Need Big Screen Purchase advice

george daniel

I'm going to retire my Mitsubishi 35" that I've had since 93,with no problems. Now, I plan to purchase something in the 50-60" range, and have decided NOT to buy one of the "thin" jobbies that can be wall mounted,with that said, any advice from those who have gone there before me? DLP,LCD,etc,.I do not need speakers and have been looking at the sony wega's and the larger mitsubishi's, trouble is that I do not trust salesman,in general and thought that I would seek advice here first. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I did see the Sony Qualia 70",and was impressed until I saw the price tag,my range would be up to 3-4 k-thanks in advance,happy holidays.

okiepolkie

For that price range and size, take a look at the Sony 50" SXRD. Great picture and can be had for around $3500 at several places. The 60" version is about a $1000 more. It uses the same technology as the 70" version, but doesn't include the $12000 price tag.

Have fun shopping.

Zach

bvette94

I once owned the mitsubishi 65 in hdtv . i sold it and stepped down to the 55 of the same tv. this is a rear projection unit. the 55 has a better picture than the 65 because the pic was so stretched out to fit the big screen. this is something you might want to consider when shopping for a big tv. You also might want to consider reaserching this based on the source of your picture. Cable or satelite etc. anything that isnt filmed in hdtv can look pretty bad on hdtvs.They display them in stores and you can see how good they can look with a hdtv source but you never get to see one with a analog source that is upconverted that wasnt filmed in hdtv.you will be disapointed. i set my tv up with an avia disc and used the componet video imputs and the pic quality is awsome. i am a mitsubishi fan and have owned three big screen tvs and never had a problem with one. imo i suggest you stay with something 55in or less for the best picture quality and do some reaserch before you buy and find out who has the best pic quality of non hdtv filmed tv shows and videos. sorry i am not very good with techinal terms but hope this helps good luck in your search.

wingnut4772

Whatever you do DON'T get a Samsung HLR5688. I have had nothing but problems. Good luck.

Skynut

Love the preformance of my Toshiba 48".
I have had it over 10 years and the only problem has been a blown fuse in the picture tube adjustment holding mechanisim. (I don't know what to call it)
It has blown twice and the first time the repair man came out under warrenty and they last time I replaced the fuse myself.
I don't really think that is all that bad considering it has been moved to 5 or 6 houses in it's life.

thehaens@cox.net

Stick with the Mitsubishi, go with what you know, you have had that 35 for 12 years without a problem. I too had the 35, and 40 tubes that had no problem, and have gone to the 65" purchased in Dec. of 2000....Never had a problem with it....(knocking on wood)..

Scott

hydrobud

wingnut4772 wrote:

Whatever you do DON'T get a Samsung HLR5688. I have had nothing but problems. Good luck.

ive come to the conclusion that whatever has the samsung tag, is nothing more than crap.

i purchased 2 samsung digital cameras last christmas,and both have taken a ****. nothing more than junk.

opus

George,

My advice is to get the extended warranty. Trust me on this one.

george daniel

thehaens@cox.ne wrote:

Stick with the Mitsubishi, go with what you know, you have had that 35 for 12 years without a problem. I too had the 35, and 40 tubes that had no problem, and have gone to the 65" purchased in Dec. of 2000....Never had a problem with it....(knocking on wood)..

Scott

Thanks, Scott,which model do you currently own-again thanks,as my gut feeling is to stick with the mitsubishi,but the sony wega series looks nice but not for the price difference,,decisions,decisions

hydrobud

wingnut4772 wrote:

Whatever you do DON'T get a Samsung HLR5688. I have had nothing but problems. Good luck.

ive come to the conclusion that whatever has the samsung tag, is nothing more than crap.

i purchased 2 samsung digital cameras last christmas,and both have taken a ****. nothing more than junk.

Roy Munson

Mits is the way to go, last year I bought a Mits WS48315 and have had but one regret and that is I wish I had got either the 55 or 65. As has been mentioned in another post, standard def. pq really suffers when you blow the picture up but HDTV and DVD's look great! Most prime time programing is in HD now so SD is only a minor problem and I can't tell you how great NFL and some college football look in HD!!

I-SIG

My parents have a 30" tube widescreen HDTV. Watching the Falcons game on TV today was really kewl. It was really easy to tell when commercials weren't filmed in HD. They were kinda grainy and such.

Wes

mrmusicman

Last Feb I purchaced a 55" Sony RP LCD,and I have been very pleased with it.I also would recomend buying an extended warrenty,good luck and have fun shoppn'.

RaysR6

Get a Sony, **** the extended warranty, the store will just try to get out of it anyway.
My friend bought a Sony LCD 55" inch Projection Tv about 6months ago and it is simply awesome. Great picture, good sound, very light at ~ 100lbs, and Sony makes some great electronics. Get 1080p if you can afford it

BIZILL

hard to beat the color reproduction that sony offers. my hitachi beats out the sony in every aspect except for color, imo. also the pq suffers big time with anything less than dvd or high def. but you get used to it. and until everything broadcasted goes hd, you'll notice how much you'll hate the gray or black bars to the sides of the screen if the tv is widescreen and the material is 4:3 aspect ratio. and on the extended warranty issue, waste of money if you never use it but pays for itself the first time if in fact you do utilize it! i say add it on. my step-dad went through two hdtv's that would have normally been outside manufacturer's warrany period. he was taken care of both times.

aaharvel

spend an extra grand and get this..

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=1130

Jer_ry

Have you considered a projector? I was saving up for a big screen untill i stumbled into theatre projectors. Mine projects a 76" image at 10' away and could go bigger if i mounted it further back. I just simply roll my 35" out of the way. THe good thing about it is you will never get burned out of a big image. I use mine for dvds, xbox, and major sports events, and when i roll my tv and that screen comes down people bow to me. It's one of the clearest tv's i have ever seen at about a third of the cost of a real tv with a smaller screen! Mine cost about $950 total all the wires and screen for another $300-$400 could have got a 1080p. Think about it!

wingnut4772

Get a Sony, f*%k the extended warranty, the store will just try to get out of it anyway.

No matter what you get ....get the extended warranty. After all the problems I have had with my set I would shoot myself if I spent 4Kor so on a set to have it die on day 366 without a warranty...no disrespect Rays

LuSh

You might wanna consider a Panasonic or Pioneer Plasma display. Both when properly calibrated smoke everything mentioned. The SXRD's are quite nice but the kelvin is pushed way too high and out of the box the TV bleeds red. I've sold many a DLP, LCD, Plasma and Lyco's sets. Thankfully I no longer handle the retail side, but I find it fun to poke my head around and see the latest BS flung around from net users. I'm not flaming anybody in this thread of course, I'm talkin more in general.

Every TV has advantages and disadvantages. I'll give you a small TV 101...

DLP - Faster refresh rate, better reproduction of both black and more importantly a more realistic grey scale in direct comparison to LCD. Bulbs are iffy at best, a few big name companies are in hot water this year over bulbs. Also, the color wheel is a single chip at the moment making color accuracy tough to acheive.

LCD - Very accurate color (3 primary colors pass through at the same time) unlike DLP. No color wheel spinning at 6000rpm also eases consumers minds. Worst refresh rate of all technology's and has a hard time with grey scales, it uses shaders which isn't quite accurate.

Lcos - Toshiba were the first to try and make this work. They had developed a 1080i x 1900 set two years ago and it was said to be revolutionary at the time, the only disadvantage was cost of production and high failure rate. JVC finally stepped in and made it work. Sony has since kicked it up a notch and renamed it to their in house brand SXRD and more or less have given the impression they had invented it all along. Because light is reflected and not passed through len's systems the black detail and color is almost on par with CRT. 1080p does seem to be the wave of the future, Sony's own Blue Ray format will use 1080p as it's native format. The only disadvantage I have seen is color accuracy. The set itself is bright but almost all sets have a blue (JVC) or red (Sony) push to them. I have no idea if these sets can be calibrated by an ISF tech, if they can this might be a real keeper. Bulbs will become a more and more increasing issue however. Bulb's only come with a 1yr warrenty and if you factor in the bulb replacement costs over 12 years suddenly Plasma looks attractively priced.

Plasma - The most misunderstood product on the market place. Color accuracy and grey scales are almost unmatched and when setup are identical with top quality CRT's. You can hang it on a wall!!! It takes up less space and offers a very fast response time. The downfalls are numerous however...but not as many as most people would think. Lifespan's are about 60,000 hrs and burn in is still possible but most manufactors have taken extreme precautions in order to avoid everyday use associated with these problems. Still not X-BOX PS2 friendly. Right out of the box these TV's look great when set to Film mode, virtually no calibration's have to be done. I've heard ISF tech's can finish these TV's off in under 30minutes! CRT's use to take over 2hrs!!! Ahh the joy's of fixed pixel displays.

If you happen to be in a big box store try setting all the TV's to Film Mode, with color temp set to "warm". Make sure a good source is used, COMP or HDMI cables and sharpness is down to 25-0. All noise filters should be set to off. Stare at a Plasma (Pioneer or Panasonic) for at least 5minutes. Focus on flesh tones and the shade of grey. DONT look at another TV for at least 5minutes, this is cruical. Now walk around the store and stare at the Tomato faced pictures on all the screens, then to your dismay you'll begin to notice all the grain in the pictures.

After setting the Plasmas to the setting's I've outlined now slowly work your way through all the other TV's with the same settings. If your eyes work (and I can only assume they do) you'll begin to notice the smoothness and color accuracy offered by the SXRD and Plasma and more depth in the latter.

I hope this helps.

george daniel

Thanks for the tutorial, going out today,, I will try your suggestions,,thanks again, have a safe and happy holiday

Ricardo

If you have not decided yet...go to Circuit City and try to demo Hitachi/Sony side by side...I was impressed by how better the Hitachi was (..at least for my eyes )

george daniel

thats one of the places I'm headed,,thanks for the tip