Need a Crash Course on TVs

[Krez]

Hello everyone! The grandparents' 30 year old TV has finally gone kaput and it's time to replace it. They turned to me to find a new TV for them, except I have almost no idea on what to get.

They are looking for something around 40-50" and for less than $1000. I've looked around a bit and it seems that, and correct me if I'm wrong, Panasonic and Samsung are the leading manufacturers today. They do not need something especially fancy, just something to watch cable and dvd movies on. They will only purchase the TV from a brick and mortar place like BB or Costco, no online retailers. So, what can you recommend? Thank you for your help!

 

[BenSkywalker]

Samaung or Panasonic are likely the best bets in your price range(Sony and Pioneer are probably the leading manufacturers, but you pay a premium for that).

What kind of cable are they watching? Are they mainly watching channels that are broadcast in HD? This makes a big difference, some displays have excellent HD/BR playback with sub par SD and vice versa.

 

[Krez]

It's just standard cable afaik. How is this?
http://www.costco.com/Browse/P...av=&browse=&lang=en-US

 

[sciencewhiz]

If they aren't planning to upgrade their cable for HD, you should look for ones that have good SD quality. However, even the best SD quality will probably be worse then what they're used to, so be sure to warn them.

 

[Krez]

What is SD quality? And I doubt that I could get something worse than their 80's Zenith. I will find out more if they are willing to upgrade to HD.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Krez
What is SD quality? And I doubt that I could get something worse than their 80's Zenith. I will find out more if they are willing to upgrade to HD.

SD = standard definition. As you were looking at Costco, this would be a better choice. It's bigger, 1080p, and right at the 1k price point.

 

[SearchMaster]

I agree with all that has been said. In another thread I mentioned that I just got a 50" Pioneer plasma, but the old satellite receiver (SD content over s-video currently) looks absolutely horrible, something you never really noticed on the old projection TV of about the same size. It may seem counterintuitive, but getting the new TV will really expose how bad the content is. It's not like having poor eyesight and never noticing all the flaws around you, then getting new glasses and suddenly everything looks like crap (but in great detail!)