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Good tv in the $500 dollar range...

HybridSquirrel

HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Can someone recommend me one? Thinking of picking one up here with some holiday money/gift cards. Going to check out best buy and Costco, and just wondering if there are particular brands I should be looking at or avoiding. I am thinking a nice 37" would be perfect for my room and I really like those vizios..
 
probably 1080...bu ti heard the difference is very minimal at the ranges i sit at.....and probably LCD... giftcards are the visa ones, usable anywhere.
 
HybridSquirrel said:
probably 1080...bu ti heard the difference is very minimal at the ranges i sit at.....and probably LCD... giftcards are the visa ones, usable anywhere.
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Are you adverse to buying online? I bought my tv in-store @ Costco in early December as they add longer on the warranty.
 
zerocool84 said:
Are you adverse to buying online? I bought my tv in-store @ Costco in early December as they add longer on the warranty.
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cant do split transactions online...so i cant have them charge me 3 times to burn up the gift cards first before using my credit card...which is why im looking to buy in store
 
HybridSquirrel said:
cant do split transactions online...so i cant have them charge me 3 times to burn up the gift cards first before using my credit card...which is why im looking to buy in store
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depends. way I get around this at, say amazon, is to buy amazon gift cards with the visa/amex/whatever value cards. you can use as many of those for your purchase as you want, then CC the rest. (not sure where else this will work)


good luck
 
The popular brands are Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG, Toshiba, Vizio and probably one or two others I'm missing. In general if it's a brand you've never heard of or a brand that is only sold at one store it's a gamble on quality. The Vizio sets at Costco are about as good a deal as you'll find anywhere, especially with their included warranty extension. I'm not sure if you'll be able to use your gift cards at Costco, you might want to call first, they only accept debit cards or american express or cash/check for payment.
 
kornphlake said:
The popular brands are Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG, Toshiba, Vizio and probably one or two others I'm missing. In general if it's a brand you've never heard of or a brand that is only sold at one store it's a gamble on quality.
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I beleive Best Buy's Insignia brand is just re-branded (last year's) LG models.
 
Insignia is a crap shoot. Best buy uses whoever has the cheapest price at the time.

One method I like is to search google for the model number of the tv you are interested in with the word repair in the search.
Also try words like broke / broken, will not work, stopped . Reviews are okay but reviewers don't keep the product long term.
 
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kornphlake said:
The popular brands are Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG, Toshiba, Vizio and probably one or two others I'm missing. In general if it's a brand you've never heard of or a brand that is only sold at one store it's a gamble on quality. The Vizio sets at Costco are about as good a deal as you'll find anywhere, especially with their included warranty extension. I'm not sure if you'll be able to use your gift cards at Costco, you might want to call first, they only accept debit cards or american express or cash/check for payment.
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you can if they are the visa/american express ones I already checked =D. Well I guess i'll head over to costco here in a bit to check out some vizios.

should i be looking for 1080 or 720? will i notice a big difference without blu-ray? or even with it?
 
Costco has a 42" Panasonic plasma for $480, it's only 720p. They sell a Toshiba 40" LCD that has 1080p 60hz for the same price, or for $20 more there's a Vizio 37" 1080p 120hz. It's your call, do you want higher numbers on the screen size or higher numbers on the resolution or higher numbers on the refresh rate. I can't personally see any difference between 1080p and 720p on a set this size, I have a hard time seeing any difference between 60hz and 120hz on televisions setup side by side, when one or the other is by itself in my living room I see even less difference.
 
kornphlake said:
Costco has a 42" Panasonic plasma for $480, it's only 720p. They sell a Toshiba 40" LCD that has 1080p 60hz for the same price, or for $20 more there's a Vizio 37" 1080p 120hz. It's your call, do you want higher numbers on the screen size or higher numbers on the resolution or higher numbers on the refresh rate. I can't personally see any difference between 1080p and 720p on a set this size, I have a hard time seeing any difference between 60hz and 120hz on televisions setup side by side, when one or the other is by itself in my living room I see even less difference.
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going to buy from costco tomorrow. They have a sale on a 42" vizio except its 60hz rather than 120hz like their 37"....will there be a noticable difference?
 
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I really have a hard time seeing any difference between 120hz and 60hz when they're set up side by side in a store, in my living room with only one television the difference is even more difficult to spot. I don't watch sports and I don't play video games, if you do you may be able to see a difference. I know some people complain about 120hz making television look like it was recorded with a camcorder because it sharpens the image so much, a lot of people turn off the 120hz for normal television and movies. If you're paying more for a feature but rarely using it, is it worth while?

I've only owned one modern television and I've only had it for a week, I did some research but not a lot, pretty much what I've written is what I know about video equipment. I do know what my eyes tell me and that is that in the store playing whatever demo content the stores play I can't see much if any difference between 1080 and 720 or 120hz and 60hz. I bought the Toshiba 40" at Costco, another local store had what appeared to be the same set with 120hz for about $50 more, I didn't think it was worth the money.
 
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there it is....42" vizio 60hz 1080p pure sex.
 
s44 said:
Could have gotten a 120hz Panny from Amazon today. 😉
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But if he'd done that he wouldn't have it today, and he wouldn't have a 2 year warranty and he wouldn't have a brick and mortar store to return it to without shipping costs if there is a problem. There's always a better deal you find the day after you make a big purchase, if you delay the purchase because a better deal might come along tomorrow you'll always be waiting on another tomorrow.

I bought my TV then let it sit in the living room still in the box for 3 days before I opened the box just to make sure I didn't find a better deal, which I did, but it wasn't a good enough deal to make it worth returning the television and buying another.
 
kornphlake said:
But if he'd done that he wouldn't have it today, and he wouldn't have a 2 year warranty and he wouldn't have a brick and mortar store to return it to without shipping costs if there is a problem. There's always a better deal you find the day after you make a big purchase, if you delay the purchase because a better deal might come along tomorrow you'll always be waiting on another tomorrow.

I bought my TV then let it sit in the living room still in the box for 3 days before I opened the box just to make sure I didn't find a better deal, which I did, but it wasn't a good enough deal to make it worth returning the television and buying another.
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yeah buying @ a b&m was really important...me and my gf looked at the 120hz versions but the soap opera effect really bugged the hell out of us movies didnt look like movies, and tv didn't look any different...we are super happy about the tv we got. played some bc2 and wow on it yesterday...need to get a 15ft hdmi cable though....
 
HybridSquirrel said:
me and my gf looked at the 120hz versions but the soap opera effect really bugged the hell out of us movies didnt look like movies
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The point of 120hz is to watch with interpolation *off* so you get perfect 5:5 with movies.

But yeah, buying from Costco is always nice.
 
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