HDTV ppl...

thinking about getting an HDTV. this is what I have in mind: http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=SHLC52D62U http://www.buydig.com/assets/product/images400/1B9FA6946A4B47E4B5799FAFD097F4AE.jpg 52", 1080p, pretty much the biggest baddest motha f*cka i could find. for $2500 anyways...if you have an HDTV, what is it, and what type of HD programming do you have (Dish network, DirecTV, Cable, etc.). currently we've got dish network, and they dont have many HD channels. so most of the time it'd be in SD. is it even worth it to get an HDTV then? it'd still be sweet to have a hyooj TV, but what happens if u play SD? everything gets stretched? everytime i think of buying one i come to this same point and quit :lol: :scratch:

Hitatchi is the best in HDTV. Most over the air broadcast channels are HD now, which there's no point in watching your local channels over the dish...just watch it over the air.

Hitatchi is the best in HDTV. Most over the air broadcast channels are HD now, which there's no point in watching your local channels over the dish...just watch it over the air. ahh sorry im a complete HD noob. so OTA is free and i just buy an antenna? is it a huge antenna or rabbit ears?

ahh sorry im a complete HD noob. so OTA is free and i just buy an antenna? is it a huge antenna or rabbit ears? Its ok... you gotta start and learn somewhere. Yes, OTA is free, and almost ALL stations are braodcasting HD, and if they are not I guarntee it's in the works. Rabbit ears won't give you the best reception you need. I would recommend a 75-150 mile antenna on the roof, with a electronic position motor so you can point the direction of the antenna with a push of a button on the remote. Of coarse keep your Dish so you get all the other channels too because Cable tv sucks! Check out the consumer reports.... you will find Hitatchi HDTV's are among the best.

Its ok... you gotta start and learn somewhere. Yes, OTA is free, and almost ALL stations are braodcasting HD, and if they are not I guarntee it's in the works. Rabbit ears won't give you the best reception you need. I would recommend a 75-150 mile antenna on the roof, with a electronic position motor so you can point the direction of the antenna with a push of a button on the remote. Of coarse keep your Dish so you get all the other channels too because Cable tv sucks! Check out the consumer reports.... you will find Hitatchi HDTV's are among the best. thanks for the advice m8, definitely helps. :dthumb: :thx2: who installs such things? place like best buy?

I am not a fan of Hitachi. My choices would depend on what type of TV you want, Samsung or Mitsubishi is what I like in DLP, Pioneer or Panasonic in Plasma, Sony in LCD and rear projection LCD.

i'm not exactly sure. I was under the impression that LCD offers the best picture quality, and thats the #1 thing. want to keep it slim so LCD or Plasma would be best.

If you want it slim then u def want an LCD or Plasma. However. for gaming you want LCD for sure. The sharp you are looking at has an awesome Response time, 4ms...So for gaming thats an awesome TV. For the price you are trying to stay around that is a good TV. I dont know much about hitachi. But instead of using consumer reports I might recommend using CNET and other sites for reviews. Consumer reports tend to be out of date very fast. Best Buy is also clearing out almost all of their TVs right now because of new models coming in. I work there. If you tell me where you live I could send you a couple models that are like what you are looking for and ones they are clearing out. I can look it up at diff locations. If you get a clearence still in the box it would be a great deal

If you want it slim then u def want an LCD or Plasma. However. for gaming you want LCD for sure. The sharp you are looking at has an awesome Response time, 4ms...So for gaming thats an awesome TV. For the price you are trying to stay around that is a good TV. I dont know much about hitachi. But instead of using consumer reports I might recommend using CNET and other sites for reviews. Consumer reports tend to be out of date very fast. Best Buy is also clearing out almost all of their TVs right now because of new models coming in. I work there. If you tell me where you live I could send you a couple models that are like what you are looking for and ones they are clearing out. I can look it up at diff locations. If you get a clearence still in the box it would be a great deal hey thanks for the info man. 4ms? thats better than my computer monitor i think :scratch: I hope I'll be getting a next gen system sometime soon but not really sure. but I'm a gamer for sure. I'm a big fan of cnet and they have a TON of info on HD that I found so right now I'm reading thru all of that. I havent even gotten to the "which one and how much" stage yet, still trying to figure out what I need. do they have plasmas in 1080p or other high res? also, do places like best buy install antennas, and do they price match online vendors (i'm guessing not)? i'm in champaign IL zip 61822 in case u can find anything, thx

Well, from what I know of it HD tv is only as good as the tv you're watching it on. My father just got a new Sony LCD tv that looks pretty sweet. My parents also have one of the HD antenna things as well as dishtv. I like the new LCD screens but personally I can't usually tell the difference between HD and normal tv. :leaving:

I like the new LCD screens but personally I can't usually tell the difference between HD and normal tv. :leaving: :skep: :skep: :skep: :skep:

Its ok... you gotta start and learn somewhere. Yes, OTA is free, and almost ALL stations are braodcasting HD, and if they are not I guarntee it's in the works. Rabbit ears won't give you the best reception you need. I would recommend a 75-150 mile antenna on the roof, with a electronic position motor so you can point the direction of the antenna with a push of a button on the remote. Of coarse keep your Dish so you get all the other channels too because Cable tv sucks! Check out the consumer reports.... you will find Hitatchi HDTV's are among the best. Yeah I don't think so. I have the HD with dual DVR box from Comcast. Works great and has GREAT HD pic. Besides without the cable you won't be able to DVR your favorite show Super Bikes. :lol: But the TV looks nice. And the debate on tv brands is a joke. Just like everything else... only a few companies make the actual products!

:2cents: I have the Sony 46" XBR LCD and I use cable because I also get my internet with them. Plus,you gon't have to buy any eqipement,there are no contracts,and the HD receiver is also a DVR(digital video recorder,like TiVo) which records all of my programs while I'm away so I can fast foward thru the comercials!! I have heard that Direct Tv is going to have over 120 hd channels by the end of the year so I am looking their way right now. If you want to see what hd tv can do go to someone's house that has it and click onto DiscoveryHD channel...WOW is all I can say!!! BTW Brie,if you can't tell the difference they might not have it hooked up correctly. Like everything else,when you go premium you have to buy the expensive cables; HDMI,VGA or DVI. They say you can use component but I think that only gets you 480p. I also have an XBox360 and agree that LCD is the way to go for gaming...plus I'm using my LCD tv in the bedroom(32") as my monitor right now with a wireless keyboard/mouse and it is awesome! Once you start watching tv in HD you can never go back!

:2cents: I have the Sony 46" XBR LCD and I use cable because I also get my internet with them. Plus,you gon't have to buy any eqipement,there are no contracts,and the HD receiver is also a DVR(digital video recorder,like TiVo) which records all of my programs while I'm away so I can fast foward thru the comercials!! I have heard that Direct Tv is going to have over 120 hd channels by the end of the year so I am looking their way right now. If you want to see what hd tv can do go to someone's house that has it and click onto DiscoveryHD channel...WOW is all I can say!!! BTW Brie,if you can't tell the difference they might not have it hooked up correctly. Like everything else,when you go premium you have to buy the expensive cables; HDMI,VGA or DVI. They say you can use component but I think that only gets you 480p. I also have an XBox360 and agree that LCD is the way to go for gaming...plus I'm using my LCD tv in the bedroom(32") as my monitor right now with a wireless keyboard/mouse and it is awesome! Once you start watching tv in HD you can never go back! I haven't seen it but I've heard Discovery HD is incredible.

BTW Brie,if you can't tell the difference they might not have it hooked up correctly. Well I'm thinking it's cause the tv I watch when I stay with them is an HD tv that's got to be like 4 or 5 years old. I can say that my father's new tv looks much better but I dunno if it's cause of the hd or not. Hey, at my place I have cable and about a 12 inch tv so it's not like it matters to me :skep: :skep: :skep: :skep: I know for a while is was all :scratch: :whistle:

Well I'm thinking it's cause the tv I watch when I stay with them is an HD tv that's got to be like 4 or 5 years old. I can say that my father's new tv looks much better but I dunno if it's cause of the hd or not. Hey, at my place I have cable and about a 12 inch tv so it's not like it matters to me I know for a while is was all :scratch: :whistle: Atleast you have cable. I work in television and I dont have cable.

Solid TV. Anything in 1080p will be tight as fu*k. Even 360 or PS3 will be tits. The Aquos' are top of the line. Samsung DLP's are outstanding as well.

Atleast you have cable. I work in television and I dont have cable. word. i've got bunny ears on my tube. Television is a bad bad thing, makes us sit around and watch things we'd like to do instead of actually doing them.

Atleast you have cable. I work in television and I dont have cable. Well I wouldn't except it's free on campus

word. i've got bunny ears on my tube. Television is a bad bad thing, makes us sit around and watch things we'd like to do instead of actually doing them. Oh dont kid yourself...I'd love to have cable. I'm missin out on SportsCenter, MNF...all that stuff. But alas...I've got the bunny ears....till TV starts paying me some solid wages.

i'm not exactly sure. I was under the impression that LCD offers the best picture quality, and thats the #1 thing. want to keep it slim so LCD or Plasma would be best. Actually the best picture quality is the brand new 1080p plasmas from panasonic and pioneer. Mitsubishi DLPs/Sony Rear Projection LCD would be next. I don't know who you got that impression from but flat panel LCD is probably the worst HDTV picture quality, well if you don't include the old school CRT projection that has pretty much dropped off the map.

Actually the best picture quality is the brand new 1080p plasmas from panasonic and pioneer. Mitsubishi DLPs/Sony Rear Projection LCD would be next. I don't know who you got that impression from but flat panel LCD is probably the worst HDTV picture quality, well if you don't include the old school CRT projection that has pretty much dropped off the map. :scratch: not a single plasma i saw at bestbuy.com broke 720p. guess I'm looking in the wrong place. is 1080p worth it tho? I mean for future proofing it is, but none of the HDTV broadcasts are in 1080p rite? and its hard to tell the difference. i hear both dish companies will be offering tons of HDTV channels by the end of the year, thanks to new MPEG4 compression and more satellites.

I have a 50" sony rear projection lcd and love it,,,,the only reason i didnt go plasma is , after doing a lot of research I found out that plasma has a bad problem with backlit (i think thats the word) problems, I have two large bay windows in my room that can cause a lot of reflection problems on a plasma...at night this is not a problem but it can drive you crazy when u can see the reflections of the windows on your screen,,,,,the lcd rear projection doesnt show the reflections as much and i have been happy with it for almost a year now.....

:scratch: not a single plasma i saw at bestbuy.com broke 720p. guess I'm looking in the wrong place. is 1080p worth it tho? I mean for future proofing it is, but none of the HDTV broadcasts are in 1080p rite? and its hard to tell the difference. i hear both dish companies will be offering tons of HDTV channels by the end of the year, thanks to new MPEG4 compression and more satellites. I can't tell the difference between my ps3/xbox 360 running in 1080p vs 1080i. They say the only way you can with a human eye is if you have a 108in screen.

I have a 50" sony rear projection lcd and love it,,,,the only reason i didnt go plasma is , after doing a lot of research I found out that plasma has a bad problem with backlit (i think thats the word) problems, I have two large bay windows in my room that can cause a lot of reflection problems on a plasma...at night this is not a problem but it can drive you crazy when u can see the reflections of the windows on your screen,,,,,the lcd rear projection doesnt show the reflections as much and i have been happy with it for almost a year now..... rear projection has just as much problem if not more with outside lights hitting the screen.

rear projection has just as much problem if not more with outside lights hitting the screen. just doesnt seem it on mine and if you look at them in the stores with bright lights, the rear projection has a matt type screen not a glass type of the plasma's which seems to reflect it more....but again , thats what i have noticed, and last year when i did the research that was the major complaint of the plasmas....

just doesnt seem it on mine and if you look at them in the stores with bright lights, the rear projection has a matt type screen not a glass type of the plasma's which seems to reflect it more....but again , thats what i have noticed, and last year when i did the research that was the major complaint of the plasmas.... Yeah I have had both plasma and rear projection. Seemed the same on mine. I have a Sony SXRD rear right now and it is near a window and if I don't have the light blocked it gets pretty hard to see. My plasma was about the same.

I bought the 42" version of the Aquos and took it back within a couple weeks. The color on em is absolutely terrible, way too much yellow. Plus there was no real point in paying for 1080p when at 42" you probably cant tell the deference in 720 and 1080. I replaced it with a Sony rear projection LCD that ran circles arond the Sharp and saved me $1100. As for HD I have Rogers simply for the fact that it came free with the TV and my roomates didnt want to pay for a dish. The rogers is crap, can't even get through one show without a hiccup or the audio cutting out at least once. When I move home in June I'll con my parents into buying a new TV and uprading to dual tuner DVR's from Bell.

I can't really say who is better but I definitely like Sony as a brand and I already have a 51" XBR rear projection that my GF's parents are using 'cause I moved into a 3rd floor condo and the tv must weigh 150lbs!!! When I had a problem with the big screen,A tech was out within 24hrs,decided he couldn't fix it within 72hrs and Sony sent me a new tv within a week,which was a bit of an upgrade to boot! Sony pushes the LCD format so I bought 2 LCD tvs,a 46" and a 32" and I love them both. The two tvs support 1080i and that's what DiscoveryHd broadcasts in so they look fabulous!!! AS far as XBox360 goes,you have to make sure the game that you are playing supports 1080i or you are only getting 720 and wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Plus,one more time about cables,you have to get the HDTV cable from Microsoft to get the best picture. You won't get it from the cables that come with the unit. I honestly did the "pepsi challenge" and could see a difference in sharpness and clarity with the data cable. I know that alot of you guys live in warmer climates than I do so maybe tv doesn't matter but I'd go nuts during the winter without Supercross and the odd motorcycle race rerun!:willy:

hey thanks for the info man. 4ms? thats better than my computer monitor i think :scratch: I hope I'll be getting a next gen system sometime soon but not really sure. but I'm a gamer for sure. I'm a big fan of cnet and they have a TON of info on HD that I found so right now I'm reading thru all of that. I havent even gotten to the "which one and how much" stage yet, still trying to figure out what I need. do they have plasmas in 1080p or other high res? also, do places like best buy install antennas, and do they price match online vendors (i'm guessing not)? i'm in champaign IL zip 61822 in case u can find anything, thx Well, You would be surprised. Go in there and tell them "Hey, this is a TV I am thinking about buying online. I would rather buy it here but it is so much cheaper online" .....and then I know my store would haggle with you and I wouldnt see why they wouldnt unless your from like a really rich city or something. I will check on some TV's tommorrow when I go to work. Solid TV. Anything in 1080p will be tight as fu*k. Even 360 or PS3 will be tits. The Aquos' are top of the line. Samsung DLP's are outstanding as well. Samsung DLPs are awesome. They are the only company that burns the bulb at its true brightness which means it may night be AS BRIGHT....but it will still be bright and give an awesome pic and last longer

saw a bunch of sh*t today, saw the TV I was thinking about, and damn all that stuff looks f*cking SWEET!!! Blu-ray + 1080p =:drool: also NBA2k7 on a 360 on an HDTV at 720p with surround sound was amazing... it was..... tits. :lol: still cant figure out which one or even which type. only thing is plasma has more glare and the way the TV is positioned it might be a problem :idk: still have some reading to do. and as far as them matching online vendors? i really doubt it but I'll try. best buy around here has that "we don't care if you buy it or not, take it or leave it, we're so f*cking awesome it doesnt matter" thing going on...

saw a bunch of sh*t today, saw the TV I was thinking about, and damn all that stuff looks f*cking SWEET!!! Blu-ray + 1080p =:drool: also NBA2k7 on a 360 on an HDTV at 720p with surround sound was amazing... it was..... tits. :lol: still cant figure out which one or even which type. only thing is plasma has more glare and the way the TV is positioned it might be a problem :idk: still have some reading to do. and as far as them matching online vendors? i really doubt it but I'll try. best buy around here has that "we don't care if you buy it or not, take it or leave it, we're so f*cking awesome it doesnt matter" thing going on... I love my tv... it's a Samsung 1080p...50" DLP. ****ing awsome... especially on 360... and with Blue-Ray DVD :drool: now I need surround sound:tt:

now I need surround sound:tt: dude get on that its not even that expensive!!! prolly costs less than your rearsets!! :lol:

dude get on that its not even that expensive!!! prolly costs less than your rearsets!! :lol: no... not the setup I want... I don't want a surround sound in a box setup... the setup I want will run about $1500-$2000

yeah but you still get the surround sound effect from the cheap sh*t. its still pretty impressive. better then nothing at least :2cents:

yeah but you still get the surround sound effect from the cheap sh*t. its still pretty impressive. better then nothing at least :2cents: yeah but I'm fine with nothing right now... (translation= I haven't payed off my tv yet :lol:) and I listen to music more than I watch surround sound movies... and those don't provide the sound quality I want. plus i'm gonna buy a house at my next base so I'm gonna wait to buy it till I'm in my house...

saw a bunch of sh*t today, saw the TV I was thinking about, and damn all that stuff looks f*cking SWEET!!! Blu-ray + 1080p =:drool: also NBA2k7 on a 360 on an HDTV at 720p with surround sound was amazing... it was..... tits. :lol: still cant figure out which one or even which type. only thing is plasma has more glare and the way the TV is positioned it might be a problem :idk: still have some reading to do. and as far as them matching online vendors? i really doubt it but I'll try. best buy around here has that "we don't care if you buy it or not, take it or leave it, we're so f*cking awesome it doesnt matter" thing going on... ya, best buy really doesnt care if they sell it or not....and again the glare is what put me off also for my room situation with all the windows, but they are getting better and better non-glare screens,,or so they say..... I see your in champaign, Ill....I spent a year there at rantoul airforce base and a few weeks in jail in champaign..(long story) :whistle:

I see your in champaign, Ill....I spent a year there at rantoul airforce base and a few weeks in jail in champaign..(long story) :whistle: :tt: :tt: do tell....

gonna go 1080p, for no real reason besides its cooler (and u can use your computer with it). prolly not going rear projection, I dont like how the picture changes so much when you change your viewing angle... :wtf: I'm thinking the one that i originally posted. question is, in store for $3399 or online for $2437. seems like the best TV, rated well by consumer reports and cnet.com, but it did have some "banding issues". any advice about buying online? if the price difference werent so big I'd go in store, but its almost $1K cheaper!! only thing is what if the unit we get is defective (dead pixels, etc.) so wtf? is going on, why is there that big of a price difference... why would anyone buy in store? there has to be a catch with the online purchase... I'm trying to find it. buydig says you "cannot return televisions" but All televisions come with a full Manufacturers Warranty. All TVs over 26" include in-home service. If defective, they will be serviced (repaired or replaced) by a manufacturer authorized service technician. Buydig.com can help you locate your nearest Authorized Service Center. you could even buy an extended warranty for it for a couple hundred more and still save almost $1K. :scratch: :idk:

TV is on its way :woo: will be here Monday.