floridasun5 Posted November 11, 2005 Posted November 11, 2005 Ive been wanting to get a flat screen wall mountable tv for a while now and was very excited when I saw the 26" at Best Buy for $499. But I dont know anything about tvs such as what things I need to be looking for, what to avoid, etc. I have a DVD, playstation and digital cable box that I need to hook up to it as well. Can anyone give me a brief tutorial on these flat screen TVs in laymans terms? :) Thanks!
KnightRid Posted November 11, 2005 Posted November 11, 2005 Welp - my advice...dont get anything unless it is HDTV - dont buy EDTV - worthless. 26" seems awful small - if it is widescreen, and of course you should buy anything but widescreen :) Alot of websites have guides for determining the right size tv for your viewing distance. Make sure it has enough connectors for your equipment!!! I use an Onkyo surround in my living room, so I dont have to worry what the TV has. What else - well we could get into native resolution, etc...but at this price point, you get what they have and dont worry about it Looks like a decent tv, but I would never buy anything this small in widescreen. Mike yes I am picky
TvBob Posted November 11, 2005 Posted November 11, 2005 Well I wouldn't say EDTV is worthless, I tend to agree with this article: "EDTV, or 480p, doesn't sound like much compared to HDTV. But it is in fact a major step forward in picture quality. On a big screen it looks closer in quality to HDTV than it does regular television. And it is here today in its full glory. Most DVD players on the market output both interlaced and progressive signals, and they are getting better and cheaper by the month. So every DVD on the market can be played in EDTV right now!" If you don't plan on getting tv in hdtv anytime soon (like if you have directv and they won't be upgrading you for free until late next year or 2007), standard tv often looks better on edtv models than hdtv ones. I also don't see much of a difference at all with video games that support hdtv, at least not yet, maybe with xbox360 that will change. And DVDs really look just as good with edtv. The issue should more be how quality the edtv set you are buying is. The Panansonic ones have been very popular and produce a great picture but how these budget models compare is not known, though the few impressions we have of the maxent indicate there is a noticeable difference in quality. As far as lcds, the problem is, like with all smaller widescreen tvs, is a 27 inch will not give you 27 inches of viewing unless you are watching widescreen sources or you stretch regular sources to fit the entire screen. So most of the time you may have only like a 22 inch viewing area. To get close to true 27 inches, you need to look at the 32 inch models which are quite a bit more expensive.
albrandwood Posted November 11, 2005 Posted November 11, 2005 I have to agree with TvBob ... 1) if you are looking at 26" Widescreen (equivalent to approx 21" regular) then HDTV/EDTV will make no difference at 6' or more ... 2) Unless you predominantly watch HD channels, then you aren't going to benefit from HDTV ... 3) Most Cable/satelite programming is 480i, so a screen capable of 1080p is not relevent. the PS2 is definitely not going to matter either I'd save the money, and get EDTV for now ... then in three years time, replace the 26" LCD with a 42" or bigger LCD or whatever then. If you do get HDTV, don't forget to get your cable company to upgrade your decoder to HDTV capable ... as for connections: * HDTV Decoder to Screen: HDMI/DVI * DVD Player to Screen : Component Video (Y/Cb/Cr) * Playstation to Screen : SVideo * VHS to Screen : Composite (RCA Video) or SVideo All HDTV/EDTV are capable of recieving HDTV (1080i, 720p, 720i) and EDTV ( 480p) and STDV (480i) ... However, when comparing screens, the one that is closest to the VERTICAL resolution is the _best_ it can handle ... most LCD below 40" and Plasma below 50" are either EDTV or 720p HDTV ... if size is not a critical factor, then look at DLP based projection TV's ... they are not that much bigger, and are significantly cheaper ... the primary negatives in the different technologies ... Plasma: Screen Burn in and Phosphur life are not great. LCD : Contrast Ratio is often not good (less $ = less contrast) DLP : not wall mountable. the primary positives: Plasma: Big screens, wall mountable LCD : smaller screens, less $, wall mountable DLP : Big screens, less $ Personal opinion : Priceless :-D I've currently got Plasma's and LCD's ... (only one 13" CRT TV left) 42" HDTV Plasma is my preference for picture. but I dislike the burn in issues ... (Everything needs to be run in widescreen, to prevent the center square becoming dimmer) ... Learnt that with my 1st Plasma - replaced under waranty due to power supply failure. 36" HDTV LCD is a good performance/$ compromise ... the contrast ratio, and blacks aren't as good as with my plasma, but it was also only $1k not $3k. 20" SDTV LCD is a nice bedroom screen ... doesn't take up space, cleaner picture than the preceeding CRT. (blacks aren't very black - especially at night) Since my plasma isn't wall mounted, if/when it dies, I'll probably replace it with a DLP rear projection (cheaper $) and use the spare $ to buy a DLP front projection system for 200" HDTV movies :-D @shley FYI KnightRid: the Westinghouse 26" LCD at BB is probably 1280x720 HDTV. (Westinghouse website doesn't mention a 26", only a 27" ... ) :-D
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