When the federal "all-digital" broadcast law takes effect in Feb 2009 large screen TVs should get a LOT cheaper. Right now your budget will get you a 42 inch widescreen TV. That really isn't all that large because of the diagonal measurement. People are paying a lot of money right now for smaller televisions than some of them had in their 4:3 TVs.

I am waiting, but in the meantime I use the projector I bought for my video business, a Hi-Def player, and a homemade 120 inch screen for my home theater.

However, I watch movies primarily and don't care that much about HD broadcast. If you feel the same way, you could get a very good projector for under $1000, build or buy a screen, and also buy either a Blu-Ray or HD DVD player to upscale SD DVDs and play Hi-Def discs on a TRULY large screen for well within your budget.

John

I am with craftech I'd go with a projector for family movie night events.
Da-Lite stretched fabric or Goo-Systems reflective paint for the screen.

I do like Samsung LCD's for daily PBS HD viewing.

I don't agree with the projector concept - but I watch a LOT of TV and at any time of day. Projectors are only good in a media room (totally dark) or at night.

Last year I picked up a 50" Samsung plasma for $1,800 thanks to a tip right here on the Vegas site - haven't seen that kind of price again.

Plasma get hotter than LCD and plasma has a more reflective screen creating reflections and glare.

Both give more or less equal imagery and (in my opinion) both cream CRT displays unless you've got megabucks. Plus it's nice to have the slim profile of a flat screen.

I don't like projected LCD sets - they aren't really as bright and if you're off axis, the image totally falls off.

Watch for weekly sales at the big electronic shops and you can easily save $500 bucks or more.

v

Costco has some large screens for less than $2K, I think you can get a 1080P 50"+ there right now.

If you're a AAA (Automobile Club) member, log into their web site and look for Member Benefits. Print out the coupon for 10% off anything over $200 at Circuit City, that's another place worth checking, although usually only when there is a major holiday to provide an excuse for a sale.

Projectors start getting good at $2,500 and become outstanding at $3,550 (this is Sony's outstanding 2006 model, the 1080P SXRD VPL-VW50, but note the new Bravia VPL-VW60 projector to be released Sep. 20, possibly at the same price, with 35,000:1 contrast ratio instead of the measly 15,000:1 of the VPL-VW50...).

The VPL-VW60 has so much light output that it's been used in Japanese movie theaters to show Spiderman 3 digitally.

This with a single 200 W mercury lamp. It feels good being green sometimes :O).

"If you're a AAA (Automobile Club) member, log into their web site and look for Member Benefits. Print out the coupon for 10% off anything over $200 at Circuit City,"

I'm interested in this:

I went looking for this and can't find it....Can you leave us a current link here?

I've been waiting for the prices to drop on a Samsung 46" 1080p with super high contrast ratio model # LNT 4665f which has great reviews..... and is still expensive at Circuit City...

Thanks,
eileen

Here's a universal way to get there (without having to go through regional AAA sites that all look different):

http://www.aaa.com/circuitcity

Enter your zip code and follow the instructions to have the 10% off coupon e-mailed to you.

Don't let the digital television 2-17-2009 date confuse the issue. It has NOTHING to do with either widescreen or HD sets. I have a digital television compliant TV right now, and it is a 4:3 SD CRT set with the ATSC (digital) tuner. It very nicely receives HD signals and converts them to SD, as well as 4:3 signals from DIGITAL channels.

NH and VT public television digital signals include a single HD channel and one or more SD channels. 11.1 is HD, 11.2 is SD for NH public television. 41.1 is HD, 41.2 and 41.3 and 41.4 and 41.5 are all SD VT public television channels.

DIGITAL is how the signal is transmitted. Does not mean widescreen or HD. It can be SD or HD on a SD set or an HD widescreen set.

Confused? So is 99% of the public. And, satellite and cable systems will still use analog transmission to TV's for some years to come, maybe decades. Both are offering receivers today capable of talking to digital sets. My DirecTV HD DVR will receive HD and SD signals from the bird and from terrestial stations, converting them to both analog SD sets and digital SD or HD sets.

I will tell you that my SD digital TV that could receive and convert the digital HD signals to SD letterbox convinced me to get the DirecTV HD receiver. And once I had that for a couple of weeks, I got my 42" Sony LCD 1080p widescreen.

Still confused? So was I until I put hands on all this stuff and figured out what everyone had been saying.

Be aware when you go shopping, digital TV does not mean shows are in HD widescreen. Salespeople will say you MUST have a widescreen. That is BULL----. An inexpensive SD works fine.

Some digital TV broadcast shows are HD widescreen, some aren't. SD still works, And as we all know, everyone is shooting 4:3 safe areas on HD. NBC's Evening news is in HD. NOT! Brian Williams is. All the news footage is still SD with pretty blue waving pillar boxes That means 70-80% is still SD on your widescreen.

David
www.EventVideoTeam.com.

This is a bit off topic but related.

I've had digital and HD for about 5 years. Not all the local stations were doing digital then, but the few that were seemed to be doing a great job. Then they all started to upgrade their broadcast equipment and things went seriously down hill for a while with LOTs of learning curve and teething problems. The really bad problems are mostly gone now, but I still see many, many problems. My satellite feed is pretty good, but the local stuff still has problems with glitches and major blockiness sometimes on significant picture changes.

My absolute MAJOR annoyance on the digital stuff I am receiving is out-of-sync relation between the video and the audio. This was not a big deal in the early days (5 years ago) but now it seems common in both the local broadcasts and the satellite stuff I receive. Not always, but it is really annoying when it is there. In the last week I have noticed that most of the stuff I receive on my Dish satellite programming is ok, but the Showtime channels are way out and barely watchable.

My satellite receiver has two selectable options for audio delay, but when I am finding this is a problem really in need of a fix, these two choices are between bad and worse. My audio receiver is from back then (5 years or more) and does not seem to have any option for global delay time.

I have thought about building, buying, or updating to an audio system that can adjust for this. The really hard part is that when it is bothering me, even though it is really annoying, it is very hard to judge (real time) if the video is trailing or the audio is trailing. I've been meaning to record some of these problems on certain broadcasts to look at later with Vegas or something and get a good measure of "who's on first" and by how much. Obviously, any audio delay solution won't help if the video is leading the audio.

So, anybody else seeing these same sync issues? Surely I can't be the only one because what I am seeing varies between some programs on the same channel and seriously varies between different programming channels that I watch.

All in all, I'd give the overall transition to digital TV about a D+ to C-. I used to work on complex mainframe computer systems where problems and failures were to be avoided at all costs. If I was in charge of some of the TV channels I have watched in the last few years, I would have been kicking ass, firing people, and suing vendors. The space program and NASA gets lots of crap because of the problems they have had. If the astronauts had to live with the level of quality that the digital TV transition is producing, I think they would be on strike and sitting on the ground.

Am I the only one who is noticing this very bad level of inconsistent quality in what gets to us on the various digital channels?

The local TV digital situation is really variable in my area. Not really bad but there are intermittant sync issues, blocking, signal dropouts, sound dropouts, and not too good SD performance.
Reasons:
1....Different staions use different satellite download speeds on national broadcasts which can vary from 12 megs to 50 megs depending on how many digital channels are being used at the time.
2....The equipment they use is extremely costly and quickly outmoded and may be obsolete after only 2 years of operation.
3.....The new equipment always has glitches that have to be cleaned up and modified at more expense.
4.....One of our local channels donated a complete digital control room to a local high school with (2) Canon XL2's and remote control robot indoor cameras and processing equipment. You don't want to know what that initial cost was. This stuff couldn't have been more than 2 years old.
5.....Some stations do not transmitt enough digital power output and the result is dropouts if the received signal is not around 85 to 95 on the tv strength meter, and it must be consistant.
6.....The SD quality of a reapeated analog feed is not very good.
7.....The SD quality during an HD feed is usually very good.

JJK

I paid $2100 USD last year for a Sony 50" 16:9 Grand WEGA SXRD rear projection HDTV. It's 1080i and absolutely gorgeous. I got a good deal because it was selling for $2400 at the time but today you can get one at B&H for only $1250! So prices have come down 50% in just the last year. The Sony SXRD's are really nice. I would definitely check them out. I'm real happy with it.

~jr

vicmilt, I'd love to know where you found that deal for the Samsung. I've been eyeing the Samsungs more than any others brands, because I've always noticed a distinctive higher-quality image coming from their LCDs/DLPs.

Coursedesign, thanks for the AAA tip, and for including a link. Niiice! Since Circuit City matches print-advertised prices, I was thinking of buying it from them even if I found it somewhere else. I just prefer buying things from them because (and this is perhaps superstition) what ever I've purchased from them doesn't ever seen to break. :P

My own opinions about Projectors / LCDs / Plasmas / DLPs / CRTs? I think LCDs give you the best bang for your buck, but a plasma will always win the screen to screen comparison against anything else. To me, what good is winning the comparison when anything else will will give me double the life of a plasma. Speaking of plasma burns, is it recirculating rumors, or is there still truth in the 'burning' and 'short-lifespan' of plasma TVs?

JohnnyRoy, I'm going to take a look at that KDS-50A2000 model the next time I'm at Frys.

Thanks EVERYONE so far. You've given me a lot more information to think about before making this important purchase!

RexA

I have occasional out of sync issues on HD, but I fix them quickly by changing away from the channel and then back to the channel. And that is done on my DirecTV HD DVR receiver. I have NOT found sync issues when receiving an over the air broadcast. But then, I don't watch as much even though their HD is so much sharper and better then satellite..

I am naive enough to believe it is in the decoding of the signal at my end where all the sync issues occur. I don't think it is at the encoding end.

Is it possible you have older equipment? As we have all seen, the receivers are evolving rapidly. That's why you will see a model a few months old get suddenly deeply discounted to make room for the new model that has been improved.

After seeing/hearing other people's experiences over the last couple of years with HD sets, I am glad I waited to jump to HD. And I know in a year or two I will be wishing I waited even longer....

David
EventVideoTeam.com

Circuit City has this highly rated Samsung 40" 1080P LCD for $1699 -10%
http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/174198/rpem/ccd/productDetailReview.do#tabs,

or add $200 - 10% to get it with a wall mount and professional installation:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/bundleDetail.do?oid=174198&bundleId=12418

Today and tomorrow only you don't have to be an AAA member to get the 10% off. You just need to be on their e-mail list.

vicmilt got his Samsung at CircuitCity last year. He knew what he wanted, I just gave him a code from one of their e-mails that gave him $500 or $1,000 off, I don't remember.

Given that the Westinghouse 42", also highly rated 1080p, is $400 less expensive, I'd forego the Samsung. But that's just me.

MacMall has the Samsung listed above (LN-T4061F) for $1349.99 (add $111.37 tax for CA residents) and pretty good reviews. I have last years model of the 46" Samsung 1080P LCD and really love it. This year's crop is better of course. Derek

This last summer I picked up Samsung's 46" LCD 1080P set. I have been very happy with it, I chose this set for two reasons. Cosmetically it was pretty slick on a more technical end it has a 15,000 to 1 contrast ration. Simply said a brighter picture. This led me to see a quality difference between different manufactures.

Just my two cents,

Chad

dhill, Dach, are you guys referring to the Samsung LNT4665F 46" 1080p LCD HDTV ?

Mine is the LN-S4696D. It only has 6000:1 CR though. I think it's around $2000-$2500 or so. The new ones this year are much better apparently and the cost is similar to mine, so, obviously you would buy one of the newer ones now. I don't have those exact model numbers for you. Derek

Jonathan... I had already forgot my model number, but that is correct. LNT4665F. I purchased it with a Harman Kardon upscaling DVD player and I have been very pleased with what I am watching.

Chad