Need a new TV, any ideas?

Alright, the wife just called me from my place out in the boondocks, and apparently the color tube in her TV just went out to meet with Mr. Heston. So, this weekend I get to make the 300 mile drive out to buy her a new TV and set it up.

This much I know so far -

I'm going for a 37-42" LCD flat panel TV, as that's about as big as we need in the living room.
Hopefully for the price range I'm looking at, I can get 1080p, but might have to settle for 780.

So, here is where I'm having the problems. What are the best brands out on the market right now, and what's my best bet for somewhere in the $1400-$1700 range, Canadian money? I'm looking at LG, but I'm not totally sure yet. I'll be picking the new TV up on Saturday, so I'm open to options until then.

i got a panasonic viera awesome details on it and i cant think of any bad things to say about it.

The only flat panels I've ever owned have been hooked up to the computer, so I can't really help ya.

http://www.psychomanteia.com/Noobsters-CJTV.jpeg
:fly:
:mod:

a good old b&e (breaking and entering) job ...grab whatever else of value as well...u know bonuses.howdy neighbor thanks 4 the LCD.

Wiggles, as great of an idea as that is, in a town of 250 people, I don't think it'd take long for them to figure who yoinked a TV, and most of them are the types that have gun racks in their trucks, locked and loaded.

lol i was just kidding...last year i picked up a Samsung 42' plasma...the only trouble it has given me is tryin g 2 run my laptop 2 TV screen...it dosent read it for some reason.Other then that great quality.

my tv is 15years old. I think i will upgrade soon also. I see everyone with flatscreens these days. So i cant really give u any advice in this area.

Wiggles, you have S-Video outs on your laptop to make the connection work properly? Maybe not having them is the issue.

Mojo, yeah, everyone is going to flat-panel screens now. Widescreen is the only way they're releasing movies now, so it's just a matter of time.

I love my phillips

Holy crap Wiggles! A freakin 42 FOOT plasma? where the hell do you install that? Like along the entire wall of the basement?

I got a 42 in LCD from Wal-Mart for around $900 US. It's a Vizio (and I'd never heard of them before) but it's a great tv so far.

So i heard that LG invented the first HD setup, so it sounds like a good sign to go with them.

CJ, I have been a fan of Philps/Magnavox for many years. That said, my Dad has had Sony Product for many years. My brother has had Mitsubishi TV's for many years. I had a solid state board die on the 27" Magnavox, cost to replace $125. and no problems since. My brother had a tuner die on his Mitsu and just bought another set, his words too costly to fix. My Dad has had a Sony LCD 42" Wega for about two years, which he is getting a new "bulb" for it on Monday, under warranty. What would I recommend? Anything that can be serviced, any tv with a great picture, go for the 1080p if you can afford it. Clarity and reproduction of image is the main concern. Don't just buy the cheapest set. It would be a major league mistake. Plasma seems to be on the way out. DLP and Samsung seem to be doing a good job with their sets. The LG (better known as Gold Star in the 1960's) seem to have a beautiful screen from the sets I have seen in the bar/restaurant that we go to. If you need service, who do you trust? There is my two cents worth, for what it is worth. I like HD, and I love watching sports on our Philps 30" HDTV (Old School, CRT screen). I makes 1080i pictures, with 480p for the DVD. VHS tapes on this screen will really show you what you have been missing. Let me know what you get, they are all pretty decent anymore.:ooo:

Well, I did a bit of shopping around, and my big snag is definitely the 1080 concern. I'm not a cheapass when it comes to my TV's, and I've been a Samsung loyalist for years upon years, but their LCD screens just seemed dark compared to the LG's, Sharp's, and Sony's. The price difference between a 720 and a 1080 is about $400-$500 for a 42" set from any of the big name producers.

I'm probably going to end up going through Sears to make the purchase (extended warranty, and they can ship the TV to a shop within 30Km of my house, instead of me driving it 450Km on rough highways), and they seem to have a good selection for sure.

All the input so far is much appreciated. I think I'll phone my mom up tonight, see what she thinks. The joys of having family that manage a Circuit City, and maybe I can get an extra discount :D

Wiggles, you have S-Video outs on your laptop to make the connection work properly? Maybe not having them is the issue.

Mojo, yeah, everyone is going to flat-panel screens now. Widescreen is the only way they're releasing movies now, so it's just a matter of time.

yup got all the cables...it just dosent want 2 work correctly.

Hmm, strange. I was able to hook my PC up to my TV that just recently bit it without a problem. Have you tried alternate sets of cables, maybe you've just got a bad set?

I,too, have hooked the computer to the TV and it tried to projected but it did not do it correctly. Compaq Presario R3000 AMD 64 Athlon hooked by S-VHS cable to the Philps HDTV.

Hmm, strange. I was able to hook my PC up to my TV that just recently bit it without a problem. Have you tried alternate sets of cables, maybe you've just got a bad set?

yeah thats when i get a spare second ...its on the list of damit can i get some free time ///lol...the process is hook cable 2 port and boob tube hit info cntrl f5

Well, did some phoning around, spent far too much time shopping all around for the best overall deal, and ended up choosing this one -

LG 42" LCD, only 720 instead of 1080, but when I looked at them side by side, I wasn't paying an extra $600 for such a small difference. Found it on sale for $1200 right now, $400 off of the regular price, so I can't complain.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Prs0qk5-L._SS500_.jpg

Tech specs - http://ca.lge.com/en/products/model/detail/lcdtv_42lc7d.jhtml#

great price i paid 1400 4 my 42' plasma...

1080p on anything less than a 50" is a waste of money. The panel is too small to really pick up on the nuance of a difference. My brother has 30/20 vision, and he can't even tell. lol

Well, did some phoning around, spent far too much time shopping all around for the best overall deal, and ended up choosing this one -

LG 42" LCD, only 720 instead of 1080, but when I looked at them side by side, I wasn't paying an extra $600 for such a small difference. Found it on sale for $1200 right now, $400 off of the regular price, so I can't complain.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Prs0qk5-L._SS500_.jpg

Tech specs - http://ca.lge.com/en/products/model/detail/lcdtv_42lc7d.jhtml#

That is a great looking set, CJ. I will bet once you get it in your home, you will not care one way or another if it is 720p or 1080p. $1200. sound pretty good to me.

Well, update on the TV situation. Company I was going to buy the LG from started to screw me around with the shipping. Their nearest warehouse to the distribution center near my place is 200km, but apparently they were going to need at least two weeks to ship out an item that they have shelves of in stock, on a courier route that makes three trips a day between the two cities.

In the end, the wife found a nice one at a local furniture shop, JVC, and I got it for $1900 with the stand.

http://www.jvc.ca/product-images/HD-56FN98.jpg

56" full HD, fully f00kin loaded projection TV, and it looks better than the damn plasma TV I put it next to for the sake of reference. For $1900 and 12 months to pay it off, I wasn't saying no to this beauty of a TV. Hooking it all up and getting the sound to work was a pain, but at least it made for the best hockey game I've ever watched last night.

Tech specs for any geeks interested. (http://www.jvc.ca/en/consumer/product-detail.asp?model=HD-56FN98)

I hear ya. Like I said before, the only flat panels I've had have been hooked up to the computer... But you definitely get a better experience in games when you run them at 1920 x 1200 than you do at 800x600 or 1024x768 on a 17" monitor. The 24" widescreen is freakin' awesome.

True that, MH. But, now with the purchase of the uber-TV, I have to wait until next year for a new rig. On the up side, the old lady said I could go wild in getting parts for it (quad-core FTW!), and a nice new widescreen monitor for it too.

Well, If you're just using your computer for playing games and surfing the web, the Intel core2 duo's are actually better at that than the quad cores. I just built a custom rig and the games that are out right now can't keep up with it. Call of Duty 4 doesn't recognize my 2nd video card (sli), and most games barely recognize I have 4G's of ram.

Great looking set, CJ. Let us know how you like it.

So far so good, Jan. The only downer, I'm out at that one of my places maybe 3 days a month on average, so I get 3 days of TV time when I'm not fixing things or trying to figure why my kid is staring at me like I'm a friggin' moron.