Brent Hutto
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2001
- Messages
- 532
Our 36" television and 480i DVD player just celebrated their sixth birthday and the 36XBR800...I must face the truth...is getting dimmer almost by the week now. I've been saying for years that I wouldn't upgrade the TV until high definition DVD's become available and affordable. So for the past several years I've been completely out of the loop on home theater stuff (except for replacing our audio HT receiver when lightning killed the original one).
We sit 8-1/2 feet from the screen in a semi-darkened room (heavy drapes on the two small windows, extra drapes that we hang over the doorway to watch movies) and watch about a 60/40 combination of rented or purchased movies and HD-cable shows with a Time-Warner DVR. I have a personal preference for really good black levels and a smooth, film-like picture while my wife basically couldn't care less beyond preferring a good HDTV picture to most 480i DVD movies.
So where does that put us? My initial impression is that at our viewing distance a 42" television is probably on the small side whereas anything much beyond 50"-ish might be overwhelming in our small HT room. And I can't imagine not going with a flat panel nowadays, what say? I guess the "high definition" CD player will actually be Blu-Ray if I understand the current situation aright.
I'll ask the question w.r.t. a $2,000 budget but will also say that the closer to $1,500 I can keep it the sooner I'll be able to do the upgrade. Assuming the Sony doesn't completely give up the ghost any time soon I'm thinking of looking for holiday-season deals or maybe even waiting around to pick up something previous-generation-ish after the first of the year if that's a way to save some money.
With $1,500-$2,000 to spend all in (tax, delivery, etc.) what would be a good value-for-money proposition in let's say a 46" TV and plain-vanilla Blu-Ray player? Can you get a plasma at that price point...or for that matter do I even want a plasma? Can I assume 1080p or should I consider "settling" for 720p? Is everything hooked up HDMI now? BTW, I'll plan on doing my own calibration as I've done in the past if there are Blu-Ray based calibration DVD's to use.
We sit 8-1/2 feet from the screen in a semi-darkened room (heavy drapes on the two small windows, extra drapes that we hang over the doorway to watch movies) and watch about a 60/40 combination of rented or purchased movies and HD-cable shows with a Time-Warner DVR. I have a personal preference for really good black levels and a smooth, film-like picture while my wife basically couldn't care less beyond preferring a good HDTV picture to most 480i DVD movies.
So where does that put us? My initial impression is that at our viewing distance a 42" television is probably on the small side whereas anything much beyond 50"-ish might be overwhelming in our small HT room. And I can't imagine not going with a flat panel nowadays, what say? I guess the "high definition" CD player will actually be Blu-Ray if I understand the current situation aright.
I'll ask the question w.r.t. a $2,000 budget but will also say that the closer to $1,500 I can keep it the sooner I'll be able to do the upgrade. Assuming the Sony doesn't completely give up the ghost any time soon I'm thinking of looking for holiday-season deals or maybe even waiting around to pick up something previous-generation-ish after the first of the year if that's a way to save some money.
With $1,500-$2,000 to spend all in (tax, delivery, etc.) what would be a good value-for-money proposition in let's say a 46" TV and plain-vanilla Blu-Ray player? Can you get a plasma at that price point...or for that matter do I even want a plasma? Can I assume 1080p or should I consider "settling" for 720p? Is everything hooked up HDMI now? BTW, I'll plan on doing my own calibration as I've done in the past if there are Blu-Ray based calibration DVD's to use.