HELP !! Can't decide on the right hdtv

I've been in the market for my first HDTV for the last year. It seems
like the more research and reading I do on the subject the more
confused I get. When I feel like I'm ready to pull the trigger and
make a purchase a new product hits the market and puts me back to
square one. I would really appreciate some in put.

First, being flat panel is not a major factor, display must be 50" or
larger, I will be using cable or maybe Dish network. Viewing will be
done in a large room with average light. I have narrowed it down to
three choices which are also three different technologies. Sharp 52"
Aquis LCD, Panasonic 50" Plasma and Sony 55-60 sxrd. All three sets
are in my price range so cost in not a huge factor. I'm interested in
best picture quality in standard and HD modes and reliability and
service issues. I'm not an expert but I know all three have a better
picture then what I have currently. I would love to hear some opinions
on my current line up. I promised my current TV to my daughter and
she's starting to put pressure on me to make a decision.

Many thanks Bill

"romeo52" wrote in message
oups.com...

I have narrowed it down to
three choices which are also three different technologies. Sharp 52"
Aquis LCD, Panasonic 50" Plasma and Sony 55-60 sxrd. All three sets
are in my price range so cost in not a huge factor.

I spent a couple of months shopping and ended up buying a 50" Panasonic
plasma. I've had it for 14 months now and it's been great. Terrific picture
and no problems. The ATSC tuner is quite good. The only thing it lacks is a
second HDMI input, which the newer models have, I believe.


--
Dan

"Gut feeling"

Intestinologists concur that the human gut does not contain any rational
thoughts.

What the human gut *is* full of is moderately well known.

"romeo52" wrote in news:1169217467.044933.138690
@s34g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I've been in the market for my first HDTV for the last year. It seems
like the more research and reading I do on the subject the more
confused I get. When I feel like I'm ready to pull the trigger and
make a purchase a new product hits the market and puts me back to
square one. I would really appreciate some in put.

First, being flat panel is not a major factor, display must be 50" or
larger, I will be using cable or maybe Dish network. Viewing will be
done in a large room with average light. I have narrowed it down to
three choices which are also three different technologies. Sharp 52"
Aquis LCD, Panasonic 50" Plasma and Sony 55-60 sxrd. All three sets
are in my price range so cost in not a huge factor. I'm interested in
best picture quality in standard and HD modes and reliability and
service issues. I'm not an expert but I know all three have a better
picture then what I have currently. I would love to hear some opinions
on my current line up. I promised my current TV to my daughter and
she's starting to put pressure on me to make a decision.

Many thanks Bill


Have you looked at The JVC hd ila sets?

romeo52 wrote:

First, being flat panel is not a major factor, display must be 50" or
larger, I will be using cable or maybe Dish network. Viewing will be
done in a large room with average light. I have narrowed it down to
three choices which are also three different technologies. Sharp 52"
Aquis LCD, Panasonic 50" Plasma and Sony 55-60 sxrd. All three sets
are in my price range so cost in not a huge factor. I'm interested in
best picture quality in standard and HD modes and reliability and
service issues. I'm not an expert but I know all three have a better
picture then what I have currently. I would love to hear some opinions
on my current line up. I promised my current TV to my daughter and
she's starting to put pressure on me to make a decision.

Among those three sets, I would go with the 50" Panasonic plasma. The
Panasonic and Pioneer plasmas still offer the best overall picture
quality for contrast, minimum black levels, and colors among the more
affordable large screen HD TVs, IMHO.

It does depend on what you plan to use the TV for. If the TV will be
in a brightly light room or it will be used for playing a lot of
computer games, then the LCD is perhaps the better choice. But if the HD
TV will be used for watching movies, TV programming, sports, the
Panasonic and Pioneer plasmas are the better choice. There are new
Panasonic plasma models coming out in the spring, but that is a ways off
and the current TH-50PX60U set is very good HDTV. I also noticed several
days ago that Best Buy was selling it for $2000 at their website.

As a side note, if you don't have HD service, you should sign up for
the HD service from your cable or Dish. I'm amazed at the number of
people who spend $2K or $3K on a HD TV, but then balk at spending $5 or
$10 a month more on a digital STB from the cable company. So they hook
the HD TV up to analog cable and stop there. Of course, the upgrade cost
for satellite tends to be a lot more, so that it a factor.

Then there is the free over the air HD option. All TVs 25" must have
digital ATSC tuners built-in if they are sold as a "TV" and we are not
far off from the March 1 deadline for all new TVs of all sizes to have
ATSC tuners. There are still stations in the smaller markets that are at
low power on their digital broadcast or don't yet offer a HD signal. But
in the major markets, putting up a good UHF or VHF/UHF antenna is often
all that is required to get ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, PBS, and maybe CW & even
My Network in HD. Start with www.antennaweb.org to find out where the
digital stations are.

Alan F

Alan F wrote:
Then there is the free over the air HD option.

Can you tell me what is the difference between a QAM tuner and an ATSC
tuner? I have Directv and will be upgrading to their hi def receiver
as soon as I buy a tv. Thanks.

"romeo52" wrote

...being flat panel is not a major factor, display must be 50" or
larger, I will be using cable or maybe Dish network. Viewing will be
done in a large room with average light. I have narrowed it down to
three choices which are also three different technologies. Sharp 52"
Aquis LCD, Panasonic 50" Plasma and Sony 55-60 sxrd....

Although I think that flat-panel will eventually win out, right now RP gives
more screen area and image quality for the buck, even after factoring in
replacement lamps. Some people shy away from lamp replacement, but I found
it not much more difficult than changing a regular light bulb. So I'd
personally choose the Sony in this list. You might want to also consider the
other major LCoS technology, the JVC D-ILA, which is substantially less
expensive but in my experience every bit as good. My 2005 G-series has been
great the past 15 months.

PawsForThought wrote:
Alan F wrote:
Then there is the free over the air HD option.

Can you tell me what is the difference between a QAM tuner and an ATSC
tuner? I have Directv and will be upgrading to their hi def receiver
as soon as I buy a tv. Thanks.


ATSC = Over the air (OTA) digital broadcast standard for receiving your
local stations via UHF and VHF. A ATSC signal can carry up to 6 SD
sub-channels or a mix of 1 HD sub-channels (or 2 HD sub-channels in a
few places) and several SD sub-channels.

QAM = digital cable standard with terms such as QAM64 and QAM256 used.
QAM channels go up to 125, 135 or higher depending on the cable system
and can carry up to 12 to 15 SD sub-channels for each QAM channel. A
cable subscriber only sees the mapped channel number, for example HD
channel 702 may actually be at QAM channel 97.3.

Most digital cable channels are scrambled so a QAM tuner has to have
the de-encryption codes to receive most digital SD and HD channels. Most
HD TVs come with only a "clear" QAM tuner which means they can only
receive the unscrambled digital channels which are usually only the
local broadcast stations. ESPN-HD, HBO-HD, TNT-HD are almost always
scrambled. To get the scrambled channels, you need the digital set top
box from the cable company or a TV or STB with cable card capability.
You have to rent the cable cards from the cable company.

But if you have DirecTV, neither of these matter unless you want to
get your local stations OTA. Even in cities where DirecTV now offer the
HD locals via their new Mpeg-4 satellite(s), they are only carrying the
big four (Fox, NBC, etc) as far as I know. To get all your local
stations in HD, you may need an ATSC tuner and antenna.

Hope this makes sense.

Alan F

Alan F wrote:
But if you have DirecTV, neither of these matter unless you want to
get your local stations OTA. Even in cities where DirecTV now offer the
HD locals via their new Mpeg-4 satellite(s), they are only carrying the
big four (Fox, NBC, etc) as far as I know. To get all your local
stations in HD, you may need an ATSC tuner and antenna.

Hope this makes sense.

Alan F

Thank you very much for an excellent answer! You really know your
stuff. Now I just need to decide whether to keep Directv and go with
their hi def receiver (requires a 2 year commitment), or switch to
cable which doesn't require a commitment but I think their prices are
higher than Directv.

On Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:10:14 -0800, PawsForThought wrote:


Alan F wrote:
Then there is the free over the air HD option.

Can you tell me what is the difference between a QAM tuner and an ATSC
tuner? I have Directv and will be upgrading to their hi def receiver
as soon as I buy a tv. Thanks.

Search engines work wonders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrat...ude_modulation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC_tuner

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PawsForThought wrote:

Alan F wrote:
But if you have DirecTV, neither of these matter unless you want to


get your local stations OTA. Even in cities where DirecTV now offer the
HD locals via their new Mpeg-4 satellite(s), they are only carrying the
big four (Fox, NBC, etc) as far as I know. To get all your local
stations in HD, you may need an ATSC tuner and antenna.

Hope this makes sense.

Alan F



Thank you very much for an excellent answer! You really know your
stuff. Now I just need to decide whether to keep Directv and go with
their hi def receiver (requires a 2 year commitment), or switch to
cable which doesn't require a commitment but I think their prices are
higher than Directv.


Stay with DirectTV... Google up some Cable HD issues and quality. :-)

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