Advice needed on buying a used RPTV. (1 Viewer)

[Brennan Hill]

Hi all!

I live in a very small house, and know with reasonable certainty that we will buying a bigger house, but not for another two years, possibly out of state. Looking for a RPTV, somewhere between 40"-50". When I move, I'm going to want to as big as I can, hopefully 60"+ HD wide-screen. So I'm looking for something to tide me over for the next couple of years, until we have more space, also until the technology settles down a little bit, and more wide-screen material is available. I can't take our 27" any longer.

Looking through the local classified adds, I'm seeing a lot of 4x3 RPTV's being sold in the $300-$700 range. I'm assuming they are people dumping their SD tv's for HD tv's, which is just perfect for me for the next couple of years, then hopefully I can turn around and sell it again for a couple hundred when I get my big HD wide-screen. Or if not, no big loss, just need something to last two years.

Any suggestions on what to look for?

Thanks!

Brennan

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Used rptvs are even more of a crapshoot than used direct view sets, as they are more prone to burn in from improper settings.

Generally you'd want to look for one of the more reliable brands in the first place, then try to determine what kind of use the set's had.

If you find a nice Hitachi analog Ultravision (look for an SBX in the model number) or Mitsubishi that's been used by a fellow HT enthusiast who calibrated it properly from the get-go, is cognizant of burn-in issues, and is selling a 2 or 3 year old set mainly because of an upgrade to HDTV, you stand a better chance of getting a good stopgap set that should give you at least 5 years of reliable service.

If it's an RCA, GE, or Magnavox owned by a guy who ran it at full contrast setting mainly for ESPN and CNN, and has yellowish whites and station bugs or banners burned into the picture, run.