Looks like our tube TV is dying and so finally it’ll be time to jump into the world of flat-screens. I pretty much ignored everything in that world because if I wasn’t buying, why pay attention? it would only change faster than I could keep up (and sure enough it has). Of course, it’s still a confusing array of stuff.
Coincidentally, Unc is also looking so I can just take some of the advice given to him. A friend pointed me to a couple of sites: http://www.consumersearch.com/lcd-tv and http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs/. Happened to go to Costco yesterday for some groceries and detoured through the TV section. I think one of the 40-ish inch models will suffice for our setup. Prices aren’t too horrendous.
Anyone have anything to add? We have Time-Warner Cable and already have one of their HD cable boxes. I don’t have any sort of stereo home theater system, nor do I really want to buy one at this time… just use what the TV provides, and perhaps down the line we can fill in the gaps. We do hook up the Wii and the old PS2, and I’m sure any future consoles will get hooked up there too. Don’t need any built-in stuff like Internet or Wi-Fi or other “gimmicks” like that, that I can tell. The room is fairly well-lit, between sunlight and lamps.
And what else might we need to buy in addition to the TV itself? brackets? stands? cables?
In non-electronic news….
I’m also looking at buying my first 1911 as a birthday present to myself. I honestly have no real desire for a 1911, being quite happy with my plastic guns. But, a 1911 is one of those guns that you just need to have in your collection. Plus, being the 100 year anniversary, I figure this makes a nice time to buy. I’m going to get an STI Spartan because it’s about the best value for the money. STI’s are solid, and it’s a good price and package for a first 1911. I’ll have pics and a “break-in” range report once I get it.
Stuff From Hsoi 
I was going to get a Spartan…but you know what I ended up with.
I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable with a Spartan in my holster though, provided it fit, feeds, and functions.
Yeah, you ended up with some wussy little .25. 😉
*ahem*
Colt Commander XSE AND a “wussy .25” 😉
Still, you bought a wussy .25. 😉
Most flatscreens come with a basic stand so you can stand them on top of a coffee table or something (note, not a very tall stand, just enough to make it stand up straight basicaly). When we got ours we spent extra on a flatscreen stand that puts the screen up higher (top is just over my head) with several shelves underneath to hold the large quantity of electronics we have (my husband came into the relationship with every gaming console that was on the market at the time and previous, and we’ve collected all the ones that have come out since).
We have a Sony Bravia (42inch), like it quite a bit, but there is something wonky with the connection to the audio receiver for the speakers (wouldn’t be an issue for you in your proposed setup), research showed this to be a not uncommon problem, and so far just restarting the receiver solves the problem (we’ve had it a couple years). Otherwise no issues with it.
I’ll have to ask my husband, he does tech support for some of this stuff and I know there’s a couple brands/styles he steadfastly tells people to avoid. I know he tells people to make sure you get one with at LEAST a couple HDMI ports, and don’t let the sales person talk you into spending the extra on the Monster brand (or any other high end brand) HDMI cables. The cheap store brand ones work just fine!
Brain still catching up with coffee……make sure there are appropraite ports for the PS2 and Wii, preferably enough that you can plug in both at the same time, I think they’re standard, but I’ve not looked lately.
Ok, husband says alot of both Samsung and Sony models, though otherwise good TV’s often have HDMI issues (as in acting as if not compatible with the HDMI signal coming from the cable boxes) and he’s starting to see some similer issues with Vizio, so if you’re looking at those brands do a bit of research into the models. Since HDMI generally produces the better picture (over component cables) its something to watch out for.
OK cool. I’m putting Oldest child in charge of further researching. I’ll start him off with this blog post and the comments. 🙂
Thanx!
I do know that the cable stuff is not worth it.
If you find out about anything to avoid, do let me know.
I think in the end it’ll be that I find what has enough ports and such for what I need, a decent picture, 40-something inch, and not too pricy, online reviews that at least show it’s not horrible, and just go for it.
Costco has a 42″ Panasonic 1080p plasma. I’m tempted to buy one every week. Also check out hdguru.com for deals across the Internet. Am a big fan of plasmas, they look better than LCDs IMO (better black levels, better motion). I especially hate the 120Hz+ LCDs… In an attempt to ameliorate LCD’s poor motion resolution, the frame interpolation they use to go from 24fps material to 120fps makes everything looked like it was recorded on tape (instead of film) for a soap opera. Ugly.
As for 1911’s, I’d recommend the Ruger SR1911, all USA made for about the same price as a Philippines made Spartan.
So you say to still go plasma, eh? The move seems to be to move away from plasma and to use LCD’s perhaps with LED.
As for the 1911, I hear what you’re saying, but my understanding is it’s just the frame and such in the Spartan… the trigger group and so on is STI. And geez if I can’t help but want to support STI, being just up the road from me. 🙂
If you aren’t going towards the high-end, I say RIA Tactical, in 9mm. I think you’ll shoot it a lot more if you stick with one caliber, and don’t have to buy .45ACP for your 1911 whenever you want to shoot it.
I’m hoping to get a new TV myself, but it will probably be whatever Rooms to Go throws in with some furniture.
Hrm. Looks like my reply didn’t get posted. Ugh… this new comment system on wordpress.com is pretty but annoying.
Anyways, I did think about the RIA approach given the experience you had. But I figure the Spartan is more or less the same (Filipino-based) but then puts STI parts and backing behind it. I’m kinda biased towards wanting an STI just because they’re up the road. And it’s going to be .45 ACP because that’s how John Moses Browning intended! 🙂 If I got another, I’d consider 9 because hey, it’s the majority of what I shoot anyways and I know all the advantages there. But for a first 1911, I should try to “go traditional” (tho an STI is hardly traditional anyways).
In reference to TV’s there are a few things to consider:
1 – Cheap LCD’s are usually pretty awful. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive TV you will probably be much happier with the picture quality on plasma. In the low end plasma’s are just much nicer.
2 – At 40″ 720p should be fine. That being said, 720p TV’s are not all equal in resolution. Some of the cheaper 720p TV’s have a resolution of 1024×768 which is obviously not a widescreen resolution. This means you will have rectangular pixels instead of square.
3 – If you want to mount it on the wall don’t buy the mount or cables at the store. Most of the stores, especially best buy absolutely overcharge for accessories. Go to monoprice.com. I buy all my cables and wall mounts from there. It is good stuff and the prices are excellent.
4 – You probably already know this but a 40″ widescreen TV is quite a bit smaller than a 40″ tube TV that has a 4:3 resolution.
5 – LED is another technology that is only good if you go high end. LED backlighting when done poorly can cause bleeds, can have a significant impact on color uniformity and can sometimes be overly bright even at the lowest settings. Nearly all LED’s are now edge lit which makes them very thin but causes the bleeds and color issues. mid to high end led’s try to compensate for this with local dimming but plasmas will still typically have a better picture.
I’ve heard about monoprice as the place to get cables, but mounts too? cool. I haven’t looked into the place at all, just heard that it was the go-to spot.
It’s sounding like plasma is the way to go, from what you’re saying, at least if I’m not willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars (which I’m not). Am i reading you right?
Yep, my recommendation for people not wanting to lay out a ton of cash is to go plasma.
Go to the store and compare the picture of the 720p 40″ and the 1080p 40″ there’s a cost difference, but you may decide you like the picture better enough to spend the extra. Also if you ever decide to play around with blue-ray vs dvd’s you’ll probly want the 1080p (something else to consider).
Our Bravia is LCD, we looked at plasma, but decided it wasn’t worth the price difference. Again, take the time to look at them in the store and compare price and picture. There was an issue a while back with the plasma’s not lasting as long as LCD, but I’ve no idea if thats still an issue.
Shouldn’t there more talk about the 1911 than TVs in the comment section?
You’d think there should be….
But actually this is good for me, since I know more about guns than TV’s. 🙂
I have a Toshiba Regza and won’t buy one again. Right after the warranty went out we had a pixel width black line show up that goes from top to bottom. My in-laws have the same tv just a little older and theirs does all kinds of weird stuff. Random green screen where the tv has to be turned off then back on, sound cuts out and a couple other things.
Bleah. That’s no good. Thanx for the info.
I found this article very helpful. Especially the “What specs don’t matter.” section.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/230086/the_hdtv_specs_that_matter.html
Everything I’ve read says buy cheap HDMI cables. Which is impossible if you do it in a store. Online is the only way to go.
Speaking of cables, if you aren’t running this through a HDMI equipped receiver, you’ll want enough ports to plug everything in. And I think the Wii is standard def only, no HDMI, which could be an issue.
I wondered about a stand too, as I don’t want to mount it on the wall. We already had a coffee table high stand that would hold all the other components. So the stand that comes with what I’m buying should be fine on it. I was worried a little about weight, but the TV only weighs 71 lbs and I stood on the table last night, so it should be fine.
Bigger is better. More pixels is better. You are really buying a monitor here, not a TV.
I started with Sony because that’s what most of my other components are, but 5 minutes of research told me they’ve had systemic problems with the panels and don’t seem to want to fix it. So I dropped Bravda.
On the bright room issue, most people say avoid a glossy screen if you can.
Don’t be peer pressured into buying a 1911 John. 🙂
Thanx for the article. I know about the cables… monoprice is the way to go, unless you like throwing money away on Monster’s. 🙂
One thing I wonder… can you get um….. like port hubs or extensions? Things that, if you don’t have enough ports on the TV or not the right ports or whatever, are there ways to get things to extend them? One thing for instance is I don’t need all the game consoles directly hooked up to the TV, since you can only use one at a time anyways. So some sort of switchbox that all the consoles hook to, and then the switchbox hooks to the TV, that’d be fine. I figure things must exist out there for this.
Bigger is better, to a point. You don’t need a 60″ screen if you’re sitting only a few feet in front of it. 🙂 I did see some chart online somewhere that gave good size vs. distance recommendations. that all said, I think a 40-something-inch is right for ou living room. I probably could get away with a 50-ish, but we’ll see. I havent’ measured yet.
As for the 1911…. too late. 🙂 It’s just going to be a range toy, and maybe if I get that much of a yen maybe a competition gun. I just feel it’s one of those guns that I should have at least 1 of in my collection. But I have no intention to fight with or carry it. I like my Tupperware too much.
We have an HDMI switch for ours, its a 4 port hub, and the TV itself has two HDMI ports, so we can plug in a total of 5 HDMI cables (one of hte ones on the TV being taken up by the switch). I’m not sure if you can get one for mixed cable types (husband says not that he’s aware), but in our case the TV had enough other ports to plug in the Wii and at least one of the older consoles in permenently. Plus a bunch of ports we don’t use most of the time. Now you CAN get sound receivers (that come with the speaker setups or individually) that will allow you to use THEM as a switch and they often accept multiple cable types, though I’m not sure how many of each or total (or which kinds) they’ll take.
Husband is telling me that the Wii requires a specialty component cable (too hook up to theHDTV) that does NOT come with the Wii, double check yours if yours is newer, ours is older, so they might be coming with them now, but they DO require component hookups not HDMI and its not a standard component set.
The
The PS2 will require composite hookup, but no extra cables, husband says composite hookups are standard on all the TV’s he’s had to deal with.
OK cool. Lots of good information here. Thank you!
I used to have a formula from a cinematographer association on distance to screen size, but I can’t find it. I did find this:
And I found this calculator http://www.silisoftware.com/tools/screen.php#
Some things I’ve read is you shouldn’t be close enough you can pick out pixels. Easier than you think on a big TV. You also shouldn’t have to turn your head to see all of the screen.
You can get an HDMI switcher. I got one for my second monitor which connects via DVI or MiniDVI to HDMI. It even has a little IR remote to switch it with.
One little thing about HDMI and components. If you want to run your HDMI equipment into something like a stereo receiver and then connect that receiver to your TV via component, it won’t work. The copy protection in HDMI won’t let let it send to an analog source. Since my old TV only had component, that was a pain.
Also there is a difference between Component (YPbPr) and standard Composite outputs (Red/White/Yellow). Some of the TV’s I’ve looked at don’t even have Composite inputs, only component.
Oh, and Vizio is an American company and most of their TVs are built in China by one OEM, according to Wikipedia.
I forgot about the copy protection crapola. More things to consider…. fun fun.