Help me decide. Sale ends Wed 9pm (1 Viewer)

[Stromm]

My great old 27" TV died. Instead of paying $800+ for a new tube with the same PQ, I'm biting the bullet and getting a RPTV.

Here's my info.

I have digital cable and don't see that $15+/month is worth 7 channels of stuff I don't really watch anyways. So, most viewing will be 8+ hours per day (Wife works from home in the living room, weekends are mine of digital cable, mostly 4:3 stuff (Enterprise, CSI, Discovery, TechTV stuff, old mystery shows) with some DVD viewing but not much more than 5 rentals a month.

My viewing room is 15'x14' with a range of about 11 feet. One wall (South facing) has tall double windows and the front door. Seating layout will be directly accross from screen AND roughly 50degrees off-center on both sides.

I'll have my audio surround system for sound. I'm using TimeWarner's digital cable with DVR and a Toshiba DVD player along with an el-cheapo Apex 1110W for DVDRs.


My top price really needs to be below $1600 w/o tax/shipping.

What I've liked so far are.

RCA D52W20 $1499. I like the PQ, but the reports of failures worry me. I don't know if this supports 3:2 pulldown.

Toshiba 51H83 $1599. Great picture. I've been told that over 5 years the screen will lose %40-%50 of it's brightness WITH yearly maintenance.

Toshiba 48H83 $1400 Great picture and my wife thinks the size is a better fit for our room.

Mitsubishi WS-55313 $1360 Great picture, comes with removable screen protector. I've been told Mitsu's don't lose their brightness over 5 years like other manfs.

Mitsubishi WS-55412 $1650 FIVE CRT projector with noticably better picture than the others excepting the RCA. $400 5 year warranty was highly recommended for yearly cleaning/adjustments.

HHGregg is having a tent sale on the Mitsu's at a few hundred off for the next few days.

Panasonic PT53TW53 $1549 (minus $250mir and $100 gift card). Haven't seen the picture but I like the built-in component stand vs. the speakers on the bottom.

Last question. Do I buy the warranty or not? It's $400 from HHGregg for 4 years.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cindy V]

What did you buy? I have the Panny 47wx53 and really like the tv and picture. I did not get the warrenty. It was almost $400, which is 1/3 the price of the tv. You get a one year with the tv from panny and if you buy using a credit card, they usually double the manuf warrenty.

PS I also bought a ED plasma for the kitchen and was suprised at how great the picture looked, even better than the panny which is hd (HD cable box from Comcast). SD looks better on the panny.

I also watch the old mystery movies which are mostly in b&w and they look great on both sets.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

All the crt rptv's drop about 30-40% in light output over the first 12 to 18 months. Fact of life. Not a big deal.

Then the TV stabilizes for the rest of its life ...

Regards