Need LCD TV suggestions

[Eugene]

Went to order a DVR from Comcast and I guess they're only renting out the HD-enabled STBs for all customers. So it's time to retire the 27" CRT and maybe get a 32" LCD TV.

This is for casual viewing: TV shows, sports, the occasional DVD. No fancy home theater set-up upstairs, so decent built-in stereo speakers would be a plus. I figure 720p is pretty standard for this size with only a few exotic 1080p options. Not a fan of big bezels and frames, but image quality is the most important factor... so if the TV is ugly but the picture is beautiful, I'll deal...

And if anybody's got HD service from Comcast and an older box, you should call your local office and check to see if they're carrying the DCT-3416s in your area. It's nice to have a box that has never been rented before, and it has HDMI as well as an eSATA port (disabled for now). It's also digital only, so your area has to be analog-digital simulcast (ADS) enabled.

[GladToBeHere]

I hear good things about Westinghouse.

[Yonzie]

I'm not really into the whole HD thing yet, but starting to consider my options and it's important to note that the only difference that's readily apparent in a shop is brightness.
Also, I have a flatscreen shop 100 feet from my front door and they have a Plasma and a LCD right next to each other facing the window (so I can snoop at night ;)). The LCD is a few inches bigger, twice the price and (i guess) much better resolution. Still, the Plasma looks way better (as in black blacks and saturated colors) anytime there's no text and such. Even with HD material. The resolution makes no visible difference with the material they're playing (WMV HD mostly) when ~15 feet away (which the window is).

Personally, I think I'm getting a reasonably cheap one (~32") during the january sales and then retiring it to the bedroom when the one I really want (40", LED, 1080p, 10000:1+ contrast, good color gamut) arrives.

[scratt]

/too lazy to read stuff..

In order to cover all bases what resolutions should your tv do?

If you have 1080p are you covered? Or do you need to have the whole gamut?

/too lazy to read stuff..

[Eugene]

If you have 1080p are you covered? Or do you need to have the whole gamut?
For most content, 1080p hardly matters for a 32" panel. And I don't know what you're asking in your second question? Nobody needs the whole gamut unless I've misinterpreted...

[Ryan]

If you have 720p you'll be fine. Most TV's that you'll find in most stores will have some sort of scaler in them so you can input pretty much any standard resolution (480i/p,720p,1080i/p) and it'll work fine. If it's PAL compatible (might be important for you, scratt), it should probably also input 576i/p.

[scratt]

Thanks guys... (Eugene, I was using Gamut in the old fashioned sense of the word.. Meaning the 'whole shebang', 'everything'. Probably a bit misleading as gamut is also used for colours and stuff in computer speek!).

Gamut - http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gamut

[Matsu]

Hi Eugene,

My brother picked up a 37" Polaroid LCD TV for 1499 (Canadian), which has recently dropped a couple of hundred dollars. It includes and HDTV tuner, and is a 720P set. (1280x720 native resolution). Has a full complement of component, HDMI, and DVI inputs. The picture looks very good to my eyes, especialy for an LCD set, it has good blacks and good contrast. It is glossy. He uses it with an Xbox 360.

If you're not scared of by the name I would investigate, seems especially worth it now that the price has dropped a couple of hundred. Don't know the US prices though.

[torifile]

All I know is that you want to avoid those TVs with the ATi Xilleon chipset (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=712567) because they do a horrible job with SD channels. The cheap Westinghouse and Syntax ones have it. If I were you, I'd wait until after the Super Bowl to pick one up. I know that's a couple of months away, but there's a lot of demand for t.v.s until then.

[Eugene]

Wouldn't the approach of the Super Bowl result in sales to entice buyers? Though you did remind me of one thing, CES is always at the same time as MWSF, so I'll probably hold out a month and see what CES 2007 has to offer in the form of low-medium budget TVs or clearances on last year's models.

[torifile]

Wouldn't the approach of the Super Bowl result in sales to entice buyers? Though you did remind me of one thing, CES is always at the same time as MWSF, so I'll probably hold out a month and see what CES 2007 has to offer in the form of low-medium budget TVs or clearances on last year's models.
I think of it like the pre-Christmas and post-Christmas sales. There are sales pre, but they're always better post.