Can anyone here steer me away from this HDTV?

[Carl Bauer]

Circuit City (never thought I'd buy anything from them) is advertising a 46" Sony WEGA LCD Projection HDTV (KDF46E2000) for $999 which is right at the top of my budget. It was priced at $1500. The only negative I see is that it's 'only' 720p and not 1080i or 1080p.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-46-Grand-WEGA-trade-LCD-Projection-TV-KDF-46E2000/sem/rpsm/oid/157550/catOid/-12867/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

I don't really need to go this big, we'll be sitting 9ft away and I'm stepping up from an off brand 24in cheapo DVD/VCR combo TV. I couldn’t believe how small the 24in TV’s in the store looked after looking at 40-50 inch sets!

Can anyone suggest anything better in the $600 - $1000 price range? I’m thinking 1080p resolution but a smaller size? Does anyone have anything bad to say about this set?

[red-beard]

I found a 42" Plasma at Sam's club for $650. 720p.

[Joeaksa]

Go as large as you can afford. I have the 56" unit and love it...

[Scott R]

Don't get a 720p, there is a reason they are less. It's likely you will have format compatibility issues down the road, not to mention that HD-DVD is coded default in 1080p.

[arcsine]

Costco is going to have both Visio and Magnavox 42", 1080p LCD's for $1000 in the next month.

In doing research, most of us many not have the ability to see differences between 720p and 1080p, but to me it is worth getting the 1080p.

[azasadny]

My mother has has a Sony Wega 50" for about 2 years now and absolutely loves it and it has given her great service.

[JeremyD]

sams club - I'll second it. Projection TV's a great for high light rooms. I have the DLP Samsung 50" and the picture is steller. right now they have the samsung plasma 42" for 1100.

[Carl Bauer]

Thanks for the responses. I suppose I should have added a few qualifiers...

I don't have a membership to either Sam's Club or CostCo although I'm sure they'd love to have me as a member for $50 or whatever they charge. If they have a killer deal that would probably be enough to get me to join.

I'm not too interested in an off-brand HDTV. Vizio, Maxent, Insignia... I'm not usually brand conscious but there's something about spending $750-$1000 on an off brand HDTV that's a little scary to me. I bet most people feel this way too.

When I was at BestBuy and CircuitCity I did notice a big difference between 720 and 1080. It was most evident in text and some of the video game foreground menus that were being displayed. Some of the graphics on the 720 sets looked very rasterized or jagged. The Sony I mentioned earlier looked the best of the 720 sets, even better than some 1080i sets.

I’ve noticed a blockier image (which bugs me for the price) on flat panel LCD HDTV’s. They must have a problem with frame rate generation that the flat screen plasma’s, rear projection LCD’s and even the good old tube HDTV’s don’t have. I think a flat panel plasma HDTV is out of budget for now which is why I’ve been focusing more on a rear projection style HDTV.

Is there a name brand company that makes a 36-42 inch rear projection LCD HDTV in 1080p for < $1000? It seems like I’m in a segment that doesn’t really exist!

_________

Thanks Jeremy. That Samsung sure is nice and as I can see I'm going to have to try realy hard to stick with a $1000 price limit!

[stomachmonkey]

Originally posted by Scott R
Don't get a 720p, there is a reason they are less. It's likely you will have format compatibility issues down the road, not to mention that HD-DVD is coded default in 1080p.

?? A blanket statement like that is not correct. Viewing habits, size restricitions and budget need to be considered.

No one currently broadcasts 1080p. It'll be years before anyone does if they ever do. It's a bandwidth infrastructure issue.

There is not that much HD DVD content out there to begin with and the standard calls for backwards compatability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

The difference between 720p and 1080p at normal viewing distances starts to show up in the 50 in + sizes. Below 50 the average person won't notice. Above 60 you definately want the 1080p.

Either 720p or 1080p will be better for sports than 1080i.

http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/1080p-hdtv.html

Scott

[Scott R]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
?? A blanket statement like that is not correct. Viewing habits, size restricitions and budget need to be considered.

No one currently broadcasts 1080p. It'll be years before anyone does if they ever do. It's a bandwidth infrastructure issue.

There is not that much HD DVD content out there to begin with and the standard calls for backwards compatability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

The difference between 720p and 1080p at normal viewing distances starts to show up in the 50 in + sizes. Below 50 the average person won't notice. Above 60 you definately want the 1080p.

Either 720p or 1080p will be better for sports than 1080i.

http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/1080p-hdtv.html

Scott

Sony's Playstation 3 broadcasts 1080p, and a few new consoles that I played at E3 last year did as well. 1080p camcorders are also slated to be sold this year. Also available in the next few months will be upscale dvd players that run 1080p.

I wrote what did to avoid exactly what you said, having to downscale to get to a compatible level is just a compromise. 1080p is the logical conclusion for consumer HDTV, may as well start now.

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/284986.html

[nostatic]

or you could do something other than watch tv

[rick-l]

Originally posted by Scott R
Don't get a 720p, there is a reason they are less. It's likely you will have format compatibility issues down the road, not to mention that HD-DVD is coded default in 1080p.

My thoughts after some reasearch/personal experience.

I don't think compatibility will be a problem between 480i 720p 1080i or 1080p since for the basic picture all that changes is the compression algorithm. The individual display decides when how to display the basic information. If you have a screen that displays 1080 lines obvioulsy you will have more resolution from a 1080 signal than a screen that displays only 720 lines.

I have a 1080i display. The best picture I get (St louis) is over the air broadcast from NBC and CBS (1080i). I can tell a difference over the 720p from ABC and FOX.

Digital HD cable to me looks like something between 480 and 720 representative resolution.

Some of the stuff my neighbors have on dish network looks almost as good as 1080i broadcast, but definitely 720 quality.

[Super_Dave_D]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey

No one currently broadcasts 1080p. It'll be years before anyone does if they ever do.
Scott

True but my PS3 (Blue Ray) sure does and is simply awesome!

[stomachmonkey]

True but for some people it's not neccesary. That's like saying get a Lexus not a Toyota because the Toyota is cheaper. What if all the person needs is a Toyota?

Interesting article. It does not support the position that 1080p is for everyone.

So what were you doing at e3 and who do you work for? PM me if you want to keep it private. You going this year? The whole thing is just to bizarre this year but was a long time coming. Even the Sony party sucked last year.

Scott

[stomachmonkey]

Originally posted by nostatic
or you could do something other than watch tv

We are, we're debating on the internet.

[imcarthur]

Thanks for posting that article Scott. It was well-written.

People get hung up on the pixel count & forget that there are a lot of other factors that determine what you will actually see. Source & source material is the biggie, of course, but other hdwe issues exist. Since HD rollout has been going on for so many years, many consumers have spent & will spend big $s on displays or projectors that won't cut it in the long term. Gone are the days when your TV lasted 10 years or more.

One such factor which he discusses is scaling:

"Demand Side
Given the slow rollout of HD programming in this country, even the most ardent videophile would be challenged to envision the near term, mainstream dissemination of 1080p. Although higher resolutions can produce more detailed images, to achieve maximum benefit, the native 1080p hardware must be matched with 1080p content.

Scale away
The solution, then, for a considerable length of time, lies with scaling. For those buyers who dive into the 1080p pool, high quality scaling will be essential to bring lower resolution content up to the native resolution of the 1080p TV.

1080p scaling will take numerous forms:
Upsampling DVD players
A/V Receiver Integration
TV Integration
Dedicated, break-out box scalers"

And basically, the first 3 scaling options typically suck badly. And the last can be big $s. Not so long ago, we used a $100K Teranex scaler for a mega-system at a show. So the biggest change/difference as the pixel count stabilizes won't be in resolution, it will be in scaling.

When you are shopping, make sure you watch some Lo-Def material too. For the conceivable future, you will still be watching lots of it.

Ian

[nostatic]

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
We are, we're debating on the internet.

yeah, but you don't need a 1080p widescreen for that

[gr8fl4porsche]

Originally posted by imcarthur
When you are shopping, make sure you watch some Lo-Def material too. For the conceivable future, you will still be watching lots of it.

I recently set up a new home theatre and was worried about low quality SD viewing on my Mitsubishi 46" LCD over standard Dishnetwork.

Actually it's not too bad. Not great by any stretch, but not too bad. Picture quality is not as good as my old CRT but not unwatchable. Over the air HD is awesome. Especially when they broadcast in Widescreen HD format. I actually watch mostly network programming these days due to the HD content and rarely switch over to the satellite.

[Scott R]

Originally posted by gr8fl4porsche
I recently set up a new home theatre and was worried about low quality SD viewing on my Mitsubishi 46" LCD over standard Dishnetwork.

Actually it's not too bad. Not great by any stretch, but not too bad. Picture quality is not as good as my old CRT but not unwatchable. Over the air HD is awesome. Especially when they broadcast in Widescreen HD format. I actually watch mostly network programming these days due to the HD content and rarely switch over to the satellite.

I think one of the best has to be "the Office" on OTA HD.

[rick-l]

Originally posted by nostatic
yeah, but you don't need a 1080p widescreen for that

1280 x 1024 is pretty high def.