I’m not a Luddite, but I just can’t typically be bothered to upgrade to new tech until the old stuff is no longer usable. Our TVs are both over 10 years old now, and we’d like to replace at least one of them with some of the new, cool toys, and need lots of advice:
What place gets you the best TV for your dollar?
Which sites can offer the best guidance on what I should get, that is, do I need a plasma, LCD or LED and with what specs? Looking for price/performance recommendations, things to avoid, etc.
Is there any advantage to going “big bang” versus buying piecemeal. For example, our DVD Player also needs replacing. Can I package that and maybe a connected sound system and bargain down the total price?
What am I not considering? For example, it just occurred to me that, since our TVs are not HD, we’ve never worried about having an HD cable package.
Is installation service required/worthwhile? We were window shopping at one of the box stores and I noticed that they had a display with two pictures, one that had been “professionally calibrated” (or words to that effect) versus just out of the box, and I’m sure there’s a nice charge for that. Seems like the sort of thing that could be a scam.
I’m naturally kind of reluctant to part with my ducats, but have a nice bonus coming in this week, so while I wouldn’t say money is no object, I actually have pretty broad discretion on how much to pay.
4} If you get a new HDTV don’t forget about high definition programming sources, ie a Blu-ray player and HD service from your cable company. You can’t believe the number of HDTVs out their that only have standard definition sources.
RANT:
It bothers me too that companie market TVs as “LED”. To me an LED would have direct view LEDs, not LED backlighting of a standard LCD panel.
Typical advice these days is to go with an LED TV. Contrast information is only brand specific so you can’t use it to compare across brands. I’ve heard that you should really avoid plasmas entirely. LCD will be the cheapest and I think they look just fine honestly.
I’m not sure if I can advertise specific websites but google shopping typically will turn up really nice results. Try searching for “LCD TV 42 inch” or whatever size you’re looking for, and the type. Compare the results google shopping comes up with.
I got a pretty good deal on an LCD I bought a year ago- I found it through Pricegrabber.com. You put in what you’re looking for, and it gives you several results, starting with the cheapest.
4) What am I not considering?
Make sure the store or online site is an authorized retailer for the brand you buy. That can affect the warranty. I heard about that shortly after buying a TV (fortunately, it was an authorized retailer). I suspect this is more of an issue online, than with brick and mortar stores.
Determine if you want glossy or matte screen. Glossy screens can be very distracting to look at. I’d recommend going to Best Buy, or somewhere else with many TVs on display, even if you don’t buy from them. Look at both glossy and matte finish screens, and decide which you prefer.
5) Is installation service required/worthwhile?
I wouldn’t bother. I wouldn’t trust them to do as good of a job as I would. YMMV.
I just bought the first TV of my adult life. It’s been 30 years. I shopped around and, with input from my TV-regular guy brother, settled on a Vizio from Costco. I think I got a very good price for what I wanted. It has wireless routing, 120 refresh rate, 1080 pixels. 42". Can’t wait to get it on the wall.
I am waiting though. The TV is part of an exercise campaign and I need to add an electric circuit for the treadmill that I will trudge on while watching movies. The cost estimate should arrive tomorrow and the exercise routing will commence with Christmas.
Also suggest the VISIO brand from COSTCO, or who ever else may carry it. We have a 60" with LED back lighting (with local dimming). Great picture and very satisfied. Also a highly recommended model from Consumer Reports.
With the new TVs you have to really shop for where you’re going to put it.
Different types, LCD, Plasma, etc, have both strong and weak points, so you need to decide where it’s going and how far you’re going to view it.
Then you need to go online and look about for which type will give you the best viewing experience.
HDTV is only needed for 30" or more, as lower resolutions can’t be viewed by the human eye, so don’t bother if you’re looking for smaller TVs.
Over the air TV is free (USA) and most of the stations broadcast their main channel in HDTV. Remember cable and dish and FIOS & Uverse compress their High Def TV channels so you get less with those than direct OTA HDTV.
You also have to set up the set properly to get an idea of the true picture. You can use a variety of cables and see a picture but only the proper way will give you actual HDTV.
This is why pictures in the store look so bad. They aren’t set up correctly.
I’ve bought at Best Buy with no issues, so I wouldn’t shy away from them if you can get a good price. I usually find better prices at other stores though.
Rule of thumb to determine screen size of a new TV is too big:
Your contractor tells you that with your limited funds, you cannot afford to expand the walls of your TV room to accept the TV you want without encroaching on your neighbor’s property.
Another tech question: I’d heard that one should go with 120hz over the 60hz refresh. Then when I was looking at some stuff online I’ve seen reference to 240hz and even one that was 480hz. Is there a direct correlation to image quality as the refresh rate doubles?
The last two TVs I’ve bought were from HH Gregg because they will negotiate. If you like to bargain, which it seems like you might, they will play along. For my last TV, they matched a price from an online vendor (Best Buy wouldn’t) and they even threw in a free HDMI cable that was priced at something outrageous like $90 in the store. The time before that, I pretty much pulled the, “gee whiz I like this TV but I can only pay $x. Cash.” They took it.
I bought my plasma several years back from www.crutchfield.com. They had a special deal ($300 off at the time) which made their prices comparable to what I’d spend at a local store, and in addition they had delivery and set up to my door (unboxing and setting in place, not full setup, though I think I could have got that for extra), and being an online retailer, there was no sales tax. All told, it was a great deal, and their website has some good info on TV types.
You don’t necessarily need a professional calibrate the TV - what I did was go on some of the AV forums - one of them had a forum with nothing but the specific “ideal” setups for various TV models. I plugged those numbers into my TV and it looked great.
I don’t believe so. I’m really sensative to flicker, and I don’t see it at all on my 120hz projector. I can’t think of what else the theoretical advantage is to refresh rates higher than 120. On the other hand going 120 as opposed to 60 is a huge advantage. Note that 120 is the least common multiple of 24 and 30. That means a TV that does 120, if this feature is implemented, can display both 24 fps movies from blu-ray and 30 fps television material at exact multiples of the original frame rate. This substantially cuts down motion jerkiness when watching movies. (Not all TVs that refresh from 120 can, in fact do this. Sometimes those that do need to have a setting deep in the menu system enabled).
I know you didn’t ask for specific advice, but since people are starting to give it I’ll give some of my thoughts:
*If you have Comcast I would not go with Vizio. I was unable to get a digital connection to work on my office TV with their current HD boxes. I’m not the only one having this problem. On the other hand their current boxes allow pass-through, which is not a standard feature which makes it nice to use with my main setup. This basically means the box doesn’t f— around with the digital signal trying to scale and interlace 720P sources (Fox, ABC, A&E, ESPN, and their affiliated networks).
*Getting a TV capable of handling 1080P is certainly worth it. You’ll get the full resolution from 1080P sources (blu-ray, I believe some sat movies, Netflix). And 1080i sources (which are more common than 720P) will not need to be scaled. All but the smallest/cheapest sets seem to offer 1080P nowdays.
*Plasma and LED/LCD have different “looks” and different strengths and weaknesses. I prefer plasma to LED/LCD. Compare the two and see which you like.
Generally speaking, there isn’t a week or two go by before another Best Buy post comes up. Either it’s describing the latest Best Buy scam, a disgruntled Best Buy employee leaks a memo, or a customer horror story.
Every year around March Madness the site creates its Worst Company in America contest, complete with 64-company bracket list thats voted and winnowed down to the top 32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, until they have a Loser! The past several years it’s been a bank, an oil company or Internet Service provider that takes home the top spot as worst company in America, complete with golden poop award. This year the finalists were BP and Comcast. Best Buy made it to the Sweet 16, only to lose to Comcast in the early rounds.
Just being nominated to the top 64 worst companies in America should be an indication Best Buy should never get your dollars.