If you had the choice, 40H80 for free or 56H80 for $500?? (1 Viewer)

[EGM]

Feel free to explain your choice...
GM

 

[Sean Laughter]

Feel free to explain where you shop!

 

[Greg S]

56H80 - You should always get the biggest you can afford/physically fit in your room. I also think a 40" TV is too small(IMHO).
How far away are you going to be from the set???
Greg

 

[Joe Cole]

Bigger is better for the most part if you have the room. I am assuming that you can get the 56 for 500 bucks more not really $500. If the prices are true, get both.
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Joe C.
quote:Who's scruffy looking?
My biscuits are a burnin.

 

[Greg S]

BTW all you VA guys check out the Local Home Theater Forum meets as we are having one at my place on 8/25/01. I am located in Richmond and you and your families are welcome to come on over.
Greg

 

[Ryan Peddle]

How about this, you take the 40H80 for free, sell it to me for 500 bucks and then buy the 56H80. Then you get the 56H80 for free, and I get the 40H80 for 500bucks.
Not a bad Idea.
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Oops, I dropped my eardrums.
Could you pick them up for me?

 

[EGM]

Quick explaination:
Long story short Toshiba killed my 36X81 which was less than a year old on a 3-month service call. They don't have a replacement 36" set as the new version of the 36X81 will not be released for another two months.
After some discussion my service rep at Toshiba has made the above offer to replace my set.

was my reaction...
I live in an apartment and would sit about 11' away from the set. And yes, the 320-pound monster will fit through my door.
GM

 

[JohanK]

Definitely the 56H80. Bigger is better.
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http://www.hometheaterforum.com/bbs/equipment/28687.html
Link Removed

 

[Sean Laughter]

Time for me to break my 32" Toshiba!!!!

 

[Craig]

Get the 56H80, I've had a 56X81 for 19 months, really love it. Of course I paid $3950+tax for it, so your price of $500 seems like a slightly better deal.

 

[Greg S]

At 11 feet away definitely get the 56" if possible try to get them to do the 65 which be even better but the 40 is going to seem small from that distance.
BTW I remebered reading your thread about your 36" - that sucks but at least Toshiba has decided to step up to the plate and get you a new set. Hell they could have stuck you with some crappy refurb.
Good Luck on your decision.
Greg

 

[DaveF]

At the risk of being the voice of reason...
If I understand, it's not a free 40h80 or a $500 56h80, but the 40h80 = cost of previous TV, or prev. cost + $500 for the 56H80. So, is the 56H80 worth an additional $500 on top of what you've already paid, vs. spending that $500 on a new receiver, 25 DVDs, or a year of cable TV?
(I just like complicating things... )

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Is it worth it? Absolutely. The rest is a sunk cost - incrementally an extra $500 for a MUCH bigger screen is a done deal (given of course that he can physically accommodate the size of the set with an appropriate viewing distance of at least 4x screen height).
I'm moving this to the TV Forum.
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--Jay
"No one can hear when you're screaming in digital."
My Home Theatre Pictures...
"You're no mesiah. You're, you're a movie of the week. You're a ... t-shirt, at best."

 

[EGM]

Thanks everyone, you've convinced me...
I dropped by the local Worst Buy on the way home from work tonight and looked at the two sets essentially side-by-side. There was no comparison. The 40H80 was solid (after I tweaked the settings a little bit ) but the 50H80 had such a larger viewing area.
By the way, I know comparing these two side-by-side is really unfair to the 40H80, but it had to be done.
DaveF (aka 'Voice of Reason'):
Yes, this is essentially an additional $500 over what I initially paid for my 36Z71 when this whole fiasco started, but that's money vested. However, seeing as it has been a year-and-a-half since I bought the initial set, I see this as a really cheap upgrade. Yes, I could spend $500 on 25 DVDs or a new DVD player, or I could jump from a 36" 4:3 set to a 56" 16:9 set. When I put it to myself in that context, it is a simple choice.
For reference, and those who did not see my initial post, thanks to Toshiba set problems here is the progression of my televisions since Nov. 1999.
Intitial purchase: (@$1,700 Nov. 1999)
Toshiba CN36Z71 - standard 4:3 set NOT HDTV ready, had an unfixable moire problem
Toshiba replaced free of charge with:
CN36X81 (@$2,200 retail at the time, May 2000) - HDTV ready, no moire problems and was perfect except the two S-video inputs did not work. Tech couldn't figure it out, Toshiba sent a fix after 2.5 months and the tech wiped out the board. Toshiba didn't have a part to replace the board as the 36X81 has been discontinued, so they sent it to a tech in Chicago that could reprogram the board. It arrived in two pieces...
Now Toshiba will replace my 36X81 with one of the referenced sets which are the current generation of tvs from Toshiba, have had a proven track record, and I really couldn't find a bad review on either.
DaveF, I figure I am still ahead of the game if I pony up the 500 bones. I went from the middle rung on Toshiba sets, to a rung or two from the top. The question is, would I pay $2,200 for the 56H80? Yes, I just took a longer route to get to it.
Thanks for all your help!
GM