Early in my search for a widescreen.... (1 Viewer)

[bill*a]

Ok, so I'm at the very start of my search for a widescreen television.
I work weekends, so I've been spending this one, so far, on the net as much as possible. Then next week....I'm gonna hassle some sales people.
So far, I'm interested in:

1)Mitsubishi 48" ws 48313 $1699
2)Toshiba 46" 46h83 $1499
3)Toshiba 51" 51h83 $1699
4)Hitachi 51" 51f500a $1799(last marked price)
5)Hitachi 46" 46w500 $1699 "

Prices are what I've found on the net(Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.). I hopefully can find prices a little lower at Video Only(Portland, Or.), or at least = price - 10%.
Sorry for so many selections, but like I said.....I just started this search.

Does one of these stand out from the rest(other than size)?
Any problems keep popping up with on of them (Toshiba ghosting? Red push?).
Anything other units, in the same price/size range, that I should look into?

This will be used for watching everything. A mixture of DirecTv and DVD's. No HD in the near future.

At this point, I'm leaning towards the 48" Mitsubishi, but then again, what the hell do I know!

Thanks in advance for any help,
Bill A.

 

[John S]

Well HDTV is in the near future... Just reality there.

Of those level sets, I prefer the Mitsu myself. I went out looking at all the brick and mortors here around Denver, and Mitsu's were always one of the bests on picture quality.

 

[bill*a]

I was also wondering if any one manufacturer had a better service reputation than the others. Who has the best?

 

[Dave H]

Bill,

Just curious - how come you are not interested in Sony? From what I hear, they are right up there with Mits. My concern of Mits is the red push...I don't know if this has been corrected or not.

 

[John S]

In rptv, I did not find Sony to be a stand out at all on PQ. I must confess, I only looked at 60" and larger, so my opinions are only for those sizes and larger.

My 2 biggest stand outs were Pioneer Elite, and the Mitsubishi. Interestingly enough both seem to have reported issues that need to be addressed by the manufacturer.

I picked a lowly Philips myself so what the heck do I know??????? lol

 

[Dave H]

Keep in mind, doing comparions in stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City is almost meaningless just because the control settings are (usually incorrectly) set differently and often for every TV. I'm not saying this is what you are basing it on, but just making a point.

 

[John S]

Dave H that is soooo true... All TV's looked their worst at Best Buy, the lighting, the displays, the calibrations or lack there of were just the worst. My fiancee even commented how every model looked their worst at Best Buy, before I even said anything about it.

I went everywhere and looked, then bought on-line.
I was this close to buy'n at Best Buy too, I even went back the next day, and this time luckily they were sold out, in the entire region. (major clearence special or so I was told)

But if I ever recieve what I ordered online, I will have saved like $500 on the set I wanted, that is why I said "luckily".

 

[bill*a]

If you ever recieve it? How long have you been waiting? What are you basing your buy on, since you didn't like what you saw at the big stores? What if when you get what you bought online, you don't like it? I would think returning it would be a real hassle.
As for Sony, everytime I have looked at larger tv's, I've never been impressed with them compared to other mfg's in the same price range.

 

[Brett Sw]

An independent A/V guy I've been working with here in town on my own widescreen purchase talked me out of a Sony 42we610 due to (his words) Sony's not upconverting video signals to true 1080i HD. He said they used a system called EDTV and another I can't remember. Basically a lot of tech-type words that I didn't understand. BUT...the jist of his diatribe was that Sony had copyright issues since they own Sony Music and Sony Pictures. Don't take this as gospel cause I'm wanting to get a second opion on this as well. Maybe someone can enlighten us all...?

 

[JohnSni]

I just did an exhaustive search and research myself...most of it over the summer "lurking" on this very board.

I chose the Tosh 57H83. I've coupled this with a Zenith SAT-520 DirecTV/OTA HD Receiver and a Pioneer DV-45A dvd/sacd/dvdaudio player.

I paid $1799 for the TV + Tax + $49 delivery from HH Gregg.

I paid $300 for the Zenith from a co-worker

I paid $400 for the Pioneer (probably overpaid).

Be VERY, VERY careful about the stretch modes - particularly on the Hitachi. The Hitachi's are GREAT TV's, however I think the F series have poor stretch modes...I think the S are much better. I'd definitely do a comparison. Tosh stretch modes are quite good. Most programming is still in 4:3, so a good stretch mode will be critical. I can't tell if the pulldown correction on the TV is better than my DVD player or not.

For the money, at least 2 months ago, the Toshiba was the best buy.

Note also that MITS was using firewire instead of the DVI input, however newer models were supposed to have corrected this deficiency.

 

[John S]

Bill*a, my wait will be 2 weeks this Friday. But what happend I guess, is that the trucking CO, was supposed to pick it up last week and because of something to do with Thanksgiving, it was not picked up til today or at least it's supposed to be picked up today.

It is a true that I took the gamble of ordering online. But, I actually could not find the set at all locally, and it really was the one that I chose for myself based on a long list of criteria, so I figured I would be patient.

I have to admit, every football game I watch in NTSC, I always get a little disgruntled, that if I had gone with something else, I could be watching in HD right now!!!

Ahh patience is a virtue right?? UUUHHGGG AARRHHGGG lol

PS: I actualy did get to see the TV at three different stores over the past few months, by the time I decided that was the one, BB was the only one that had clearence stock on it, and I still waited one more day, went back, and they had sold them all. You make very valid points for NOT purchasing such a large items online. I took a chance.

$1248 to my door........

 

[John S]

John Sni, May I ask what TV your were upgrading from? Size, format, and model wise????

I found comming from a 48" 4:3 set, that I did not think I could live with downsizing my 4:3 format viewing.

I went with a 60" 4:3 set, with the supposed ability to achieve full 1080i res on my widescreen material. I figure this still gives me a 52" to 53" widescreen.

I may end up regretting it at some point in the future, but I am also an old movie buff, and I wanted that larger than life 4:3 experience on those old Black and White movies.