Is this a good time to buy? (1 Viewer)

[Bradley_Z]

I was going to buy a HD display before the US Open tennis tournament, but decided against it as there weren't many good 1080p displays out. I now have a playstation 3 and want to play games and watch my few blu-ray movies in HD. I would also connect my PC for gaming and movies/tv shows and of course I'm going to get HD television from either cable or satelite.

I already measured the room and want to get about a 40 inch, 1080p display. I know that CES but I don't know about which new models would be worth considering. I was very close to buying the Sony XBR2 before, but I'd like to know if there's something better out.

 

[Karynak]

The Sony XBR2 70" 1080P is a great TV. If I remember correctly, it is LCOS and for around 4 G's it is a great buy. I am going the projector route, but if I was sticking to the TV's I would buy that one.

 

[Bradley_Z]

I have a 108 inch front projector in my vacation home, but nothing in my regular home. I'm not looking for something as big as 70 inches.

My question is, if I buy something now will prices drop more than usual in the next few months or are there new tvs that perform better going to be coming out soon? I'm not in a hurry to buy anything.

I don't want to buy the XBR2 and then go online and see "new 40 inch LCDs with x, y, and z hit the stores today that offer higher quality pictures than anything we've seen before."

 

[Karynak]

In terms of technology and price....there will always be something new that will drive existing prices down. I would stick with a good DLP, LCD, or LCOS tv. I don't like Plasma tvs (personal preference) so this would be my suggestion. A good 1080P TV will be sure to last a while, but I can't see spending the extra scratch on a 1080P TV when 720P is still a very good image not to mention to take full effect of the 1080P you need HDDVD or Blu Ray.

 

[Sami Kallio]

40" TV, I would stick with 720p. I have a 61" 1080p DLP set and it's well worth the extra money over 720p but at 40" I don't see it worth it unless you sit really close to the set.

 

[ChrisMatson]

I would think about waiting for a TV with HDMI 1.3 so you can take full advantage of the "Deep Color" capabilities:

 

[Bradley_Z]

How long a wait would that be? I'm in no hurry now, but I'd like to get one this year.

 

[MikeDE]

I read somewhere that new models come out in spring and that's a good time to get a nice deal.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

As far as I know neither BRD or HD-DVD support 48-bit color (cable can't even get proper stereo sound). So I personally wouldn't bother to wait for a feature that has no practical use (but you will want 1.3 for your surround-sound AVR).

 

[ChrisMatson]

According to Wikipedia:
Blu-ray is capable of 40-bit video data
HDDVD can do 29.4
DVD can only do 9.8

And from the HDMI FAQ:
HDMI 1.3 supports 30-bit, 36-bit and 48-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths

HDMI 1.3 displays are expected this year.