Help Me Buy an LCD TV

[Hey_Porter]

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So I just got back from a buddy's house. He bought a new HD TV this weekend, and got the HD tuner from Comcast today. If he had it all set up right, I wasn't that impressed. Are the images from HD channels supposed to fill the screen? They weren't on his. And honestly, I had a hard time distinguishing the image from the ESPN HD Monday Night Football and the regular. Is it possible it wasn't set up right? He thought the same thing. Samsung, fwiw.

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Uh....yup.

Forgive me for LOLing (it's really NOT funny....It's very frustrating!!)

HD images ARE supposed to fill the screen.....I sure hope it is a 16x9 aspect screen, not a 4x3?

Did he read the owners manual to see how to 'set up' the TV? Sounds like he didn't, and the set isn't in the proper mode to differentiate a regular signal from an HD signal. There should be a STUNNING difference on MNF between the two.

And then, there's the mf'king incompetent cable companies that have installers who really don't have a clue as to what their doing.

In most cases, the cable box has to be 'programmed' to properly transmit a quality HD image.

Then, you MUST have quality cables from it to the set, regardless of whether or not your using the HDMI or regular inputs/outputs. Do NOT disregard this point!!!

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Yea, obviously it was a setup issue, and it's apparently working fine now. True to crappy customer service form, apparently the comcast folks fixed an initial problem and in doing so screwed up the HD settings.

[Myrtle]

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Myrtle's post is solid. I remember when I did my shoppping about a year ago that I chose an LCD as the room I have it in is bright. This is very important. I would not put a plasma in a bright room. Someone can possibly confirm this but I think I also remember that if a plasma goes it is more difficult and expensive to repair.

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It all depends on what exactly "goes".

It's pretty simple.....It will either be the actual screen itself, or the associated electronics that drive it.

If it's a full screen/panel failure and the set is out of warranty, you may as well toss it on the junk heap, as the cost of the replacement panel is very prohibitive.

Opinions vary as to what the 'lifetime' of a panel is. Early PDP (plasma) panels were nowhere near as reliable as the latest versions of them are.

LCD's are also pretty reliable these days.

Both LCD's and PDP's should have at least as long a life expectancy as vacuum tubes, and probably a bit longer.

The most often reported 'failure' of a panel is a pixel or two going out. This is a pain, but really nothing can be done about it. Individual pixels are not replaceable: they are incredibly tiny!

Think about it for a minute.......

If you've just bought one of the higher quality LCD's, it probably has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Multiply those numbers and you get 2,073,600. That's how many actual pixels there are in that screen, regardless of its' size.

Now, remember, in each LCD there are three different colors, so in reality there are really over 6 million pixels in that screen!

Hope this answered your question.....

[gusmahler]

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Then, you MUST have quality cables from it to the set, regardless of whether or not your using the HDMI or regular inputs/outputs. Do NOT disregard this point!!!

[/ QUOTE ]Depends on what you mean by "quality." One doesn't need $200 HDMI cables when you can buy them for $20.

[Myrtle]

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Then, you MUST have quality cables from it to the set, regardless of whether or not your using the HDMI or regular inputs/outputs. Do NOT disregard this point!!!

[/ QUOTE ]Depends on what you mean by "quality." One doesn't need $200 HDMI cables when you can buy them for $20.

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Gus, Please...........

Quality is NOT necessarily always defined by price.

Your statement as written above is misleading and can easily be interpreted incorrectly, leading one to a bad decision.

The reality is that there are different levels of quality of HDMI cables out there for a reason.

There is a very complex "handshaking" process that occurs using HDMI.

Part of the difficulty in choosing a good cable is that very few folks know how to define "good" when it comes to HDMI.

That is also compounded by less-than-ethical cable manufacturers who misrepresent their product. This happens most often within a line, and a certain cable is misrepresented to be "better" than it's lower priced counterpart, when in reality the only thing it offers is extra profitability to both the manufacturer and the retailer.

In plain language, you can get ripped-off quite easily in this regard.

Check out this article (and site) if you want more legitimate information about HDMI.

http://www.etherealhometheater.com/news.php?id=14

p.s. With non-HDMI cables, there is a very easy way to verify what I'm saying......

Compare them by LOOKING AT THE PICTURE!! If you've never done this you will be totally amazed at the easily discernable visual difference in quality of various cables!

[gusmahler]

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Then, you MUST have quality cables from it to the set, regardless of whether or not your using the HDMI or regular inputs/outputs. Do NOT disregard this point!!!

[/ QUOTE ]Depends on what you mean by "quality." One doesn't need $200 HDMI cables when you can buy them for $20.

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Gus, Please...........

Quality is NOT necessarily always defined by price.

Your statement as written above is misleading and can easily be interpreted incorrectly, leading one to a bad decision.


[/ QUOTE ]And your statement is vague and could easily be interpreted to mean "buy expensive cables."

What cables would you recommend?

PS Surely you realize that there is a huge debate in the audiophile community between the "cable is cable" crowd and the MIT/Kimber cable buyers. I'm far from the only cable skeptic.

[Myrtle]

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Then, you MUST have quality cables from it to the set, regardless of whether or not your using the HDMI or regular inputs/outputs. Do NOT disregard this point!!!

[/ QUOTE ]Depends on what you mean by "quality." One doesn't need $200 HDMI cables when you can buy them for $20.

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Gus, Please...........

Quality is NOT necessarily always defined by price.

Your statement as written above is misleading and can easily be interpreted incorrectly, leading one to a bad decision.


[/ QUOTE ]And your statement is vague and could easily be interpreted to mean "buy expensive cables."

What cables would you recommend?

PS Surely you realize that there is a huge debate in the audiophile community between the "cable is cable" crowd and the MIT/Kimber cable buyers. I'm far from the only cable skeptic.

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My apologies for any vagueness.......I simply do not have the time to write 4-5 pages thoroughly explaining every facet of this issue.

That's why I provided the link....Did you check it out?

As far as the "Wire/Cable" debate.

IMHO, skepticism is a good thing in regards to this subject.

O yes, I've been involved with it since the 70's, and again I don't care to write a dissertation on my views.

The reality is something that most folks don't want to hear.

The correct answer is..... "It all depends....".

You may not like it, but that's the truth.

The variables are too many to make broad definitive statements about the issue.

Now.........given what you've written, and the fact that you're familiar with, as you call it, the MIT/Kimber debate, let me remind you that I have already stated once in this string that I don't care to get into a pissing contest with anyone.

I've been doing this for a living for almost 40 years, and I'm weary of debating most of these issues.

Again, please, no offense intended.

I just don't care to go there any more.

[revots33]

I'd go for 40 or 42 inch, I guarantee 32 is gonna seem small. A 32" widescreen is much smaller than a 32" standard 4x3 tv.

I have a Toshiba REGZA 42" 1080p, also got a Toshiba HD-DVD player, both awesome. Don't get a cheapo like Westinghouse or Vizio, not that they are terrible but the quality is just not as good as the better brands even though some of the specs may sound the same.

Don't buy HDMI cables for 80 bucks from Circuit City/Best Buy. You can get the same thing for less than 10 bucks on Amazon, these cables are all basically the same (unlike non-digital cables where expensive ones might improve the pic quality).

[coyote]

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Then, you MUST have quality cables from it to the set, regardless of whether or not your using the HDMI or regular inputs/outputs. Do NOT disregard this point!!!

[/ QUOTE ]Depends on what you mean by "quality." One doesn't need $200 HDMI cables when you can buy them for $20.

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Gus, Please...........

Quality is NOT necessarily always defined by price.

Your statement as written above is misleading and can easily be interpreted incorrectly, leading one to a bad decision.


[/ QUOTE ]And your statement is vague and could easily be interpreted to mean "buy expensive cables."

What cables would you recommend?

PS Surely you realize that there is a huge debate in the audiophile community between the "cable is cable" crowd and the MIT/Kimber cable buyers. I'm far from the only cable skeptic.

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My apologies for any vagueness.......I simply do not have the time to write 4-5 pages thoroughly explaining every facet of this issue.

That's why I provided the link....Did you check it out?

As far as the "Wire/Cable" debate.

IMHO, skepticism is a good thing in regards to this subject.

O yes, I've been involved with it since the 70's, and again I don't care to write a dissertation on my views.

The reality is something that most folks don't want to hear.

The correct answer is..... "It all depends....".

You may not like it, but that's the truth.

The variables are too many to make broad definitive statements about the issue.

Now.........given what you've written, and the fact that you're familiar with, as you call it, the MIT/Kimber debate, let me remind you that I have already stated once in this string that I don't care to get into a pissing contest with anyone.

I've been doing this for a living for almost 40 years, and I'm weary of debating most of these issues.

Again, please, no offense intended.

I just don't care to go there any more.

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I appreciate your experience, but instead of writing that long post about how weary you are of these debates, and how you don't want to write a dissertation on X or Y, you could have written 1-2 sentences in which you answered his question as to what cables YOU, as a man in the business, would recommend as a quality product....

Sorry, but that would seem to be far more useful in this thread.

[AceLuby]

If you're not opposed to going online I would recommend tigerdirect.com. I bought a 32" LCD from there for $500 a year ago and I think they are getting bigger and cheaper.

[Mr_Pathetic]

If i had to buy another 42" HDTV right now I would grab this in a heartbeat. I absolutely love my Panasonic 42 720p. Too bad these weren't out a little over a year ago.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...amp;Order=PRICE