More thoughts on TVs

Hello Again all,

I am wordy today. Here are some more HDTV things to think about, as if the situation was not complicated enough :-).

• AVsforum is great. However, they are a bunch of snobs and whiners too
  There is good info in there without question, but you need to temper the bad. If you compare any TV that is under $2000 the best TVs they will look like crap. The question is do you want to spend $5000 or more for a TV. For most people the $1000 TV looks great and they will not notice the differences, or think they are worth the extra $4000 or more for a "better" TV. It is like car reviewers and daily drivers. Of course the Camry is boring and bland. Lets see you get two kids into an Audi R8. Hell lets see you pay for a R8 with a regular job that does not involve selling drugs. AVsforum is great to find problems with a TV. It is great to get calibration settings for a TV. However if you read it long enough you will either be broke, or will never buy anything. Know that and use it for what it is, Do NOT use it as the word of the Lord.
  
  
• There are very promising technologies right around the corner
  LCD is good, but it is not the best ever. The blacks are not very good, the backlights could be better, and they use a bit of power, amongst other things. I am not saying do not buy one, I am just saying that the LCD you bought will not last 20 years like the last tube TV you bought. OLED is out right now, but sell a kidney expensive. It is awesome, but it is not ready for prime time yet. SED looks very promising as well, but has some legal issues and is not yet out. There are other technologies currently available but very pricey including DLP with lasers, and DLP with LEDs and LED backlit LCDs. In the upcoming years all of these technologies will get better and cheaper. Thinking of all of that, I would not buy a high end TV today. I recommend going for a good value TV from a name brand. The 42" Westinghouse will not outperform a Sony XBR, but you can buy a lot of beer for your friends with the extra $1500 you have in your pocket, and it still looks really good. For further reading here is an article on TV technologies.
  
  
• Do not buy into the hype
  There are a lot of features to hype in TVs these days, but most are all hype. 120Hz is all hype - the source matters infinitely more than how fast your TV can show you the picture. The dynamic contrast ratio is all hype - there is no standard for the measurement so anyone can claim anything they want. Focus on things that matter such as the number of HDMI ports (get 2 at the minimum for a main TV, less is ok for the bedroom or kitchen), Picture in Picture (if you want it obviously), size, and tuner capabilities (ATSC and QAM for example).
  
  
• Buy a name brand TV
  What do I mean by this you say, they all have names on them. I mean buy a TV from a company you have heard of before. Sony, Toshiba, JVC, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Philips, etc. The big boys cost a bit more because they have a support network. You can read more about this here. The basic take is that Olivia, Vizio, Polaroid, Insignia, etc are throw away TVs if they break outside of warranty. You cannot get parts, and you would not pay to ship them back to the factory to get them fixed. Westinghouse is kind of a tweener. I had good luck replacing a Westinghouse I bought from Best Buy. There are parts available to Best Buy as well, so you do not have to ship the TV across country at a big hit to your wallet. I bought another Westinghouse if that tells you anything about my worries about their TVs. I would not buy an Olivia, I would not buy a Vizio, and I would not buy a Polaroid.
  

Overall I recommend HDTVs to anyone. They are much clearer than what you are using now. It is like color vs black and white, there is that big a difference.

Later,

John