RCA F38310 High Definition Direct View tv questions... (1 Viewer)

[IlyaG]

I am looking for a TV for my new place. I recently went and saw a used RCA F38310 38 Inch High Definition Direct View TV. The person that was selling it had HD broadcast hooked up and it looked pretty damn good, although i did see some artifacts(owner attributed that to being far away from HD source). The set was bought in July 2000 and looked to be in pretty good shape. He is asking $900 for the set+stand(no ext waranty). I might be able to bring him down to +/- $800, is this a good deal? If not, how much is? i ve read some reviews of the set and many people seem to have some major issues with it. I ve listened to the fan noise and it did not bother me much. I also tested the DVD there Moulin Rouge, and was not all impressed with the quality, it seemed like it was a little grainy at times.. but i think it might have beeen dvd's fault, or was it his dvd player? he said it was prog scan.
I am located in central San Jose, CA. Anyone have any idea regarding the quality of the HD signal i can get using a table top antena?
Any known issues i should look for before i buy the set? any known problems that i can check for?
how do i check what the version of the TV is? I head there where several versions and the later ones had less problems.
Any info would be appreciated, thanks in advance...

 

[Jack Briggs]

Avoid. That particular model had an astonishingly high failure rate (pitiful power supply, poor-quality electronics, etc.). In fact, avoid used TVs altogether.



Distance has nothing to do with it; you either receive a digital broadcast or you don't. The artifacting (don't recall you stating what kind of artifacting) could be attributal to the TV or the player or to both. As for "graininess" on the Moulin Rouge! disc, remember that a good transfer to DVD will show film grain if it's there to begin with on the source elements.

 

[Aaron Garman]

I remember selling this model when I used to work for Best Buy, and it was a nice looking set. I remember the HD it displayed looked incredible. The only problem I remember is that it did not have another HD component in. Am I right about that? Also, RCA sets in general were more prone to problems than other models. For $800, it isn't a bad deal, but it is basically a crap shoot when buying a used set.

AJG