Please Help me with my 40" RPTV considerations (1 Viewer)

[Joe Valha]

1st post newbie question. I am sure that you guys get tired of answering the "Which is better" & "How should I spend my $$" posts, but thanks in advance to all those with more experience/expertise that respond.

Currently have a Toshiba 40 RP and I'm feeling that need to go bigger. Seriously considering the Mits 65411. I want to try and stay under $4k, including a digital converter (either Samsung if I go just for over the air HD, the new Sony dual converter if I also add DirecTV). Usage will be 60% DVDs, 40% TV. Any recommendations on this TV or others in this price range that I should consider? Again, thanks everyone.

 

[Joe Valha]

So I am trying to understand the way things work on this forum. I posted this, expecting to get some great feedback based upon reading other threads. Several days go by and nothing. But another forumite posts a thread with the title of "Time to upgrade the ol' TV ! Suggestions?" and he has 5 replies. Did I do something wrong to not get any response. And if so, what.

Thanks.

 

[Anthony.Lin]

Because your question is fairly easy to answer, it's hard thinking of a good answer for you. If you've read other threads in this forum dealing with the same thing, then you should already have an idea of what you should be looking at. Especially in your price range, basically every TV at that price point will look good.

Anyways, I digress - you might wanna check out the 65511 or the 65611, with the integrated HDTV tuner - saves you the hassle of buying a separate one. Quick check on CrazyEddie shows $3000 for the 65511 and $3280 for the 65611, so you should get around the same prices at a B&M store maybe. Use the rest of the money to get a professional ISF calibration, and you should be set. Sorry I'm not too up with the Mitsubishi lines, but I do know somebody that has a 73711, not professionally calibrated but amateurly done, and it looks spectacular. If you want to consider anything else you might want to look into other kinds of TV's, such as the LCD rear-projection or DLP, at around the same price.

I'm not too up with it with TV's, so I'm probably not the best one to ask. I just purchased a TW40X81 (Tosh) and I love it and it was ISF calibrated not too long before, so without the need to tweak or look around I didn't do too much research . Good luck!

 

[Joe Valha]

Anthony,

Thanks for your reply. My question is this. The incremental difference of buying the Mitsu with the integrated HD tuner is about $1000. I know that the TV is a bit better, but the integrated tuner only handles over the air HD. The sony HD tuner is $600 and does over the air and Direct TV decoding. That seems the smarter way to go.

 

[Jan Strnad]

It seems to be the smarter way to go to me, too.

Jan

 

[Joe Valha]

Now another local home theater store is recommending the WS-65411 over the 65311. I can't find the difference, other than the 411 has the integrated HD tuner. The store is telling me that's the way to go. They say that most of the HD programing is over air and the Sony box will be obsolete by next year. Any comments?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, they do make more $$$ if you get the one w/ the tuner built-in.

_Man_

 

[Joe Valha]

Not really. The incremental difference for the 411 vs. 511 is about $350. The Sony HD box is $749.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

That's sorta comparing apples to oranges. You can get a Samsung OTA-only HD receiver for $350 also. And if you ever want to do DirecTV or Dish or cable or just upgrade the receiver like for HD PVR capability, you can sell the Samsung receiver to recover some $$$.

The only real advantage of getting the receiver built-in seems to be not needing to use one of the HD component inputs, assuming the 511 comes w/ the same # of inputs. This, of course, can be a real advantage depending on your HD connection needs.

Anyway, if it's just $350 difference, I guess it's worth considering if you don't intend to do DirecTV, Dish or cable for HD right now.

_Man_

 

[Joe Valha]

_Man_,

Thanks for your reply. As far as I can tell, the only HD programming on DirecTV is HBM and a HD channel. What do you do?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Both DirecTV and Dish offer HBO and Showtime in HD as part of their normal multi-channel movie services. DirecTV also offers HDNet (mostly sports for large part of the day) for free so far PLUS an HD pay-per-view channel and night-time PPV on the HDNet shared channel. Dish offers Discovery HD for $7-8/month, but not sure about HD PPV.

In the months ahead, they will likely add ESPN HD, which was announced to go live in April. Actual ETA is unknown. There are also plans for additional HD channels like more HDNet and such later this year.

FWIW, I recently hooked up w/ Time Warner Cable so I can get some HD programming (and just in time for NFL playoffs) since not all the OTA channels have been restored yet in the NYC area. I have HBO HD for now, but they don't respect OAR, so I might just disable service shortly.

Like many, I'm also debating about when/if I should switch to DirecTV since they offer more non-local HD service and charge a lower monthly fee though you must buy the HD receiver. I originally wanted to do it in the spring, but I'm reluctant since I'd need to upgrade the receiver for HD PVR capability at year's end or so. I might end up just buying an OTA-only HD receiver to go w/ a basic DirecTV setup for certain non-HD stuff, and then sell the OTA-only receiver when I upgrade to a DirecTivo HD receiver later. That seems like a good way to go for me w/out worrying about eating too much upgrade cost.

And as you wondered, there really isn't quite that much HD programming offered by DirecTV yet. The HD PPV service and free HDNet would be nice, but HBO HD isn't quite that appealing due to the OAR issue and long window before movie debuts. Showtime HD doesn't appeal to me either. And there's not enough sports of interest (to me) for ESPN HD to matter until much later in the year. If the YES network went HD, then that would be different--Yankees baseball(!). Actually, if Dish could get YES network, I'd do Dish w/ their smaller/cheaper package instead. Something you might consider.

Don't know if my line of thinking works for you though in your choice between built-in OTA tuner and separate.

_Man_

 

[MatthewJ S]

The only real advantage of getting the receiver built-in seems to be not needing to use one of the HD component inputs, assuming the 511 comes w/ the same # of inputs. This, of course, can be a real advantage depending on your HD connection needs.
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Actually with Comcasts projected roll-out of "qam -in-the-clear"- no box technology in the next 12-18 months a built in mitsu tuner offers a great advantage but alas the 411 doesn't have one the 511 series does. You also get firewire, which I hope will be important in the future...Also consider that the cable companies buy hd tuners from that wonderful manufacturer known as "low-bidder".....

 

[Joe Valha]

Well, thanks everyone here and on my speaker post. I believe the phrase is "Go big, or stay home". I decided to get the most I could afford, so here's the new set up I'm jumping into in 2 weeks:

Mitsu WS65711 - ISF Calibrated
M & K 750 THX for front and center channel speakers
M & K MX105 MKII Sub
M & K 55 Tripole for surround
Integra DTR 8.3 receiver
Integra DPS 8.3 DVD

That'll set me back a bit....

 

[Joe Valha]

Well, got all that plus 2 B & W WM2's for the deck (to take advantage of the multi source capability of the receiver). And added 2 Salamander cabinets.

All I can say is.......WOW!

As of last weekend, it was all installed, hooked up, programed, and ready to rock. The Masters golf in HD was ASTOUNDING!

All that's left is ISF calibration next week.

This is the most amazing set up I have seen (in the under $20K range). It was definately more cash than I wanted to spend, but worth every penny and more.

If there is HD programming on, I never want to leave the house.....

 

[Joe Valha]

Well, got all that plus 2 B & W WM2's for the deck (to take advantage of the multi source capability of the receiver). And added 2 Salamander cabinets.

All I can say is.......WOW!

As of last weekend, it was all installed, hooked up, programed, and ready to rock. The Masters golf in HD was ASTOUNDING!

All that's left is ISF calibration next week.

This is the most amazing set up I have seen (in the under $20K range). It was definately more cash than I wanted to spend, but worth every penny and more.

If there is HD programming on, I never want to leave the house.....

 

[Max Leung]

Wow that's quite a rig you got.

Let us know how the ISF goes!

 

[Joe Valha]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have ISF Calibration. 2 weeks ago, my two certified techs came out with a boat load of gear and spent 3 hours tweaking my set. I'm absolutely amazed. Initially, they walked me through setting what I could set manually when the TV was first installed. So it wasn't as out of whack as if it was just out of the box.

But the difference is amazing. The picture, the sound, everything looks like looking through a window. HD TV is astounding. And DVD's look like HD. This was so worth the money I paid.

The system rocks!!!

My humble thanks to John and Danny for their great work.

 

[Mike I]

Go with the separate tuner..A separate tuner gives you alternatives,,OTA, direct tv or Dishnetwork or Cable HD..Also with a few HD PVR's do out this fall, why pay twice for the tuner..

 

[Joe Valha]

Mike I -

Are you referring to buying separate HD tuner? I went with the Mitsu WS65711 which has the HD tuner integrated. And I am going to wait until Dish releases their new box this fall that has 2 tuners and can record HD.

 

[Mike I]

Sorry Joe, I did not realize you already bought your tv..The reason I said go with a separate tuner and not a built in one is because When you get the dish PVR the built in tuner you paid extra for will not be needed ..The PVR will have an OTA capabilities like the one built into your set..