Posted on 11/21/2011 3:47:09 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave
Washington, D.C. (Nov. 20, 2011) -- Best Buy says it will sell a Sharp 42-inch, 1080p LCD HDTV for $199. Hhgregg says it will sell an Internet-enabled Samsung Blu-ray player for $39. And Target plans to sell a Westinghouse 46-inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $298.
These are just some of the incredible deals that retailers will offer on High-Definition TVs and related high-def products on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 25).
However, this could be the most competitive Black Friday ever -- thanks to the economy and smaller inventories at retail stores. It's quite possible that some of the discount prices will be available for one day only -- and may include restrictions on time and supply.
And with the economy in trouble, surveys indicate that bargain hunters will likely turn out in even greater numbers on the big day.
So, how can you make sure that you don't get shut out?
Based on information from Consumer World (http://consumerworld.org/pages/shoptips.htm) and other sources, TVPredictions.com has compiled a list of 10 rules for landing that great deal on Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season.
And here they are:
1. Read the Ads -- In Print & Online Consumer World suggests that you carefully review your local newspapers on Thanksgiving Day. Usually, they will be stuffed with Black Friday ads and coupons. Bring them with you on the big day. Plus, many retailers are offering special Black Friday deals at their web sites. Don't forget to check them out 24-48 hours prior to the big day. (Also see Rule #6)
2. Evaluate the Deals Don't assume every "deal" is a deal. Compare the "Black Friday" special price with the HDTV's normal price before buying. You can do that at various e-commerce web sites such as Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. You may even find a lower price online.
3. Buy a Good Product A low price doesn't guarantee a high-quality television. Do some research and read product reviews at sites such as CNET.com. If you're not familiar with the product's brand name, check out its customer service record with organizations such as the Better Business Bureau.
4. Look For More Discounts Some stores issue coupons or rebates on high-def sets and other products such as High-Definition DVD players. Find out if the discounts apply to the Black Friday specials.
5. Come Early Some stores will offer special prices if you come in at a specific time, such as between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. Check out those Thanksgiving ads for "time restricted" specials. Also, this year, some stores are holding pre-Black Friday sales.
6. Beat the Early Birds Some Black Friday deals at retail may be available at the store's web site. Check out the site in the wee hours of Friday morning and you might save yourself a trip to the store.
7. Check the Return Policy Before buying, find out the store's return policy. Consumer World says some stores discourage returns by imposing restocking fees or placing frequent "returners" on blacklists.
8. Get a Gift Receipt You can make a return easier for gift recipients by asking the store to place a receipt in a gift box. Without it, the store may not accept it.
9. Use the Right Credit Card Some credit cards offer free benefits such as a return protection guarantee or purchase points that can be redeemed for other products. When you're buying a big-ticket item like a HDTV, that could pay off.
10. Save More With Price Guarantees After buying the high-def set, keep your eye on the TV's price at other stores in the next month. Some stores will give you the difference between your price and a competitor's price during the holiday season.
go to Amazon.com- best place...
my wife and i are getting a “together” gift this year and i bought a brand new Samsung UN55D6000 55-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV (Black) for $1080 yesterday....
Amazon also has many re-furbished sets too.
I almost always buy re-furbished for myself. Most of the major manufacturers - Sony, Apple, Samsung, etc. - have online re-furbished products.
I currently own a re-furbished Sharp Aquos Quattron 3D, re-furbished MacBook Pro and re-furbished Sony all-in-one PC.
All in all, you get a better quality product, and you know what you are getting because you have researched it.
I haven’t had any problems with any of the re-furbished products. They come with standard warranties, and you can buy additional warranty.
Last year I bought a Sony TV for my aunt for $600 on Black Friday. Found the same TV on Sony’s re-furbished site for $199 about a month later. The internet is your friend, and sure beats battling for a bargain.
A TV works by displaying a series of still pictures, fast enough that you can’t discern them - your brain fuses them together for an illusion of motion.
Each picture is made up of a set of horizontal lines.
720 means there are seven hundred twenty lines making up the picture.
1080 means there are one thousand eighty lines making up the picture.
The “p” means the screen will display all 1080 lines at once.
The “i” means every other line will be displayed at once, then the missing lines will be filled in next: 540 lines shown, then the other 540, letting your brain fuse them into one picture.
1080i is a cheap shortcut.
60Hz means the screen is redrawn sixty times per second.
120Hz means the screen is redrawn one hundred twenty times per second.
The faster the screen is redrawn, the smoother the apparent motion looks. Some people can discern the flicker between redraws at 60Hz; nobody can discern the redraws at 120Hz.
720p @ 60Hz will do, and you will probably not notice what’s missing. Some of us can tell the difference, and it bothers us; most people have no idea*.
1080p @ 120Hz will ensure there is nothing to miss.
(* - videophiles: remember that most viewers can’t even tell that a 640x480 image stretched to 1080p is “wrong”; they won’t recognize any benefit from a proper setup.)
Thank you
I usually just wait for CyberMonday, order from home, have gas and hassle of the crowd.
Most of the Black Friday ‘good stuff’ is rationed with just a few to each store, so chances of getting that ‘grand bargain’ are not high.
Some of the Cyber-competition actually is going on during the entire week.
i’ve bought refurbished products myself- no problem with them...for gifts though i’d rather get new products...
In that case, it's probably best not to go out of the house...
Black Friday 2011: 10 best TV deals
Nov 21, 2011 10:00 AM
With Black Friday now just days away, those of us looking to get a new HDTV for the holidays might be starting to narrow down the choices. We’ve seen a number of great deals being offered for the event, but we also believe that TV promotions will continue right through the new year, so don’t be discouraged if you miss out on a Black Friday special.
In fact, based on a recent analysis we did with the price-prediction website Decide.com, in a significant number of instances the lowest prices of the season were offered not on Black Friday or Cyber Monday but later in the year. Still, if you do intend to do some TV shopping on Black Friday this year, here are 10 deals that caught our attention:
1. Sharp 42-inch 1080p LCD TV (LC-42SV49U), $200 at Best Buy. Not surprising, given its shockingly low price, this is a doorbuster special from Best Buy, available in limited quantities at store locations. This is a fairly basic 1080p LCD set, though it does have four HDMI inputs. Sharp has been a somewhat inconsistent performer in our Ratings, but it’s still hard to beat a TV that’s priced like a microwave oven.
2. Westinghouse 46-inch 1080p LCD TV (VR-4625), $298 at Target. Westinghouse TVs have typically been among the lower-ranked sets in our Ratings, but this fairly basic model—a 60Hz set with a CCFL (fluorescent) backlight—might be just the ticket for budget-conscious shoppers looking for a TV for a secondary room of the house.
3. Vizio 47-inch 3D LCD TV (XVT3D474SV), $938 at Amazon. This 47-inch 3D TV from Vizio is loaded with features, including a full-array LED backlight with local dimming, the equivalent of 480Hz technology, built-in dual-band Wi-Fi, and Vizio’s VIA suite of Internet apps and services, including streaming movies and TV shows. The set is a passive-3D model and comes with four sets of lightweight polarized glasses.
4. Dynex 55-inch 1080 LCD TV (DX-55L150A11), $600 at Best Buy. This might be an appealing option for those looking for a larger set with a few extra features, such as 1080p resolution and 120Hz anti-blur technology. It has four HDMI inputs, which are also a plus. Dynex TVs have done well in our TV Ratings, generally offering very good overall performance at a fairly low price.
5. Samsung 51-inch 720p plasma (PN51D430), $498 at Walmart. This is a basic 720p plasma from a brand that has typically done well in the CR TV Ratings. It uses the company’s narrow-bezel “Plus One” design to squeeze an extra inch of screen. (Sears is selling this TV for just one dollar more as part of its early CyberMonday sale today.)
6. Zenith 50-inch 1080p plasma (Z50PV220), $500 at Sears. We’ve seen plasma TVs at this price, but seldom a 1080p model. For the past two years, Sears and Kmart have been rolling out low-priced Black Friday sets bearing the Zenith brand, and this year is no exception. It’s a basic 1080p plasma.
7. Panasonic 46-inch 720p plasma TV (TC-P46X3), $400 from Best Buy. Like Samsung’s, Panasonic plasmas typically do very well in our TV Ratings, and we purchased this set earlier this year for more than $600. Despite its lower resolution, it has a good number of features, including the ability to accept an optional Wi-Fi adapter and Panasonic’s EZ IPTV Internet platform, with access to streaming movies and TV shows.
8) Emerson 32-inch 720p LCD TV (LC320EM1-SF), $188 at Walmart. this is a very basic 720p LCD TV from Emerson, a brand controlled by Funai. It might be a good choice for those looking to outfit a spare bedroom or guest room with a basic, low-priced set. We’ve seen this set for close to $350 on various sites. Walmart will also have a 40-inch Emerson set for $248.
9. LG 47-inch 3D LCD TV and Blu-ray player bundle, $799 at Walmart. Walmart has created a 3D package consisting of LG’s 47LW5300 1080p 3D LCD TV, plus an unnamed 3D Blu-ray player and four sets of lightweight polarized glasses. The TV, which uses passive 3D technology, has a decent number of features, including an edge LED backlight and a 120Hz refresh rate, but it doesn’t include the company’s Smart TV Internet platform. If you’re looking to go bigger, both Amazon and Walmart have a similar bundle with LG’s 55-inch 55LW5300 3D set for just under $1,250.
10. Three big-screen specials at Best Buy and Walmart, $800 to $1,000. Here are three options for those looking for very big TVs:
•Sharp 60-inch 1080p LCD TV (LC60E79U), $800 Best Buy. A major-brand 120Hz set.
•Westinghouse 60-inch 1080p LCD TV VR-6025Z), $800 at Best Buy. Normally this 120Hz set is $1,000.
•Toshiba 65-inch 1080p LCD TV (65HT2U), $998 at Walmart. A 120Hz set that, based on our experience with the Toshiba TVs in our Ratings, would benefit greatly from an external sound system.
These are just some of the best deals we’ve seen offered for Black Friday, so let us know what’s on your radar this year. To make the most of these, and other, specials, make sure you read our blog with 12 tips for getting the best Black Friday deals. And remember that the cheapest TV doesn’t always mean it’s the best deal. Since you’ll likely own the set for a good number of years, make sure you one that really fits your needs
For some reason I suspect the “refurbs” are just overstock that the manufacturer doesn’t want toestablish a new lower price.
I have been in Frys Electronics and seen 50-100 of one item, all listed as refurbs. Seems to me that a helluva lot were sent back and refinished, especially when you open up the package and it looks brand new and not repackaged.
TV Specs That Aren’t Worth Paying For.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/27380258
Almost every year, TV manufacturers have touted some shiny new technology as the reason you need to buy a new set: flat screens, HDTV, plasmas, LCDs, 3D TV… but all of these are now old news. Practically the only trick stores have left is to reduce the price. This makes it an ideal year to get a great bargain, but only if you know what to look for — and what to avoid.
Plasma vs. LED vs. LCD
Not all HDTVs are created equal. If you’re getting a new set, the first factor to decide on is the type of TV that is best for you. Your main choices include:
*Plasma - Plasmas feature an older technology, but don’t completely count them out. They are cheaper, have deep blacks for rich contrast, and handle sports and fast motion well. But they are energy hogs, using three or four times as much electricity as Energy Star LEDs.
*Traditional LCD - Bright, with middle-of-the-road cost, traditional LCDs are prone to greyish blacks, and budget models can have blockier motion processing than other options.
*LED-backlit LCD - LED displays can be brighter and thinner than plasmas and LCDs. They are more energy conscious, and the top of the line models handle blacks as well as plasmas do.
Specs to Ignore (or at least not pay extra for)
Resolution
Resolution is the measure of how many pixels are on the screen. The higher the resolution, the higher definition you get. HDTVs (High Definition Televisions) are generally sold as either 720p or 1080p - which have 720 or 1080 rows of pixels. You might think having more pixels is better, and you’d be right — but only to a point. The real truth is that the human eye can barely discern the difference between 720p and 1080p except at a close distance on really big TVs. So paying extra for 1080p on a smaller set doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Internet connected TV
Sometimes known as smart TVs, Internet-connected TVs allow you to stream to your set all that the Web has to offer. While that’s a handy feature, you can always add on a device like the Roku for around $50-$70 or the Apple TV for about $100. Also most DVD players these days also have an Internet port or a way to get access to your home wifi network.
Refresh rate (or Hz)
Refresh rates determine how fast the TV repaints the image on the screen. 60Hz models refresh the screen 60 times per second; 120Hz models refresh the screen 120 times per second. It’s true that buying a TV with 120Hz refresh rate instead of 60Hz makes a noticeable difference when watching fast-moving programs like sports, where motion blur can become an issue at 60Hz.
But if you get tempted to buy a more expensive 240Hz model because you think it’ll make your TV viewing even better, think again. Many tech analysts agree that the naked eye can barely perceive the difference between 120Hz and 240Hz, making it unnecessary to pay extra for the latter.
Specs that Matter
Size
Buy as big as you can afford, but not too big for your room. THX came up with a useful guide that helps you determine optimal screen size based on the distance you’ll sit from the screen:
•32 inch class TV = 3.5-5 feet away
•42 inch class TV = 4-6 feet away
•50 inch class TV = 5-7.5 feet away
•60 inch class TV = 6-9 feet away
If a TV’s thickness matters to you, then you may want to take a closer look at LED TVs. Samsung’s LED9000 series measures a wafer-like 0.3” in depth; no traditional LCD or plasma TV is that thin. LED displays can be thinner than plasmas and CCFL-lit LCDs because some models are edge-lit, meaning the LEDs that illuminate the screen are only located on the edges.
Dimming
If you’ve narrowed your selection down to LEDs, consider getting a set with local dimming. LEDs without this feature can look blown out, with blacks that look more like greys. Local dimming turns down the brightness in areas that are supposed to be dark, dynamically improving the contrast. Note that edge-lit models with local dimming don’t perform as well as full-backlit units with local dimming capacity.
While LED with its local dimming feature, thinness, and minimal energy use may sound the ideal HDTV set, know that it can also be the most expensive option among the three. The 55” Samsung LED9000 model, for example, costs around $2,500 whereas some of Samsung’s 50” plasma TVs can be priced as low as $1,149.99.
Matte vs. Glossy
LCDs used to all have matte displays, which tend to fare better in parts of the house with an abundance of ambient light. Glossy displays have better contrast and sharper colors, but you may want to place them in darker places so your TV viewing won’t be ruined by glare from lights and windows reflecting on the screen.
What About 3D?
It’s a personal decision, but one that will cost you. According to the shopping site dealnews.com, a 3D TV will go for almost double the cost of a comparable 2D TV.
Active or passive 3D glasses?
If you do pony up for 3D, you’ll need to decide between systems that require active or passive glasses. Active shutter glasses can produce slightly better images, but are heavy, need recharging, and could cost a ton — yes, you need to pay extra for your 3D glasses on top of the TV itself. Some lower-end active glasses cost around $20, while higher-end ones are in the three figure price range. Passive 3D glasses are lighter and cheaper, but passive systems produce lower-quality images.
Glasses-free models
Manufacturers are working on 3D TVs that don’t require any kind of glasses, but they are hardly ready for prime time. Toshiba, for instance, has released a no glasses 3D TV, but it’s only available in Europe and Japan and costs a mind-blowing $10,000 for a 55” model — and it has viewing angle problems. Samsung says it won’t be able to mass produce glasses free models for quite some time.
Where’s the content?
While manufacturers would love for you to pay a premium for 3D systems, there’s not a lot of content available to watch. That may be changing, but right now producing 3D content is the lowest priority among TV executives.
The Bottom Line
The type of TV you choose should depend on your needs and the television’s placement in your home. If you don’t mind paying a premium, LED TVs offer the full package, and are also the most future-proof. Traditional LCDs and plasma TVs lag behind when it comes to features. But if you’re looking to get the largest HDTV your money can buy, either of them may be the better choice for you.
This may work..
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upgrade-your-life/tv-specs-aren-t-worth-paying-225518304.html
Too much turkey?
Nice summary. Thanks for the ping and Happy Thanksgiving!
PS: Did the Sharp Elite ever come out?
“OK what is the difference between a 1080P and a 1080I..........my daughter said stay away from any 720 TV, it has to be at least 1080.....put I do not know why some have P’s and some have I’s after the number......also 60hz or 120 hz, what is the difference?”
I replaced a 42” 720 LCD made about 2005, with a 42” 1080 LED last year.
The picture on the old set was much better, with supposedly inferior specs.
Just bought a high end granite counter for the kitchen @ $29.00 sq ft installed. Saved about 40 % off MSRP off kitchen appliances and the money I saved off the cabinets alone paid for my membership twice over
Looks like a great TV, and not exactly a budget priced BlackFriday door buster deal!
In the below link: “The 60-inch PRO-60X5FD will be available next week, with the 70-inch PRO-70X5FD coming out in late August.”
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sharp-elite-pro-70x5fd/4505-6482_7-35004014.html#ixzz1eeZrBpwu
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sharp-elite-pro-70x5fd/4505-6482_7-35004014.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20029882-17.html
Black Friday has become the statement that Americans are easily lead around by the nose.
Thanks for the post and all your work on this issue. Big help...
I don't technically have one, but I do stream from the internet to the tv. I just bought an HDMI splitter and run one cable to the TV. I get a very good picture on my 40" Sony and don't have to worry about the viewing angle problems like my 24" monitor has.
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