I have a 52inch 1080 pixle one of the top of the line ones I paid around 2000 for it or should I say I am making payments on it. But all I can say is OMFG when you want something in HD compared to non HD. Once you get it. it is hard to go back. Now I will tell you the bigger you get the less the quality gets. My 52 inch is about as big as you can get from what the dealer told me before loosing the quality too much. unless you got to projection screen tv. My neighber has a HD projection box. and his picture is like 6.5 by 11 or something like that but it takes almost his whole wall in one area where he built a screen to his wall. Now that is the way to watch football.

 

So Fox, which 42" can I get for 1K and stay away from said brands? Everything in the 1K range in the 42"s is insignia, dynex, and westinghouse and vizio hovers right above that. Any other brand for a 40"+ is gonna run $1300 minimum. I debated picking up a 37" just b/c it is a few hundred bucks cheaper, but I really want a 42" and 1080p typically begins at 42"ish, some 32"s and 37"s are 1080p but mainly sharp aqueos and those are uber pricey.

Don't worry voodoo, I'm still stuck on a SD 27" and have been trying to get into the HD game for a while. I think next month I get to finally take the plunge.

 

The TVs look awesome, but the content still sucks. To spend thousands of dollars for a 'great picture' is just dumb, you need TVs obviously, but wether they are 480i or 1080p is immaterial. All flat screens do is allow you to decorate your home nicely, they rid your home of the big black box and give you freedom where to put the furniture.

 

In the new house we are moving into, part of the purchase agreement was the Sharp HDTV projector in the basement. Basically turns it into a movie theatre like enviroment since the projector sits behind you, and there is a 10' screen in front. I cant wait to watch the superbowl this year!

 

I have to say that HD tv does look great, but I'm not ready to jump into the game just yet. I think inthe next year or so.

 

That Zenith wont have an HDMI input I can almost gaurantee it. It probably has a DVI though, so all he would need is a HDMI>DVI adapter.

And if you have the room for something ~16" deep, which you should since your current tv is almost 2 feet deep, go with a DLP projection TV, stay away from the crap LCD's or plasmas just cause they look cool. You can get a bigger screen for the same price, and picture that is much much better than an LCD or plasma could get you for the same money.

 

You don't HAVE to have a Blu-Ray or HD DVD player yet. Just go ahead and get the TV, but get a good one that you know you'll keep for 10 years or so. The HD cable box with a DVR is an extra $14 a month. You don't have to get everything at once... nothing wrong with piecing your home theater together over time.


I agree with Foxy about his brand categories. I bought a Westinghouse 32" LCD for my bedroom. Even with the HDMI connection the standard channels look like ****. Very laggy. The HD channels looked great though.... until the HDMI input quit working 3 days ago. The TV is only 14 months old, but the warranty was only 12 months. It's not a nice enough TV to have repaired, so I just switched to the component video input. Now I have a 4-foot HDMI Monster Cable 1000-series ($150 cable) that is worthless to me. I can't use it on my other TV 'cause it's not long enough. Anyone need it? I'll let it go pretty cheap, and I even still have the original package and receipt.

 

I have Direct TV, and they are supposed to be adding a bunch of new HD channels to the line up. I wonder if I would be able to handle going back and forth from HD to regular channels. I'll bet that TV at Freddy's was playing a blue ray disc...it just looked incredible.

 

A year ago I installed an Optoma projector in my basement - about 4'x6' (so almost 100" diagonal). - I can't even watch regular cable channels on it, and DVD's leave a lot to be desired for quality as well. - The 16x9 aspect is very nice however - my kid LOVES to play Nascar racing on it all the time - XBox (and I'm sure all other games) allows you to change the ratio of the screen - makes for neat gaming - wider football screens, etc.

The part of HD I love the most is the 16x9 picture - ESPN, etc. - all have letterboxes on the side if they are on a standard feed, but anything HD comes up filling the entire screen in excellent quality. - Bars/Restaurants that have new widescreen TV's drive me nutz when they don't take advantage of the HD signals available and instead use a standard feed, but have it "Stretch" across the screen. - Very cheesy...

Only problems with my setup - HDMI was not quite up to par when I bought it - My Cable box (Motorola) will not feed through my receiver (Denon) for switching between it, and my DVD player. - SO I was manually moving the cable between those two inputs to switch, and it eventually broke my 25' HDMI cable. - I haven't had the energy (or money) to buy a new HDMI cable (about $100) to run to the projector, so I'm still running on my Component input.

Other problem is the room has to be DARK - almost pitch black - to get the best picture, but it is amazing even though I'm only projecting directly onto my wall (Had my tape/texture guy mask off the screen area, and paint it gray).

BluRay or HDDVD would be nice, but DAMN those are way too expensive at this point - $300 or so for a player? - I'll wait till they hit the $100 mark to get into that game. - At $300 I'm tempted to just buy a PS3 with the BluRay player built in...

 

In my experence HD is only really something I would get if my TV was huge. I can't notice any difference in the smaller TVs.