Got 1st HDTV

Sansui

Ok, don't laugh.

My 13 year old 27" RCA "died" Monday morning. After 5 days I knew I wasn't going to be able to live with my 20" Sony (at a viewing distance of 13') so I told my son Saturday morning to see if he could find a TV that was decent for a decent price.

He found one for me at Circuit City. Only one store of three had any in stock. It's a 32" Olevia 232-S12 (Chinese made). It's an LCD type and is 720P. I also got a $20.00 rabbit ears HD antenna. When we got home he hooked it up and I have to tell you I was amazed at the difference in picture quality!

Having to put out money I didn't expect to, the price of this was something I could deal with. The cost was $550.00. I checked their webpage the next day and they're now selling it for $665.00. All the three stores in my area had them in stock. If I'd waited until Sunday...

Almost all the customer reveiws on different websites give high ratings for this TV.

Watching DVDs (the few I've seen so far) on this TV almost leaves me speechless. Oh what I've been missing!

I don't have cable or a dish. What surprised me was that the regular broadcast stations in my area has these other programs "attached" to them.

Thought I'd let you know.

avguytx

Does it have an ATSC tuner in it that you're maybe picking up the local channels in digital? That would explain a "really" good picture for sure as a lot of the shows on at night are filmed in HD.

So did you get it for $550 or $665? I would imagine they would price match if you bout it one day and it went on sale within 30 days for a lesser price. At least that's what I gathered from being in the big box stores.

Nice TV. I was thinking about changing out the 3 year old 27" tube in my bedroom for an LCD since I have HD on satellite as well as an attic antenna for watching the local channels. I'll have to measure and see if that fits in the armoire.

Edit: Yep, it's got the NTSC tuner it it. Good deal!

cheddar

Congrats, sometimes the upgrade gods are kind and help us out ... The best "HD" antennas are actually the best OTA ones. I was lucky to have one of those old house antennas on the roof when we moved in and it works great for all the network HDTV broadcasts. Our cable also provides channels but it didn't tell us about them and I had to search through all the channels myself to find them. They probably want us to get their HDTV box or something ... :rolleyes: But at least for us they're there for free. SD channels can look very soft or fuzzy depending on how good your TV's internal scaler is. So I found it's best to try and search for all the HD programming you can and watch the network HD channels if you can. Have fun!

Serendipity

Congrats!

BTW, the best HD quality is obtained with an OTA antenna. Anything else - cable, DirecTV, Dish, etc. is compressed and not as high of a bitrate as OTA HDTV. So enjoy all the HD you get from your antenna!

avguytx

Very true cheddar...and contrary to advertising...there is NO such thing as a special HDTV antennas like they want the public to think. Any VHF/UHF antenna that's been around in the last 40+ years works fine (like you have!). I tie into them all the time and get great results. The best ones are those big a$$ ones that we used to put outside but now put more in the attic. Especially if you're on the fringe areas of local digital TV areas.

Plus, the best HD you can watch (currently) are the local channels since they aren't as compressed as what cable HD and satellite HD channels with their MPEG4 stuff. I get the HD locals thru satellite and from OTA and the antenna always looks better. Plus, it's nice having those secondary channels for local weather that some of them do. Especially when the satellite signal goes out when it's pouring down rain!

cheddar

The funny thing is that the roofers we had offered to haul the big thing down and toss it for us. I told them to put it right back where they found it and make sure it was connected to the coax when they were done. Wonder if they wanted it for one of their HDTVs?

MacLeod

Walmart has some Sanyo LCD's for pretty cheap!

32" for $650
37" for $750
42" for $950

Ive sat there and watched them for a while and while the picture isnt as good as the $7000 Pioneer Elite at the old Tweeter, its also NOT $7000!

dohcmark8

appadv wrote: »

Congrats!

BTW, the best HD quality is obtained with an OTA antenna. Anything else - cable, DirecTV, Dish, etc. is compressed and not as high of a bitrate as OTA HDTV. So enjoy all the HD you get from your antenna!

Well... thats not entirely correct.

All HDTV signals are compressed, no matter what service you have. For the most part cable and OTA provide the best PQ. Some cable companies are known to recompress the signal, but not all do it. A lot of cable companies just pass the signal untouched. In my area, my cable bitrates are equal to OTA bitrates. So at least for me, Comcast passes the signal untouched.

Best PQ I have ever seen was from Verizon FiOS HDTV... but its not available in my area.

Sami

dohcmark8 wrote: »

Best PQ I have ever seen was from Verizon FiOS HDTV... but its not available in my area.

I agree, I had it in my old place. Puts Dish HD channels to shame. Dark scenes had hardly any compression on them while the Dish broadcast is quite awful in that regard (grey blocks everywhere). Well, they have the broadband for it and I wish I could get FIOS in my new place.

scottvamp

dohcmark8 wrote: »

Well... thats not entirely correct.

All HDTV signals are compressed, no matter what service you have. For the most part cable and OTA provide the best PQ. Some cable companies are known to recompress the signal, but not all do it. A lot of cable companies just pass the signal untouched. In my area, my cable bitrates are equal to OTA bitrates. So at least for me, Comcast passes the signal untouched.

Best PQ I have ever seen was from Verizon FiOS HDTV... but its not available in my area.

Ya, i have been with DirectTV for 11 years and have seen many different HD sources including current Blu-Ray. On a quality monitor, direct HD is still jaw dropping to me. I don't have local "air-wave" HD stations so i have never seen them. I don't think they are that different.....

Sansui

avguytx wrote: »

Does it have an ATSC tuner in it that you're maybe picking up the local channels in digital? That would explain a "really" good picture for sure as a lot of the shows on at night are filmed in HD.

As you editted below, it has the tuner. I think that's why I discovered those "extra" channels.

So did you get it for $550 or $665?

I got it the day before the price went up ($550.00). The web site said on Sunday that (as if by magic) all three stores had them. I'm guessing that Saturday they only had one or a few in stock at the lower price.

Nice TV. I was thinking about changing out the 3 year old 27" tube in my bedroom

My son told me that a 32" wide screen was about the same as the old TV I had (height wise).

Edit: Yep, it's got the NTSC tuner it it. Good deal!

For the price I can't help but agree!

POLKOHOLIC

i actually also purchased a Syntax-Brillian Olevia HDTV a couple months ago. i have to tell ya...for the price these things are amazing. nothing else even comes close at the same price. sure you can go with a sony, or samsung..but are you willing to pay double for a marginal increase in PQ?

ps: i think the parts are all chinese but they are assembled in america - not 100% on this though...

danger boy

from my experience in HDTV picture quality.. is this..

poorest was Comcast cable
step up was sat
best pq was OTA HDTV, and this is the one where programming was often times in 5.1 DD when alot of the other's were just DPL