Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Cheap HD TV?

How about this one?

no the the TV will convert the pic to a 16x9 picture and you if he is getting a hi def box through his cable provider like COX or who ever else his box will do alot of that for him to. that way you have no chance of burn in

I'm looking for the same kind of things. I happened across a nice Toshiba, open box for $684 at a Bestbuy. But after watching them clean around them (as we were in the store around closing) I was less excited to buy it (although...my last two have been open boxes and both have been great TVs).

I started searching online for pricing and this is where I'm at. 30" HDTV Flat Screen for $679.00 LINK

Bestbuy ($799) and Sears ($799), both carry this model. Bestbuy's is on same for $759. With Sear's price matching plan the will match the price and drop by 10%. to $684, throw in the $5 coupon I got out of the Black History Month calender they were handing out in February and you get $679. Then, if you get a Sears card, knock another 10% out (but wait to present the $5 coupon until after all of the percentage reductions (hey, every little bit counts).

Now, I just need to get the wife's vote as we're still fairly recent first time home buyers with a few projects in the wings.

I ended up getting this Philips 34".
I love the thing. Forza looks amazing with the component cables on the XBox too!
Got the TV, a new DVD player, Tv stand, and all my cables for $1320 out the door.

My bad, where's my helmet.....The 110% is on the price difference, not the total value. Now that I've had some coffee and embarrased myself at the local Sears...I'm back in the hunt.

The philips was not a bad choice although i am not a big fan of philips. (quality control issues). My advice. since you did get it from best buy you have a 30 day satisfation guarantee. Try it, and if you like it keep it. The sony 46" would have been my choice. Great small projection, plenty of inputs, smaller projections tend to look better than larger ones with analog cable shows, and at that price ($999) it is a steal from the regular $1499. Keep in mind, as far as longevity the sony 46 and philips 30" use the same technology CRT. For my money and i am not being a Sony slappy, sony CRTs are the best on the market at the consumer level. The best thing however is that you chose the right time to buy a TV. This time of year (mid to late summer) manufacturers always bring out new models and close out old ones. Great deals are available on the old models, and since the new models are usually out by the time the old ones are sold out you get to compare the two and see what you may be missing in the new model. Good luck with your purchase and remember you have the 30 day return policy, so run the TV thru its paces in the first month and make sure it is the one you want, you will NOT be penalized for returning or exchanging the TV.(restocking fee)

Chris

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Go to AVSforum.com because there is quite a bit of misinformation being thrown around in this thread. That site is awesome for information about any audio video products.


CRT, RPCRT, & Plasma are by far the best for PQ. All have their drawbacks. CRT = screen size & weight, RPCRT = weight and vertical view angle, Plasma = $$$ mainly

DLP has great PQ but suffers from the rainbow effect on high speed motion. Either the pictures or your eyes. Some folk's vision can't process fast enough and they are not as susceptible to it. You want to test it in a DARK setting with the TV settings at 50%. (i.e. NOT in the typical store setting!) I saw them. DLP was on the top of my buying list before that.

If you value PQ you'll never get near an LCD. They suck! Yes they suffer burn in, frozen pixels, dead pixels, poor high speed motion projection, and have no contrast/black.

~~~

For the most part RCA is at the bottom of the reliability list. There is a big reason they are cheap. I looked at them first because of their price point. Then I did some research and scratched them off my list.

Sony is above average. Their prices SUCK! They are not worth the money they charge.

Phillips is decent. We've had a 32" flat screen for a few years now and like it. Price is very good, features are abundant, PQ is above average, no problems.

Hitachi is awesome. Excellent on all categories. Price is above average.
My 57" RPCRT is Hitachi and it's unbelievable. Nothing touched it out of all the choices out there. My old 29" TV the Phillips replaced a few years ago was Hitachi and the PQ (after 10 years) was still a bit better then the Phillips. That TV had at least 20k miles on it, 4 states, 2 countries, a summer in a storage facility in New Mexico (when it was 3) and still worked when I got rid of it. I cried that day.


The short version. Go to the website...