I moved into my condo a couple of years ago and bought a 36" tv and loved it. Lately it just doesn't seem to be cutting it. I watch the tv from about 10 - 12' away and feel like it is to small now. Hmmm, maybe size does matter....
 Went looking at the Box stores today looking at a ton of tv's....So many sizes and types. I came away overwhelmed at all the choices. This I know though, me want a 50" tv!!! All the ones I looked at were around  $2000 - 3500 dollars and up. I finally get home to read the Sunday paper and Wally Mart has a 50" RCA DLP HDTV for $1,686. It has intergrated digital/analog turners, digital 1 way cable reay without a box, HDMI, HD component and S-video unputs........
 I have never bought anything that expensive from Wally World. Should I grab it or just run away and learn more about these tv's.  Can any of you recomend a good tv at a decent price?

Just make sure you do the research on that model before you run out and buy it.  

I have a 52" JVC plasma myself, and I couldnt be happier.  Those are quite expensive though.

I WILL be getting the new Toshiba DLP HDTV 72" TV.  

tag

Quoted: Just make sure you do the research on that model before you run out and buy it.   I have a 52" JVC plasma myself, and I couldnt be happier.  Those are quite expensive though.

I have the 50" JVC plasma - couldn't be happier with the picture quality

I got the 50" Phillips Plasma with Ambilight. They only thing that I would cnhange is getting sooner.

Sony SXRD

check out:  AVSForum

 I have been reading up on the units. I did a search on here and found more helpful info. Lots of info out there to go over.....LOTS!!!!!!!!

Quoted: I WILL be getting the new Toshiba DLP HDTV 72" TV.

Umm....linky?

I got an older 60 inch, I need a new one.

I bought a 50" tv and watched it from 10-12 feet away. Took it back and got a 43".   50" looked great when I was in the hall but too blurry. Check the viewing distance recommended for the tv before you buy it.

well... where do I start....

Don't buy the TV.

I am a huge fan of home theater stuff, especially TVs and speakers... and there is ONE thing I know.... the more I learn about them... the more I don't like them.

I think 98% of current televisions.... are a WASTE OF YOUR MONEY.

I was in the market for a television... and I wanted something nice.

So I did all my reading on the net, & reviewed the forums and web sites.  I also went to my local circuit city.

Here is a short summation of my PERSONAL findings and OPINIONS.

#1

ALL non-CRT tube televisions look TERRIBLE with I call a "regular" television signal.  Even the "new", "great" HDTVs look bad.  I define a "regular" television signal as what you would get through a standard cable connection... or a "digital cable" connection.  Feel free to go into ANY circuit city and ask them... "could you please change the channel to 'normal' TV?"... and see what YOU think.


#2

Regular cable is NOT in a 16-9 format.  This means that a “widescreen TV” is NOT the best way to view a 4-3 image source.  The 16-9 TV must either have  black bars on the sides… or stretch the image to fit the screen.  And both look horrible to me.

#3

Now... I can hear you all saying, "but I will have a High Def signal to watch....".  I will address that as follows...

How often will you be willing or ABLE to watch your high def signal?  Only a SMALL amount of cable providers can supply you with HD over the cable wire.  Some can... but not all, and not all the channels.  

"What about an HD antenna to pick up HD signals flying in the air?"  Well, then you need an HD tuner box.  And then again... how many channels will you be able to actually WATCH... IE.. how many different HD signals are transmitted in your area?  Look this information up, you might be surprised.

You will STILL need some type of cable subscription to watch other shows... and now you have twice as much crap to deal with.  AND please see #1 above... since you are back to regular cable.

#3a

Now... "what about the Dish?".  Well, not everything that the dish will receive will be TRUE HD.  You will still have some "digital" signals... but not all "digital" is "high definition".  Then you are limited by the drawbacks of the dish itself... which I will not get into here.. I am staying on televisions themselves.

#4
"But DVDs are HD right?"

No they are not.  There are currently 2 different formats: BLU Ray DVD, and HD DVD, who are fighting it out to be "the format for high definition DVD."  Those are the only true high definition formats for DVDs... ALL other DVDs and all of our current DVD players are NOT high definition.  They have BETTER definition than a lot of formats... but they are NOT HD.

#5
There is NO STANDARD viewing format for HD.  Some of it is 720P, some of it is 1080i... there is even talk of 1080p.... but very very very few TVs can support this format.  Each of the different formats can be converted in the television itself and then shown in "the native screen resolution"... which is, in simple terms:  "the way this particular television shows you images."

#6
You may have heard that, "all tv HAS to be HD by 20XX..."  This isn't true.  This is BS which is propagated by sales people who want to sell you big expensive HD TVS.  At one time… “all analog broadcasting will be stopped in 2006 and there will only be digital”.  That hasn’t even happened yet.  Oh.. and one other thing… “digital” does NOT mean “High definition.”

This also ties into #5.  No one knows when.. or what format will be used by HDTVs




There are more things to complain about but I will cut it off there.  Here are my feelings…

I am not going to pay $3,000+, or ANY amount of money for that matter for a television that looks terrible with 80% of my regular viewing media (regular cable).   It isn’t worth it for DVDs, and it isn’t worth it due to the limited amount of true DH programming available.

I feel these things are a way to separate people and their money.

i would stay with your 36" TV.

If anyone has a counterpoint… please feel free to share.

Quoted: i would stay with your 36" TV. If anyone has a counterpoint… please feel free to share.

36" is to damn small.  I want my widescreen though.

Even with the reduced picture quality, it's hard to go back from a widescreen. Yes, a CRT will (generally) deliver superior picture quality, but as a total dickhead once said, 'Quantity has a quality all its own'. A modest home audio system + a bigscreen TV = never going to the movies again.

The newer RCAs get pretty good reviews, but shop around a bit. If Wallyworld is advertising at that price, chances are, someone will beat it, even if only by a bit.

If you do get a bigscreen, do yourself a favor and get a Avia calibration DVD. Big-screens ship with the brightness turned to ungodly high levels, and the colors all jacked up.

Nice post Stainless!

Anyone would be better off spending money on a good two channel amp and two good front speakers.  You can get decades of use out of them.

stretch the image to fit the screen. And both look horrible to me.

I didn't think the stretching is too bad.  You get used to it after a few months.  Everyone just looks fatter.

Only a SMALL amount of cable providers can supply you with HD over the cable wire.

Exactly.  Charter claims it's going to be a decade before they can offer HDTV here.  They're fighting even that time-line.  The cable companies won't even offer watchable quality standard TV.  Does anyone really think they can get their act together enough to offer HDTV?

"But DVDs are HD right?"

This one kills me.  DVD's are only 120 vertical lines of color per frame.  Call me when I can get a 720p source for my TV at work.

“all analog broadcasting will be stopped in 2006 and there will only be digital”.

True.  That was done to increase cable sales not to provide HDTV.

In my opinion, the biggest rip-off now is being pushed by the MPAA.  They are demanding that all higher than standard definition sources be encrypted and require special inputs to the TV.  As an example, we just had a customer buy three different brands of (so they could get the three sizes they needed) plasma TV's for their conference room.  All three have the standard DVI input.  As it stands now, they're not going to be allowed to use them with the new DVD's.  In a few months they're going to have to buy three entirely new TV's so that they can play their customer's new DVD's.  It's a damn rip-off.

I bought a used 27" professional model Sony TV in 1989.  I still use it, and it looks better than anything else I've seen from stores like Best Buy or Circuit City.  It's interesting to play the Avia test DVD on it, and it tests very well.  In some of the $5k+ TV's I tried it on for work, they look like crap.  On a large DLP TV I tried to calibrate, I gave-up after two hours.  You just couldn't make it acceptable.  You still can't beat a good quality CRT.  Maybe in 20 years LCD's or plasma TV's will get better, but the quality just isn't there now.z

Quoted: It's a damn rip-off.

What makes me feel bad... is when i see the "salesman" at circuit city... talking to an older couple (who always remind me of my parents).... "explaining" why they NEED to buy the widescreen HDTV... you know... the one that costs $3,500.

Bleh.

I am still a fan of the 36" CRT, flat screen, Sony WEGA (not the HD one).  I think that is the BEST television to own right now... and will be for SOME time to come.  Everything else is just a waste.

I have a 52" Mitsubishi DLP that is incredible.
DLP is the way to go.
You do need a minumum of 6 feet from the screen for optimum viewing.
My seating in the living room starts about 5-1/2 feet and goes out to 18 feet and the 52' is perfect.
BUT!!!!!!
There is going to be a MAJOR PRICE REDUCTION in HDTV's at year end so hold off and be patient.
All the major suppliers have new plants that opened late 2005 or early 2006 and have begun to exceed demand.
The industry expects a major price drop to stimulate demand for the bigger screen models.
My 2,850.00 Mits is now 2,180.00 14 months later and I expect it to be around 1,800.oo by the end of this year.
Good Luck

Check out projectors.  If you can make your room totally dark, then a projection system might be the best option.  projectorpeople.com is a great place to learn.

I have a 32" sony CRT from the mid 90s.  I'm re-arranging my condo so I can fit my pool table in, and I want to save some room by getting something flat for wall mounting.  I've been looking around, and it seems like the whole TV thing has become such a component based piecemeal thing, I'm tempted to just stick with my regular TV!

Thanks for all the reply's!
I stopped my Wally World and checked out the tv. I didn't like the pic at all. Had to be directly in front of it to see it. On any angle the pic got darker. Maybe it wasn't set up right because all the other tv's were showing the same channel and looked tons better. Think for now I'm going to keep on reading up and wait till later in the year to make a choise since I'm in no rush. The 43 - 50" tv's do look nice though.....

Quoted: #1 ALL non-CRT tube televisions look TERRIBLE with I call a "regular" television signal.  Even the "new", "great" HDTVs look bad.  I define a "regular" television signal as what you would get through a standard cable connection... or a "digital cable" connection.  Feel free to go into ANY circuit city and ask them... "could you please change the channel to 'normal' TV?"... and see what YOU think. This has more to do with the size of the set than anything else. I myself still own nothing but CRTs because i am a black level junkie, but some of the new LCoS sets are damn good looking. I still prefer CRTs, but it is not the huge difference you say it is. Most of the difference is because of the size difference. If you look at SD programming on a certain size SDTV and the same size HDTV the HDTV will look better, I promise. If you compare how SD looks on a tiny 20 something inch CRT to a 50+ inch HDTV, obviously the HD tv is going to look garbage, cause its the same resolution spread over a bigger area. #2 Regular cable is NOT in a 16-9 format.  This means that a “widescreen TV” is NOT the best way to view a 4-3 image source.  The 16-9 TV must either have  black bars on the sides… or stretch the image to fit the screen.  And both look horrible to me. Who cares about some little black bars? about 60% of my viewing is HD, and the rest of my usage is DVDs which are widescreen, so in total about 80+ percent widescreen viewing. I really could care less about the black bars or thr stretching during that 20% of the time. #3 Now... I can hear you all saying, "but I will have a High Def signal to watch....".  I will address that as follows... How often will you be willing or ABLE to watch your high def signal?  Only a SMALL amount of cable providers can supply you with HD over the cable wire.  Some can... but not all, and not all the channels.   "What about an HD antenna to pick up HD signals flying in the air?"  Well, then you need an HD tuner box.  And then again... how many channels will you be able to actually WATCH... IE.. how many different HD signals are transmitted in your area?  Look this information up, you might be surprised. You will STILL need some type of cable subscription to watch other shows... and now you have twice as much crap to deal with.  AND please see #1 above... since you are back to regular cable. I have 25 HD channels(plus locals and plus a few more HD channels coming in a couple months) and HD programming makes up about 60% of my TV viewing. Also worth noting that by far most HDTVs (certainly most $3k ones) come with built in OTA tuners/QAM tuners and cable card slots. #3a Now... "what about the Dish?".  Well, not everything that the dish will receive will be TRUE HD.  You will still have some "digital" signals... but not all "digital" is "high definition".  Then you are limited by the drawbacks of the dish itself... which I will not get into here.. I am staying on televisions themselves. as above, it's not all HD, but a good deal of it is, and more will be soon. #5 There is NO STANDARD viewing format for HD.  Some of it is 720P, some of it is 1080i... there is even talk of 1080p.... but very very very few TVs can support this format.  Each of the different formats can be converted in the television itself and then shown in "the native screen resolution"... which is, in simple terms:  "the way this particular television shows you images." there doesn't NEED to be a single 'standard' resolution, the TV can just convert whichever resolution the programming is to the native resolution of the set. It's not a problem. 720P will still look good on a 1080i or a 1080p set and vice versa. This isn't a problem at all. #6 You may have heard that, "all tv HAS to be HD by 20XX..."  This isn't true.  This is BS which is propagated by sales people who want to sell you big expensive HD TVS.  At one time… “all analog broadcasting will be stopped in 2006 and there will only be digital”.  That hasn’t even happened yet.  Oh.. and one other thing… “digital” does NOT mean “High definition.” it is true, just that the switch was delayed for 3 years for the digital to analog converter boxes neccesary for legacy TVs to become cheaper. It IS going to happen though, trust me. Analog TV sucks up a whole bunch of spectrum and uses it very inefficiently. The government wants that spectrum back to auction it off and make several billion dollars. Let's do the math: Government loves money. Switching to digital TV allows government to make several billion dollars of free money without overly pissing off the taxpayers. Seems to me it is a no brainer, it WILL happen, whether feb. 17, 2009 or not. But I'd lean more towards that date than another delay. the feds want the cash money, and they want it now. This also ties into #5.  No one knows when.. or what format will be used by HDTVs wrong, we do know what formats that are being used by HDTVs, just go read the ATSC specs. 720p, 1080i, and 1080p are HD resolutions. There are more things to complain about but I will cut it off there.  Here are my feelings… I am not going to pay $3,000+, or ANY amount of money for that matter for a television that looks terrible with 80% of my regular viewing media (regular cable).   It isn’t worth it for DVDs, and it isn’t worth it due to the limited amount of true DH programming available. I feel these things are a way to separate people and their money. i would stay with your 36" TV. If anyone has a counterpoint… please feel free to share.

Feel free to not pay $3k on a TV if you like, but HD IS the future, and there is more programming available than you'd think, with more coming every single day.

Not that you have to spend $3k to get an HDTV, or even a good top of the line HDTV.

I have 2 HDTVs, one cost less than half of that number, and the other cost less than 1/3rd of that number.

You can get a good CRT RPTV for just over 1k. a good DLP or LCD RPTV for about $1,500 or $1,600.

But like I said, if you don't want to buy one, fine, but don't go around spreading misinformation about it.

Quoted: Just make sure you do the research on that model before you run out and buy it.   I have a 52" JVC plasma myself, and I couldnt be happier.  Those are quite expensive though.

i didnt know JVC made plasmas. i love JVC. what is the model number?

Quoted: Quoted: Just make sure you do the research on that model before you run out and buy it.   I have a 52" JVC plasma myself, and I couldnt be happier.  Those are quite expensive though. i didnt know JVC made plasmas. i love JVC. what is the model number?

Yeah, they make plasmas, but IMO their best TVs are LCoS (HDiLA) TVS. Much better value and PQ that plasma IMO.

There are other companies that make better plasmas (panasonic, hitachi), but JVC pretty much owns LCoS. Sony makes good LCoS sets now too though.

I just got a 51in jvc HDila 2 weeks ago and i love it. The pics are great on digital and insane on HD. i cant wait for an all digital system.

I've owned a Toshiba 52" DLP HDTV for over a year now.

I'll agree that SD programming looks terrible but then the HD programming is stunning!!!

I didn't buy the damn thing to watch SD programming so I'm very happy......