33klfan Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 I'm looking for my friend who is looking to buy either an lcd or rear projection. I would say keep it under $1500. I know the toshibas are nice for around that price range. I would say he's looking for 42" for a lcd, and like a 55" for rear projection. For rear projection i always thought dlp is nicer than lcd rear projection, but any opinions here are appreciated. I have a 42" toshiba 1080p and i love it, but i just wanted to see other recommendations. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 I tried out TWO Sony BRAVIA rear projection 42" models and found both to be dark if off center. I like the Samsung models myself. price and picture wise. JMHO. Just make sure your friend has HD, because all a bigger set does is show up how bad the signal/picture is, if you don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoudnClear Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 I went to Best Buy with a notepad and wrote down the make, model number, price, size, and technology (lcd vs plasma). I did not consider projection, I thought they looked grainy and couldn't live with the limited angle of viewing. I made note of which units looked best. A combination of clarity, color, brightness of whites, depth of color, variation of dark grey to blacks. If you look at the tvs for about 15 minutes picking the best 1 or 2 our of groups of 4. You'll start to notice what looks good and what looks bad. It doens't take long to get aclimated to what you need to look for if you just sit and watch. This all hinges on having the same HD channel material showing on all the TVs under evaluation. Note that this process can be screwed up depending on what the picture settings are adjusted to on the TV. Generally the TVs are set ot a vibrant bright display setting from the factory because that sells TVs. Comparing TVs without adjusting settings just allows you to pick based on what quality of picture has been demonstrated. Thats not to say that a TV that looks dull cannot be adjusted to look great, it would just take years to optimize TVs on the wall at the store, plus the stores don't want people adusting them anyhow. Once your list of good looking candidates is made, you just cross reference to a position of the list where size and price meet your cost capabilities. I got a 52" Sony KDL-52W3000 LCD that listed at the time at $3500, for $2340 with 24 mos 0% interest at sears. This was about a month ago. I got the price down by returning when they were having a 10% off everything sale on a Sunday night. They price matched the drop in price because they do that for 30 or 60 days after the sale. I found that the Sony W series and XBR4 (or XBR 5) series were top notch. Safe bet on a great performing series of TVs. They are higher in price though, but I think that its worth it to put more money into a top notch solution. Of course, I'm on the Klipsch forum, we all understand what it means to pay more for the best performance. A concern of mine was the quality of picture when watching analog standard def cable, because I will be using that signal for some time before I get a dish. I found the Sony W and XBR4 series to have vastly superior signal processing to make analog cable look very good. Absolutely it is possible for me to watch the analog cable channels until I get HD service. On the other hand, my father in law has a LG that looks attrocious on analog cable. Seeing his TV kept me out of the HD hunt for a long time. My 36" CRT died on me so I was forced to buy. Glad I did, because I found the Sony that looks great on standard def and absolutely stunning on HD over the air broadcasts and Blu-ray. Kimball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 IF you were to go with the above posts recommendations, here are the current prices by NEXTag. http://www.nextag.com/SONY-BRAVIA-KDL52W3000-52-550758070/prices-html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Here is pricing on a 40" LCD Samsung............. http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-LNT4065F-1080p-LCD-HDTV/dp/B000OE02G4/ref=sr_du_1_map?ie=UTF8&qid=1196987461&sr=8-1# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest srobak Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 westinghouse. $1000 42in LCD, 4hdmi inputs. I have the previous model to this almost a year now. Very happy. Best bang for the buck available. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8386285&st=westinghouse&type=product&id=1181831586462 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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