Advice: Best 20" LCD

[BMWGuy]

I'm looking to buy a 20" LCD display for a gaming/guest room. Anyone have any recomendations. Looking for something with excellant contrast ratio, reliability, component video input and wall mountable.

BTW - anyone have any suggestions for the mounting hardware?

Thanks!

Shaun

(I used to post here often but forgot my userid)

[Bill H.]

Check out www.cnet.com for good recommendations and reviews.

[IAmtnbikr]

Wife hated the CRT set on top of the dresser in the bedroom, so I noticed Target had a Magnavox 20" LCD EDTV for $438 a month or so ago. Got it, and also another HD sat receiver. I am quite pleased with the response time of it, and the HD content looks nice sent out of the box as only 480p via component cables to the TV. Model number is 20MF605T. Works nicely too using a ProMedia 2.1 system instead of the built-in speakers! I quickly found this site with reviews:

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/118368/rpem/ccd/productDetailReview.do#tabs

[BMWGuy]

Hey, I'm a mountain biker too - but isn't Iowa kinda - flat? Anyway, thanks for the recomendation. That's a good price.

[IAmtnbikr]

Here around the area I live it is not real tough riding but for a few spots. I live a mile from a state park with some technical trails that have left some scars, lol. Or, down near Iowa City there is Sugarbottom Recreation Area which is an Army Corps of Engineers site, and there are some viscious trails there. Yes, they have left even worse scars! Or, you can go up to the NE part of Iowa and find some good riding up there as the terrain is more hilly. I also try to ride some road bike stuff too. We are blessed with one of the better trail systems in the state, or maybe country, here in the area.

[JJkizak]

I just looked at one running in Best Buy the other day and it was a Toshiba 20HL85 with 1366 resolution. It had the best picture of anything in the entire store with high-definition, and I looked at everything they had.

JJK

[BMWGuy]

I just rode some sweet singletrack here in OH yesterday. It was great. Thanks for the suggestion on the magnavox - I checked it out at the store, my only question is whether you can wall mount it. It didn't seem to have an obvious mounting points.

BTW - I am very leary of basing any of my decisions on what the picture quality looks like at Best Buy or Circuit City - you know they split the signal 100 times and some of them look so bad you know it has to be the source not the TV. It always amazes me how Sony's can look so much better in the stores than anything else - they must pay the retailer to set up their tvs better than the other stuff.

[IAmtnbikr]

The base will pivot so you can use the slots in it to wall-mount the TV with screws into the wall. As to picture quality, it is pretty darned good to me. Yes, it will only support a 480p picture as its best, but that is what most DVD players will output via component cables. I felt that in a smaller screen, if you take the 480 lines of resolution and compare that to a set much larger in size with 1080, you still end up with about the same number of lines in the area you are viewing. Thus, the picture qualilty is to me acceptable, and there are many who say that they even like the ED sets in much larger sizes, as the scaling can often make the picture worse in true HD with some sets. Yes, I have a Panasonic and a Samsung as two true HD sets that display 1080i as native, but that little Magnavox fits the bill quite well for what we needed and wanted to spend. You will need to move closer to $700-800 to find a 20" set with true HD resolution. Go for the Magnavox! You will not be sorry.

[DrWho]

It always amazes me how Sony's can look so much

better in the stores than anything else - they must pay the retailer to

set up their tvs better than the other stuff.

This is actually a product of smart engineering and marketing...kinda

like the high sensitivity of the synergy speakers (which will be louder

at the same volume setting on the reciever...)

Basically, the sony circuitry was built with a higher tolerance for

subpar connections. It essentially comes down to being a "higher

sensitivity" design which is why the speaker parallel works so well.

The number one cause for signal degredation in video signals comes from

line-loss which can be a factor of many things. In Best Buy I am sure

they are implementing a distributed network using taps and pads so that

the "volume" (loudness of the video) is the same for every TV, or at

least within a certain range. Sometimes you end up with a bad tap or

pad, a bad crimp on the video cable or some other defect (perhaps a

break in the shield such that interference gets picked up). Anyways,

Sony TV's will typically run off a lower input volume than other TV

brands while also being able to handle levels that are too hot too.

It's amazing how much better the image gets when you've got proper

amplifcation getting into the TV.

But chances are there are issues with the cable being plugged into the

TV than anything else...so if you're comparing two different TVs, reach

around and swap the video inputs between adjacent TVs.