Buying a new HDTV for a Beginner

[Genjiro]

Ok, so after literally years of skipping around buying one, I've decided to finally shell out the money for a good HDTV. Keep in mind, this is my first experience with anything HD, so I'm feeling a little lost trying to track down all the information to understand all the specifics, and it seems difficult to find good information as some sites say completely different things about certain models. I'll be using it for movies (have a PS3), gaming of course, and plan on watching a lot of good sports programming.

Basically, what I've come to look at is the Sony XBR 52" LCD here.

I've been narrowing it down to a Sony and the Samsung line, but our living room has two windows that unfortunately put a lot of glare where the tv will be, and the Samsungs reflective tv surface would be the dealbreaker in that regard. I really don't want to spend more than 3 grand, with a little left over to get a nice stand for it and maybe a home theatre system to go with it.

So, does anyone have any suggestions for a first time HDTV buyer, or have personal experience with this TV? Sony products have in the past always been very good to me, and been of excellent quality and from what I've read this has about the best picture you can get for a LCD. I'm pretty close to buying it already, but I figured I would pass it by the AV gods who inhabit the FoH forums and have a lot more experience with HDTV than I. I also am looking into whether it will be better for me to get one of the satellite tv subscription plans or to stick with Comcast as well, because I'll be interested in getting some of their sports packages. I never really started looking at all of this stuff until now, and I'm not the worlds biggest electronics buff either, so trying to dive headfirst into this all of a sudden so far has been an interesting learning experience.

[Tolanin]

buy an off brand and save 2 grand. i love my vizio just as much as my sharp and in a high sun area you arent gonna be able to tell any difference at all, not that there is much of a difference in the first place.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Tolanin

buy an off brand and save 2 grand. i love my vizio just as much as my sharp and in a high sun area you arent gonna be able to tell any difference at all, not that there is much of a difference in the first place.

lol? the TV he linked destroys Vizio. From what I can tell he wants top of the line, not budget... and yes you can tell. I work with broadcast software so I have access to a ton of TV's... quality is very noticeable to me at least now.

[Soygen]

I have a Westinghouse 42" 1080p in my bedroom and a 47" Sharp Aquos in my living room. The Sharp was 1800 dollars more and you would be hard pressed to tell a major difference. The Sharp's features, remote and inputs are much better though.

If you can afford the best, though, I would just go with the best.

[Sharmai]

Originally Posted by Tolanin

buy an off brand and save 2 grand. i love my vizio just as much as my sharp and in a high sun area you arent gonna be able to tell any difference at all, not that there is much of a difference in the first place.

This.

But forget anything I say. Forget anything anyone here says. Go to the store and LOOK at the TV's you want. Get a chair and pop in a dvd. Take it to another store and another TV and pop it in that one to. Make sure you find out if the demo your seeing is in high definition. Get out a ruler and measure how far away you will be sitting from the TV and make sure your veiwing the TV from that distance.

If the image quality make a difference for you then I'd say go with the additional 2grand plus TV. If after looking at them its barely noticable, not noticable, or not worth 2 grand then don't waste your money. Instead take that 2 grand and go buy a killer theater sound system with hand picked subs, speakers, and reciever to give you that movie feeling.

[Cuppycake]

I have a 42" Samsung in the living room, and a 40" Sony Bravia in the bedroom, both LCD 1080p. The Sony was about $800 more, and the only major difference is the sound quality is a bit better on the Sony (but who has an HDTV without a reciever/speakers anyway?). Other than that, the Samsung has more inputs and they look virtually the same to me.

In other words, go to Best Buy and look at TV's. Buy one that looks good to you. You can't really go wrong with the Samsungs, and they look just as good as the more spendy ones IMHO.

[Zeste]

I've been researching 52" inchers for a few months now, I am moving into a new house next month and this is my present to myself.

The Sony XBR4 is far and away the most universally heralded 52" LCD there is right now. I think on Amazon it has 66 5 stars and less then 2 or 3 of any other rating.

If you go to AVSforums or Hometheaterforums forums, they each have a sticky thread at the top praising the XBR with hundreds of posts each.

If you are looking for data on a 52" tv, I don't think there's a single set with more positive opinions and data than the XBR4 52".

Right now you can get it off Amazon for like $2901? Bestbuy has it for $3199 but they ran a sale for 2999 on it a few weekends ago, so I bet it drops too.

Amazon does the white glove services though, where they have someone actually come and open it and install it at your house for free to guarantee that it is undamaged and 100% working.

I just have to figure out how to roll the TV into my mortgage without my dad finding out (since he's the construction loan).

[Kaio]

Samsung doesn't make 42inch lcd's, you sure you don't have some plasma?

[Kaio]

Originally Posted by Soygen

I have a Westinghouse 42" 1080p in my bedroom and a 47" Sharp Aquos in my living room. The Sharp was 1800 dollars more and you would be hard pressed to tell a major difference. The Sharp's features, remote and inputs are much better though.

If you can afford the best, though, I would just go with the best.

For most people it's hard to tell when they aren't side by side. At the same brightness level/contrast level the sharp will have blacker blacks and whiter whites but not by too much since it isn't near high-end (which is pretty much occupied by Sony/Samsung right now).

[Kuriin]

That tv you linked is gorgeous, Genjiro. But, if you're worried about glare, then I guess you oughta get a Samsung (didn't realize there was an anti-glare tv out there).

[Calac Oakshield]

just bought a 40" sony bravia XBR, from the others ive checked out in stores I wouldn't chose another.

[Blide]

Samsung LCDs have two different screen types which depend on the model, basically some models have a glossy screen which looks great in low light conditions but has a ton of glare otherwise.

[Rhuobhe]

If you are willing to spend more for a good HDTV go for a samsung LCD.

[Cuppycake]

Originally Posted by Kaio

Samsung doesn't make 42inch lcd's, you sure you don't have some plasma?

Whoops, I meant 40".

[Arative]

You may want to check out this thread on avs forum
Official Sony XBR4/5 Owners Thread(NO PRICE TALK) - AVS Forum

Its their sony exbr4/5 owners thread. Can give you good idea of the quality from owners before you drop $4k

As far as provider. I went with Directv as soon as they got their new bird in the sky last fall. Love the HD, 95 national channels right now for a decent price, granted most of the channels are showing stretched standard def but that's a content problem, not directv problem. Directv just has a successful launch of a new bird that will give them a capacity of 150 national HD channels. And if you are a media center user, later this year when microsoft finishes the beta of the media center update, directv will release a usb tuner for the pc.

Also another thread on avs, details some issues with Comcast. I guess Comcast is putting 3 HD channels in the space where there used to be 2, so there are some compression and quality issues taking place. This is so Comcast can catch Directv in number of HD channels
Comcast HD Quality Reduction: Details, Screenshots - AVS Forum