Help, our TV died.

[leslie826]

Not answering your question, but a tip...If you still want to hold out for black friday, and need something for the meantime, try craigslist! We got a perfectly good tv for $15 and there were many more just like it. We used it for a bit, while we saved up, then donated it.

 

[mmkk]

you might check slickdeals.net for deals on either plasma or LCD. I know Target has been clearancing their electronics in the last couple of weeks so if you have one nearby it might not hurt to take a look-some people have found some LCDs on clearance there.

 

[auralia]

if you are prone to leaving your TV on the same image for any amounty of time (more than 15 min) ie i never remember to shut it off so it stays on a DVDs menu for a long time DON'T get a plasma as they can have burn in, the newer ones don't have it so bad but it is a realy possability... i'm LCD all the way kind of person burn in is too much of a risk on such a big investment

 

[blanq]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned LED as an option, as opposed LCD or plasma. We have the relatively new 1.2" Samsung LED and it is amazing! The price, although still expensive, is coming down. It is energy efficient and I think the picture is far superior to either a plasma or LCD.

 

[3boymthr]

Everything you ever wanted to know about flat screen TVs and more.

http://www.digitainment4u.com/educate-me/about-video-and-tv.html

One of the retailers - I forget which - also offers and online TV like program explaining what's important and what's not.

One thing I found very important make sure the TV has the right number and type of input and output jacks for the amount of accessories that you have and the type of connection jacks they have. I had to go back to the store and buy some extra cables (about $40 ea) to make everything work. Because although it had enough jacks (though I had to use them all), not all were the right types for the types of equipment and cables I already had. ETA - we have a wii, surround sound system, HD Cable, VCR and DVD so not an overwhelming amount of stuff.

I bought a 42 inch Samsung for the living room. It was soo soo soo worth the extra money. The picture is amazing. I can't say much about the sound as we have a surround sound system (Sony - also worth the money - got it at the outlet store).

I bought the better TV because I bought a TV that was much smaller than the size they recommended for the size of my room (62 inch) and you know what it really doesn't bother me that the TV is nowhere near the size they recommended at the store. We're very happy not having the TV take up the whole wall.

I have a Toshiba in the bedroom which we also like but it hasn't held up as well the power button on the side has pushed in. It has the built in DVD player. The picture is good but not as great as the Samsung.

 

[brekin67]

When I asked this question at a store they had an LCD and a plasma side by side and turned them both off. The Plasma was like a mirror. If you have a lot of windows in your room or lots of lights you will get a glare on a plasma. That was the deciding factor when I bout mine a few years ago because my living room has a tongkgflkglgflgfmlc;lgglhl[

 

[loveysbydesign]

Today only at woot.com

Vizio 32” 720p LCD HDTV
$319.99

* + $5 shipping

Condition:
Refurbished
Product:
1 Vizio VW32L 32” 720p LCD HDTV

 

[lovemygoofy]

A couple of things I haven't seen mentioned yet is that of course it all depends on your tv viewing pleasures and how much money you want to spend.

Do you watch television in HD or plan to with the purchase of this television? If you do intend to use HD, then purchase the highest resolution avilable. Actually go through and look at the telvisions from where you would sit in your household. This made a big difference to us because we both need our glasses to watch television. Pay attention to the color black in some of the tv's as that is what makes a good tv is having a real pure black color on the screen. Also check to see how many HDMI hookups are on television if you have a DVR/DVD/game station thingy.

I guess I'm the only one on this thread that has a plasma television. We purchased a 50inch panasonic plasma last year and love it. It is heavy as all get out that is for sure but it is in an entertainment center not being hung up. We are big movie watchers and the picture quality now is outstanding. We did upgrade to the HD cable channels. This makes my husband very happy in the football season lol. I dont really think it uses as much electricity as some think. We have it plugged into a monster surge protector and the surge protector is turned off or the tv unplugged when not in use. To get burn in with a new plasma it would have to be on the same screen for hours to cause this not just a few minutes. I've had the same screen on pause for half an hour or more and never had an issue. You can also just turn the television off and leave the movie/game on pause. Plasma maybe going out the door or not but either way we love our television and would purchase another one.

 

[mom_2_K'Lynn]

I feel your pain!! 1 week after returning from Disney our TV went out and while we went a few days with a 20 inch from our DD room, it just wasn't working!! I could hardly see it from the couch!! We ended up buying a 46 inch LCD TV from best buy. We bought an "open item" I believe it is called. It's basically a TV that most likely does not have a box, but was a display model. We thought we got an awesome deal on it. I believe somewhere around $550. If you are looking for a great TV but still a great deal, thats another option. They do warrenty the TV's still and double check everything works great. This is our newfound life saver for electronics!!!

 

[bamamom]

Thanks for all the replies!!! We went TV looking today....oh my there are sooooo many to pick from We did not purchase today because I wanted to look at Sunday paper and research some that we seen. Does anyone have an LG? It seemed we seen several of those today with good pics and little better on pocket book. The samsungs looked good to, but most do look good in the stores. We are a little torn on the size as well, we went thinking we wanted a 52in and then noticed the 46-47in are a condsiderable amount lower, so now we are weighing where those couple inches are worth the bucks

 

[kaywoody]

We have a 42" Vizio LCD in our bedroom that I LOVE. We have a bigger, more expensive TV in the living room, but the cheaper, smaller Vizio wins hands down! I bought it at buy.com a while back with no tax and no shipping!

 

[Golf4food]

We just replaced a 15 year old Samsung SD 37" behemoth that weighs a billion pounds two weeks ago. We shopped around, did our research, etc. Our entertainment center can only hold up to a 37" so we were limited by that for size, which also eliminated Plasma because they are not made smaller than 42". So it was LCD all the way for us - by choice and by design. We also wanted a 120 Hz setup (instead of 60 Hz) because we watch a lot of football and action movies so the faster refresh is better for the fast motion. In the end the best option was an LG 37LH40 37" LCD 120 Hz 1080p. We love it. 3 HDMI inputs so we have the LG Blu-ray home theater system and DirecTV DVR hooked up and still have an HDMI slot to spare. Wii plugged in via the Wii ED cables in the component slots. Could still hook up other things as well. Great picture on SD or HD signal. Blu-rays are amazing. Good sound, too, which can be a problem for HDTVs (they are so thin and small that there is little room for decent speakers so many of them sound terrible if you don't play sound through a surround sound system or other external speakers). The LG also has a nice feature to bring out human voice sound levels so you can hear dialogue a little better that works well. We got a package deal for buying the TV and Blu-ray theater system from HH Gregg but the TV price we got them down to $699 on, which was a bit cheaper than the lowest price on Amazon (I had shopped around a lot) and $100-$200 cheaper than most prices for the same model. We got to watch some football on it in the store (went on a Sunday afternoon on purpose) so we could compare to other models. Lots of easy features to adjust screen contrast, sound, etc all from the remote, easy to install and setup and use. Couldn't be happier unless we could have gotten a bigger screen.

So for now, for us, Life's Good. Hehe.

 

[yevrus]

I bought my 32" Samsung 1080p television seven months ago and I did not regret the purchase. The picture quality in standard definition in which my local cable company only provides is superb and it is even more pleasurable when I watch movies in my blu ray player. I was torn between Sony and Samsung initially but in the end, I settled for the latter because of its quality and price. And I'm glad when I checked out the LCD TV ratings of various brands because it assured me to get the best value for my purchase.

 

[mkel34]

Our main tv is a 42" Pioneer Plasma, its a great tv and it still has a great picture after 5+ yrs. We just bought a 24" LCD for the bedroom which was about $300 at BJs, it also has a great picture and has a built in hd tuner which my main tv does not. The best deals out there right now seem to be on 42" and 50-52" tvs, you can easily find a good 42" 1080p 120mhz for under $700 and 50" for under $900. As someone else posted earlier, keep an eye on slickdeals.net, the current best deal out there is: Frys has LG 42LH40 42" Full HD 1080p 120Hz LCD TV for $600.