Need a new tv for March Madness...suggestions?
 

I am a huge fan of March Madness and look forward to it every year! This year, though, I want to get rid of my little 32" TV and get something that will actually be fun to watch.

I want at least a 40" HDTV, 1080p, and in the realm of like $1,000-$1,500 bucks. So obviously I can't get a super high end brand like Sony.

I was thinking maybe Vizio... they have a 42" LCD that is only like $1k. They seem to be decent quality but I don't know much about them.

What do you think? Other suggestions? I'm trying to stay (somewhat) low budget here.

Thanks!

I'm very happy with my DuMont. I also have a Philco. :p

I have a toshiba HD TV and I love it

The best set is what your eye likes.

I'm partial to Samsung. Bought a 40 inch just after Christmas.... 960.00

Still can't get over the the great picture in HD.

College hoops the best on HD

How about a bizhub.

Just got a Samsung 52" LCD. For me, it came down to Sony and Samsung. Saw them side-by-side and I just liked the Samsung's picture better. Make sure you get one with 120 hZ. That's the newest technology for a quality ACTION picture (basketball). Also, make sure ya go with LCD. Plasma is going to go the way of the Beta Max. Pioneer has already discontinued production of plasma.

Damn.

You ARE old.

I only watch "What's My Line" from the 50s in black and white on GSN. Boy, that Bennett Cerf was a real hoot.

61" Mitsubishi Widescreen HD television
 

I have a 61" Mitsubishi Widescreen HD television, LOVE it....

Just can't figure out how to remove the removable protective shield on the front, I get terrible glare on it from certain spots in the room.

Not exactly...they're no longer making the plasma panels but will be selling plasma TVs....buying the panels from someone else That market, like many others, is just consolodating to a few high volume manufacturers.

Plasma has a size advantage....no LCDs come in some of the larger sizes that Plasma does.

That said, when there are both to be had at the size you're looking at, I'd probably go with LCD. THey're a lot lighter, use much less power, and run much cooler. They also don't suffer from burn-in....the picture stays the same from the day you buy it...plasma can get burnin.

One point to really take note of is the black level of LCDs. That is one of their biggest weaknesses. How black is black? Is it really grey? In a showroom it might be hard to tell but in a darkened home, a dark night sceen might seem like times square (...exaggerated a bit...).


As for brands, avoid the cheapies....they cut a lot of corners. Two co-workers have Vizio's and they're cheap...but not great. Seemed to be working OK but when he latered tried an HDMI input, it had red lines all over. He tried it on other Vizio's and got the same result. He tried the same source on other brands and had no problems. Maybe an odd incompatibility but I'd bet that Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, et. at. don't have those problems nearly as much...doing more compatibility testing than the small guys have the budget to do.

How many channels y'all get up there? We get 3 now, and we look out the window a lot.

This is Oregon. We get the "Rain Channel", the "Tree Channel" and GSN. BTW - on last night's "What's My Line" (an episode from 1952), one of the guests was a Robert Knight. No, not that one, this one weaved cloth to make diapers. One of the panelists, Hal Block, asked if the product ever came in contact with water. When he finally found out what the guy did, he laughed so hard at what he had said he almost fell out of his chair.

Also BTW - up here, watching the "Rain Channel" and the "Tree Channel" is really about the same as looking out the window. :rolleyes:

Mitsubishi . But get the right cable cords for hd and a good sound system.

Need a new tv for March Madness...suggestions?


We've had enough problems of late here with the men's /women's games debate, now you want get rid of your old transvestite?

Uhhh what? Haha that's awesome! I haven't even heard of these brands :)

How old are your TVs? I'm guessing you have yet to join the HD revolution! As someone else said, basketball is amazing in HD!

Why would it be awesome and a 'haha' if you've never heard of them?

About a month and half ago purchase a Sharp Aquos 42", 1080P came with a Blu-Ray player for about $1599, good luck and get one quick.

I bought the 52" Sharp Aquous LCD 1080P. I looked before Thanksgiving and they were $3199. The day after Thanksgiving, $2199 @ Circuit City. Knock off another $300 for Directv signup and I was looking good. Even so, a friend found the same TV on the dame day at the PX for $1599, Unfortunately, I didn't have that advantage but I'm still happy with my purchase. For me, Sharp products are as good as anything on the market. I'm looking at buying a Sharp Blu-Ray player this weekend.

LCD > Plasma, although Plasma is cheaper. The biggest difference for me is that there's no screen reflection with LCD. With the glass plasma screen, every light that hits the panel is reflected back at you. As Cameron said, you'll want to compare contrast numbers, because you want black blacks, not gray blacks.

Don't screw around with RCA or S-video cables. Go HDMI, It has the highest quality video and includes audio. But don't get ripped off! Sam's Club has 6' HDMI cables for less than $20. If you go anywhere that I know of, you'll pays $35 to $85.

Check with your cable or satellite dealer and see what HD packages they have. Directv has almost 100 channels and they're great! They're still working on audio sync with some channels but it's usually minimal. Time-Warner cable here SUCKS! They have less than a dozen HD channels. So going to satellite was no problem for me.

Finally, if you're gonna spend the money on a TV, buy quality. Don't screw around with looking for cheap. Get what you pay for.

You just HAVE to go for the Fanbuoy63. The inscreen zoom lets you focus on all of the close calls brought to your attention by announcers.

Ooh...does it come in the color of your favorite team?!

I think they make a black & white version, why?

Oh, I thought that was only available on the ZebraVision.

Don't know about Zebravision, but I think the Fanbuoy63 idea came from this...

http://thumbnail.search.aolcdn.com/t...61BF7B48B7.jpg

I just like the picture on the ZebraVision - it's <B>much</B> clearer.

The Fanbouy63 seems to have too much of a rosy tint.

Unless you are watching Stanford/UCLA games.

You could probably find some great deals on HD-DVD players. :p

I've worked with TV's a few years during college. One thing I really know (and there is not much else I know anything about) is that the brand matters. And for electronics, buy Panasonic. I know it costs a lot more, but in the end, it will last longer and have less problems. I can't tell you how many TV's we junked that were only a few years old because of bad circuitry.
As far as an HD, we bought a 42" and really impressed by it. When CBS shows a game or two in HD, it is an eye-opening experience. Good sound and graphics. As far as 1080p, don't get sidetracked about that if all you have is over the air or cable. The only way you will benefit from 1080p is blue-ray or xbox. Even then, not a big difference. You might check into 720p for sports; it does have a more rapid update rate.
Hope this helps.

Any HDMI cable 6' or less will show NO difference brand to brand; it's the longer ones where it matters. I picked up a pair of 6' HDMI cable for my new Vizio 42" off Ebay for 12 bucks and they work great.

Someone else mentioned a compatibility problem with Vizio TVs and the HDMI cables... have you had that problem too?? These are definitely things I need to consider if I am going to get a lesser-renowned brand like Vizio. I have heard it is a good TV but I don't want red lines across the screen!

Thanks.

Samsung.................

I'm the one that mentioned the incompatibility possibility. Just today, my coworker who is having the problem gave me some more info on the issue.

Looks like the primary culprit in the problem may not be the TV itself. He (a tinkering engineer and his father is a TV repairman) found an issue with the source...the makers of the source cut some corners by not properly grounding the ground pins on the HDMI output jack and it is causing the picture problems.

What that means for the TV is that it will probably work fine more most sources but for a few that cut corners, it might show similar intolerances....picking up interference that corrupts the picture. I'd say that the liklihood of you having the same problem (now that he's figured out the cause) is pretty low. His source was a shuttle PC used for home threater.

I just got my new TV today. I didn't really get it for march madness though. i got a 52" Samsung LCD with 120hz motion which is supposed to make sports and action smoother. We chose Samsung over Sony because we have a Samsung LCD in another room and it works great.

I also got a Logitech Harmony One remote. I got it all set up but my wife was watching something on DVR so I couldn't check it out completely.

The new TV looks a lot better, sitting on my new entertainment console/table than my Sony big screen did. I don't know why everyone at work thinks my wife is the only one responsible for the decorating in my house. :D

Yeah, I heard Sam sing too. He was great.

http://www.black-international-cinema.com/sammy_1.jpg

Just because a TV 'looks better' in the showroom doesn't mean it has a better picture. The TV's in the big line at the store are all cranked way too high on brightness and are way too blue. Buy the best technology you can afford and spend the money to have your TV professionally calibrated.

A $2K TV can look worse than a $1K TV in the store, but calibrate them both to the correct brightness temperature, and the better technology wins every time....

I think that holds true for women, also. Just ask Spitzer. :D

Becoming a High Def Snob
 

I bought the 40" Sony Bravia last summer and the picture is so spectacular I even watched some golf for a while. There's so much difference between a standard definition broadcast and the high definition broadcast that you can get spoiled. I’m so bad that I will change channels or find something else to do if the game I want to watch is in standard definition. Unfortunately the high def channels frequently broadcast standard def content.

I've put in a few LCD s over the last few months at work, and the one I keep going back to is Samsung. It's got one of the better pictures out there, the only negative about them is the rear facing conenctors, which I like for permanent installation that I dont want people jacking around on.

I've also got 2 Sharp Aquos that live in road cases that go to various locations, and they look sharp too.

I originally had two panasonic plasmas in 1 room, and they put out a great picture, just not sure if they still make them or not.

If it were me, I'd buy the Samsung.

Component hook-ups (YPbPr)are just as good as HDMI. The most expensive part of HDMI cables are the connector ends. So buying the most expensive HDMI cable doesn't do you a whole lot of good. HDMI does provide a nice all-in one solution as HDMI does carry Audio.

To backup what someone else said - spending the tie to dial in your color settings makes a big difference. I use a rather old school technique. (IE CHEAP) I take a special blue gel that turns color bars into grayscale, and making adjustments until I get the optimal picture. There are tools and electronics that you can use to do that as well.

You guys are a bad influence on me......in a good way. ;)

Just purchased the Sony, Bravia 46" HDTV. Can't wait for the cable guy (hopefully not Larry) to come hook up my HD. My entire family thanks you all!

All the cool cats get the BhuckElics Model
 

OK wow I actually burst out laughing (loudly) when I read this while at work... oops :D Ohhh, Spitzy...

Thanks for the input everyone! I think I am going to go with the Vizio HDTV now that I'm not concerned about the compatibility factor that Camron_Rust mentioned. I do think the Sony and Samsung models are brilliant, but Vizio is just more my budget- especially with the size I want.

I got my bracket filled out today! Can't wait for the big dance!! I've got WVU beating Duke LOL but hey I wanted to take a gamble!!

Don't go all Donaghy on us.

Haha well I did put $20 bucks into my office pool so we'll see how well my gamble pays off...

So I think I've decided to get the 42" Vizio:

http://www.vizio.com/products/detail.aspx?pid=35

I'll probably check it out at Costco tonight- I was hoping to have this whole TV business finished and ready to go before the games tomorrow!! hope there are a lot of upsets- it's way more enjoyable that way!