My TV died today. So now I have to buy a new one, because I can’t deal with this 13" one from the closet for very long. It would be replacing a 27" that I usually watch normal TV on. Don’t have any HiDef here.
Has the time come to spend the extra money to go to a LCD HDTV? Or is it all still too far in the future that I should buy a CRT now and an LCD or plasma later?
I don’t think the time has come yet to “make the leap” to an HD monitor. You could get a great-looking flat-screen 27" TV for $300 or so, and that’s assuming you get something top-of-the-line like a Sony Trinitron/WEGA. I’m sure one of the resident TV-addicts will come in here and say that the bare minimum anyone should settle for is a 60" HDTV for “only” $3K.
Wait a few years; the service will be there, and the TV’s will be cheaper, more standardized, and have better features.
Interesting. We just bought a TV.
It’s a 27" JVC, flat screen, don’t know what else. Stereo sound, that was a step up - we only had an ancient 15" here in the living room, with mono. :eek: (We don’t watch a lot of television.)
Cost about $250. I don’t think it has whatever all that fancy stuff is everyone talks about - HDTV? But I think you can get a connection for that or something. I don’t know. I wasn’t listening to my husband when he mentioned it. 
As it happens, my parents just bought a TV. Today.
I’m told it’s a Toshiba 52 inch DLP-HDTV, though I won’t be able to see it and judge the quality for myself until I’m home for Thanksgiving break. Just adding a data point 
I’d buy what I always buy; the most $300 will get me. 
I just can’t see spending more then $300 for a television.
I’ll be buying within the next six months or so (my television has been on it’s last legs for some time, but it’s not dead yet), and I’m figuring on getting a 20"(or so, depending on price when I buy) flat-panel. Partly because it’s what I’ve decided that I want and partly because of the weight - my current televsion (that I’ve had since 1998) is a pain to move, and eventually I’ll move again.
If I had to buy today, I’d get a 1080p DLP set for about $4k…
Since I don’t, the current TV is perkolatingh along fine, I’ll buy a 1080p DLP set for $2000.
Most DLP TV’s today up or down convert to 720p, that’s fine, and the results are GREAT, but since the HDTV Spec lists 1080i as the top resolution, I’d like a TV that can show it with a minimum of math.
I went to Best Buy today, and reality hit. There are plenty of very nice flat 27" normal TVs out there still for $300. A similar sized HDTV would be $1000, and might not even be as nice for watching normal TV. That’s a huge difference.
So I bought the $300 one.
This is IMHO the worst time for your TV to go. I expect that all that new TV tech will be very cheap in a few years. Perhaps you can pick up one used on ebay from someone plunking down the big bucks for the latest and greatest.
I agree with Kanic Samsung had the first reasonable DLP TV to market about 4 years ago. The TV alone was $3200, plus another $800 for the stand. That same TV today can be had for $2400 including the stand.
What you need to know about DLP tv’s is, they’re REALLY simple. A mirror array chip, a controller board, a motor spinning a disc, and a bright light is pretty much IT. So, the first few years are spent recouping the non-trivial R&D costs. That same TV, mark my words, will be $800 in 8 years…any they’ll STILL be making $700 in profit on it.
I’d go for the 80 dollar Wal-Mart brand 20 inch. That’s what I have, and it works fine.
Yep! DLP is the only way to go. But maybe I’m biased, considering I work for the company that makes these chips.
I’m pretty sure Consumer Electronics agrees with me as well. Or at least I remember hearing about it in the news.
I’m thinking (not quite at the serious thiinking level yet) about getting a front projection system. Get a 100"" system for the same price as a 60" rear projection system. (of course there is the screen, and if you want HD you need a box for that too – not mention you want a dark room)
Brian
FWIW, we just bought my Grandfather a 20" LCD tv. (Westinghouse), it’s 640x480 and it cost $400.
We bought it for two reasons:
That said, we hooked up our $40 progressive scan DVD player to it and the picture quality was STUNNING. It didn’t make the plot of Start Wars II any better, but the visuals were as sharp and vibrant as I remember seeing the the theatre.
Our 10 year old rear-projection T.V. sure does suck now. :mad:
About a month ago I bought a 55" Sony Grand Wega LCD TV, and a Klipsch 5:1 surround sound home theatre system and subwoofer. (Not the most expensive stuff I could have bought, but not the cheapest either).
Previous to that, I was watching a regular old 27" TV…
I never thought I’d go in for the whole big-ass TV/home theatre set up. Didn’t think it was all that important. But I gotta tell ya…this set up freakin’ ROCKS.
We went back and got the high definition DVD player, and both bf and I have a hard time tearing ourselves away from the living room. Sports programs broadcast in high def are amazing, too.
The only bummer is that there aren’t that many channels in my area yet that broadcast in HD. We’re getting more soon though, and I can’t wait.
Here’s a web page I put up a couple of years ago describing how I built a perfectly fine theater screen for $75: Do-it-yourself theater screen.
You can buy something like an NEC LT-150 used for around $500. That’s a DLP front projector that will give you a bright 100" movie screen in your house. The two drawbacks are that you need total light control (it has to be dark to watch a front projection system), and the bulbs burn out after about 1000 hours and cost about $300 to replace. But a setup like that will give you a movie watching experience every bit as good as you get in a local multiplex.
Anyway, the ‘what TV would you buy’ question is just too open-ended. The ‘right’ TV for you depends on how serious you are about watching it, what you watch, what other hardware you have to connect to it, and what your budget is. I have a $300 20" TV in my home office for watching the news while I’m surfing the net, and it’s perfect. I wouldn’t want anything else. Not too big, nice bright screen. But if you like watching DVDs and you can afford a little more, then a bigger widescreen TV makes more sense. Especially if it’s going in a family room where everyone is sitting 10’ back from the sccreen. A 27" TV with a letterboxed movie is pretty darn small if you’re trying to watch it from 10’ away. And if you are watching DVDs, I’d get a TV with component inputs so you can watch DVDs in progressive-scan mode, which is much nicer.
I don’t like the HD Tv’s or the widescreen versions, but thats all I can find at stores. I know the regualr box type screens we’re all used to will be phased out soon enough. My ideal Tv would be a 36’’ Sony Trintron. I have the exact same Sony Trinitron in my room, but it’s a 32’’ and I wish I had bigger. I do all my Tv watching in my room so I wouldn’t need anything for a living room. I’m disappointed that I also bought my Tv and it was a floor model. It had scratches and dings and no remote and the plate that covers the red and yellow connections was broken off. I would never buy a floor model again of anything.
Believe me, I’ve looked at the DIY screen section of AVSForum.
(for some reason a Durotherm panel appeals to me http://www.parklandplastics.com/durotherm.shtml )
Apparently about $25. Could later paint it if it doesn’t work out.
Brian
That’s why I liked the DLP TV’s…no ‘screen door’ you get from the LCD’s and aside from the lamp (a consumable that, I guarantee, will not be $300 forever), a long term purchase.