Any advice on a good TV for around $2000? (1 Viewer)

[AdamK]

Hi everyone, I'm new around these parts and my familiarity with TVs is quite basic thus far, so I'm asking for some help. I'm looking to purchase a quality TV for around $2000 in order to get a good foundation on a nice, mid-size home theatre set up for my apartment. As an avid video gamer, picture quality and sound are of course a primary concern. Of the characteristics I'm looking for are a 16:9 ratio screen, HDTV or HDTV-compatible, and composite inputs, although the latter is fairly standard on quality television sets. I'm not too particular in size at the moment, as I was originally gunning for a projection TV, but in the name of clarity, brightness, and price (and space to a degree), I was swayed into a 36" TV -- currently eyeballing the Toshiba 36HF71.
I've put down the $4 needed for a one month subscription to Consumer Reports' site and I've done some poking and prying around but I can't come to anything conclusive since a complete review list of TVs is impossible to come by. However, from the information gathered, it seems that Toshiba and Hitachi are among the top brands for the 32" + size TVs, with Sony not far behind.
Anyway, I'm a bit torn and still unclear on just WHAT to gun for. I know what I'm looking for and there's an overlapping on features among TVs, so really, it's just a matter of [seemingly] picture quality.
Can anyone give any advice or help point me in the right direction?

 

[Marc Rochkind]

For $2K or under, you have two choices:
1. Direct-view, 36". Make sure it has the "vertical-squeeze" feature than puts all 480 scan lines in a 16:9 area in the middle of the screen when showing an anamorphic DVD. At this price you are limited to 4:3.
2. Projection, maybe. I don't recommend a 4:3 projection TV, as projection 4:3 and 16:9 prices are converging rapidly, and 16:9 is way better. Not sure what you can find for $2K, but I know you can get a 16:9 for just a few hundred more.
Composite input isn't good enough... you should absolutely get component video, which is very widely available these days.
Whatever you do, do NOT get a giant-sized "analog" 4:3 projection TV, which the under-$2K projection TVs tend to be.

 

[AdamK]

Well, as far as projection TVs goes, I had initially looked at the Pansonic PT-47WX49, which is a widely available 47" 16:9 projection TV, although the lack of brightness and absolute clarity I was seeking ultimately turned me away from it. It's nice for the price, but as far as projection TV goes, there are certainly better ones out there. Just far pricier=)
In any case, I do appreciate the advice as the digital pull feature was something I did not consider. Thankfully, the Toshiba I'm looking at does sport it, so that looks like my best bet so far. However, if anyone else has any other suggestions I should check into or features I should look for, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks,
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[Eliab]

I don’t think that you can find a better deal than the Toshiba 42H81 for under 2K. It actually retails for $2,500.00 but PC Richards currently has it tagged for $1,850.00! Click below for a full description. Good Luck!
http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/tv/42H81.html
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Avical
ISF Certified Calibrations
www.Avical.com [email protected]

 

[BradZ]

forget consumer reports-
go to www.ecoustics.com to get better reviews on TV's. You'll find reviews from more specialty magazines which really go into the specifics of the sets and how they do with different signal sources.
consumer reports has it's place, but serious video/audio philes don't trust their review practices.
good luck
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zaphod
end of transmission...

 

[Carlo_M]

You can find the PT-47 for under 2K and then get it ISF calibrated. Trust me when I say that this TV performs at less than 50% capacity out of the box. Using AVIA gets it to about 70% but the last 30% can be obtained by an ISF calibration. To be honest most RPTVs benefit from it greatly, so this shouldn't be an "added cost" to the PT-47.
Re: the other post about clarity and brightness, those are all fixable things. When I had my set ISF'd on Michael TLV's tour, not only did he track gray scale (which the PT-47 does wonderfully after calibration) but he also performed a manual and electronic focus on the set which rendered the picture almost as good as many other more expensive sets that are better focused out-of-the-box. None of the display sets I've seen, not Mits, Tosh, Pioneer or other Pannys, come close to what my PT-47 does after a full ISF calibration. Imagine how much better those sets would look if they were calibrated.
If I could do it all over again, I'd buy either the PT-47 or the Tosh 50" 16x9 if I could afford a few hundred more for the set. Regardless of which set I bought, I'd ISF it after 100 hours.

 

[Jon Sotelo]

You can get a Toshiba 50H81 50in Widescreen HDTV ready for around $2000.00.