HDTV and Blu-Ray/HD DVD help, please!

[Kiksar]

Need help making a quick decision if anybody is willing and able to respond.

Here's the situation:

I'm in Shanghai for work and I'm becoming increasingly bored after work hours. I talked the guy I'm saying with into getting an HDTV and high definition DVD player of some sort so we can watch Planet Earth and whatnot, but I haven't kept up with what's best these days. So basically I'm looking for recommendations within a few boundaries. The TV should be in the whatever-$2,000 range, the cheaper the better if it's a decent size and quality. We've found places that carry most brands here, so hopefully we'll be able to find whatever you guys think is best.

For the player, I've heard that HD DVD is region free. If that's true, that might be the deal breaker as we want to be able to buy U.S. DVDs for it. He wants a 360 too, so if we go HD DVD it might be easiest to get a 360 + HD DVD addon. Are there any major problems with that logic? I hear the quality isn't the absolute best, but the practicality might win out in this case. Otherwise we could get a PS3, but I don't think the Blu-Ray player is region free for movies, is it? Or if there are any fair priced region free standalone Blu-Ray players that could be an option.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Help quick, I need Planet Earth to remind me of the places in the world that aren't Shanghai.

[Zodiac]

I just bought a Samsung HL-T6189s LED DLP, for the size you can't beat the price. 1080 progaming on it looks simply stunning. I was a little worried about getting a DLP tv, but after reading that the LED versions don't have color wheel and bulb problems like other DLP i'm happy with the TV. I looked at plasma but it seemed to get a 1080p plasma in a 50''+ was more than twice the price, and around here, I could find no LCDs that were 50+ that were not bulb DLP.

I can't really explain how good Xbox 360 and blue ray movies look on it - it's a whole different experience.

[Jysin-DW]

I dont know particularly about Blu-Ray or HD DVD region encoding. If its anything like DVD, the disks arent the problem, its getting a player that is region free encoded. Or finding a hack to make your player region-free. That said, a lot of overseas units have region-free capability. You just need to do some research on which model in particular you are after. Some players, like my Denon have a hack (button pressing sequence) to enable region-free play.

Again, I am talking about standard DVD. I really havent looked into Blu-Ray HD DVD region coding.

[Sarrasis]

I second that DLPs make great TVs. I have a Sony SXRD. I'd only get an LCD or plasma if you are concerned about space or want to mount it on the wall.

Here's the region coding breakdown for BD from wiki:

A/1 - North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

B/2 - Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

C/3 - India, Nepal, Mainland China, Pakistan, Russia, Central and South Asia.

The PS3 is the best BD player out ATM.

[Kiksar]

Yeah, thanks for the replies so far. I did a little bit of the region research myself and it just made it a harder decision. Most of the PS3s and 360s they sell here are Japanese, as far as I know, which means that the PS3 BR player would be the same region as the U.S. but not as China. HD DVD on the other hand is region free, which is a big plus, and you can get a modded 360 here for $300 or so and games are 7 RMB on the street which is just under 1 U.S. dollar (probably easier to spend a dollar than to download them with slow commie internet).

So we're still up in the air on what TV to get, but I think 42" or so would be a good size. And he might get a DLP, but size is an issue if he has to ship it back to the states at any point.

Any other recommendations would be helpful, thanks.

[Frax]

Originally Posted by Zodiac

I just bought a Samsung HL-T6189s LED DLP, for the size you can't beat the price. 1080 progaming on it looks simply stunning. I was a little worried about getting a DLP tv, but after reading that the LED versions don't have color wheel and bulb problems like other DLP i'm happy with the TV. I looked at plasma but it seemed to get a 1080p plasma in a 50''+ was more than twice the price, and around here, I could find no LCDs that were 50+ that were not bulb DLP.

I can't really explain how good Xbox 360 and blue ray movies look on it - it's a whole different experience.

Exact model of TV I bought a few months ago. I can't recommend the Samsung DLPs enough, I even use it as a computer monitor from time to time (Not all the time, sitting on the couch with a keyboard is not a decent way to play video games, sadly). Not dumping an obscene amount of cash compared to plasma into a screen this large was the biggest selling point.