I use a Sharp 27in Aquos for a PC monitor and Cable TV at the same time.I use 12in X 12in of it as a monitor and 8in X 10in section for cable TV. The remaining section of the screen I use for holding a window or two open.Sometimes I find a TV station that you can stream with your computer and use that space for it.Next week I am ordering a Sharp 37in Aquos LCD TV 1080P ($1,600.00) and will use it as a super Monitor!!!!!.....I have been shopping for one for a while now and will be buying it from——WWW.onecall.com——Free shipping (FED-X) and no sales tax if you don’t live in Washington state.Delivered in 3 days.A good vidio-card is recommended.!!!!!!.....
I am very happy with my purchase.
Don’t buy an RCA anything. Last September I bought an RCA HDTV. By January the HD part wasn’t working and my March all I got was sound and a blue screen. Parts were under warrenty but not labor. After having it at an approved RCA repair center for 2 months I finally got it back (after throwing a royal fit with the repair place and RCA) and am out 150 for labor.
I love Sony TV’s, that is all I ever get. Never had any trouble with them at all.
Whatever you decide to get congratulations it is fun to get a new TV.
I would not buy a great TV without an AV receiver and excellent set of 5.1 speakers to go with it. Great picture without great sound is missing half of the sensory experience.
you can go to http://www.projectorcentral.com/ for some good info and reviews. We love movies and decided to go the Home Theater Projector route. I have a Panasonic projector and Oppo upconverting DVD player. The 720p images projected on the 133” screen are gorgeous.
I prefer LCD over Plasma. I bought a 42” Sceptre thru Costco and have been happy with it. A plasma TV will give you headaches with the reflections on the screen, if it’s facing a window. If it’s generally in a dark room, it may not be too bad.
I spotted this a few weeks ago when Costco sent out a book of coupons to its members. One coupon is for $200 off the above TV, effective August 20th through 26th. If you don't have a coupon you can buy one cheap on eBay.
From what I've been able to Google, this TV is expected to sell for around $2,200 (or $2,000 with the coupon). Vizio has an amazingly good reputation for a low cost leader. I've seen Vizio's 47" LCD TV on display at Costco, and it looks great. Most reviews I've read online sing Vizio's praises. And apparently their sales are skyrocketing.
I also trust Costco. Costco stands behind its products, and it offers extremely good quality at unbeatable prices.
So Monday morning on August 20th, when Costco opens its doors, I'll be there with my coupon to haul off this apparent bargain.
I have the 42 and 47” LCD 1080p Westinghouse televisions, and I’ve been very pleased with them. They’re some of the cheapest on the market, but I’d gladly compare their picture quality with the more expensive brands. They also have a great variety of inputs (HDMI, 2 DVI, 2 component, one VGA, one S-Video, and your basic L/R RCA style input).
The Westinghouse sets don’t have a built in tuner, but since you’re looking for a 1080p set, I assume you have an HD cable box (that’s what I have hooked up to both of mine, and a variety of gaming systems/HD DVD players). For $2000, you could get either Westinghouse and still have enough left over to buy a Toshiba HD DVD player and maybe even a blu-ray player.
Make sure you get a unit with plenty of HDMI inputs, which is fast becoming the standard digital input port. My 50 inch Sony LCD HDTV only has one HDMI input, which I have my cable box/DVR hooked up to. Now I can’t hook up my DVD/Home theater system, nor my Playstation 3, nor a DVD Recorder; they are hooked up through vastly inferior other connections (RCA cables, component).
Look at it, buy it then enjoy it and don't do any more window shopping for at least 2 years so you won't have any regrets for not waiting a couple months for the better model that came out..... :)
Make sure you can stand watching an LCD first. My brother has LCD, I have plasma. His has a higher resolution than my plasma but my plasma has hands down better picture quality (Pioneer broadcast monitor and bro regrets his choice). For sports this plasma (72hz refresh rate) is superb viewing. I find LCD smear fatiguing to my eyes. If I were to shop for LCD, 1080p wouldn’t be the thing I’d look for, I’d look for the new 120hz refresh rate (which is probably attached to 1080p only anyway).
Save yourself a few hundred bucks and skip the Monster cable hustle at the store. Get your cables off the net at cablewholesale.com or one of the others.
Great article on cables here:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,121777/article.html
I know you are rejecting projection TVs, but that could mean the ones with a built in Behind the screen projector. Do not dismiss DLP prjectors, such as Radio Shack sells.
At Christmas, they had a DLP projector for sale at $999 with a built in sound system, subwoofer, et al, and a DVD player.
I couldn’t afford it then, but in the mean time, I got my hands on a regular video projector and now have a 9 foot (108”) screen.
The only requirement is that the screen not have direct light on it as this diffuses the color, which is ok, because whn I watch football or a movie, or play my PS2 games, I don’t want to be looking around, I want to focus on the show.
The only cons are the 10 second delay from powering on the TV to seeing the picture (the bulb must warm up first), and the $150 bulb will need replacing every 8,000 hours (4 or 5 years of normal use).
One big reason I chose a 50 in. LCD projection over a plasma is power consumption. Looked at a 50 in. plasma from Vizio, but it uses 500 watts of power continuous. The 50 in. LCD I got uses 200 watts.
At $2000 I’d go with a 65” or so DLP. Toshiba or Samsung are good choices. The most common “if I had it do over again” statement by buyers is going for a bigger screen.
I’ve read about half the posts on this thread and gave up looking. In all the advice you’re getting, has anyone asked some very pertinent questions?
- What is the optimal TV size you need? There are readily available room size charts to determine the correct size for your needs. Too big is a problem. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.
- What is the lighting of the room where it is going? Is it a dedicated Home Theater room with controlled lighting or is it going in the family room with a big, old double window along the wall? Reflected light on a plasma screen is an issue.
- How much time will you spend watching the set? If the set is going to be used for movies and gaming, that would be different from a set that will be used to watch all the regular stuff that you’ve been watching on a tube TV.
hdguru.com is a starting point, in my opinion. There are tons of other considerations.
As a last piece of advice, please accept anecdotal evidence of great/poor performance for what it is. A lot of owners (of ANYTHING) will tell you their model is the one to have. It’s human nature to want to get an endorsement of our decisions. Also, when someone tells you ‘XXXX is junk’ or things like that, take them with a grain of salt. Do some research or require someone who says ‘avoid...’ to give you some non-anecdotal evidence. For instance, Sharp Aquos has been known to suffer from banding in the past. Find out via reviews from technical / consumer sites and articles if this matters or if the manufacturer has addressed the problem.
In the interest of disclosure, I don’t own an HDTV set yet, as I’m sort of in the same boat as you. I’m shopping, but not at all ready to pull the trigger.
Best of luck on the search and let us all know how you made out.
I’ve reviewed some of these HDTVs personally (both LCD and Plasma). In general I prefer plasma for reproduction of moving images, color reproduction and black levels/contrast, but there are some LCD sets that are better than some plasma sets. Resolution (1920x1080 vs. 1366x768) really isn’t the most important measurement of a set (particularly at normal viewing distances), but all else being equal, a 1080p set is sharper than a 768p or 720p set.
I think the current “best” bang-for-the-buck and possibly the best set out there under $3K in the 50-inch size would be the new 1080p Panasonic plasmas. A little outside your price range but not much ($2600). Here’s a link:
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/panasonic-1080p-plasma-1139.shtml
I’ve set up and calibated one of these for a friend and was very impressed by the detail and color accuracy. No visible image retention and minimal reflectivity of the screen. This is the one I would get if I were buying today.
-CB