It is Big Screen HD TV buying time of the year.

[dmccarty]

The other tid bit of information in the WSJ article was that the TV's were likely to get sold as bundles with other products.....

I just got an email from Amazon for a:
Panasonic VIERA TC-P42G25 42-Inch Plasma HDTV, Get a Free 2.1-Channel SoundBar Speaker System

The TV was $1,100 and now is $800 and you get the speaker for free. If you need those speakers.

So it looks like the bundles are starting to be offered.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

I keep looking and wanting, but haven't been able to make the leap to buy just yet. My big screen 53 inch Sony is still working, and while I'm not a fan of Sony, and have my issues with this TV, I can't see spending the money until this one dies on me. Seems the longer I wait, the better my options are.

I know I don't want to go smaller. I want HD but wonder about 3D? is it something that I want or will use? I hate buying lots of features that I never use or even want.

No matter how good the deals are before Christmas, they are always better after the holidays.

What really kills me is finding a good review site. Seems like they push certain brands, and every time I look at those brands, they don't have the best picture compared to the others in the store.

I tend to rely on Amazon.com for the reviews written by comsumers more then the pros and their reviews. Seems like the pros love everything and never tell you about the duds or what brand is struggling.

Any tips on where to go for good reviews?

Thanks
Eddie

 

[deepNdirt]

We have a 35 inch CRT TV we bought for about $1,000 in 2005. The room needs a bigger TV. It needed a bigger TV in 2005 since we had a 20 inch TV that was unviewable in the new house. The CRT was the best bang for the buck at the time. But bigger would have been better....

Last year I was researching large TVs, screens 50+ inches, and decided that the best bang for the buck was a Mitsubishi DLP TV. Over the weekend I started looking at prices on TV's in that size range and the prices have dropped from last year. No surprise there. But the prices were getting to around $1,000 which was a bit of a surprise.

Last night in the Wall Street Journal there was a story about the glut of TVs in the market. The manufactures expected more sales than they got in this economy so the boxes have been stacking up in warehouses. The expectation was that people would buy more expensive TVs which has not happened. So the companies are having to drop prices on the expensive TVs which also forces down the prices of cheaper units.

The expectation is that TV prices are really going to drop this holiday season if the dealers want to sell. There is a push to sell last years TV sets now so that they can move this years inventory between Turkey Day and XMAS.

I think I have seen this in the prices of the TV's for which we are interested.

So if you are thinking of buying a new start looking now and figure out what you want. Watch the prices and be ready to pounce.

Later,
Dan

Around this time last year actually " Black Friday " my wife and I made a hasty decision when buying a advertised sale on a No Name LCD TV in the Box, and the only inf we had on this TV was the standard bit of Info written on the box and a couple of people telling us this TV was actually made by a "Name Brand" manufacture, we could see these TV were going fast and was certainly at a price we could afford, so! we thought what we have to loose ........ we got it home all excited to open it up to take a look, it was very nice gloss black bezzel lot of input connections etc,etc, with many features and a great looking remote control:thumbsup: got it all hooked up to watch and did so for a few days and realized it wasn't even the quality we expected even for a cheap TV, we thought being was an LCD what could be bad with that Huh! apperently with a 720 pix the only way to get good quality was to have it connected to HD wich we do not have we decided to returned it.... this part was the nightmare and another story I won't go in to anyway! what I heard today on GMA is that for folks not to be so hasty to run out buying all the "No Name" Black Friday specials because the better deals will be the weeks to fallow when retailers start marking down
the "Name Brand" quality TV's for better deal than the ones from Black friday:thumbsup:

 

[RavensRoost]

Eddie, these guys seem to be fairly neutral in their TV reviews: TV Reviews: LCD TVs, flat-screen TVs, plasma TVs, 3D TVs - CNET Reviews

 

[deepNdirt]

Eddie, these guys seem to be fairly neutral in their TV reviews: TV Reviews: LCD TVs, flat-screen TVs, plasma TVs, 3D TVs - CNET Reviews

Yes! now that you mention this.... GMA also said the LG was on top of the list :thumbsup:

 

[jinman]

I keep looking and wanting, but haven't been able to make the leap to buy just yet. My big screen 53 inch Sony is still working, and while I'm not a fan of Sony, and have my issues with this TV, I can't see spending the money until this one dies on me. Seems the longer I wait, the better my options are.

I know I don't want to go smaller. I want HD but wonder about 3D? is it something that I want or will use? I hate buying lots of features that I never use or even want.

No matter how good the deals are before Christmas, they are always better after the holidays.

What really kills me is finding a good review site. Seems like they push certain brands, and every time I look at those brands, they don't have the best picture compared to the others in the store.

I tend to rely on Amazon.com for the reviews written by comsumers more then the pros and their reviews. Seems like the pros love everything and never tell you about the duds or what brand is struggling.

Any tips on where to go for good reviews?

Thanks
Eddie

Eddie, I normally go to Amazon and look at TVs there because they seem to have lots of reviews. Sam's Club's website also has reveiws for the brands they carry. I'm sure box stores like Best Buy also have reviews. You can also find dedicated review sites like Consumer Reports. I like Samsung and Sony, but really don't have anything against Panasonic and Philips either. Sometimes there are big differences in the number and types of adapters on the rear. All of them seem to have a USB port where you can plug in a thumb drive loaded with photos and look at full screen slides of your pictures. TVs are much more than just TVs anymore, web access in common for streaming movies. In all fairness, your Sony is a standard resolution projection style TV, isn't it? If you wait for it to fail, you may be an old man before that Sony gives up its smoke. The new TVs are so good and the pictures so improved that it's amazing. I have almost every BBC series on Bluray and won't buy a regular DVD anymore. Besides, many Bluray discs come with a regular DVD as a bonus.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

I keep looking and wanting, but haven't been able to make the leap to buy just yet. My big screen 53 inch Sony is still working, and while I'm not a fan of Sony, and have my issues with this TV, I can't see spending the money until this one dies on me.

Thanks
Eddie

Eddie, since you don't say what year and kind of Sony you have and what "issues" you are having this may be a shot in the dark. Most / many of the Sony LCD's manufactured from 2003 - 2007 develop problems with a part called the Optical Block and also have a problem with burning / overheating caused by the lamp. There were class actions that resulted in Sony providing significant discounts towards the purchase of a new Sony to anyone having these problems.

Just Google "Sony Optical Block" for more info and see if yours is one of the models covered. If so call Sony and they should make you an offer on a new set.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

I want HD but wonder about 3D? is it something that I want or will use? I hate buying lots of features that I never use or even want.

Thanks
Eddie

Prices are falling like a stone on 3D. We got a new Sony 60" this spring and at the time I was tempted regarding 3D, but the price point was just too high. The demo disc with football was just fantastic in 3D, however, having to wear the 3D glasses over my own glasses was a significant negative. Tthe other thing is when in 3D mode the TV is basically not watchable by anyone not wearing the glasses. In our case the TV is nicely viewable from the kitchen and DW often looks on as doing other things & would not want to be wearing the glasses. Apparently they are close to consumer ready "no glasses required" 3D, so that was another factor.

At the time a 55" Sony 3D was approx $1,000 more than the 60" we bought, plus $$$$ for the BluRay player and two sets of glasses. Current prices are about $1,000 less and the glasses / player are now included - so almost a $2,000 swing in just a few months.

 

[s78wingrider]

We just got a 40" Samsung LED 1080 and the picture is so incredible we had to get use to watching it. It's a big change from the old TV we had before! :confused2:

 

[dmccarty]

Getting decent reviews on computer products has gotten harder since the magazines have gone away. There are some home theater magazines that I sometimes surf into but I usually check out the reviews on amazon.com and newegg.com. When there are hundreds of reviews I think you get a much better view of the product than when one person reviewed it for a magazine.

Not sure about 3D myself. But our snow ball trip to a new TV started with the idea of getting Internet access which led to a Blu-Ray player. Many of the Blu-Ray players and receivers have 3D functionality. What does this mean? Best I can tell they have HDMI 1.4 support which is the latest level and supports 3D protocols. The TV needs to have HDMI 1.4 and some other stuff.

So if we buy a Blu-Ray player and a receiver we will get 3D just because the cost difference is close to nill.

The TV is a different question depending on the TV. For the DLP's TV the sets for this year have 3D and compared to previous year models there is not much price difference. This does not appear to be the case for the other TV technologies.

So you have a 3D TV and a source of 3D content aka Blu-Ray are we done? Nope. At least not with the TV's we are researching. They are 3D ready. To actually GET 3D they have another gadget to runs the 3D glasses. :laughing: So after buying a new player, a new receiver, and the TV we would have to by a kit that has the 3D transmitter two sets of glasses. Oh yeah there are four of us so we would have to buy another two sets of glasses. :laughing:

Right now there is now way we would spend the money on the glasses and transmitter. In the future when the price drops we might. Just not sure if 3D is that big of a deal for movies.

For GAMES that is a whole new ball game. So to speak. There is a ride at Disney World that is in 3D that is simply awesome. It is a shooting game in 3D, you have to wear the old fashioned glasses, with the targets and what you shoot in 3D. It is a great game. If they could do something like that at home that would be a game changer. Pun intended.

But for movies? I am not sure.

Later,
Dan