Big screen TV

[ByronBob]

Sears has a 2 year no interest deal on TV's over 40" in size. We need a new one as ours is old and won't accept the digital adjustment.

So I'm looking at a Visio 50" and wondered if I should get the extended warranty.

Comments please gents.

Thanks Bob

 

[czechsonofagun]

I was in Costco yesterday and it is full of Visio. What suprised me, how much the price dropped.

Sorry, can't really give you any advice, we are still stuck on old glass tube.

 

[EarPlug]

Bob,

Visio has been getting poor reviews. When I was shopping for a new LCD we compared the Visio to all the other brands and when looking at them side by side the Visio had the weakest picture, bland blacks and the poorest color. I ended up with a Samsung. Also liked the Sharp Aquos. Costco.com has a 52" Sharp for $1499 right now.

Jack

 

[MossRoad]

Sears has a 2 year no interest deal on TV's over 40" in size. We need a new one as ours is old and won't accept the digital adjustment.

So I'm looking at a Visio 50" and wondered if I should get the extended warranty.

Comments please gents.

Thanks Bob

Here's my comment on zero % financing...
It is only no interest if you remember to pay it off in time. Lot's of folks forget and that is why so many companies run "zero interest" ad campaigns. So, just remember to pay and you will be O.K.

Next comment is regarding digital conversion...
I have never seen a T.V. that you cannot hook up to a digital converter box. If it has an antenna connection, you can hook up the converter box. If it is just a monitor with no tuner, you can still hook up the converter box. Cheap converter boxes cost about $40.00, the same price as the government coupon that you can get for free. I bought $57.00 boxes and used my Government issued coupons for $40.00, so it was a whopping $17.00 per box.

 

[mjarrels]

About a month ago, Crutchfield had a three day sale on most of their HD TV's. I went during the last half hour of the last day and got an even bigger discount!

mark

 

[jwstewar]

I agree what Mossy is saying, but if you are wanting a flat panel TV and telling the wifey that it won't take the converter box, I won't tell.

Now on to the TV. We have bought several in the past few months. The great room TV is our "good" TV that is the one I researched and spent forever agonizing over. I ended up with a Samsung 52" 650 Series. OMG!!! Awesome TV. All of the other TVs were "impulse" in we found a good buy and bought on the spot. We bought the kids a Plasma 50" Insignia from Best Buy (floor model, but had only been on display for 2 weeks). This is where they play their PS2 & Wii. It is hooked to the Satellite but rarely used. Not quite as nice as the Sammy, but not bad. Our office ended up with a 42" Hitachi. Again a nice TV, but not as clear as either the Insignia and several degrees lesser than the Samsung. For the kids' bedrooms we got them 32" Vizio. Nice bedroom TVs, but I wouldn't want them to be my main TV. Not quite as nice as color and not as crisp.

Had I not gotten the Samsung, I probably would've ended up with LG & Sony. The Sharp was nice too. Leave those 4 and that is where you can start seeing the drop in my opinion.

 

[Bird]

Sears has a 2 year no interest deal on TV's over 40" in size. We need a new one as ours is old and won't accept the digital adjustment.

So I'm looking at a Visio 50" and wondered if I should get the extended warranty.

Comments please gents.

Thanks Bob

I don't know anything about televisions, but my younger daughter and her husband bought two new 50" Visios 7 or 8 months ago when they got married and bought a house. They mounted both of them on the wall; one upstairs in the game room and one downstairs in the living room. They look good to me.

As for the financing deal, I bought a new 40" Samsung HD/LCD TV for our living room and an Insignia 22" HD/LCD TV for the bedroom, and a new VCR/DVD recorder about 7 months ago at Best Buy, and got the 2 year no interest deal. As I said, I don't know anything about them, so I did pay for the extended warranties. Overall, I spent just over $2,200.00 and I've been making monthly payments of $22, then the last few at $21. I'm not sure how they came up with those amounts, but it's OK with me.

And I agree completely with MossRoad. I never would have bought the stuff if I didn't already have the money in the bank to pay it in full anytime. If you should fail to pay it off within that 2 years, you don't even want to know what kind of interest you'll get hit with. Read the fine print and it'll scare you.

 

[ultrarunner]

A good friend bought Samsung 52" 650 Series for his bar after doing a lot or research.

 

[randy41]

I've got a Samsung 40" lcd. Its the only TV in the house. It works real good. Vizio is a discount brand but if you have nothing to compare it to then you wouldn't know what you're missing if anything.

 

[EddieWalker]

We planning on buying a flat screen right after Christmas. We don't need it right now, so that seems like a really good time to buy. Of course, with all electronics, the longer you wait, the less they cost.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Of course, with all electronics, the longer you wait, the less they cost.

I agree, but sometimes I'm not sure how to compare to be sure that you're not just getting a "cheaper" product instead of the same product at a reduced price. Our 40" Samsung was $1,299.99 in April at Best Buy. Well, now they no longer show the same model number, but they do have two 40" Samsung LCD HDTVs; one for $1,299.99 and one for $1,099.99. And I wouldn't really know which one is "comparable" to what we have.

 

[Alan L.]

I read reviews a little over a year ago about plasma and lcd TVs and ended up with a Panasonic 50" plasma 720p TV at Sams for $1680 (they probably have come down some since then). Of course 1080p TVs are more affordable now, but I frankly couldn't tell the difference and the HD picture I get on the Panasonic is stunning, I couldn't be happier about it.

My neighbor has an LCD and commented on how much "faster" my plasma is on sports. His LCD tends to pixelate some on action, like it can't keep up with it.

 

[skipro3]

Get the warranty. I got a 50" Plasma and so far they have come out to replace it twice! Each time with the latest model since the original and it's first replacement both were out of manufacture. Easy for me; they came out on my first call, evaluated the problem, said I needed the set replaced, came out 3 days later with a new set with more features and hauled the old one away. On the second replacement, they just shipped me a new one and told me I could keep the old one or send it back in the new one's box. I sent it back since I had no use for a TV that would shut itself off every time we ran the microwave oven, Ha!!

Research what ever brand/model you are considering. I think the good site for that is CNET? Can't remember for sure....

 

[czechsonofagun]

My TV problem is called PAL. Still have quite few movies in that system and the TV (and VCR and DVD) has to be able to play it. It cuts the options down to very limited sources. DVD is somewhat doable, since the disc can be replicated on a PC to make it NTSC compatible, but the tapes are better left the way they are.

But I somewhat enjoy myself in a store with annoying sales people. In a store I don't like to be bothered and when they ask me if I need some help, I just reply:

"Yes, I like this model - but is it gonna play PAL?"

Typically they have no clue what I am talking about

 

[Bird]

Of course 1080p TVs are more affordable now, but I frankly couldn't tell the difference and the HD picture I get on the Panasonic is stunning, I couldn't be happier about it.

Yep, Alan, looking at them in the store, I don't think I could tell the difference either, but then I couldn't tell the difference in LCD and plasma pictures either. I had a salesman who actually seemed to know what he was talking about (yeah, I know, when you don't know anything, you can be fooled). But he said something about almost no one transmitting in 1080p? or some such. I did go ahead and buy the 1080. The receiver (or converter) or whatever you call that box between the dish and the TV for DirecTV can be set for 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i. I really hadn't paid it any attention since it was hooked up, but recently there was a little dialogue box that popped up in the lower right corner of the screen that said for the best HD picture to change to 1080i and if the picture didn't come back on to change back to 720p. OK, sure enough it was on 720p and I changed it to 1080i. Is the picture any better? I don't know; looked good to me both before and after.

 

[MossRoad]

My TV problem is called PAL. Still have quite few movies in that system and the TV (and VCR and DVD) has to be able to play it. It cuts the options down to very limited sources. DVD is somewhat doable, since the disc can be replicated on a PC to make it NTSC compatible, but the tapes are better left the way they are.

But I somewhat enjoy myself in a store with annoying sales people. In a store I don't like to be bothered and when they ask me if I need some help, I just reply:

"Yes, I like this model - but is it gonna play PAL?"

Typically they have no clue what I am talking about

Did you bring that in from another country?

 

[czechsonofagun]

Did you bring that in from another country?

Yes, kids movies and my favored czech movies; also get movies for christmas from my family in Prague.

 

[Bird]

Yes, kids movies and my favored czech movies; also get movies for christmas from my family in Prague.

No wonder neither the sales people nor I had any idea what you were talking about. I thought PAL was just a good friend.

 

[ultrarunner]

My TV problem is called PAL. Still have quite few movies in that system and the TV (and VCR and DVD) has to be able to play it. It cuts the options down to very limited sources. DVD is somewhat doable, since the disc can be replicated on a PC to make it NTSC compatible, but the tapes are better left the way they are.

But I somewhat enjoy myself in a store with annoying sales people. In a store I don't like to be bothered and when they ask me if I need some help, I just reply:

"Yes, I like this model - but is it gonna play PAL?"

Typically they have no clue what I am talking about

I bought a Grundig Multi-System TV a few years ago.

It is amazing in that it does NTSC, PAL and SECAM... it also operates on 120v 60 Hz, 230v 50 Hz and 12v dc.

I've never seen another one like it. Friends have told me they were available at military post exchanges so military personnel would have a TV that would work worldwide.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I bought a Grundig Multi-System TV a few years ago.

It is amazing in that it does NTSC, PAL and SECAM... it also operates on 120v 60 Hz, 230v 50 Hz and 12v dc.

I've never seen another one like it. Friends have told me they were available at military post exchanges so military personnel would have a TV that would work worldwide.

When our very very old Phillips died, I got JVC multisystem TV on ebay. It is actually five years now, still works fine.