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#1
May 3rd 04, 06:42 AM
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Where do I start???
I have a TV that is 20 years old and the tuner (or filter) is finally
going out on it. It is a Mitsubishi rear projection that I had great luck with. Unfortunately, the picture keeps shutting off and it looks like there are no parts for the TV anymore, I need to start looking for a new TV. To round out my equipment, I have Dishnetwork, a DVD player (non-progressive scan) and a Marantz SR870 (from 1996) receiver. I went over to Fry's electronics and looked at several TVs and one the sales person mentioned was a Mitsubishi WS-55613. It looked great, but is it a good TV? I know after I get the TV, I will need to upgrade the DVD to a progressive scan model to get a better picture and I will probably break down and purchase a new receiver (one that handles component video). Again, the salesperson suggested an Onkyo TX-SR801. I just don't know where to begin to find out if the equipment talked about is really worth the price, or just the salesman hyping it up? Where does one start? Can anyone give me any suggestions? Thanks for your help. 
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#2
May 3rd 04, 02:12 PM
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I just don't know where to begin to find out if the equipment talked
about is really worth the price, or just the salesman hyping it up? Where does one start? Can anyone give me any suggestions? What I did was looked at several TVs at my local stores, played with the remotes and settings, tried to get similar brightness/contrast levels when comparing them next to each other so I could determine which I thought had the best picture. After I jotted down the model numbers, I went on sites such as eopinions.com to see what others said about those particular models. After I whittled it down to a couple of models, I went back and took another look, played a while longer with them. Noted any details which might put one model above another, such as number of inputs, viewing angle, how easy the TV is to move around, remote control features, etc. Little things. Finally got it down to one model, and searched the internet for the best price. Save boatloads over my local stores.
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#3
May 3rd 04, 05:05 PM
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#4
May 4th 04, 01:57 AM
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Chip,
You had good luck with your last Mitsubishi so it sounds like you have brand loyalty to Mitsubishi. I'm happy to tell you they still make great rear-projection HDTVs and they are still a leader in rear-projection technology (along with Pioneer and Hitachi), but not every set they produce is quality compared to what's available these days. So what's changed in the last twenty years and how does WS-55613 compare? Well the model you're looking at is part of the Mitsubishi GoldPlus series. To help classify the quality of their product offering, today Mitsubishi classifies their HDTVs in one of five categories: Gold, GoldPlus, Platinum, Diamond and Alpha. The differences in these classes is pretty large, think of the Gold series as a striped down Toyota Corolla and the Alpha series as a high end Lexus. The picture quality (based on magnification/lens technology) is what you should be concerned with and their is a visible difference between the Gold, GoldPlus and then Plantinum, Diamond and Alpha lines. I would recommend going with Mitsubishi's Platinum or Diamond series and nothing less (especially if you intend to keep the TV for twenty years or so  .If Fry's doesn't carry the higher-end lines (I doubt they do) go to a more speciality store (you can find a retailer at Mitsubishi's website). Other really strong brands a Pioneer (Elite series) and my favorite, Hitachi (S series and W series) to a lesser degree Sony is a safe (albeit over priced) choice. Good places to shop depend on your area. Sears carries Hitachi, Tweater carries Mitsubishi and Pioneer. Conns also has a good selection (Hitachi and Mitsubishi) and they have reasonably good service. Both retailers mentioned offer price matching. Best of luck. -Jeremy -------------------------------------------- New to HDTV, check out my HDTV Buyers FAQ http://hdtv.0catch.com -------------------------------------------- (Chip) wrote in message . com... I have a TV that is 20 years old and the tuner (or filter) is finally going out on it. It is a Mitsubishi rear projection that I had great luck with. Unfortunately, the picture keeps shutting off and it looks like there are no parts for the TV anymore, I need to start looking for a new TV. To round out my equipment, I have Dishnetwork, a DVD player (non-progressive scan) and a Marantz SR870 (from 1996) receiver. I went over to Fry's electronics and looked at several TVs and one the sales person mentioned was a Mitsubishi WS-55613. It looked great, but is it a good TV? I know after I get the TV, I will need to upgrade the DVD to a progressive scan model to get a better picture and I will probably break down and purchase a new receiver (one that handles component video). Again, the salesperson suggested an Onkyo TX-SR801. I just don't know where to begin to find out if the equipment talked about is really worth the price, or just the salesman hyping it up? Where does one start? Can anyone give me any suggestions? Thanks for your help.
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#6
May 4th 04, 03:29 PM
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Thanks for the information.
Yes, I was leaning towards Mitsubishi since the first TV had such a good track life. I realize that nothing is built like they used to be, but am hoping that it is still well built. I haven't heard of any of the stores you mentioned, but Ultimate Electronics offer the whole Mitsubishi line as well as some of the others you mentioned. I would be too nervous buying this over the Internet even with a price discount. Buying small things don't bother me, but something like this does. Again, thanks for the information. (JDeats) wrote in message . com... Chip, You had good luck with your last Mitsubishi so it sounds like you have brand loyalty to Mitsubishi. I'm happy to tell you they still make great rear-projection HDTVs and they are still a leader in rear-projection technology (along with Pioneer and Hitachi), but not every set they produce is quality compared to what's available these days. So what's changed in the last twenty years and how does WS-55613 compare? Well the model you're looking at is part of the Mitsubishi GoldPlus series. To help classify the quality of their product offering, today Mitsubishi classifies their HDTVs in one of five categories: Gold, GoldPlus, Platinum, Diamond and Alpha. The differences in these classes is pretty large, think of the Gold series as a striped down Toyota Corolla and the Alpha series as a high end Lexus. The picture quality (based on magnification/lens technology) is what you should be concerned with and their is a visible difference between the Gold, GoldPlus and then Plantinum, Diamond and Alpha lines. I would recommend going with Mitsubishi's Platinum or Diamond series and nothing less (especially if you intend to keep the TV for twenty years or so .If Fry's doesn't carry the higher-end lines (I doubt they do) go to a more speciality store (you can find a retailer at Mitsubishi's website). Other really strong brands a Pioneer (Elite series) and my favorite, Hitachi (S series and W series) to a lesser degree Sony is a safe (albeit over priced) choice. Good places to shop depend on your area. Sears carries Hitachi, Tweater carries Mitsubishi and Pioneer. Conns also has a good selection (Hitachi and Mitsubishi) and they have reasonably good service. Both retailers mentioned offer price matching. Best of luck. -Jeremy -------------------------------------------- New to HDTV, check out my HDTV Buyers FAQ http://hdtv.0catch.com --------------------------------------------
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#7
May 5th 04, 04:30 AM
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Here are a few other things:
- I recommend a 16:9 (widescreen set), lots of reasons why. Namely because HD content is always widescreen and will fill-out the set. If you enjoy movies at all, here's a good article that's covers the topic of aspect ratios pretty well: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...reenorama.html - Other makers over auto focus feature, you've probably gotten acustom to manually focusing your set. I don't know what you've old set had, but current Mitsubishi's offer a lot of percision (90-point convergence tweaking), auto convergence/focus saves you soem time by getting you in ballbark. I don't know why Mitsubishi doesn't offer this. - Some manufactuers (namely: Sony, LG and Hitachi) include 1080i upconverters in some of their models, this makes normal non-HD programming look much better than it otherwise would. - There's been quite a few advancements in TV technology, aside from CRT rear-projection sets (all Mitsubishi's rear-projection sets are CRT) we now have DLP technology which has some benefits in that it will not wear out and it will never have burn-in on the screen. Look at Samsung and Panasonic sets if you're interested in DLP they have the best offering for this technology right now. You also have LCD technology, LCOS, and Plasma (I'd stay away from the last two). In the right conditions and the right technology inside, Rear-projection is still considered to produce the best picture quality available, but a lot of things haven't changed about this technology: the sets are still bulky and heavy, almost all of them are CRT based and still burn phospher to produce an image (so they are highly subject to burn-in and have about 15-20 year life span), they still have a limited viewing angle and will dim when you get outside of their viewing angle. Hope this was helpful. -Jeremy (Chip) wrote in message . com... Thanks for the information. Yes, I was leaning towards Mitsubishi since the first TV had such a good track life. I realize that nothing is built like they used to be, but am hoping that it is still well built. I haven't heard of any of the stores you mentioned, but Ultimate Electronics offer the whole Mitsubishi line as well as some of the others you mentioned. I would be too nervous buying this over the Internet even with a price discount. Buying small things don't bother me, but something like this does. Again, thanks for the information. (JDeats) wrote in message . com... Chip, You had good luck with your last Mitsubishi so it sounds like you have brand loyalty to Mitsubishi. I'm happy to tell you they still make great rear-projection HDTVs and they are still a leader in rear-projection technology (along with Pioneer and Hitachi), but not every set they produce is quality compared to what's available these days. So what's changed in the last twenty years and how does WS-55613 compare? Well the model you're looking at is part of the Mitsubishi GoldPlus series. To help classify the quality of their product offering, today Mitsubishi classifies their HDTVs in one of five categories: Gold, GoldPlus, Platinum, Diamond and Alpha. The differences in these classes is pretty large, think of the Gold series as a striped down Toyota Corolla and the Alpha series as a high end Lexus. The picture quality (based on magnification/lens technology) is what you should be concerned with and their is a visible difference between the Gold, GoldPlus and then Plantinum, Diamond and Alpha lines. I would recommend going with Mitsubishi's Platinum or Diamond series and nothing less (especially if you intend to keep the TV for twenty years or so .If Fry's doesn't carry the higher-end lines (I doubt they do) go to a more speciality store (you can find a retailer at Mitsubishi's website). Other really strong brands a Pioneer (Elite series) and my favorite, Hitachi (S series and W series) to a lesser degree Sony is a safe (albeit over priced) choice. Good places to shop depend on your area. Sears carries Hitachi, Tweater carries Mitsubishi and Pioneer. Conns also has a good selection (Hitachi and Mitsubishi) and they have reasonably good service. Both retailers mentioned offer price matching. Best of luck. -Jeremy -------------------------------------------- New to HDTV, check out my HDTV Buyers FAQ http://hdtv.0catch.com --------------------------------------------
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#8
May 5th 04, 01:34 PM
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"JDeats" wrote in message om... - Some manufactuers (namely: Sony, LG and Hitachi) include 1080i upconverters in some of their models, this makes normal non-HD programming look much better than it otherwise would. This is not always true. Many sets look best displaying analog as 480i (some don't allow this anymore, however) and some look best when it is upconverted. It depends on too many variables to make blanket statements like this sensible. Signal quality, analoge tuner and IF quality, analog filtering, and any number of methods and levels of quality in digital processing make the results hard to quantify. The best advice is to not assume anything and view the set on the kind of signal that you will be watching, then experiment with various methods of displaying the analog if possible. The notion that upconversion makes lower resolution images better is pervasive, but quite wrong. You can't make gold from lead, even with good alchemy. You can make scan lines less noticeable and filter some garbage in the process, but you are just as likely to introduce artifacts that are less than pleasing. Again, experiment. Rear-projection is still considered to produce the best picture quality available, but Many would dissagree. IMO, CRT based RPTV is certainly the best value, and at any price point usually the best pix, but "best picture qualtiy" means different things to different people. Again, the best advice is to view and judge for yourself. a lot of things haven't changed about this technology: the sets are still bulky and heavy, almost all of them are CRT based and still burn phospher to produce an image (so they are highly subject to burn-in and have about 15-20 year life span), they still have a limited viewing angle and will dim when you get outside of their viewing angle. 15-20 years is very optimistic. 10-12 years for the better products is more likely. Some less, some more, but any set this old will not look anything like new. Viewing angles are rarely a problem and there is not much useful difference between any of the RPTV technologies in this area. Again, this matter depends on individual needs and you should view in the context of the intended installation, but if viewing angles are a big deal, stay away from any RPTV and get a PDP or direct view CRT. Mostly, beware of any sweeping statements and assumptions, question everything and insist on real answers that you can SEE, and do lots of viewing and decide for yourself. Leonard
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#9
May 6th 04, 03:20 AM
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"Leonard Caillouet" wrote in message news:[email protected]
"JDeats" wrote in message Rear-projection is still considered to produce the best picture quality available, but Many would dissagree. IMO, CRT based RPTV is certainly the best value, and at any price point usually the best pix, but "best picture qualtiy" means different things to different people. Again, the best advice is to view and judge for yourself. Well, I think you're right that many would disagree, but I would say many are wrong and then I would offer this: There are plenty of statements that can be made about all technologies that are fact. LCDs have weak blacks (and weak dark levels in general), DLP's have contrast problems (and some people seem to notice the rainbow effect). Plasma's suffer the same issues as LCD. The only negatives about CRT-rear projection technology a 1. The sets have be routinely focused and 2. The view angle isn't that good. Sure each vendor applies their unique touch to the technology, but the mentioned limitions are limitations of the core technology that powers these devices. What is acuate color and what isn't is not subjective, it can be proven. Picture quality is more subjective, but I consider it a fact that higher resolution offers the capability to produce a better quality picture. There's no need to get into the 1080i vs 720p discussion (again). I agree that people should buy what's best for them, but what their eyes show them on a show room floor isn't always telling. And I think there are enoguh facts about the various HDTV technologies to make the statement that CRT based sets produce the best quality picture. -Jeremy
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#10
May 6th 04, 06:01 PM
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This is the first I have heard about the TV sets needing to be
refocused. I had my last one for 20 years and it was only repaired once. I never did anything other than that and the picture looked fine. Are they easy to focus? Or should I have the company come out and do it? I'm not too concerned about the view angle since we watch the TV straight on. Thanks for all of the information. I think this weekend I'll head over to an electronics store and look at some different makes/models. (JDeats) wrote in message . com... "Leonard Caillouet" wrote in message news:[email protected] "JDeats" wrote in message Rear-projection is still considered to produce the best picture quality available, but Many would dissagree. IMO, CRT based RPTV is certainly the best value, and at any price point usually the best pix, but "best picture qualtiy" means different things to different people. Again, the best advice is to view and judge for yourself. Well, I think you're right that many would disagree, but I would say many are wrong and then I would offer this: There are plenty of statements that can be made about all technologies that are fact. LCDs have weak blacks (and weak dark levels in general), DLP's have contrast problems (and some people seem to notice the rainbow effect). Plasma's suffer the same issues as LCD. The only negatives about CRT-rear projection technology a 1. The sets have be routinely focused and 2. The view angle isn't that good. Sure each vendor applies their unique touch to the technology, but the mentioned limitions are limitations of the core technology that powers these devices. What is acuate color and what isn't is not subjective, it can be proven. Picture quality is more subjective, but I consider it a fact that higher resolution offers the capability to produce a better quality picture. There's no need to get into the 1080i vs 720p discussion (again). I agree that people should buy what's best for them, but what their eyes show them on a show room floor isn't always telling. And I think there are enoguh facts about the various HDTV technologies to make the statement that CRT based sets produce the best quality picture. -Jeremy
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