Recommend inexpensive RPTV for short term (1 Viewer)

[Hank Frankenberg]

My 32" direct view needs repair and I could set it aside for a second TV. I'm tempted to buy a 51" - 55" RPTV to do me for a year or two and then move to Front Projection. As it will be for the short term, price will dictate. I just received my Best Buy "preferred" customer coupons for this weekend. I can buy an item and get a 10% discount, and also there's the no-interest financing on an item over $300 through January of 2003. Also, my son works at Sears, so there's the 10% employee discount, but I don't think they have such a good deal on no-interest financing. Enough talk. Requirements:
Low Price, $1,100 - $1,400
4:3 is fine for now
No HDTV
-Thanks
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"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Okay, let's see if this gets any responses. Best Buy has the Magnavox 55P8288 55" for $1,299.99 and one Samsung PCK5315RX 53" open box on the floor (NOT connected and running) for $1,299.60. I haven't read anything about Samsung RPTV's. What are the opinions out there?

 

[Brian Bunge]

Hank,
I would strongly caution you against the the Samsung unit. An acquaintance of mine over at SMR Forums had their 40" Widescreen unit and had huge problems with both the TV and Samsung's customer service (or lack thereof). He ended up being able to leverage the dealer he bought the TV from to replace it with a new Toshiba 40" unit but he went round and round to get to this point.
I'll see if I can get him to post the specifics of his experience over here.
Brian
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[Brian Bunge]

Hank,
This is the response from Jeffrey Getzin from SMR. He was going to post himself but was having trouble logging in earlier:
Hi,
I am that acquaintance from SMR. Brian is absolutely right: avoid Samsung like it
was Ebola and AIDS rolled into one. If the TV set were free it wouldn't be worth
the price.
I had two different Samsung sets and both experienced NUMEROUS problems.
They sent technicians who were dumber than trained monkeys (one hooked the
board up incorrectly, saw a completely white screen and declared, "It's a clear
picture!")
I'm serious. Save yourself the trouble. Get hooked on crack or shoplifting or
something more productive like that. Buying an expensive Samsung TV was
probably the single most aggravating experience in my life.
Look at the Toshibas. They're much better quality. Love the 40H80!
Take care,
Jeff
I hope this is helpful!
Brian
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