HDTV confusion

hi
I visited Best Buy and the three TV on my list are

Mitsu 55313
Toshiba 57H83
Samsung 5529WH

Any suggestions. Should i buy the extended warranty. I plan on using
my visa card and visa doubles the manufactures warranty.
Guys what are your thoughts on the above TVs.

The best buy sales also was pushing his monster surge protectors.
Does that really improve picture quality.

Let me know
thanks

"david" wrote in message
m...
hi
I visited Best Buy and the three TV on my list are

Mitsu 55313
Toshiba 57H83
Samsung 5529WH

Any suggestions. Should i buy the extended warranty. I plan on using
my visa card and visa doubles the manufactures warranty.
Guys what are your thoughts on the above TVs.

The best buy sales also was pushing his monster surge protectors.
Does that really improve picture quality.

While I can't make any recomendations on the 3 tv's ( although you might
want to have a look at the hitachis also ), a surge protector likely isn't
going to make a difference in the picture quality. I'm quite willing to bet
a decent regular surge protector does as good of a job of surge protection
as the monster at probably half the price.

Monster seems to be a lot like BOSE - average products that are very much
overpriced.


Tom

I've been told that if the lightning wants in, it'll blow the protector but
jump through it anyway.

If I had a few more $$, I'd get the APC to do the job, as mine is a LCD
running the fan to cool down after shutdown, and that would run it long
enough to do the job if the power went out.

"david" wrote in message
m...
hi
I visited Best Buy and the three TV on my list are

Mitsu 55313
Toshiba 57H83
Samsung 5529WH

Any suggestions. Should i buy the extended warranty. I plan on using
my visa card and visa doubles the manufactures warranty.
Guys what are your thoughts on the above TVs.

The best buy sales also was pushing his monster surge protectors.
Does that really improve picture quality.

Let me know
thanks

I too would look at Hitachi, which I have. I'm no expert but I don't see how
a surge protector, which protects against instanteous power spikes, is going
to affect picture quality. BillR.
"Joe H" wrote in message
...
I've been told that if the lightning wants in, it'll blow the protector
but
jump through it anyway.

If I had a few more $$, I'd get the APC to do the job, as mine is a LCD
running the fan to cool down after shutdown, and that would run it long
enough to do the job if the power went out.

"david" wrote in message
m...
hi
I visited Best Buy and the three TV on my list are

Mitsu 55313
Toshiba 57H83
Samsung 5529WH

Any suggestions. Should i buy the extended warranty. I plan on using
my visa card and visa doubles the manufactures warranty.
Guys what are your thoughts on the above TVs.

The best buy sales also was pushing his monster surge protectors.
Does that really improve picture quality.

Let me know
thanks

"david" wrote in message
m...
hi
I visited Best Buy and the three TV on my list are

Mitsu 55313
Toshiba 57H83
Samsung 5529WH

Any suggestions. Should i buy the extended warranty. I plan on using
my visa card and visa doubles the manufactures warranty.
Guys what are your thoughts on the above TVs.

The best buy sales also was pushing his monster surge protectors.
Does that really improve picture quality.

Let me know
thanks

Can't comment on the Mitsu or Sammy, but I have had an excellent experience
with the exact Toshiba model you specify. It has amazing picture quality,
multiple inputs, easy to use remote/menus/options, is easily adjusted in
terms of the convergence (with a small trick in the service menu...but its
quite easy, trust me), and is an all around great value. I use Comcast HD
cable, and I have had excellent luck with HD quality programming, as well as
DVD's. I have also found that a normal DVD player gives basically the same
quality picture as a progressive scan player because of the quality of the
line-doubler (or whatever you want to call it) present in the TV itself. I
am really happy with this TV.

I got the extended warranty, but the reasons I got it may be different for
your situation. I am young (23), and have a lot of , shall we say,
inebriated guests on the weekends. No kids, but that could be an issue with
you, dunno. The idea behind the warranty, in addition to giving me peace of
mind, is that I am fairly likely to spill on, bump into, or fall into the TV
over the course of the 4 years. Never mind someone else, who is probably
even likelier. If I need it, its there, if I don't need it, I still feel it
was money well spent. If I had kids, and I will eventually, it would be
even less of a quesiton. Never know what the little ones are capable of.

I would advise against buying the Monster cables, surge protectors, line
conditioners etc etc. Your average cables and stuff will work just fine. If
you really care about quality, I would suggest a different route than
Monster. It seems that while they are of decent quality, they are really at
the high end of the low-quality market. For that price point, you can do
more with your money. I just bought some optical cables and a dig-coax from
http://www.partsexpress.com . Haven't received them yet so I can't advise on
quality, but seems like they are on the ball with their shipping (UPS
tracking numbers in hand at the end of the day) and I found some great
deals. ebay is always an option as well, as I have had good luck there in
the past.

Good luck,

Matt

On 14 May 2004 19:51:13 -0700, (david) wrote:

}Any suggestions. Should i buy the extended warranty. I plan on using
}my visa card and visa doubles the manufactures warranty.
}Guys what are your thoughts on the above TVs.

I bought a Panasonic 40 inch rear projection LCD (PT40-LC12) a year and a
day ago (meaning the factory warranty JUST expired on the 16th). About an
hour ago the picture went completely dark meaning something blew (probably
the bulb) as there is no picture at all but the power switch is flashing. I
called Best Buy's service number and have a tech coming out in 2 days.

I went ahead and bought the 4 yr extended warranty knowing it was a newer
technology and thinking the bulb would be the weakest link (bulb cost alone
is $314 online). Was it a good decision? The extended warranty cost $300 so
if the bulb did go then I am already ahead...

Later,
Dave

Dave Balcom wrote:

I bought a Panasonic 40 inch rear projection LCD (PT40-LC12) a year and a
day ago (meaning the factory warranty JUST expired on the 16th). About an
hour ago the picture went completely dark meaning something blew (probably
the bulb) as there is no picture at all but the power switch is flashing. I
called Best Buy's service number and have a tech coming out in 2 days.

I went ahead and bought the 4 yr extended warranty knowing it was a newer
technology and thinking the bulb would be the weakest link (bulb cost alone
is $314 online). Was it a good decision? The extended warranty cost $300 so
if the bulb did go then I am already ahead...

Let us know how you make out with that. Extended Warranties generally
consider the bulb to be a "consumable", which means that you still have
to pay for it when it fails. But they may not always enforce that.

On Tue, 18 May 2004 07:24:22 -0400, Jim Gilliland
wrote:

}Let us know how you make out with that. Extended Warranties generally
}consider the bulb to be a "consumable", which means that you still have
}to pay for it when it fails. But they may not always enforce that.

Will do. I am not so sure it is even the bulb as there is no failure light
now or warnings on screen that it was due to be replaced. If they try that
I will be ****ed as that was the main reason I went ahead and bought that
particular $2400 TV (the salesman said "even if it smells funny, call us
and we will fix it under warranty.") He even mentioned the cost of a bulb
and how the extended warranty is cheap insurance should it fail.

Later,
Dave

Dave Balcom wrote:
On Tue, 18 May 2004 07:24:22 -0400, Jim Gilliland
wrote:

}Let us know how you make out with that. Extended Warranties generally
}consider the bulb to be a "consumable", which means that you still have
}to pay for it when it fails. But they may not always enforce that.

Will do. I am not so sure it is even the bulb as there is no failure light
now or warnings on screen that it was due to be replaced. If they try that
I will be ****ed as that was the main reason I went ahead and bought that
particular $2400 TV (the salesman said "even if it smells funny, call us
and we will fix it under warranty.") He even mentioned the cost of a bulb
and how the extended warranty is cheap insurance should it fail.

Yeah, they all seem to do that. Circuit City, Best Buy, Sears,
everybody - the sales guy will tell you that the bulb is covered, but
it's what's in the contract that matters.

I got a call from Circuit City suggesting that I buy their extended
warranty for my HD set. She told me that she was absolutly sure that
the bulb was covered - she'd even checked with her manager. I told her
that I would buy it if they would send me that in writing. I never
heard another word from them.

Here's the wording from their contract: "Consumables, such as
batteries, toner, ink, etc., are not covered by the manufacturer
or the Cityadvantage Protection Plan because they have a
defined and limited life."

Projector bulbs aren't mentioned, but it's easy to see how the "defined
and limited life" could be considered to include them. Especially if
the vendor figures out that he's going to lose money on the deal.

But let us know how it turns out in your case. Maybe it'll go smoothly.
Good luck with it.

On Tue, 18 May 2004 11:43:22 -0400, Jim Gilliland
wrote:

}Projector bulbs aren't mentioned, but it's easy to see how the "defined
}and limited life" could be considered to include them. Especially if
}the vendor figures out that he's going to lose money on the deal.
}
}But let us know how it turns out in your case. Maybe it'll go smoothly.
} Good luck with it.

Not with my luck... How many HDTV's die a day after the factory warranty
expires? Then again, the set wasn't delivered until May 20th which is still
within the 12 month window...

I just read the BB warranty cover to cover. The exact wording is "Also not
covered are replacement costs for consumable parts (knobs, remotes,
batteries, bags, belts, etc.)" Then again in another part of the warranty
is says "this plan does provide coverage on a carry-in basis for remote
control repairs not due to loss or abuse." It also says batteries ARE
covered for camcorders. Huh? So it appears there are exceptions even to
that clause. In any case, power surges are completely covered and obviously
caused the bulb to blow (if that is the problem)...

Anyway, I will know more tomorrow once the tech checks it out...

Later,
Dave