Shopping for a TV

[Cominus]

I have a 47" magnavox in the living room and a 22" RCA in the bedroom. no complaints on either one. both LCD. I would have gotten a Vizio 47" but they were sold out at the time. My sister just got a 52" bravia that is really nice.

 

my PC monitor has rear facing speakers too. I hate it. never could get it loud enough and there was a small delay. I guess from the sound projecting back then off the wall to your ears. fixed with a cheap set of desktop speakers.

47"... must be nice. I have a 50 something here in the living room but it isnt mine... so I had to get something.

 

As for rear mounted speakers... I wonder if thats whats up... sound reflecting off the wall... but no, it cant be in my case... That shit is no lie, a good 1/3 of a second. There is no way in this world sound reflecting off the wall ads so much delay. But im sure it adds to it. I put the headphones on and started singing to System of a Down while it was also pumping through the speakers. My sister was there and she was ... whats the word... You ever use the phone and get the echo effect where you can hear yourself but delayed... it fucks my mind when that happens. I lock up and cant talk because it screws with me too much. Thats kinda what was going on with her. lol

 

Cant go wrong with a samsung, but might be a little more than you want, I paid $815 with tax for a 32" but I loved it. (it fell on my head a year later).

Prices have dropped a bit over a few years, but at that price you must have bought a 1080p right? The one I'm about to go pickup is 720p

 

I like my Sony 32", but I jumped in on it too soon. It's a 720p/60hz model that I paid $1,300 (at employee cost) for about 3 years ago. The only thing that's really getting me is the fact it only has 1 HDMI port and 2 Component hookups. I would make sure that whatever you buy has at least 3 HDMIs because from experience I can tell you that you don't want to have to rely on an HDMI switch - all of them are crap.

 

Cominus, how in the heck did it fall on you? Was it wall mounted?

Shit man $1,300!!!

BRAVIA / 40" / 1080p / 120Hz

 

No way bro, it was a 780p. I know, expensive. What you want to look for is contrast ratio, like 8000:1 is good, the higher it does the better the quality, and let me tell you, sound quality on flat screen is cheap, just get yourself a surround sound like I did, works wonder, but the most imporant part for sound is the room and how everything is mounted. I know cuz when I moved into my appartment the surround sound system sounded twice as good.

[Krosigrim]

No way bro, it was a 780p. I know, expensive. What you want to look for is contrast ratio, like 8000:1 is good, the higher it does the better the quality, and let me tell you, sound quality on flat screen is cheap, just get yourself a surround sound like I did, works wonder, but the most imporant part for sound is the room and how everything is mounted. I know cuz when I moved into my appartment the surround sound system sounded twice as good.

Well the best buy add says my new tv has a contrast Ratio of 8000:1. I went through the book I have for the tv and both it and the box have no mention of the contrast ratio at all. On the official samsung site they said 15,000:1 and 30,000:1 Dynamic. Now I know how manufacturers use certain testing methods to inflate their rating... but this here is undeniable.

Overall contrast ratio testing.

But what evens out that advantage... is the viewing angle

Viewing angle

That doesnt matter at all though. It's in my room, and if I decide to chill on my bed, I can rotate the screen, it's adjustable. Im now very pleased as the other TV... the LG's LH20... was quite a disappointment after about 10 min.

 

Edit: Oh yea, about the sound. Your right flats are notorious for shit sound. My friend never uses the tv speakers. He suggested I buy at least a cheap stereo system... but I'm in no rush as I have Turtle Beach headphones... they are pretty badass.

[Skythe]

Get one with a remote

[Krosigrim]

Get one with a remote

 

No need! This one beam the interface straight to my HUD!

[The-Ice-Man]

New Sony Bravias beam the image directly into your brain.

[VT-Vincent]

One thing I would highly recommend with an HDTV is having a dedicated computer hooked up to it, even if it's just a basic Atom NetTop. Several years ago, I built a media center to dedicate to my TV and I have to admit that it's been great. I have all of my standard movies and music through the media center interface, all of my emulators accessible by remote control only on GameEx, my iTunes media and even a custom home page for my web browser for all of the streaming media websites. You can actually pick up the official Microsoft remote control and keyboard pretty cheap to make the experience even more seamless.

[Krosigrim]

Hmm. Sounds like your a hobbiest.

[VT-Vincent]

I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a hobbyist, but I do take on side projects like that occasionally. The first media center I built was actually a lot more limited, I was using the now-defunct Beyond Media instead of MCE/GameEx and there were a lot of things it couldn't do. It was also hooked up to my crusty old 32" CRT TV.

[Inky]

there is a bad ass little nettop media center made by the people that make the Eee laptops. it bolts right to the back of the TV. where the wall mount bolts up.

I'd like to get one of those.

[Cominus]

I need a new tv, how's that samsung working out for ya?

[Krosigrim]

I only have one concern, when playing games, I don't really notice it, but when Im in my dashboard on 360... I have jaggies. I put my box to 720p. it was set to 1080i, no difference. There was an option on the tv for enhanced edges, if anything, not much of a difference.

 

Im not exactly sure how to classify what I'm talking about. I only notice it really when im on the dash. Its 32" at 720p, but it looks like I can easily see pixels. When I'm playing my games though I don't notice, but thats likely due to the fact that the graphics are more... well... more. Fallout 3 for instance looks fantastic.

 

Ok this is what I'll do. I'll be using it a shit ton these next 3 days, I off of work. I'll give a better opinion about it then, but I'll leave you with this, at $449 its a fucking steal. Best bang for your buck.

 

Rating of my TV

Look for other TV's you might be interested in getting through whatever retailer and see if they were rated at this site. The link above is the Intro to the rating, they break everything down and describe whats up in the grey field. Ex. "Intro/Tour & Design/Calibration/Blacks & Whites/Color Accuracy/Motion/Viewing Effects" etc. So you can get a damn good idea of the real deal capabilities of any tv (rated on the site) I looked at the other 32" at similar cost range, and this tv has em beat.