Taking the RPTV plunge... (1 Viewer)

[Lane Denson]

I've decided it's time to upgrade my five year old 27" set to something better. Widescreen and HDTV is a must... my question at this point is RPTV or not RPTV? There's a couple of issues I don't see addressed here often (or at all)...

1) How much ambient light is too much for an RPTV? I don't plan on watching a lot during the day, but there will be some daytime viewing, and I'm concerned that my room is too bright.

2) I have a perfectly nice Bush TV stand that is 47" wide , so it should accomodate up to a 50" 16:9 set with no problem. All RPTVs I've seen are already sitting on some kind of stand, but for many of them it appears to be little more than a color-matched box. Are there RPTV sets that will allow you to remove the stand and use one of your own?

3) Recommendation time... the sets I'm considering:

Panasonic PT-47WX42
Toshiba 42H82
Samsung HCM-4215W
Samsung HCL4715W

Or should I just say bump it and get a nice 36" tube 4:3 HDTV?

 

[Kevin P]

Panasonic PT-47WX42
Toshiba 42H82
Samsung HCM-4215W
Samsung HCL4715W

I'm not familiar with Samsung sets, I personally prefer Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi for RPTVs. These sets look wonderful once tweaked.

I recommend using VE or Avia to set up the set when you receive it, and then for the best possible picture quality, spring for a ISF calibration once you've put a few hundred hours on it.

KJP