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Yet Another What TV-to-Buy Thread

notposting

notposting

Diamond Member
Hi everyone, received clearance from the wife to get a new TV that doesn't cost a million bucks and isn't too big. Would like something of nice quality, preferably with good built-in sound 🙂rolleyes: I know) and it should play nice with HTPCs. If it's one of the ones Costco sells that would be even better.

Pretty much looking at the 32" LCD's at this point. The shelf we have right for our TV is around 31" wide. HTPC and Gamecube underneath it on the middle shelf. The couch and loveseat are both around 8' viewing distance back. We live in an apartment townhouse (neighbors on both sides) which is why the sound isn't too important now.

Current TV is a Sylvania 26" HDTV. 720p, and is pretty old, however, it was free :awe:. Viewing angle is definitely not too good (though it claims 176 degrees which I guess is true, sure, you can still tell there's *something* on the screen D🙂. Main problem I have with it is that it doesn't play nice with the HTPC running a Radeon 4350. I thought it could be an issue on the Radeon's end, however even with an HDMI Detective Plus I still have the problem--if the PC goes into standby, when it comes back up no picture. If I remember right Hibernate either doesn't work also, or I decided having to deal with the wife waking the thing up all the time was out of the question.

Otherwise, picture is fine on the thing, it's plenty loud enough (2 x 5W speakers) blah blah.

So for the new TV:
  • Tuner quality doesn't really matter as it will be hooked up to the HTPC (I use an HDHR and WHS for all the video feeds pretty much).
  • Reliability is a bit of a concern, though if I buy it at Costco they automatically extend the warranty to 2 years (and if use the Amex, maybe I can get a 3rd??).
  • LED backlit looks too expensive. Plasma would be nice but too big and I don't like the 1024x768 resolution and calling it HD. Lies I say, lies.
  • HDMI should play well with others.
  • Nice usable field of view.

Of the Costco TV's looks like they are all 720p. Looked around over at AVSForums and sounds like the Sony EX400 is a sweet TV but unfortunately Costco doesn't have it yet.

sidebar: my wife works there, plus the return (90 days) policy is nice, it's close by, extended warranty, all make it favorable choice

So out of the 32" LCD TV's there, which do you think would be best? Is there something elsewhere that would bring enough to the table (and from a good seller) to make it worthwhile?

edit: we are getting rid of our tube TVs so the current one will likely end up in the bedroom with a Linksys Media Center Exender hooked up to it.
 
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I'm not sure what TV to recommend, but I will say not to waste your money on 1080p given the TV size and viewing distance. At 8' away, you'd need at least a 42" TV (and probably a 50" TV) to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p. Another way to put it is that you'd need to be 3-5' away from a 32" TV to notice the difference between the two resolutions.

If a 1080p TV is the same price as a comparable 720p TV, then by all means go with 1080p as there are no negatives to 1080p other than the price.

FWIW I use this Panasonic 32" TV as my computer monitor, and I really like it. Shopping around can make a huge difference, as I got that TV for $380 with free shipping and no tax, and a Panasonic 32" 720p TV would be $450 + tax at Costco.

Edit: I just realized that you mentioned an HTPC in your post. It might be worth it to go with 1080p for that. However, if you're going to be using it for video purposes rather than for normal computer usage, then it shouldn't really matter. I have a HTPC connected to a 720p TV, and I'm too far away to notice the benefits of 1080p. Now, if I used it to type documents, surf the web a lot (I do use about 5% of the time for web surfing), etc., then the extra screen real estate of 1080p would be nice.

At 8' from a 32" 1080p TV, I'm not sure if you'd be able to read text, so all of this might be moot.
 
Thanks kalrith, some good points.

It *is* an HTPC but it is a dedicated Windows Media Center box. Auto login, 7MC starts at boot automatically if it ever does need to reboot (windows updates yay!). Never see the desktop outside of the initial setup or if I need to install something. Have a network tuner and I'm busy ripping everything to the WHS and using MyMovies to manage the DVDs.

Actually on our current setup the TV doesn't send back any info, trying to set 1366x768 fails horribly. Setting the resolution to 1280x720 works fine because then the TV's internal scaler handles it. And since we just play video back it doesn't really bother me.

Might be plugging an Xbox 360 in via HDMI as well...though I might be selling that since Nintendo finally released a black Wii 😛
 
Do you have your TV in PC mode? Sometimes it's not called that, and you have to dig through the settings. Anyways, a PC won't look good on a TV unless you have it set to display a pixel-perfect image (sometimes called dot-for-dot) rather than a scaled image. If you post your TV's model, I might be able to help you with that. Also, you might have to turn off scaling and/or overscan on your video card.

It sounds like your PC should do just fine on a 720p TV, so I wouldn't go 1080p unless the price is really close between two comparable models.

Really, you should just lose the TV shelf and go with a bigger TV at that viewing distance. There's not a huge price difference between a 32" and 42" TV, but there is a huge 72% size difference between them. I originally started looking at 32" TVs as well, thinking it would be a nice upgrade from our 27" 4:3 SDTV. My wife didn't even want a TV and definitely didn't want anything bigger than 32". Well, I researched and found that I would hardly be able to tell the difference between SD and HD on that small of a TV, and I thought, "What's the point of getting an HDTV if it's too small to see the advantage of HD?"

I researched, did some viewing at Best Buy, and worked on my wife for quite some time, increasing the size I wanted to a 37", then 42", and eventually a 50". We wound up going with the 50", and both of us are very happy with it. She went from not caring whether we got a new TV, to REALLY liking it once we got it home, and she watched some of her favorite shows on it. We sit about 9' from the TV, so that's pretty close to where you're at. We bought it about 2 1/2 years ago, and we both still like it very much.

I will say that it looked WAY too big when we swapped out our 27" TV for the 50"; however, after a short time, we got used to it, and now it seems just right. In the same way, if you get a 32" TV that seems just right when you first get it home, it will seem too small once you get used to it.

Just something else to consider 🙂
 
Also I looked at TVs this morning at Costco, visited the wife on her lunch break. She didn't like the Sony there as it had a two-tone face (lower part was gray/silver). I didn't like the Samsung as it was the ridiculous super-glossy bezel and the speakers were hidden away.

Might go with the Panasonic, has 3 HDMI, looks like 2x10w speakers, only one component input though but I hopefully won't need more than that anyway with the HDMI.

$450 at Costco is pretty good versus the $700 at Amazon 😱
 
notposting said:
$450 at Costco is pretty good versus the $700 at Amazon 😱
Click to expand...

That one's $700, because it's been discontinued and is hardly available any more. If you shop around and nix the 31" wide and Costco requirements, you can find 42" TVs for the same price (assuming you don't have to pay tax): http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=83707&t=2005806. Unfortunately that deal just died. If I were you, I'd work out a way to get a larger TV and then shop around for a deal like the one I just mentioned.

Don't be peeved about the 1024x768 resolution of the 42" plasmas. One of those will likely slaughter the $450 LCD at Costco in PQ. If you get caught up on specs that won't transfer to PQ (i.e. 120Hz, 1024x768 vs 1366x768, etc.), then you'll buy your TV based on marketing rather than PQ. If you're really concerned about it, then find a professional review on the TV first. You should probably do that with any TV you're looking at.
 
As far as the current TV: no no picture mode or anything like it. Played with things for quite awhile to get it looking good. I can't remember right now but I think I also have it overscanning slightly in the Catalyst driver just to hide the CC data that shows up at the top of the SD channels picture. It's a Sylvania 6626LG, like I said it was free (wife won it in a raffle) so it certainly was worth the money 😉

edit: any good review sites that have a lot of models reviewed?
 
notposting said:
any good review sites that have a lot of models reviewed?
Click to expand...

If you're looking at a specific model, just Google it. The ones off the top of my head are CNET, UltimateAV, HDGuru, PCMag, PerfectVision, . Here are a few avsforum threads on the subject:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1194379
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1148981
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1145596
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1132826
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=885904

I posted the last one since I had it in my subscriptions. You might find some good review sites listed in the first post that aren't in the other threads.

I will also recommend to not put much stock in specific Consumer Reports "reviews." That's a good source for reliability info, but it's definitely not a good source for technical reviews.
 
I found the manual to your TV, and I see no mention of anything that looks like a "PC mode." Do make sure that the Screen Mode is Full. You should also try changing it to Picture Mode to Manual to see if that helps and/or opens up some additional optionals.

There might be a "PC mode" buried somewhere in the TV settings. On my plasma TV I just changed the display mode from video to PC, and I'm done. On my LCD TV I have to go into the advanced picture options and change it from HD Size 1 to HD Size 2 to make it pixel perfect with no overscan. I then changed the default 15% overscan in ATI CCC to 0%.

Can you force the computer to 1366x768 (or 1360x768 since Windows likes that better) resolution? If it won't take the 1366x768 resolution, then you can try a custom resolution in CCC first, and then try Powerstrip if that doesn't work. There's a HUGE difference between a scaled PC image and a pixel-perfect PC image.
 
Yeah, nothing in the settings. I had tried Powerstrip back a couple years ago (can't even remember if it was on the HDTV, I think it was) but that was using XP I believe. If I remember right trying to force the higher res ends up needing a huge overscan and it still won't compensate fully. Sending the 720p and letting the internal scaler handle a resolution "it knows" ends up looking pretty good, fills the screen fine.

Yeah, I'm going to be poring over reviews it looks like. So many different models to sort out arghhhh. Thanks for the links!
 
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