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The BEST LCD TV

Peyton

Peyton

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 2, 2006
1,615
0
I am in the market for a slim panel LCD TV.

I know 40 inches is about the biggest out there, (I've seen 50s but their specs were low)

This is what I've decided on so far. Any ideas? The price seems a little steep, is it justified tho?

I've basically ruled out plasma, but I really want a great tv to hang on my omnimount

Black is preferable ;)
 
Peyton said:
I am in the market for a slim panel LCD TV.

I know 40 inches is about the biggest out there, (I've seen 50s but their specs were low)

This is what I've decided on so far. Any ideas? The price seems a little steep, is it justified tho?

I've basically ruled out plasma, but I really want a great tv to hang on my omnimount

Black is preferable ;)
Click to expand...

Were you planning on buying retail or online?

Anyways, if you've got a good local place to buy from that is agressive, you can get a good price on it. I work at Circuit City, and we constantly sell for $3149. We've gotten REALLY agressive at some points and sold for $2899. What you don't realize is that on even that TV, there is a big butt-raping. something like 38 points margin.

On the television itself, I can't really say much in bad things. I love it. It's REALLY bright, so in a dark room, you may have to tone it down. The only thing I don't like so much is that it some high motion, and depending on compression of the signal, you may notice some artifacts and pixelization. How far away will you sit? I assume roughly 6-9 feet.

Otherwise, I can't really reccomend better sets. There are personal preferences when it come to televisions, so keep that in mind.

The samsung 40" sets are pretty nice (the glossy black finish, not matte).

If you don't want to spend AS much on the XBR, you can spring for the KDSL40s2000 model...still a 40", but only $2799 retail, and can be found for close to $2500 or less. Bright picture, just seems a bit more sloppy.

Ah well. Just a though from an entertainment salesman ;)

Overall verdict, awesome TV you won't be dissapointed with. I'll say this much: I like it oodles better than the highly-coveted Panasonic plasmas.
 
Jschultz said:
Were you planning on buying retail or online?

Anyways, if you've got a good local place to buy from that is agressive, you can get a good price on it. I work at Circuit City, and we constantly sell for $3149. We've gotten REALLY agressive at some points and sold for $2899. What you don't realize is that on even that TV, there is a big butt-raping. something like 38 points margin.

On the television itself, I can't really say much in bad things. I love it. It's REALLY bright, so in a dark room, you may have to tone it down. The only thing I don't like so much is that it some high motion, and depending on compression of the signal, you may notice some artifacts and pixelization. How far away will you sit? I assume roughly 6-9 feet.

Otherwise, I can't really reccomend better sets. There are personal preferences when it come to televisions, so keep that in mind.

The samsung 40" sets are pretty nice (the glossy black finish, not matte).

If you don't want to spend AS much on the XBR, you can spring for the KDSL40s2000 model...still a 40", but only $2799 retail, and can be found for close to $2500 or less. Bright picture, just seems a bit more sloppy.

Ah well. Just a though from an entertainment salesman ;)

Overall verdict, awesome TV you won't be dissapointed with. I'll say this much: I like it oodles better than the highly-coveted Panasonic plasmas.
Click to expand...

Thanks SOO much. I actually went to circuit city to look at it (I have a place I can get it for $2650 so I wasn't going to buy it from circuit city for a staggering $3500 + tax)

Besides, its been my experience that most of these tv sales people (like furniture salespeople) are like ravenged dogs licking their lips when you walk out the door. (I don't assume you're like that) but its a big turn off to me. (I will find YOU when I want to buy it!)

Anyhow, there are just so many larger TVs for hundreds if not a 1000 less, I think I'll take the plunge this month tho. Thanks a lot.
 
Peyton said:
Thanks SOO much. I actually went to circuit city to look at it (I have a place I can get it for $2650 so I wasn't going to buy it from circuit city for a staggering $3500 + tax)

Besides, its been my experience that most of these tv sales people (like furniture salespeople) are like ravenged dogs licking their lips when you walk out the door. (I don't assume you're like that) but its a big turn off to me. (I will find YOU when I want to buy it!)

Anyhow, there are just so many larger TVs for hundreds if not a 1000 less, I think I'll take the plunge this month tho. Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

$2650 is a great price. I'd take the TV 100x over for that price.

I agree some salespeople in the electronics retail world are like wild dogs. I see this mostly at ma and pa shops, or mostly anywhere comission. Circuit City is no longer comission, but depending on which store you go into, it may still feel that way. I get my hourly pay no matter what, so I'm not pushy or agressive. I just tell people I'm there to help, and that's my absolute truth, nothing else.
 
I have the 32 inch version of that tv. I'm extremely pleased with it. You may notice some "ghosting" when you just switch it on, but after it gets warm (takes like 2-3 mins) the picture is excellent. I sadly don't have access to any HD broadcasts yet, but with my DVDs playing in progressive the picture is pretty amazing. The price you were talking about seems pretty decent for the 40 inch version. However, seeing as I'm in Europe I'm not really a good judge of that. :D
 
Although I've never seen those particular LCDs personally, in that price range I would go for Panasonic or LG (which in my opinion makes the best LCDs period). As far as Sony is concerned (althought they do make nice looking equipment), lately my luck with them isn't too good. Two times my 19 inch LCD monitor (less than a year old) broke down (and although their support is rather good I still had to wait 7 days for a replacement those two instances).

Add to that my PS2 power supply replacement and the DVD drive of my less than 6 months old Sony DVD recorder had to be fixed. I always fall for Sonys looks but their quality lately is certainly lacking. I also heard that Sony Vaio notebooks aren't that reliable either (power/heat issues).

To add it all up, Sony is definately the most problematic brand in my household and by a wide margin as most of the other electronic equipment I purchase is rather reliable.
 
I actually like the look of this one too.

Any real reason for the dramatic price difference?
 
Peyton said:
I actually like the look of this one too.

Any real reason for the dramatic price difference?
Click to expand...

Remember, you pay a premium for anything sony, because of the brand.

Otherwise, that samsung is decent. Could you find the glossy black 40 inch? That one has a higher contrast ratio than the set you just linked to.

We have the glossy black series in our store, and they're really nice. not as in your face as the sony, is what customers tell us.
 
I have the bravia but only in the 32" model. It is BEAUTIFUL. Perfect integration with the family mac-mini, my powerbook (which is forsale) dvd player, digi-cable box and much more. The one thing missing however is a better interface. The "wega gate" is ocnfusing at times and makes you press WAY too many buttons to set color tones and such. I'd go for it, but find an ad online, go to bestbuy and pricematch it.
-dsm
 
iris_failsafe said:
Panasonic, best I have seens...

SONY's Bravia is very popular althought I have never like its colours
Click to expand...

Second that. I was blown away by the Viera. Very good screen. Pity the "pause image" function is a little... strange...
 
I'll recommend a model Philips sells, which now has 1920x1080 available at their largest size of 42" or so. (I can't remember the model name -- it ends in "/10" though).

Here's why it stands out:

- It can turn 1080i into 1080p (eg film content, or still images on 1080i) with a decent attempt; this is something only a few other models since 2005 can do
- Then it takes the 1080p24 and increases the frame rate to make it look more realistic, eg 1080p48 or 1080p60. If you receive 1080p25 (via 1080i50) in PAL countries, it makes it 1080p50.
- It's also got that rear ambient light that changes colour with the TV show. Nice for use in a darkened room.

I also trust Philips more when it comes to colour balance.

In the next few years they're going to be doing some funky stuff with LCD subpixels. So you'll see how they use ClearType-style technology to increase the resolution further. (This could come in handy if you inserted a dual-DVI feed into it, with 2560x1600 crazy pixels; it's mostly useful for high quality images on SDTV panels though, which is handy for 50" plasmas that max out at 1366x768).

CK.
 
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