TV's went out???

[Carroll Courtney]

Well what tha heck?Been working 11hrs days and 13 this pass Saturday,so as I get home today and take a shower then pop a top,prop my tired acking feet up.Turn on the 6 o'clock news for all the depressing stuff then the screen goes blank then a plastic burning smell interferes w/ BL:mad:
So now I guess this weekend we will be shopping for a TV that is alittle more modern and a CD(correction,DVD player) player for movies.What is the latest and greatest w/ a budget in mind?Flat screen??? What's out there????-----Carroll
What we have now is a 52" old and heavy-----

[Larry Browning]

a CD player for movies.

Hmmm. That may be pretty hard to find.

[Brian Elfert]

You'll find that basically every TV sold today is falt screen either LCD/LED or plasma. There are a very few DLP projection TVs out there is really big sizes like 60 to 70 inches and up.

Personally, I wouldn't buy any TV at Walmart or Target. Go to a real electronics store if you need to see them in person.

[Jerome Stanek]

I just bought a refurbished tv for a second one that we needed replacing and am very happy with it. It came from Walmart.

[Larry Browning]

There are SO many choices out there. Selecting the TV that is right for you is like selecting the right table saw, band saw, or any other semi expensive thing. What is the perfect one for me can a complete waste of money for you. Twenty years ago, it was much simpler to shop for a TV. There were only a few brands, and about all you had to do was figure out what size screen you wanted. Today there are so many choices, do you want LCD or Plasma? 60hz, or 120hz or higher?, 720p?, 1080p?, contrast ratios? Oh yeah, what about internet apps? Does your TV provider (cable, satellite, over the air) charge extra for HD signal or require additional equipment? On and on...... You can research all this on the internet, spend countless hours learning all about it (which is what I did, because I actually enjoy doing that). Then after you do all that, and decide what you are looking for, you will want to shop around for the best deal, which you will probably find will be on the internet, such as Amazon or one of the countless electronics internet stores.
Or, you can just go down to Walmart or Best Buy, or even a local electronics store (probably the best choice, but a little more expensive), look around a bit for a "nice" picture, pay the guy, and take it home. All done, set up, brewsky in hand, and watching the 6 o'clock news in about an hour or 2. Either way, you will probably get exactly what you want.

This is my very best advice. It really depends on what kind of person you are, and the amount of time you are willing to spend on this. Honestly, based on your original post, I think you would fall into the latter category.

[Steve Meliza]

Unless you get a TV smaller than about 40" I would suggest you get 1080p. My TV's are LCD and I like them fine, but if I had to buy a new TV I'd be reading up on reviews to see what the latest technology has to offer and would be stopping at the major electronics stores to see them all in person. Some TV's now come with a network connection so you can plug it in and watch Netflix and other streaming services like Pandora and what not.

Rather than a DVD player you should be looking for a Blu-Ray player as it will also play DVD's and the Blu-Ray movies will look really good on a large 1080p screen. You can also get Blu-Ray players that support Netflix and other streaming apps if you like. Oddly enough, the best Blu-Ray player and Netflix streaming device I own is a Playstation3 that didn't cost much more than our Blu-Ray player which often can't seem to stream a Netflix movie without frequent pauses.

You have to figure out what size you want, then choose the screen type (LCD/plasma/etc), the resolution (720 or 1080), and then get your eyes in front of the screen and see how it looks. Keep in mind a TV in the store is often not set up to show the best picture quality so try to get your hands on the remote and play around with any TVs that you are seriously considering. What ever you do don't let them sell you a $50 HDMI cable to connect the TV to the Blu-Ray player, get one from monoprice.com and save yourself a ton of money without any loss in picture or sound quality.

[Steven Lee, NC]

What kind of budget are you looking at?

I've been looking for some tv's as well and am wanting an LED with internet capabilities or what they are now calling a smart tv. It's time to stop watching stuff on my computer monitor :)

LED because they generate virtually no heat. I test all TV's in the showroom by putting my hand on the screen, if it's cool to the touch, it passes.

I want the internet stuff so I can get to netflix without having to hook up any boxes to it. I don't have cable/satellite and don't rent/buy dvd's which is why I am going this route.

[Larry Browning]

I've been looking for some tv's as well and am wanting an LED with internet capabilities or what they are now calling a smart tv. It's time to stop watching stuff on my computer monitor :)

I want the internet stuff so I can get to netflix without having to hook up any boxes to it. I don't have cable/satellite and don't rent/buy dvd's which is why I am going this route.

I have researched the subject of internet apps quite a bit. I would strongly suggest getting a separate box for this. You can get a Roku box which is about the size small watch box and can easily be hidden behind the tv for way less that $100.(There are many others as well) These internet apps on the smart tv's are always an add-on kind of feature and will add more that $100 to the cost of the TV. Where as the separate box is it's only function and as such will most certainly work better and have more features than the add-on app on the TV. The separate streaming device will also be more likely to be updated regularly with newer firmware, while the smart TV app is always going to be an after thought on the TV. Plus, when the TV goes belly up, your streaming device will not go with it.
And another thing, when the streaming device becomes outdated and you really want the latest cool feature available, you only have to replace the $100 box and not the whole TV.
Hooking one of these up is incredibly simple as well. I just don't see any down side to it.

I suppose I could go on and on about this, but I think you get the idea.

[Larry Frank]

The LED that I bought recently was without any of the internet type stuff. Instead, I bought a Blu-ray player that has all of that in it. I have been very happy with getting Netflix type stuff with it. It was reasonably priced and much less than the increase of cost for getting it built into the TV

[Larry Browning]

The LED that I bought recently was without any of the internet type stuff. Instead, I bought a Blu-ray player that has all of that in it. I have been very happy with getting Netflix type stuff with it. It was reasonably priced and much less than the increase of cost for getting it built into the TV
This is the route I took at first. However, I discovered that you have the same issues with this approach as you do with the apps built into the tv, just not as costly to replace. The BluRay player is at its heart a bluray player and not a media streamer. Slow updates, customer service reps that know all about the player and nothing about the streaming feature. The dedicated media streamers just work better, it's that simple.

[Carroll Courtney]

Thanks for all the replys,I'm looking at the 55" and wanting to stay around 1900-2300 mark.So lets see,LED 1080p-240hz???So many brands and all close in price,so what brand would you go with????Tks Carroll

[Brian Elfert]

If you want to spend that kind of money I would visit avsforum.com and spend some time reading. I would also look at plasma.

[Larry Browning]

Thanks for all the replys,I'm looking at the 55" and wanting to stay around 1900-2300 mark.So lets see,LED 1080p-240hz???So many brands and all close in price,so what brand would you go with????Tks Carroll

Please do a little research on the 240hz feature. I think you will find it to be wasted money. I got it and found it produced what I call the soap opera effect to movies and TV shows. It made just about everything I watched look like it was filmed with cheap video tape and bad lighting. I was ready to take the TV back until I found I was able to drop down to 60hz which eliminated the effect. Best I can tell it's just a marketing feature that adds nothing but cost to the the TV.

+1 to Brian's comment about research. My problem was that I did more research AFTER I bought. Even though I am pretty happy with my choice, I think I could have saved some money had I done a little more research up front. I would also say that you should do you own research and not take the advice of others who have done their own research. For instance, you may think that the soap opera effect is a good thing, in which case my advice above is terrible for you.

Like I said before. Gone are the days of this being a simple choice.

[Greg Portland]

Please do a little research on the 240hz feature. I think you will find it to be wasted money. I got it and found it produced what I call the soap opera effect to movies and TV shows. It made just about everything I watched look like it was filmed with cheap video tape and bad lighting. I was ready to take the TV back until I found I was able to drop down to 60hz which eliminated the effect. Best I can tell it's just a marketing feature that adds nothing but cost to the the TV.

+1 to Brian's comment about research. My problem was that I did more research AFTER I bought. Even though I am pretty happy with my choice, I think I could have saved some money had I done a little more research up front. I would also say that you should do you own research and not take the advice of others who have done their own research. For instance, you may think that the soap opera effect is a good thing, in which case my advice above is terrible for you.

Like I said before. Gone are the days of this being a simple choice.
240Hz is a valuable feature if you're viewing 3D content or playing video games. Also, it's not the refresh @ 240Hz that's the problem, it's the video converter settings. If the unit is interpolating frames then it's going to give you that artificial video look. If it's just repeating the same frame four times @ 240Hz (image changes @ 60 Hz) then it should not have that video look. It may be that setting your TV to 60Hz does this automatically. My TV has separate settings for the refresh rate and interpolation options, YMMV.

[Larry Browning]

240Hz is a valuable feature if you're viewing 3D content or playing video games. Also, it's not the refresh @ 240Hz that's the problem, it's the video converter settings. If the unit is interpolating frames then it's going to give you that artificial video look. If it's just repeating the same frame four times @ 240Hz (image changes @ 60 Hz) then it should not have that video look. It may be that setting your TV to 60Hz does this automatically. My TV has separate settings for the refresh rate and interpolation options, YMMV.
Well, here I go again! I didn't know any of this. I should have known it had to be more complicated than what I understood:confused:. I really do long for the days of the old CRT when we didn't know any better! Pick out a good ol Philco, RCA Victor, or Zenith, plug it in, adjust the rabbit ears, and whoopy!, your watching TV!

BTW: I absolutely HATE 3D!!!! Not only does it distract from the story, it gives me a headache. I hope it turns out to be a passing fad, like it was in the 50s. Anybody else feel like me? Or am I all alone on this?

[Carroll Courtney]

Lots of info out there now if you are savey to understand it which I'm not.Myself I really don't care to see Pale Rider in 3D so that is not important to me.I just want a good brand that can be service when needed and last along time and have a good picture.I think that I have a good sound system that really has never been setup correctly.(music louder than the actors)I would like to have BlueRay w/the Netflix and a remote with on/off buttons.Waiting on the Labor Day sales----Carroll

[Larry Whitlow]

Costco occasionally puts the Sharp 70" on sale at the low end of your budget. We have this set and are very happy.

[Pat Barry]

Spend a much as you can afford and get the latest model, whatever it is from your favorite brand and you will be happy

[Larry Browning]

Carroll,
As a part of my TV buying frenzy, I picked up a Logitech Harmony One remote. My wife was shocked the I had spent $170 on a silly remote. After using it for just 1 day, she was sold. She no longer had to call me at work to get me to walk her through switching to watch a DVD. There was a great big button labeled "Watch a DVD".
I think they are now around $150. Well worth the investment. Especially if you have a sound system and multiple input sources.