Best HDTV ready set for $2500-3000 (1 Viewer)

[Van Patton]

We're moving to a new 5000 sq ft house in about a month so I want a nicer tv to go with my nicer house. We currently use a 5 yr old Sony 53" RPTV that is good but it is not digital. Any recommendations?? We only have one OTA station here but I soon plan to buy a progressive scan DVD player to see my DVDs enhanced. I've seen a 47" Panasonic at Best Buy that looked really good but that seems kind of small. Thanks!

 

[Frank Kanyak]

My friend has the Pioneer SD532HD5 53" HD-TV. DVD's looking stunning on this beauty. I only saw a HD feed from a NJ store and I was literally blown away. Myself, I am looking into the Piano 3200 front projector for DVD,Digital Cable, and with the newest feature HD. It even has the new DVI-D interface. BTW the Piano is supposed to have an excellent de-interlacer.

 

[Jim FC]

Look at a Mitsubishi 55819 or 55859. Sweet sets, the 55859 has a built-in HD decoder. The Pioneers are also nice.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

In that price range you could easily get Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi or Panasonic sets in the 57" range.

Mits sets are known for excellent HD and progressive scan dvd, but not for good line doublers or stretch modes for ntsc stuff. Recent models have had sever "red push" but i've heard the latest ones are improved in this respect. Lots of tweaking information is available.

Hitachi has a better line doubler but nasty variable stretch mode. They generally can produce very bright pictures if need be, so are a good choice if you have to use it in a brightly lit room. Hitachi tweaks are hard to find.

Toshiba is said to have very good stretch modes, but upconverts all 480i and 480p signals to 540p, which some say sacrifices resolution. Tosh generally has very accurate color decoders, and there's tons of tweaking info available.

Sony's current line of widescreen sets has good line doubling, displays 480p natively, and has variable stretch mode on a par with Toshiba. These generally need the least tweaking out of the box, and the service menu allows easy adjustment or elimination of SVM and correction of the color decoder. They won't produce as bright a picture as the Hitachi, but neither will your present set.

Pioneer is a little high priced, the 53" model streets at 3400 for the non-elite models, but has top notch line doubling and stretch modes. Quality control is very good, not especially tweaker friendly.

I don't know enough about Panny sets to really comment on them, but most owners are very happy with them and they do have good pricing.