Need some advice

[Yvonne2063]

Hi!! I'm new here and need your advice.
My parents who are in their 70's want to buy a new television set. They were going to go with the standard CRT television but because they are so heavy they are leaning towards the more modern and lighter ones.
I went with my dad to the audio store yesterday and he was looking at two models. One was the Sharp Aquos 32" LCD and the other was the Sony Grand Wega 42" Projection LCD HD. He found that the Sharp looked too small for his living room so he was more interested in the 42".
My question is this: Does anyone have the Sony Grand Wega? He is wondering whether it would be too big for his living room. He does not want to be disappointed in his purchase like he was with his last purchase. I should also mention that he has standard cable hookup at the moment but is contemplating having a satellite dish installed in the spring.
Thanks so much for any advice you can give me.

 

[j_garcia]

If he likes the 42" and it's within his price range, that's what he should go with I think the Sonys look pretty decent at the store and I've read the reviews that say they are not bad.

 

[Yvonne2063]

Thanks "j garcia" for the reply.
At the store, the 42" had a really great image but they had a dvd player hooked up for customer viewing. I'm just wondering how the cable hookup would compare to the picture quality versus the dvd. I've also looked for customer reviews and they are pretty good.
But I'd like more advice here, from anyone who already owns one, before making the final decision.

 

[Leprkon]

I have last year's Sony 42 inch (the KDF 42WE655) and your dad was probably looking at the KF42 WE610, which is the new model. It's an awesome picture on both over-the-air HD broadcasts and with semi-decent DVD player.

The TV itself is not as large as you would think (maybe 42 inches total, across). I have mine on a dresser in the bedroom (the short side of 14x17) and, if anything it's almost a size too small. If this is his primary TV in the house, a 50 inch may be a better choice. You have to be closer than 6 feet to the TV to see any kind of screen-door effect.

Cable hook-up is always iffy, but he can use the cable-card slot if he's not big on pay-per-view.

If he does use a cable card, that still leaves his over-the-air antenna free to pick up the 12 to 18 HD channels broadcasting in your local area. A week of Nature on PBS, football and baseball on Fox in high-definition, and he may decide cable is not really all that important. I certainly would not pay the cable company extra for the local channels, when they are probably free in high definition.

Given that the TV runs less than $ 1,600 here

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?sHist=12-79,6-2&menu=true&id=28433

and probably even a little less than that if you go to shopping.com, it's a great buy and a much better overall value than the Aquos. The 50 inch runs about $ 1999 (about $ 450 cheaper than the local big-box store, assuming that sales tax balances out the shipping charges).