OT: Help me find a budget priced TV

Tim L wrote on 9/19/2009, 11:05 AM

I'm still using a 17 year old Mitsubishi 27" TV. Good TV in its day, but this set is so tired and worn out that it is barely watchable.

I'm looking for a *budget*, cost conscious LCD TV probably in the 42" to 47" range. I tend to over-research and overthink things, but lately I've had the occasional urge to just walk into WalMart and buy one of their $700 - $800 TV's and get it over with.

So if I want to stay $700 - $1000, in the 42" to 47" range, what do you guys recommend. I know I won't be getting the best, I know I will be compromising on something, but that's okay. I don't watch very much TV or watch many movies. The rest of my family has the TV on almost all time and will generally watch *anything* that's on. We live in a rural area and don't even have satellite or cable. (Though if we get a new TV I might spring for satellite and then might watch more TV myself. I love the kinds of programs on Discovery, History Channel, etc.)

I guess I'd be looking for LCD, 1080p, 1920x1080. Brand recommendations, or brands to stay away from? Vizio, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba, etc.

How do you guys feel about 120 Hz. Is it a must-have feature? Nice-to-have feature?

Thanks for any and all help.
Tim

PS: By the way, I am just a home hobbiest -- not a video professional. The TV is not something important for my work like it would be for many of you professionals.

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Comments

JJKizak wrote on 9/22/2009, 5:16 AM

Reviews indicate to me how reliable a product is. If I see one star with 100 reviews and they are all pertaining to a certain function or repair then I move on.
JJK

Coursedesign wrote on 9/22/2009, 7:08 AM

Amen to that, JJ. That's exactly it.

It is much more important to avoid the dud products that show up from time to time, than it is to get the last 3% of picture quality.

In another area: some years ago I was in a Cingular store considering a Motorola phone. When I overheard that they had a truck come by once a month every month to pick up all the dead ones, I decided to forget about that brand until they improved.

When it comes to NLEs, I have never seen a review that worked as a basis for choosing one for myself. Only negative choices where I think, "I couldn't live with that."

Because Vegas has been less well-known, it was easy for reviewers to not even think about running multiple instances in order to get multiple timelines. On the other hand, I think it is the manufacturer's responsibility to educate the reviewers carefully about these things that are so foreseeable.

If they could have explained Vegas' open timeline when it was just about the only NLE that had this, and explained the benefits of how Vegas works like a multitrack DAW also with video, the guys in Wisconsin might have all been going to work in chauffeured limos.

But there absolutely is no "best NLE" any more than there is a "best car."

One pro on PVC suggested recently that "Avid is a great database [media manager] with a crappy editor, while FCP is a great editor with a crappy database."

He didn't say why he thought Avid was a crappy editor, but it is easy to see why he didn't like FCP's media manager, which is about as popular as Vegas' ditto.

A lot of people complain about Avid's media manager too, but it has definite advantages and many in Hollywood have kept their Avids just for that reason. It requires planning to use, but in a team environment you can do some amazing things that allow you to work faster and more safely (while in FCP it is too easy to delete useful stuff when using the MM, and the sharing features are limited compared to Avid)

Does anyone know why the LED-backlit LCD screens look so jawdroppingly better compared to the usual fluorescent tube-lit LCDs?

The only spec difference I can see is that their color gamut is 60% bigger.

LED screens really look like plasma screens in terms of PQ.

bsuratt wrote on 9/22/2009, 7:59 AM

<< I'm still using a 17 year old Mitsubishi 27" TV >>

If you get 17 years out of a TV why not invest in the best you can... assuming you have decent cable service quality, etc. Amortizing the cost over 17 years results in quite low cost per month for even expensive sets.

Look at the Sony XBR series... incredible picture!

busterkeaton wrote on 9/22/2009, 8:45 AM

I'm not saying that user reviews at Amazon and Newegg don't have value, but they represent something different than reviewers from some who has been able to sample an entire product category.

As for the Sony XBR's they do have a great picture. However, the XBR line tends to be more expensive and I think you can get more picture for the price with the recent plasma price cuts.
Last year's XBR7 is $1,000 for a 40" on Amazon and this year's XBR9 is $1,300.

Again, if it were me, I would go for the Panasonic G10, model TC-P42G10. Newegg has 20 reviews on this set 19 are 5 star and 1 is 4 star. And it's within the budget specified.

busterkeaton wrote on 9/22/2009, 9:06 AM

Cnet did review the new Sony XBR9 line. They did direct tests with other models and used the G10 as a comparison point and they said:

the XBR9 reproduced the darkest blacks among conventional LCDs in our comparison, but didn't match the LED-backlit models. .........they can't match the video quality of the best plasma and LED backlit LCDs on the market

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sony-kdl-40xbr9/4505-6482_7-33485038.html?tag=mncol;lst

Regular LCDs are not at the level of image quality as plasmas and the LED LCDs come closer, but are more expensive currently. In short plasma is best bang for you buck image-wise in 2009.