Suggestions for a decent TV

[project86]

Yes, another one of these threads... I just discovered this forum though and it seems way better than the others (I won't mention names...), so I figured I'd ask here.

My wife and I agreed to upgrade out TV sometime next year, probably in July or later. We currently have a 27" CRT SD set, that is less than high end. It only has a single s-video input, which de-activates the other 2 composite inputs when in use!

We are looking to get something bigger, probably 42" or larger; anything less seems like a waste. Don't have any particular opinion about plasma/LCD/digital rear projection. Whatever looks good and is cheap, we will buy.

We mostly watch TV thru a Dish network box, that outputs via s-video, so 480i. We *might* upgrade to HD (thru dish or someone else) if the price gets a bit lower by then, but realistically most of the channels will still be SD. I do have a decent Samsung 480P DVD player, but might upgrade to an Oppo or something else that can upconvert.

My basic question is this: since we watch a lot of SD 480i content, and probably will for a long time, what should we choose for a new TV? I have already decided that 1080p is a waste for us, but that still doesn't narrow it down much. Again, here is my criteria:

Price: must be under $2000, prefer $1200 or so
Size: must be at least 42", 50+ is even better
Quality: must be able to handle my crappy SD signal and make it looks decent.

Thanks in advance, this is a great forum!

 

[AVRat]

By July, the new models of A/V gear will have started rolling out with a few awaited changes. The most awaited being the application of the HDMI 1.3 standard. Since the new models will be rolling out, the current models will drop quite a bit in price by then. It sounds like the current models will fit your needs. It’s rather difficult at this juncture to make a recommendation. The best suggestion I can give at this point is to look around at TVs in the <$3000 price area and by next year they’ll be in your price range.

Look here for good options and current retail pricing: http://www.ultimateelectronics.com

 

[rr2465]

A few thoughts...

My wife and I were in a similar situation recently when it came time to replace our 27 inch CRT. We did some comparison shopping and narrowed it down to the 42 inch Panasonic plasma and the 40 inch Sony LCD. The panny looked better to me with SD material but we liked the sony better with HD material. We ended up with the Sony because of the HD feed and we felt like more and more channels were going to go HD in the future. We also have a bright room and the LCD's seem to have less glare. The panny still looked great though - i'm not trying to bash the panny.

That was 3 months ago. We do have an HD feed and the HD channels look fantastic. It really depends on what type of SD source material you are getting to answer your question about SD. Our channels 2-99 are still analog and they look like crap - our old 27 inch looked better with these channels. The digital channels (>100) that we have look much better than the analog ones. And again the HD channels look awesome. I'm also really happy with how our non-upconverted DVD's look on the HDTV.

I'm not sure that I'm answering your question, but if you get an HDTV I wouldn't expect a 480 signal to look all that great unless its digital.

Good luck!

 

[stratman]

Yes, another one of these threads... I just discovered this forum though and it seems way better than the others (I won't mention names...), so I figured I'd ask here.

My wife and I agreed to upgrade out TV sometime next year, probably in July or later. We currently have a 27" CRT SD set, that is less than high end. It only has a single s-video input, which de-activates the other 2 composite inputs when in use!

We are looking to get something bigger, probably 42" or larger; anything less seems like a waste. Don't have any particular opinion about plasma/LCD/digital rear projection. Whatever looks good and is cheap, we will buy.

We mostly watch TV thru a Dish network box, that outputs via s-video, so 480i. We *might* upgrade to HD (thru dish or someone else) if the price gets a bit lower by then, but realistically most of the channels will still be SD. I do have a decent Samsung 480P DVD player, but might upgrade to an Oppo or something else that can upconvert.

My basic question is this: since we watch a lot of SD 480i content, and probably will for a long time, what should we choose for a new TV? I have already decided that 1080p is a waste for us, but that still doesn't narrow it down much. Again, here is my criteria:

Price: must be under $2000, prefer $1200 or so
Size: must be at least 42", 50+ is even better
Quality: must be able to handle my crappy SD signal and make it looks decent.

Thanks in advance, this is a great forum!

I love the PANASONIC 42" PLASMA here where I live it can be had for 1198.00 HD version (BrandsMart). The blacks are amazing, it's been bullet-proof (2 years old), HDMI, Mine is the ED version and thats 998.00!