Looking for the best HDTV I can get for $3000 (1 Viewer)

[Lisa Menin]

Another strong recommendation here for the Mitsubishi Diamond 55813. I can sit about 3-4 feet off center without picture distortion. The set is terrific in HD, SD and dvd.

As for the Sony sets mentioned above, I have spent weeks reading all of the AVS Forum threads. My only advice would be to be very careful. While the number of people who post on the Internet are likely a small fraction of the total number of Sony buyers, there are a lot of unhappy owners there.

 

[Jason Brent]

Lanny,

I know you said earlier you don't think you'd want to go FP, but also said you hadn't had any experience with it.

I'd recommend you go take a look at today's FP units. It may surprise you.

 

[Lanny_B]

Uh oh. I haven't read a whole lot of really unhappy customers from them, but I just started.

btw, GWIII = ?
I can see Grand Wega, but what's the III for?

As for the Front Projection, yep it's true I'm pretty inexperienced. I went around to most my b&m stores yesterday and I didn't see and FP's out on display. I checked Circuit City, RCWilley, and Ultimate Electronics. I didn't specifically ask about it though; maybe they have it hidden away somewhere.

 

[LewB]

3rd Generation.

 

[Jason Brent]

Our ultimate electronics has one FP room.

Also, go look at some of the smaller specialty shops, or look in the phone book for some custom installers. Sometimes they have demo rooms you can go see.

 

[Danny Beck]

I'm a very happy 42" GW III owner. I've had mine for 3 months and have not had a single problem. I think the threads over at the AVS Forum are a little misleading.


First off, they look huge because you have the same 6-8 people talking about their tv problems. Second, your seeing only the people who have had problems. These GW III's are selling like hotcakes and the fact that you have some people with problems is not a shock. Any time you have a tv that popular your going to see a certain amount of problems. Yes, they did have a problem with the bulbs on some of the early units. The problem is now fixed and I wouldn't think twice about buying one. The picture quality and size cannot be beat for the price. I paid $2,500 out the door for my 42" GW III.



Tiger

 

[Lanny_B]

I just got back from Circuit city and checked out their Sony 50" Grand WEGA, and whoa, all of a sudden stability seems like an issue. It was sitting on the $500 custom Sony stand and everything, but that thing feels like it could topple over with just a little give. Since I have kids that will be watching it, playing on the floor, having kid friends over, etc., that could concern me.

Is there a better stand for the GWIII's? Why are they $500 bucks anyway? I would have thought there'd be a way to lock it down somehow or something.

I saw the Hitachi Ultravision one right next to it, and it seemed much more stable.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Shane Martin]

I myself have been comparing the Grand Wega III's vs the Hitachi sets. The Grand Wega III 60" I can get for ~$3100 + tax. The Hitachi looks to be about $3,500 + tax as there are only 2 dealers in town and the Circuit is impossible to negotiate with. Actually now that I think about it there are 3 and Sears won't negotiate either.

Having compared the 2 sets side by side in Circuit City which isn't exactly the best place to compare these, I found the Hitachi to produce the better PQ. That again doesn't mean alot. There is another dealer that doesn't carry the Hitachi but does carry the GWIII's and I haven't been completely satisfied with the picture just yet but what I did see had potential.

The XBR I saw looked amazing however but that was full blown 1080 so It should.

Anyway when I am ready to buy I plan to take a few reference dvds with me and spend some time in the evening with it when HD is more prevelant in my area and make a decision.

Both sets apparantly have their issues but with the way the internet is you have to be real cautious of the hysteria that happens. My local dealer doesn't seem to be having any issues with their GWII sets and the Circuit guy who I worked with in the past told me that they aren't having any returns on them either.

Either these sets aren't selling well locally here or its just a small chunk of folks out there having issues.

Regardless I'll make sure they have some sort of return policy to make sure I'm happy.

I can't say I'm not concerned.

 

[Shane Martin]

Lanny,
Gateway has a 56" DLP for $2,999 right now that is probably worth looking at. I haven't went to the Gateway store to look at it just yet.

 

[Bill Briggs]

Lanny_B,

I have the 60" GWIII and put it on a cheap stand that is just wide and deep enough that CC had for sale. I agree, the Sony stand is too expensive ane not that great looking either. The Hitachi stand w/TV looks better, but to me the Sony is a better quality TV. I especially noticed a big difference with text displayed on both at the same time. The text on the Sony was sharper. The colors are also superb. Take a look at the new Feb 04 edition of Home Theater Magazine. They have some good evaluations of big screens, including the GWIII.

As for tipping over, I tried pushing it forward and backward on the top to see how stable it is. It would take a fairly substantial blow to tip it. In addition, the owners manual tells you how to strap it down if you feel you need to. You can actually download the owners manual off the Sony website.

Best of luck to you. I have no complaints whatsoever with the GWIII. It is absolutely stunning. Can't wait for the HD TIVO unit coming in Mar/Apr.

 

[Mitch_J]

Lanny. I agree with you that Sony is indeed asking to much for a stand. It was tough enough comitting over $3000 for a TV. My solution was simple. To build my own. Surprisingly enough it was rather simple. And I have no, none, zero carpentry skills. 3/4 inch plywood, 1 2x8, a little quarter round and some flat moulding. Less than $50.00 later I had a great stand for the TV with three slots for components underneath. If I can get a picture of it I'll post.

 

[Dave Schofield]

Shane,

Sears does, however, price match against internet sites. They'll check to make sure the price includes shipping, but I've had them match internet sites on two occasions. The salesmen always balk at it at first, but they come around after a while.

Don't know if that helps, but I thought I'd throw my $0.02 in.

 

[Lanny_B]

I'm not sure about building my own stand. I suppose it's not out of the question.

I did just get back from the store which knocked the price of the stand down to $400.

What other options would I have than to buy this expensive stand that, in itself, costs more than my old TV.

 

[Mitch_J]

www.IKEA.com

They have some nice consoles that work good for holding the WGIII and have doors or drawers for components and media.

 

[Stephen_Dar]

Wise words there. I too finshed slogging through many of the very long threads over at avsforum.com and one takes away a general sense of alarm at first, there seem to be a lot of folks with the Wega sets that had problems. And, the XBR sets don't seem to have problems.

But, on closer examination of the data I have found so far, it seems the XBR vs WIII can be compared. Both come in 60" sizes (and others, XBR 70", WIII apparently smaller sizes like 50"), and at the 60" size it seems the differences may be the following: XBR has onboard HD tuner, higher resolution screen (but same 3 LCDs panels, not sure how that works), and a 120 W version of the projector bulb which is only 100W in the WIII. For those items you pay an additional $1500 (60" WIII about $3300k at BB now, XBR is about $5k everywhere it seems).

So, based on that, the XBR which I was hot for is losing some luster. Using the old theory that, like PCs, digital tvs are not worth stretching to achieve today's best (as tomorrow's average will be better), that WIII is drawing me back. For about $3k I get 60" that does look good. It may not be the perfect 70" plasma blah blah, but what's clear to me is that won't available or affordable for at least 3 years, more likely 5 or beyond. So, why wait.

Now, what I did find out at my local high end store about the WIII is, the sale guys admitted the early sets had a "1 in 10 or 2 in 10 bulb failure rate." For him to admit that seems powerful, and a 20" failure rate doesn't thrill me. But, this is new technology, such things can happen. I don't want to pay all that money and then have to chase repair people or make returns, though, so hopefully by now the technology has settled down. I'm going to look seriously some more.

Edit: on closer examination, the 60" WEGA is 4 grand, the 60" XBR is only a grand more, at 5 grand. Maybe the 50" Wega, at 3 grand, is a better draw.

 

[Shane Martin]

Actually you could get the 60" WEGA for near $3,000 pretty easily. The best I can touch a 60 XBR is $4900 which isn't worth it imho.

 

[Dan]

I picked up a Sony XBR 60" this last weekend- that set looks amazing. It does have 3 "fixed/dead" pixels. Honestly, however, it makes zero difference in viewing (I may return it just for that as I'm somewhat of a picture snob). I can only see them when 2-3' from the screen. We watch the TV 12-13' back and it is totally unnoticed.

I didn't get the stand (XBR stand for 1000? Give me a break-- I'll make my own). I put it on an extra coffee table we have and that is solid as it gets.

So far, my XBR experience has been nice (and it's only hooked through S-video). With the issues (again, I think the previous post about massive sales and a few complaints is spot on) some folks are experiencing, $4/500 should buy you peace of mind with a 5 year warranty. And if it dies in a year or two, that usually means upgrade to the newest model.

Good luck!