OT: Upgrading the TV, help!

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:33 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:So here it is...the two contenders after a couple days of research:

Sony KDL52W4100 ($2,300 @ CC)

Samsung LN52A630 ($2,115 @ CC) - the ONE Sammy model with the matte screen

Dude, get the Sammy!

That's a good price too.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1043609

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:52 pm

Just ordered the Samsung LN52A630. Going to pick it up tonight! Thanks for everyone's help.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:06 pm

Awesome. Let us know what you think! I bet you end up liking that red tinted bezel. It's actually quite sharp looking. Classy, not cheap.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:21 am

Spooky wrote:Awesome. Let us know what you think! I bet you end up liking that red tinted bezel. It's actually quite sharp looking. Classy, not cheap.

It is BADASS. The 630's red bezel is so subtle (at least at night) that you can barely tell it was there. In fact, my parents both liked the way the Samsung looked over the Sony so that's essentially what made up their mind on which to get. So, the TV listed at 2,599 ON SALE at CC. With some fancy dealing, a coupon, and a couple of the in store promotions we walked out with:

Samsung 52" 1080p LCD TV (2600)
Samsung BluRay Player (400)
Monster Power Strip (60)
Monster Glass Cleaner (25)
3 year Extended Warranty (350)

All for a grand total of 2,800 bucks out the door. The freaking TV went all the way down to 2,083 after my coupons and deals. LOL.

Gotta love it. Thanks for the advice Spooky and everyone else...the picture through BluRay is phenomenal. Gotta wait till October 3rd for the DirecTV HD Install for regular TV. For now they are just watching SD Dish Network, lol. It's kind of sad. But that's what happens when you lose your TV one day and don't plan it out right. They still think it's badass, so it's all good.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:36 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:
Spooky wrote:Awesome. Let us know what you think! I bet you end up liking that red tinted bezel. It's actually quite sharp looking. Classy, not cheap.
It is BADASS. The 630's red bezel is so subtle (at least at night) that you can barely tell it was there. In fact, my parents both liked the way the Samsung looked over the Sony so that's essentially what made up their mind on which to get. So, the TV listed at 2,599 ON SALE at CC. With some fancy dealing, a coupon, and a couple of the in store promotions we walked out with:

Samsung 52" 1080p LCD TV (2600)
Samsung BluRay Player (400)
Monster Power Strip (60)
Monster Glass Cleaner (25)
3 year Extended Warranty (350)

All for a grand total of 2,800 bucks out the door. The freaking TV went all the way down to 2,083 after my coupons and deals. LOL.

Gotta love it. Thanks for the advice Spooky and everyone else...the picture through BluRay is phenomenal. Gotta wait till October 3rd for the DirecTV HD Install for regular TV. For now they are just watching SD Dish Network, lol. It's kind of sad. But that's what happens when you lose your TV one day and don't plan it out right. They still think it's badass, so it's all good.

Great to hear DB. But PLEASE make sure that you set up the TV correctly so it is not in showroom torch mode.

There are tons of great threads at AVS for settings and here is a great start...

Movie Mode (NOT Dynamic or Standard!!!)

(User Menu) Picture Settings
Backlight = 5 or 6
Contrast = 90
Brightness = 43
Color = 50
Sharpness = 15
Tint = 50/50
Gamma = 0, (3 can be used if material calls for it. Don't set to 2-bottom end of IRE scale comes out of black incorrectly.)
Color = Warm 2
Color Space = auto
Black Adjust = off
Dynamic Contrast = off
Flesh Tone = 0
Edge Enhancement = off
xvYCC = off

White Balance
User Menu
Offset
R: 24
G: 26
B: 26
Gain
R: 22
G: 24
B: 27

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:28 pm

Oh yeah...that's the first thing I did. Hell, on the Samsungs they even ask you right when you start it up if it's for home use or a demo in a store! LOL...so they basically do it for you! I got some settings from Cnet for the 650...they didn't have any that I could find for the 630. I'll end up really clibrating it eventually...just got too late last night.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:30 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:Oh yeah...that's the first thing I did. Hell, on the Samsungs they even ask you right when you start it up if it's for home use or a demo in a store! LOL...so they basically do it for you! I got some settings from Cnet for the 650...they didn't have any that I could find for the 630. I'll end up really clibrating it eventually...just got too late last night.

Phew. Glad to see you know what you're doing.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:34 pm

Thinking of purchasing a 32" tv for our bedroom. Do I need to concern myself with 1080p or will a 720p hdtv do? I will not be hooking up any game systems to it, so playing in 1080p is not a concern. Nor will I will have a dvd or blu-ray player in the bedroom.

And of course, I'm trying to save as much money as possible. If anyone knows of any great deals, feel free to pass them along. Does Best Buy match Amazon's pricing?

Thanks.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:39 pm

Personally, I'd be surprised if the difference from 720p to 1080p is very noticeable on a 32" or 37" at the distance of the length of a bed. Younger eyes may disagree, but for the gap in price, I'd say go for the 720p on that small a screen if you're not going to be using it at a desk.

Best Buy will likely only match for local brick and mortar stores that have the item in stock. They will not match for Amazon or other online-only price quotes.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:50 pm

I doubt Best Buy would match Amazon's pricing.

Plus the sales tax savings alone amounts to a 8% or so difference.

Yeah 720p probably will be fine for a 32-inch, especially if you watch it at a distance.

If you're watching a lot of 4:3 content, you may want something larger.

I bought a Panasonic 42-inch plasma from Amazon last year. It's bigger than the living room HDTV and gets more use now.

With 1080p, you probably get some nicer features, like maybe a bit better speakers, more HDMI ports, etc.

I wish I got a 50-inch instead. That way I could swap it out to the living room if something better like OLED becomes affordable.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Wed May 27, 2009 7:25 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Thinking of purchasing a 32" tv for our bedroom. Do I need to concern myself with 1080p or will a 720p hdtv do? I will not be hooking up any game systems to it, so playing in 1080p is not a concern. Nor will I will have a dvd or blu-ray player in the bedroom.

And of course, I'm trying to save as much money as possible. If anyone knows of any great deals, feel free to pass them along. Does Best Buy match Amazon's pricing?

Thanks.

If you check out slickdeals.net there is a deal from Vizio on a 37" LCD for $500. It's 720p, and like others have said it will make no difference on a TV that small. The general consensus is that anything under 50" and 1080p is kind of a waste. The only thing is that now all the 720p tv's are on the low end so picture quality is generally not as good on them as a 1080p set.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed May 27, 2009 9:21 pm

Thanks guys, and thanks for the link LAking. I placed an order for the 37" Vizio. $499 with free shipping sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Plus, I've done a few market research studies recently that pay more than half of the hdtv already! Plus, I'm extremely happy with my 42" Vizio that I have in our basement.

The big purchase will come when we upgrade our family room tv in a year or two. With a 7 and 5 year old, I'm still a little paranoid about them turning on and off (or shall I say leaving on) a brand new LCD tv. The Sony trinitron is working just fine for the time being.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu May 28, 2009 12:43 pm

LAking wrote:The only thing is that now all the 720p tv's are on the low end so picture quality is generally not as good on them as a 1080p set.

That's precisely why I went with the 42" XVT 1080p, 120hz for my office...a phenomenal TV for the price ~800 @ Costco/Sam's Club. It's the low end price-wise for 1080 sets greater than 40", but it looks SOOO much better than the 720P 37" Vizio I have in the bedroom. And yes, I'm a Vizio fanboy since I've got the 55" XVT 1080P, 120hz in my main room now. LOL.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Thu May 28, 2009 1:29 pm

What do you mean by 720p is on the low end in terms of picture quality? I get that 1080p has a better picture (I have a 1080p in the basement), but don't all hdtv shows, including sports all broadcast in 720p? Doesn't the show you are watching (i.e. American Idol, Lost, The Tonight Show, etc.) automatically detect what resolution the show is being broadcast in? They are all broadcast in 720p, correct?

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu May 28, 2009 1:49 pm

Well a 1080p set, besides the higher resolution, is likely to have better image processing features.

CBS broadcasts in 1080i and their NFL broadcasts look better than those on ABC/ESPN and especially Fox, which are 720p.

NBC is 1080i too but I think CBS still looks better.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu May 28, 2009 2:14 pm

sportdan30 wrote:What do you mean by 720p is on the low end in terms of picture quality? I get that 1080p has a better picture (I have a 1080p in the basement), but don't all hdtv shows, including sports all broadcast in 720p? Doesn't the show you are watching (i.e. American Idol, Lost, The Tonight Show, etc.) automatically detect what resolution the show is being broadcast in? They are all broadcast in 720p, correct?

The Tvs that are only 720P are usually on the cheaper end of the spectrum when it comes to each companies TV line, thus, less features and maybe not quite as good of a contrast ratio or whatever. That's all he was referring to.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Thu May 28, 2009 2:43 pm

Is it normal for cable TV to look worse on an HDTV than a standard set if you do not have digital cable? We bought a 46" Samsung 1080p 60mhz set, and the cable pictures look terrible right now. DVDs and games look great. I'm hoping it's just that we need digital cable to make things look "right" on it.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Thu May 28, 2009 2:53 pm

matthewk wrote:Is it normal for cable TV to look worse on an HDTV than a standard set if you do not have digital cable? We bought a 46" Samsung 1080p 60mhz set, and the cable pictures look terrible right now. DVDs and games look great. I'm hoping it's just that we need digital cable to make things look "right" on it.

I don't think digital cable will look much better than standard cable.

In my experience, LCD TVs look worse than a nice tube TV for all standard def images. If you just got a nice new HD set, you'll want to sign up for an HD cable package.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:01 pm

Naples39 wrote:In my experience, LCD TVs look worse than a nice tube TV for all standard def images. If you just got a nice new HD set, you'll want to sign up for an HD cable package.

Yes.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:05 pm

Naples39 wrote:In my experience, LCD TVs look worse than a nice tube TV for all standard def images. If you just got a nice new HD set, you'll want to sign up for an HD cable package.

That is certainly the case at our house, too. Standard def programming looks WAY better on my 14-year-old, 32-inch Sony Trinitron with S-video cables in the basement than it does on the 26-inch LCD HDTV upstairs.

I'll just keep on truckin', old school, downstairs in the man cave until more NHL Center Ice games are available in HD.

Take care,
PK

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:14 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:
sportdan30 wrote:What do you mean by 720p is on the low end in terms of picture quality? I get that 1080p has a better picture (I have a 1080p in the basement), but don't all hdtv shows, including sports all broadcast in 720p? Doesn't the show you are watching (i.e. American Idol, Lost, The Tonight Show, etc.) automatically detect what resolution the show is being broadcast in? They are all broadcast in 720p, correct?
The Tvs that are only 720P are usually on the cheaper end of the spectrum when it comes to each companies TV line, thus, less features and maybe not quite as good of a contrast ratio or whatever. That's all he was referring to.

I have both 1080p and 720p and HDTV programs look pretty much the same on them. Blu ray is where you see a big difference.

pk500 wrote:
I'll just keep on truckin', old school, downstairs in the man cave until more NHL Center Ice games are available in HD.

Thats what kept me from buying Center Ice. Ive become an HDTV whore in a very short period of time. Once you cross over Its hard to go back.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Thu May 28, 2009 4:46 pm

matthewk wrote:Is it normal for cable TV to look worse on an HDTV than a standard set if you do not have digital cable? We bought a 46" Samsung 1080p 60mhz set, and the cable pictures look terrible right now. DVDs and games look great. I'm hoping it's just that we need digital cable to make things look "right" on it.

That depends on your cable provider, the cables you're running from your cable box to your set, your TV, and the channel you're watching.

In my experience, standard def cable is not as sharp as satellite signals in standard def. I find that standard cable signals tend to look more noisy than satellite. Digital cable helps but I still think the picture tends to look less sharp.

Also, using component or HDMI cables from the box should help. Composite or even S-Video will look much worse.

There's also a lot of variation between the sets. HD content will look good on almost any HDTV, but the better sets do a better job with making SD content look decent. I have a Panasonic plasma and it does an admirable job with a lot of standard content. The Sammy sets are very good so I'm sure your TV is fine.

The channels also make a difference. A channel like Encore (which is still standard-def only) will look better than a lot of locals or Fox Sports. Movies tend to fare better than live TV and sports.

The bottom line is I would lower your expectations when you get digital cable, unless you pick up the HD package as well. XXXIV is right, once you go HD, it's hard to go back. I find it really hard to watch sports when they're not in HD, which is a real problem since WGN HD isn't on DirecTV yet. But the HD offerings for cable and satellite have increased a lot in the last year, to the point where anyone who has an HDTV should get those packages unless they don't watch TV programming.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu May 28, 2009 5:24 pm

Main reason is that analog and SD signals are a blurry mess to begin with but they don't show up on analog TVs as well. On HDTVs, which tend to be bigger displays, you see the bad signals plus the flaws in the image are magnified more on the bigger screen.

The quality of digital SD signals vary from provider to provider. The digital cable product tends to have a high level of compression. Direct TV was accused of the same and its early efforts were derided as "HD lite" because of low bitrates and high compression.

But generally, the MPEG4 signals it uses for the newer HD channels get good reviews.

As far as getting HD package, on many cable systems, it's a matter of renting a box from the cable company to get their digital and HD tiers.

But Comcast has a basic cable package along with a fairly inexpensive box, for $5 a month, to get you the local HD channels, including the regional Fox sportschannel.

That's around $25 after taxes.

The other thing to investigate is that newer HDTVs have a built-in QAM tuner and some cable systems broadcast not only local HD channels but some cable channels like ESPN HD in the clear.

So people using HDTVs with QAM tuners or PC tuner cards with QAM hook up their coax to the tuners and scan to see what they'd find. In most cases, you can find the local HD channels easily, so typically it would be something like 7-1 for the HD version of channel 7.

If that's all you need, you don't even need to rent a box or subscribe to the more expensive digital packages. If you luck out and the local cable company isn't encrypting channels like ESPN-HD, then you might get it too, although the channel mapping may be crazy, something like 737-2.

AVSforums.com have threads for just about every metro area, discussing the cable TV offerings and especially the HDTV channels. So people will talk about whether they've been able to find some unencrypted HD channels.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Thu May 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Because I live in the boonies, I can't get local channels through DTV, so I pay for the bare bones cable package (to basically turn on the connection). I get CBS in HD, and when I watch my Sunday Ticket games, I can't tell the difference between the satellite and cable signals. Overall I think the satellite HD channels look great. They're not Blu-Ray good yet but better than what they started with.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:40 pm

Naples39 wrote:In my experience, LCD TVs look worse than a nice tube TV for all standard def images. If you just got a nice new HD set, you'll want to sign up for an HD cable package.

I'm going this weekend to swap my Comcast Digital cable box for an HD box. Do all Comast HD boxes use HDMI cables now, or is there a chance they will try and give me one with a Component cable?

Component would probably look perfectly fine on my 37 inch 720p LCD, but I have two HDMI inputs and only one Component input so I want to have my PS3 and Comcast HD box using HDMI so the component input is free.