd recorder as a tuner idea ...

since he is going to need a dvd player anyway. Would that affect the functionality of the onkyo receiver? I assume the hd antenna would connect directly to the dvd recorder, but then would the recorder connect via hdmi to the onkyo and would that affect the functionality of the recorder as far as acting like a dvr? Wish he would just get satellite like most normal people, it would be so much easier.

deaf leppard

 

[jinjuku]

I would hit a site like www.newegg.com I buddy of mine just picked up a 50" Pioneer 5070 for $700 less than what any B&M store was selling it for.

He didn't need to do a ton of research to figure out that the Pioneer Plasma was an *** kicker of a plasma.

I saw recently on tigerdirect a 55" Hitachi plasma for $1799 before shipping.

I personally have no problem getting such a large item from an online retailer. I will take my chances and save some cash.

 

[deaf leppard]

thanks, but...

the origination of this thread was because he was going to be using gift certificates that he cashes in through his credit card rewards, and he has a limited amount of options as far as retailers. If we were doing this without those restraints, he definitely wouldn't have this problem and would have much better selection. Thanks, though...

any input on my last post?

deaf leppard

 

[Adam]

since he is going to need a dvd player anyway. Would that affect the functionality of the onkyo receiver? I assume the hd antenna would connect directly to the dvd recorder, but then would the recorder connect via hdmi to the onkyo and would that affect the functionality of the recorder as far as acting like a dvr? Wish he would just get satellite like most normal people, it would be so much easier.

deaf leppard

He would just need to watch over-the-air TV through the DVD recorder (or DVD recorder/DVR). He could certainly route the audio and video from the DVD recorder through the Onkyo and pass the video to the TV. I don't know if the 804 has HDMI or not. Which DVD recorder he gets will determine if he can watch one channel while recording another.

 

[deaf leppard]

update:

come to find out that my friend can use his credit card points at j & r music. In the research we've done, it appears the best buy near the 1300 budget is the Westinghouse TX-42F430S, which has the tuner. I couldn't find any ready for 1080p out of the box near the budget. Am I missing something?

Another question. We (I) have decided the Onkyo is not the right receiver for him (price and outdated hdmi 1.1 already). What receiver would work for the small room and HT that will likely include av123 x-ls and x-cs 5.1 and a yet-to-be determined upconverting dvd player. Does he need HDMI 1.2 or 1.3, or is that a mute point with the 1080p Westinghouse?

deaf leppard

 

[avaserfi]

One thing to realize with J&R is they are great. I have ordered a few things from there and just calling in and talking to a sales rep they gave me better deals. Also, they will match all prices given by certified dealers of products. So find a good price online and call them saying you found it. Then you can get your tv for cheap.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the version of HDMI on the receiver it should be a moot point.

 

[WmAx]

LCD vs. Plasma in this price range? Does size matter (small apartment at this time, but not forever).

If PQ is the main concern, LCD *falls short on a critical aspect. A top quality plasma(such as Pioneer or Panasonic) will have a greater tonal range(compared to current LCDs), providing for more realistic images. The best LCD panel in this regard that I have seen was one of the top of the line Sony XBR LCDs that was priced high. However, it still did not match high quality plasma units in tonal range.

-Chris

*Note: many people do not seem to notice(until pointed out with careful examples in person) or care about realistic tonal range/depth. Most only seem to care about 'vivid' looking and 'sharp' picture. So tonal range may be a non issue to your friend.

 

[AlphaWolf]

come to find out that my friend can use his credit card points at j & r music. In the research we've done, it appears the best buy near the 1300 budget is the Westinghouse TX-42F430S, which has the tuner. I couldn't find any ready for 1080p out of the box near the budget. Am I missing something?

Another question. We (I) have decided the Onkyo is not the right receiver for him (price and outdated hdmi 1.1 already). What receiver would work for the small room and HT that will likely include av123 x-ls and x-cs 5.1 and a yet-to-be determined upconverting dvd player. Does he need HDMI 1.2 or 1.3, or is that a mute point with the 1080p Westinghouse?

deaf leppard

I heard there are some PQ differences between the westinghouse LVM series and the TX (newer) series. I don't know whether it is better or worse as I haven't physically compared the two. I would do a little research on that.

One thing I really like about LCD over plasma is the extremely low power consumption, and low heat dissipation (plasma can make small to medium sized rooms get hot - a somewhat big concern if you live in Arizona like me and running the AC gets expensive.) Also with plasma there is some concern of permanent burn-in or uneven aging. With LCD the only kind of "burn in" you can get is called image persistence, which is fixable unlike burn in. LCD also looks much more natural in brightly lit rooms, or rooms with open windows, than plasma does.

Plasma does offer superior contrast though, which will give more accurate blacks, and in a room that is always dark/dim, it will easily beat LCD in terms of picture quality.

FWIW if you ever play computer games though, the Westinghouse TV's double as --AWESOME-- computer monitors, and they are absolutely fantastic for gaming. In fact my Westinghouse LVM-47w1 is my only computer monitor for the computer I am using to write this message. Westinghouse is the only brand where you know that every one of their TV's supports true 1:1 pixel mapping and true 1080p inputs (for their 1080p TV's anyways, not for their 720p tvs of course.) There aren't very many TVs in existence that accept a true 1080p input, even though the display itself may be 1080p.