Best Big Screen TV?

[joburnet]

Looking to buy a nice big screen TV pretty soon and i'd like to get some input from people that already own them. The best as far as picture quality I've seen so far are mitsubishi and sony. Let me know what you think, thanks.

 

[GoldenTiger]

I own a bigscreen Sony from awhile back (40&quot, and it's been great the whole time. It had Trinitron, wireless headphones, Svideo, Composite, cable+aux, etc. I've owned it for about 6 and a half years, and its image quality is STILL just as good as the bigscreens I've seen today. Go for a Sony; you can't really go wrong with them .

 

[Sugadaddy]

Get a Sony Wega. I have one and it looks awesome and has all the inputs you'd want. The biggest is 36inch, and I'd recommend the FS12 model as you're not paying for all the useless features.

 

[sabka]

I agree, WEGA is the way to go.
Wait for the 50 inch big screen Wega! It's only out in Japan so far, but who knows. Maybe they'll bring it over in the near future

 

[eaadams]

BE CAREFULL Home Theater and TV's can eat up cash faster than any computer habbit! It is the reason I still have a 300A and voodoo 2.

What is your budget?
What size?
What options?

I have a Sony WEGA 36FS-12.
It is 36 inches. It has no extras ie. speakers, picture in picture, inputs. THE BEST FEATURE OF THE WEGA IS ANAMORPHIC SQUEEZE. It greatly increases your picture resolution when watching widescreen dvd's. This was what got me to pony up the cash for a WEGA.

The reason I got this TV was because I, at that time, did not care about HDTV or pip. There are *verry* few HDTV shows. Lenno, PBS, some other stuff that I don't watch. I have TIVO (the best money I have EVER SPENT!) so a pip would be useless. I route my audio through a reciever and speakers. I also use the reciever for switching components which negated the need for extra inputs.

You can buy this TV new for $1500. I paid 1600+tax 6 months ago.

On retrospect I wish I had gotten the 2500 XBR400. not for anything buy HDTV. The XBOX will support progresive scan movie output and with NV20 technology will beable to use HDTV resolutions.

If you are looking for a larger TV sony has a direct view WEGA @ 40" coming out this summer. It will be well over $3000. If you want a projection TV, get a HDTV and get it "ISF" certified. Essentially this is the aiming of the CRT tubes on the TV so they put out a much better picture. Good projection TV's include Mitsubishi, Pioneer, and Toshiba. You will have to choose between a widescreen and a normal. This decission should be made on your desire for movies or TV. If movies get a widescreen, if TV get normal. You can expect to pay $3000-$6000 for these TV's but will get 55-60". Makesure you can get such a large TV to where you are going to watch it. Often this entails taking doors appart and sometimes remodeling a room and placing the TV in before you put in the sheetrock.

In conclusion I must TELL you no matter what TV you get, get a smaller one and put $600 into a TIVO. I highly recomend the WEGAs. If you are interested and in Northern CA I'd be happy to sell the WEGA I have because I'd sure like a HDTV wega for the upcoming XBOX.

 

[broadwayblue]

if only we didn't have to wait until october 22 to get an xbox! and $300 to $500 seems a little steep for a console...not to mention you will have to pay more to get the drivers for the prog scan feature. oh but the games look good!

 

[Moz]

You want the best? Well it might cost you.

The Pioneer Elite Reference Projection Sets are generally the best overall TVs in the consumer market (among common brands anyway). An excellent quality line-doubler which does to 3:2 pulldown produces a great picture on DVDs (comparable to progressive scan output), LDs, Cable TV etc.

Here is a link if you are interested.

Also check out the Home Theater Forum for more discussion.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Ditto to Pioneer Elite!

 

[divinemartyr]

joburnet,

You didn't state what your budget is. Let us know if you're looking at $1,200 or $12,000. The best brand is pretty subjective. My personal favorite among lower end big screens are the Toshiba's! They produce nice off axis pictures for low-cost rear-projection televisions and have pretty good color reproduction.

As far as high end stuff goes, do you want HDTV or standard 4:3 screen orientation? Please give us some more details so we can more appropriately help you!

dm

 

[Erasmus-X]

During product launch, Sony was discussing the possibility of releasing DVD driver updates for the PS2 to enable progressive scan output. BUT...it seems pretty unlikely to me, considering it's a $300 console AND the only player they sell with progressive scanning PERIOD is their flagship 9000ES (a $1500 DVD player, mind you).

I don't know what would define big screen in your case (I'm assuming you're shopping for a projection TV?), but generally, I tend to like Toshiba and Mitsubishi sets the best among the common brands. Sony WEGAs are nice, but a tad overpriced for CRT telivisions. If you are considering an HD-ready set, I would recommend getting a 16:9 and not a 4:3. While it might not benefit you now, you'll begin to see the benefit in 2005, when all broadcasts are supposed to be spec'd to 16:9 aspect ratio. If you're complaining about seeing black bars on the top and bottom of the screen with DVD movies now, just wait until all of your broadcasts start doing that!

 

[joburnet]

The budget is around $3500 or so because that's the price i've seen for high quality projection HDTV. If it's worth it the budget could be upped some but I haven't seen anything that's worth the extra money. I saw the Pioneer Elite yesterday and while they look really nice it dosen't look worth the extra $2000. I hadn't deceided on what aspect ratio to get yet, but it sounds like wide screen is the way to go which would make me lean toward the mitsubishi. I'm also looking for something greater then 53" which means big screen but it does look like people really like the sony wega's and they are about half the price. As far as options go I want it to be HDTV compatable with enough digital inputs so I don't have to worry about it. Thanks for the input, it's been very helpfull so far.

 

[Micky11]

Joburnet, my wife and I recently bought a Sony KP-53HS10. After doing a lot of research on the web, that seemed like the right choice for us. It falls about $500 under your price range, and it's a 53 inch. It's HDTV-compatible and has 5 video inputs on the back. We jumped straight from an old RCA 25 incher to this, and DVD's never looked better. Picture is exceptionally clear for a projection TV, IMO. Hope this helps.

 

[Gunbuster]

50inch direct view Wega? Does it come with a forklift and reinforced floor to set it up with. 500pound TV, no thanks!

 

[Pariah]

Check out etown.com and audioreview.com Both are good sources for reviews and info. If you buy a Sony Wega, make sure you have very good video sources, as the term you get out what you put in, is no more true than it is with Wegas. If you have a good source, the picture will be fantastic, if you have a bad source (poor cable TV) the picture will look hideous.

Erasmus, the PS2 and 9000ES are not competing products at all. I don't care what kind of connection the PS2 uses, it will never look as good or be as feature full as the 9000ES. I also doubt anyone laying out the money for a progressive scan capable TV is going to use a PS2 as their DVD player.

 

[jamarno]

I'd avoid Mitsubishi TVs because of their failure rate and mediocore picture. Among direct views, the best pictures are probably from Sony, Samsung (and Samsung reliability is equal, which says more about Sony's mediocrity than Samsung's excellence), and maybe JVC. Sony's picture tubes are better than Samsung's. Other top-quality tubes are Mitsubishi, Sanyo, Panasonic, and Toshiba, but many Toshibas now use RCA/GE tubes, which are looked down upon by technicians because of their short lifespans. But owing the limitations of regular TV signals and the disappointing quality of HDTV, I wouldn't search hard for the best TV picture, especially since the difference between the best and worst TV's pictures aren't that great.

 

[jhouston]

direct view-------36" Sony Wega XBR
HDTV rear projection--- Pioneer Elite Pro Series

Audio Reviews on the Pioneer Elite Pro 710HD click here!