<p>I watch: Amazing Race, Survivor, House, Dresden Files. That’s it. I do like them, but I can’t see buying a $700 TV over them. </p>
<p>momof3sons, my D. sounds a lot like your son. But her secret vice, the one thing she’ll spend money for, is okra.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m with you in spirit, actually. I’ve only bought two new televisions in my whole life. I think the point of the advice was to not buy a $1,600 37" television when a $700 unit was available. With technology changing as fast as it it in displays, there’s no reason – the author was arguing – to shop for the very best “quality” with the most features. I think you heard the argument correctly, but misunderstood the conclusion.</p>
<p>In constant dollars, my 37" LCD HD TV was less than a third the price of my 1988 26" television. If it only lasts a third as long that’s fine with me, especially since the display is twice is big and the sharpness is about a zillion times better.</p>
<p>Well, we replaced an old 19" with a 19"LCD (Zenith/Magnavox, something like that) for less than $300. The LCDs were right beside the plasma and this is the difference we noticed right away: the plasma reflected everything - store lights, shiny objects, people walking by. The LCD didn’t reflect anything from the background. </p>
<p>It is a flat screen, and boy is that a real space-saver! When our big clunky tv finally goes (a 32"), we’ll be sure to replace it with a flat screen!</p>
<p>We bought the 36 inch Sony Bravia last year and love it. The price is $500 less now and I have seen some great sales. LCD is probably the better value. We are buying a smaller one for our bedroom now.</p>
<p>We’ve gone a different direction than either plasma or LCD. We have a projector that delivers a very nice 80" HDTV picture. It could go up to about 120" if the room were larger. It is bright enough to watch during the day (we rarely watch then) but looks really great at night. Total cost was about $1000 and it takes up no floor space at all. The projector hangs down from the ceiling and the screen hangs on the wall. Replacement bulbs are rather expensive ($350 for one that is supposed to last 3000 hours) but that is over six years worth of use for us.</p>
<p>WashU–it’s true that in constant dollars, the price might not be high, but paying 0 dollars because the picture is still just fine works much better for me. :)</p>
<p>read this site:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.consumersearch.com/[/url]”>http://www.consumersearch.com/</a>
<a href=“http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/index.html[/url]”>http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/index.html</a></p>
<p>I go there before buying pretty much any consumables - great updated unbiased summaries of product reviews from most reputable sources, summary tables and short answers - all in one site</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>All those issues have been addressed in the latest plasma models (btw, for the same size screen, plasmas are actually less expensive than LCDs) where there is virtually no discernable difference (plasmas do require more electricity to run).</p>
<p>Plasma TVs, however, still have deeper blacks and the images aren’t as “bright” and thus are better in a home theater setting (viewing in a dimly lit room) as opposed to LCDs which are better for viewing in a room with more lighting.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Plasmas are actually a bit more heavier than LCDs of the same size.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Uhhh, Samsung is THE BIGGEST name in the industry with regard to flat panel televisions (and have among the highest rated LCDs and plasmas).</p>
<p>We got a 19" Konka box for $69.95, with desirable silver plastic housing. Works great!</p>
<p>Still can’t find much to watch, but I keep hoping! (But I did get to watch “Cleopatra” last night!)</p>
<p>Nothing to watch? There’s something for everyone! I hadn’t watch much TV for years but this week have been at home with no mobility. I can not believe what’s on TV. Shows that tell me (and let me tour!) what apartments in cities around the world cost and look like. Show that teach about health, home building, training a pet. Travel show that transport me…</p>
<p>I like the show about the guy who goes around the world eating nasty stuff.</p>
<p>Wow–Plasmas are cheaper…that’s weird. I havent looked into TVs for a while, but it seems like Plasma is lowering in price quicker than LCD.</p>
<p>Just one point about buying tv’s online. Know who you are buying from. I bought a TV from Costco online last year. Had it shipped from CA to my son in Boston. The thing arrived damaged. Costco blamed UPS. UPS wouldn’t settle with me, wanted me to get an estimate for repair. So now I’m trying to explain to UPS that finding a tv repair guy who is willing to make a service call to a dorm room in Boston is IMPOSSIBLE. Not to mention the fact that you have to be accompanied into the dorm by a resident and that my kid actually ahd to go to class and not wait around all day for a repairman, who by the way, would have NO place to park his truck on campus.
Anyway, eventually I figured out a solution and got UPS to pay me but it took months.</p>
<p>The larger flat-screens tend to be Plasma with LCD moving into that space as prices for the technology come down. Bigger is better with HDTV since the picture quality is so good. I purchased a Hitachi 55" plasma last Christmas and it’s nice. Regarding a dim picture or reflections - I have a very brightly lit (many high windows) living room in Southern California and have never had an issue with reflections or lack of a bright picture. In fact, I’ve turned the brightness control down on the TV. This particular model (Hitachi HDS-69) does say something about an anti-reflective coating on the screen so maybe that helps. I have it hanging on the wall. Wires weren’t any problem since I put a small table with components under the TV and it hides all the wire’s going to the TV - no need to cut into the wall this way.</p>
<p>Consider a surround sound system if you’re going to get a larger HDTV so the sound quality keeps up with the picture quality. Surround sound systems are fairly inexpensive today (I have an Onkyo).</p>
<p>One disappointment though is the lack of true HiDef programming. Even the cable ‘HD’ channels are mostly filled with programming that wasn’t provided in HD. It’s getting better but still has a long way to go.</p>
<p>
Oh yeah. My resident geeks, aforementioned, definitely went for the surround sound. Warning: this can exponentially increase the fiddling and tweaking involved in initially “getting to know” your system. For us it was a hold-your-breath experience for the first 10 days or so as to whether we would have picture/sound/satellite or only a subset of the three.</p>
<p>Sheesh. I just wanted to push a button and watch Matt Lauer in the am.</p>