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Aych Dee Tee Vee, help me pick one!
AbsoluteZero
The new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered User regular
The new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered User regular
So I've got some spending money and I've decided to finally make the upgrade to HD. But I want to do it on the cheap. I'm not super knowledgeable about this stuff, but I want to go with a 32" LCD set.
I've been looking at these two budget friendly sets:
Westinghouse, $579.99
Emerson, $538.00
I can't really spot any significant differences between these two sets. Should I fork over the extra 40 bucks for the Westinghouse for any reason?
Also, these sets are 1366x768 native... is that going to kill my 720p picture by stretching it out?
I've been looking at these two budget friendly sets:
Westinghouse, $579.99
Emerson, $538.00
I can't really spot any significant differences between these two sets. Should I fork over the extra 40 bucks for the Westinghouse for any reason?
Also, these sets are 1366x768 native... is that going to kill my 720p picture by stretching it out?
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The picture quality of the set is much, much more important than resolution: black levels (aka contrast), color clarity/correctness, and brightness decide how good the set looks.
Westinghouse sets are considered good budget sets by most (myself included), although I've heard that some sets in the range you're looking at have lockup issues where the television will just stop responding, then power off for 1-2 seconds before restarting. As long as you make sure you can return/replace it in the first month or two, you should be safe after that.
I would encourage you to actually sit down with the television (find a Best Buy, Circuit City, or local electronics shop) and test it out. If the store will let you, try switching from hd station to dvd player sources, etc. Try navigating the menus - how easy is it to adjust constrast levels, tweak red/green/blue levels, switch between different video sources? Does the set provide easy-to-access default display settings (such as Movies, Sports, Games, etc.)? Sometimes a set looks decent, but the menus make adjusting anything a royal pain.
EDIT: Good advice about dicking around with the sets in store. I'll definitely go do that.
Last year, I slept until 9am, ate a leisurely breakfast, went to a Best Buy near my house, and tried to purchase a 42" Panasonic plasma ($999, I think). No dice. Unsurprisingly, they had sold out of them pretty much instantly. HOWEVER! With a little angling, I was able to get this set, a 42" SHARP Aquos 1080p LCD, for less than $1400, including tax, a 4-year service plan from Best Buy, and next-day and delivery to my apartment.
That was a savings of $1,100 over the MSRP at the time, without even considering the tax, warranty, and delivery angles.
The takeaway here is that if you can force yourself to wait another two months, and are comfortable with a little haggling, you can get way more for your money. Even if all you want is 32", you can get a much better brand and higher resolution; my bet is that if you wait until November, you will see big names hitting the prices you list.
Wait.
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As far as westinghouse Tvs go, I'm a huge fan. I have a 37" 1080p, and my brother has a 32" 720p. Both have excellent color, contrast, and viewing angles, and no visible ghosting in any games we play. He got the one with an integrated DVD player, which is a huge convenience if you don't have/want cable.
I would, but I'm planning on buying a PC this Black Friday.
So does the upscaling from 720 to 768 kill the picture?
Nope. It's standard practice and you'll be unable to tell. In fact, the only reason you would ever care at all about the native resolution of the set is if you plan on hooking up your computer to it. IF you plan on doing this, you'll need to do more research on the input resolutions the television allows, check out the HDMI settings of your video card, etc.
If you aren't going to hook up your computer to it, you'll never know the upscaling is happening at all.
And what Vrtra said...you won't even notice the extremely slight upversioning.
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Yeah it's a lot, but keep in mind that's about $600 cheaper than the regular price. My point here is, of course, look around on all the major department stores' websites.
PS I love my TV. In fact, I have my computer hooked up to it running at 1920x1080. It's fun to play those HD apple movie trailers on it.
Yeah man, Home Theatre PC FTW. My only problem is how hard it is to play newish games at that resolution. I mostly play dota though, so I don't mind.
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Do you have a 360, or just a graphics card that costs the same as one? :-p
Because my experience with the ravenous crowds at Best Buy last year has taught me anything, it's that you can only hope to get in and out of that store with one item and you're lucky if it's the one you came for. It is just fucking insane.