Sampo SME-34WHD5 34" HDTV Ready TV - $1649 + shipping, MSRP $3500

[lightbulbs]

Good deal? 34" Sampo HDTV

34" Diagonal Pure Flat CRT
16:9 Cinema Aspect Ratio
1080i and 720p HDTV Ready
Multiple Inputs with Component Video Connections
High Performance Sound System with Built-in Subwoofer
Multi-Scanning PC Monitor Support Up to 1024 x 768
One year parts and labor warranty

Shipping is $199.

 

[Sheridan]

I recently lost an auction for this on ubid, the winning price was 1200 new wirh 200 shipping. I heard some bad things about this monitor/tv, such as a crappy filter..... Try looking on audioreview.com or epinions.com

 

[AlexTheMan]

Man.. I don't think it's a hot deal at all... You can get a 47" 16:9 Panasonic HDTV from Sears with internet stores price matching anywhere in the range of $1500-1700.. I would never pay that much money for a generic brand "Sampo"

 

[Conscript]

any deal for an HDTV today is NOT hot. They're going to change the standard, and it would require all televions to have the converter actually inside the TV. Basically, all those who went to Circuit City or Tweeter or wherever, and were told by the salesman "In 4 years, HDTV is going to be the standard and this Tv will take you there" were full of sh*t and and don't know what they're talking about. I truly wonder how they can be allowed to still sell these TV's????

 

[cliftonite]

<< any deal for an HDTV today is NOT hot. They're going to change the standard, and it would require all televions to have the converter actually inside the TV. Basically, all those who went to Circuit City or Tweeter or wherever, and were told by the salesman "In 4 years, HDTV is going to be the standard and this Tv will take you there" were full of sh*t and and don't know what they're talking about. I truly wonder how they can be allowed to still sell these TV's???? >>



Hey do you have anymore details on the new standards? Hopefully they will have something established in the next 2 to 3 years when i will graduate college and buy a nice home theater setup.

 

[unclebud]

i would like a link to some of this info, like zdnet/cnet or something. tia
sampo is a good brand, like konka. i remember some hot deals a while back with buycom selling sampo (region lock could be disabled) dvd players...

 

[NimX]

First off Sampo is not a "generic" brand by any means. And the TV mentioned here is a extremely nice direct view HDTV and one of the very few capable of displaying 720p. Second, Conscript is not really correct in his statement that the standard is to be changed. The HDTV standard signals are set and are not being changed. What is however being forced down the public's throat is the studios forcing digital encryption and thus that there only be a secure digital link between the HD set top box and the HDTV. What this means is that the current generations of HDTVs without this connection or the ability to be upgraded to it may become somewhat obsolete. The reason for this is that at some point content providers (such as DirectTV, Dish, cable networks, etc) may only allow the analog signal (i.e. Component Video, RGB, etc) to output a lower res 480p signal effectivly shutting off a true HDTV signal for those that own an HDTV without a secure digital connection. On top of the studios and other content providers (DirectTV being one of them) are trying to make sure that secure digital connection is DVI instead of Firewire. The problem there is that DVI is an uncompressed signal and therefore basically unrecordable, while firewire would be a compressed recordable signal (albiet with restrictions due to the encryption). There's tons of info on this subject in the AVSForum (www.avsforum.com).

 

[emoney]

This is one of the best 34" direct view sets made. Its weak points, and all set have them are, a very poor filter, no line doubler only one hdtv input. There is a new model comming out with these as standard.
This set does not have a dvi or firewire input. But at this time only a few do have these inputs for recording and viewing pay for view movies in hd.
More information is available at "hometheaterforum" and hometheaterspot".
In summary great set for watching hdtv, dvds; but very poor for watching standard tv because of the lack of a good filter and a line doubler. Thanks, emoney

 

[toant103]

Sampo?

 

[Dood]

I've got a Sampo brand DVD player and it is awesome!! Cheap, ultra-stable playback, and hackable through the remote.

Sampo is a good brand. They're Asian, I think, and they don't have great "western" distribution.

 

[nataraj]

The HDTV standards are set and will not change. COFDM guys have finally lost out to 8VSB. What hollywood wants now is to introduce a copy protection technology (HDCP) using DVI, which could potentially make HD premium programming (pay-per-view etc) unavailable at full resolution to HDTVs and projectors which do not have DVI inputs. They would be down rez'd and sent thr' analog outputs by HD set-top boxes / receivers. OTA HD will always be unencrypted. Most of the satellite HD will also be unencrypted. It is possible that the current HDTVs can be upgraded to take DVI inputs. All this will take a few years to sort out. Those who wait will keep waiting .... like I'm still waiting for that budget DVD-Audio / SACD combo player.


This avsforum thread probably is a good starting point to discuss whether it is a good time to buy HDTV now -
avsforum - why buy now ?. This issue gets discussed to death at avsforum. BTW, anyone wanting to buy HDTV should read avsforum ....

I would say HDTV is worth it just for the improved quality you get watching DVDs. That is what most of us HDTV / Projector owners use it for anyway. I think anyone who wants to spend more than 1k$ on a TV should definitely get a HDTV.

I had read good things about sampo in a review long time back. BTW, large direct view HDTVs are always going to be relatively costlier (& better) than RPTVs. There are several thread on Sampo in avsforum ... for eg Is the Sampo 34WHD5 as good as it sounds?

 

[Conscript]

I apologize for the misleading information. I didn't mean that HDTV standards were changing, even if I did say it. Just really wanted to stress that HDTV's sold in the past of even now that require stb's, might be obsolete come 2006... thanks for the correction guys.