Hello, dahlings… I am looking to purchase a smaller tv for the bedroom, around 19-22" or so. All of the reviews I have seen for such sizes seem to be very poor, especially as far as sound quality is concerned. I JOINED Consumer Reports for the purpose of finding out this info, but they don’t even have any smaller tv reviews at all.
LG, Magnavox, Sanyo, Samsung, Etc Etc Etc all have few reviews if any printed on the different store sites, but NOTHING is consistent enough for me to even get a feel for the quality situation at all.
Ideally, a 19" with a built in dvd player would be great, or without a player, or whatever.
Does anyone have any helpful info on this matter? Does anyone have one of these tvs that you are happy with? Thank you, my people
Have you checked out cnet.com? They should have a review or ranking for smaller sets.
I have found reviews on Amazon by consumers who bought products to be very useful.
For this type of purchase a personal trip to the store is helpful; seemed to me today at Costco that there are a number of fairly inexpensive choices.
If sound is important, I suggest looking into powered external speakers, which are very inexpensive and generally more robust than the native ones; make sure the TV has sound output and the external speakers have matching connections with the TV, or that you can get the correct adapters if necessary (I use Radio Shack for stuff like that).
Places like Fry’s or Best Buy will have lots of choices for external PC/TV speakers, and places like Target or Walmart will also have a decent selection. Check the Computer area as well as the Audio sections of the store…or just get 'em online.
All IMHO, which seems to me where this thread might belong.
One more thing: for situations where one person is listening and one person not listening (sleeping; doesn’t like the show…) I love my remote wireless headphones. Good sound, too. I keep the TV sound off and listen via the headphones. Might be a consideration for a bedroom TV.
Thank you, my people…I will check those out.
Never buy a TV with a built-in DVD and/or VCR. What you think you save will be lost in the poor quality of the built-in components. In addition, a TV/DVD combo may mean shared internal components. In other words, the DVD may die and take the TV with it. Look for a quality small TV and complement with with an external DVD player.
As for actually buying a small LCD TV, the current opinion for now is don’t. Go get your DTV converter box coupon, buy the DTV converter box (with coupon) and buy a simple small analog TV. In a year’s time after the market shakeout, LCD TV prices will have taken another drop and solidified the market.
I recently bought a cheap ($270) AOC Envision L22W761 22" LCD HDTV that I’m generally happy with, after I added a pair of powered speakers to remedy the wimpy audio. The technology is improving fast enough, along with falling prices, that I decided to buy something cheap now, and possibly get a larger and better TV in a few years when their prices are more reasonable.
You may have to shop around to find a good price. Prices vary widely among Internet retailers. I checked some of the bargain-hunter web sites until I found something I liked that was on sale.
Addendum: When you actually start shopping for a HD TV, you inevitably may compare brands side by side.
Don’t fall for the fake calibration games that Best Buy has been caught doing, and it appears Best Buy is doing again.
Cripes, how rip-offy.
I’m still trying ot deal with WHY THEY MEASURE THE SCREENS DIAGONALLY!!!
Because size does matter. That’s why.
Back when TV’s were invented the picture tube (which we now call the CRT) was round, and the manufacturer simply covered it with masking to achieve the standard 4:3 rectangular shape. The only way the true picture size could be measured was along the diagonal. Eventually the technology was perfected to make the tube the proper 4:3 rectangle, but by then the convention of diagonal measurement was standardized.
I see. I feel better now.
I have a Sharp 19" HDTV (I am guessing it is 720p but I’m not positive) with a built-in DVD player. It has very good performance, although I currently do not feed it an HD signal. I got it as a premium when I signed up for Verizon FiOS so I don’t know the street price, but similar models seem to going in the $500 range.
Well, I have say that although this advice is well reasoned it is not universal. It depends on what you need. The TV I mentioned above is used in the kitchen where I do not need the utmost in quality. Shared internal components is not all bad; it keeps price down, and takes up no more space than just a TV. It’s perfect for my situation.
I think the market shakeout has pretty much happened, with the anticipation of the new law. Certainly things will continue to change but I think the big price drops have already been realized. There is no better time than now, in this economy, to buy. And sets in this range are not hugely expensive anyway. You’re better off buying a 19" HDTV, rather than buying a low-end analog set and suffering through that for another year.
All of this depends on how you will use the TV, whether it’s your primary TV, what kind of input signal you’re going to provide, etc. I would be perfectly happy using this one as a bedroom TV. The sound quality is, IMHO, very good for a smaller set. It has a simulated surround option that works very well, but of course can’t compare to the sound from my 46" Sony Bravia. But it sounds as good as my current bedroom TV, an analog Zenith 27".
Oh… so quality is important?
Here is the best small Flat panel TV in the world.
Sony XEL-1 OLED TV