I need help on buying a low priced widescreen HDTV.

zero2dash · 02-26-2005, 09:53 PM

Title says it all.

I've been looking at a few in particular; Walmart had a couple but the brand names were kinda iffy...I don't know who's good and who's bad in terms of HDTV quality. I previously thought named like Panasonic and Sanyo were bad but I don't know nowadays...? What are good brand names and what are some to avoid?

Anyhow Best Buy has a couple - originally I was going to get a Samsung but now I don't know. The Philips is similar (or appears to be) but is $100 cheaper. (I'm hoping to spend no more than $1,000 - I'm looking for widescreen specifically, standard flat tube (no LCD/Plasma etc).

Philips 30PW8402
Samsung TX-P3071WH
Toshiba 30HF84

Now I see some new sets offer HDMI, I don't know if that's worth specifically purchasing a set for or not; I know from general web surfing that HDMI is an uncompressed digital feed but I haven't seen any products use it yet. Basically I'm looking for something that will make Halo 2 look godly and will offer incentive for me to call Dish Network and upgrade to DishHD. (All my wife and I do is watch tv, sometimes movies/dvds, and play games...probably a 50%/10%/40% ratio.)

What should I look for specifically? Anyone have a link to a buying guide?

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions or recommendations otherwise?
heeeelp meeee...

Hoser · 02-27-2005, 01:26 AM

You need to see how each TV looks while you're watching regular TV. Since you won't be watching HiDef and DVDs all the time, this is important. The widescreen TV will usually have the ability to stretch or zoom the normal TV screen to fill the whole screen.

thekidrocks · 03-01-2005, 01:55 PM

I've had excellent luck with Samsung and Toshiba sets - never had a DOA one, nor one that caused me trouble. For that reason, I went with a 26" widescreen Samsung for the bedroom and am very happy. The focus seems a little soft, but I blame it on the source. Something an HDTV really will reveal. At the time, Toshiba didn't have a 26" one, and the Samsung just fit in the space I have - and it has a built-in high-def tuner.

Having said that, I am considering the very Philips set you mentioned for another room. Positives are price as they can be had from Philips directly for cheap as refurbished units. That model is $510 delivered - there is an older model (30PW850H99)for $450 that mainly lacks the HDMI input. When you have a source with an HDMI or DVI output, that makes a big difference.

My only concern with Philips is reliability. I've seen the 30PW850H99 at Sam's Club - turned on, and defective. I was just there yesterday while doing my own shopping, and notice that the red gun (or circuit driving it) was out. I've heard other horror stories of Philips issues, however I've also heard that they've since got a grip on their QC issues.

DarkFury · 03-01-2005, 02:50 PM

From the short list you provided... I'd go Toshiba myself.

bachviet · 03-01-2005, 04:52 PM

Out of those 3, I would get the Toshiba.

verve247 · 03-01-2005, 09:52 PM

I'm a toshiba fan also.

zero2dash · 03-09-2005, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thekidrocks

My only concern with Philips is reliability. I've seen the 30PW850H99 at Sam's Club - turned on, and defective. I was just there yesterday while doing my own shopping, and notice that the red gun (or circuit driving it) was out. I've heard other horror stories of Philips issues, however I've also heard that they've since got a grip on their QC issues.

I was at Walmart again tonight (my wife and I practically live there) and was looking at the Philips display they had (they have them down to $697 at my local Walmart)...I noticed horizontal white lines on the display when a Walmart ad promo was running and they were attached to a woman wearing a black outfit (she was kinda hot, maybe that's why they were there lol). I read on a few websites (forums/reviews) other people claiming horizontal line problems with this set and they returned them only to get another one with the same issue.

I think I've since eliminated the Philips from the "buy me" competition.

I'll probably either go Samsung or Toshiba...whichever looks better when I finally get around to going to Best Buy in person (hopefully today). No matter what I get, I'm buying a PSP for it; those things are lifesavers.

Thanks for all the input everyone, I really appreciate it.

bbrian · 03-09-2005, 08:24 AM

Call just about any TV repair shop and ask them what they think of Phillips. That will answer your question.

Notorious for poor/defective solder joints.

zero2dash · 03-11-2005, 05:08 AM

I think I've been scared into not buying anything...*sigh*
I've been looking all over the net for info, from Consumer Reports to the AVS forums, etc.

There's a lot of double talk going on. 1/3 of the people out there love Sony and hate Toshiba. Another 1/3 hate Sony and love Toshiba. The remainder complain about both and say most of the others aren't good either (Samsung, Panasonic). I've seen complaints with every HD set I was looking at; sure, opinions are to be taken with a grain of salt but I'm more confused about buying an HDTV now than I was when I bought my car in December (and I didn't do much research at all on that; I just said "I like the Focus" and I drove a barely-used 2003 4dr SE Focus home three days later, instead of something like a Taurus).

I have a Sony set now that has worked ok for me. Aside from the curved line while using the s-video input that has plagued me ever since I bought it back in 97 or 98 (which is a problem with this model, of course I found out AFTER buying it and taking it home), I've had zero problems with it. Not so lucky on other Sony products though; I'm not a big Sony fan per se and I'm trying to purchase another brand name and shy away from Sony stuff.

So I figure Toshiba or Samsung. I *figure* Samsung stuff is supposedly decent, but then I read problems about quality/reliability, etc. So, ok...Toshiba. People claim to have wavy/curved line problems on the one I was looking at. D'oh.

I looked at a Panasonic at Walmart the other night also and that had a curved picture even though it was supposed to be a flat screen. And Philips gets bad knocks for reliability as well.

*sigh*
I think I'll wait this whole HD thing out for another year or two...
man just when I was looking forward to Halo 2 in 480p widescreen...*sigh*

cheapie · 03-11-2005, 06:36 AM

dude....don't freak me out. i'm thinking about picking up a sammy tonight.

thekidrocks · 03-11-2005, 07:36 AM

While it's been a while, I used to follow a repair tech forum as for years and years I restored audio equipment. Anywhoo, I'd read of issues with a lot of television brands and the problems techs were running into.

It seems as though every brand/maker is cutting costs as much as possible to compete with the next company which is doing the same. Once in a while, someone goofs and makes a cost shaving that blows back in their face. Philips and exploding power supplies, Sony and poor deflection yokes, Zenith and bum picture tubes years ago... on and on it goes. Problem is that for the consumer reading CU's repair history, that does not account for the brand new sets on the store shelves today.

Then you get the bum set - I recently replaced my older 43" 4:3 Toshiba HDTV (trouble free) with a 51" 16:9 Hitachi CRT based rear projection set. Beautiful picture for a CRT design, and not a single problem so far. A friend of a friend bought the 57" version of the otherwise same set - which was repaired so many times that the store replaced it. Pick of the draw. BTW a freind of mine was so inpressed with my Toshiba 43" 4:3, that he bought a 42" 16:9 set within a year. It's been repaired many times - last time took 3 months for parts... set was down that long!

Meanwhile I still have the 20" EXR series Sony set I bought back 15 years ago - stored away in a spare bedroom closet. I don't need it, but am keeping it. I know that if the Hitachi 51", and the two Samsungs I have (26" widescreen, 27" 4:3 - both High Def) blow... I still have a reliable set that I know will work. Mind you, I paid $450 for that 20" set back in 1990! It replaced a 15" Sony I bought in 1979 for $530... do we see a trend here??!

And then we get mad at the SalesDork who presses us to buy that blasted service contract (LOL)

cheapie · 03-11-2005, 07:44 AM

i can guarantee you that i'm shelling out the $400 to cover the tv!

02-26-2005, 09:53 PM	#1
zero2dash Commander Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fenton, MO - but I wish I was at the beach. ANY beach. Posts: 1,367	I need help on buying a low priced widescreen HDTV. Title says it all. I've been looking at a few in particular; Walmart had a couple but the brand names were kinda iffy...I don't know who's good and who's bad in terms of HDTV quality. I previously thought named like Panasonic and Sanyo were bad but I don't know nowadays...? What are good brand names and what are some to avoid? Anyhow Best Buy has a couple - originally I was going to get a Samsung but now I don't know. The Philips is similar (or appears to be) but is $100 cheaper. (I'm hoping to spend no more than $1,000 - I'm looking for widescreen specifically, standard flat tube (no LCD/Plasma etc). Philips 30PW8402 Samsung TX-P3071WH Toshiba 30HF84 Now I see some new sets offer HDMI, I don't know if that's worth specifically purchasing a set for or not; I know from general web surfing that HDMI is an uncompressed digital feed but I haven't seen any products use it yet. Basically I'm looking for something that will make Halo 2 look godly and will offer incentive for me to call Dish Network and upgrade to DishHD. (All my wife and I do is watch tv, sometimes movies/dvds, and play games...probably a 50%/10%/40% ratio.) What should I look for specifically? Anyone have a link to a buying guide? Anyone have any ideas/suggestions or recommendations otherwise? heeeelp meeee... Last edited by zero2dash : 02-26-2005 at 09:56 PM.

03-01-2005, 02:50 PM	#4
DarkFury Secretary of the Navy Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Chillin' N Da 'Hood Posts: 34,997	From the short list you provided... I'd go Toshiba myself. __________________ DarkFury's Pimptopia - Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game! Home of the Original OG Pimp (accept NO imitations)

03-01-2005, 04:52 PM	#5
bachviet What's Da Pho*? Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: SoCal (714) Posts: 13,296	Out of those 3, I would get the Toshiba. __________________ Dell Dimension 9200 \| Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) \| 4x1GB DDR2 \| 256MB nVidia GeForce 8800GT Dell Studio 17 \| Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz) \| 2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz \| 1GHz ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Intel P4-C 3.0GHz \| ECS 865PE-A \| 3x512MB PC3200 \| 128MB PNY GeForce 6600GT

03-01-2005, 09:52 PM	#6
verve247 Commander Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: San Francisco Posts: 1,486	I'm a toshiba fan also. __________________ Vegetarian - Old indian word meaning poor hunter.

03-11-2005, 06:36 AM	#10
cheapie Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: raising my pimp hand strong Posts: 13,038	dude....don't freak me out. i'm thinking about picking up a sammy tonight. __________________ 70% of the world is covered by water. The rest is covered by Bob Sanders

02-27-2005, 01:26 AM	#2
Hoser Commander Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Omaha, NE, United States Posts: 1,275	You need to see how each TV looks while you're watching regular TV. Since you won't be watching HiDef and DVDs all the time, this is important. The widescreen TV will usually have the ability to stretch or zoom the normal TV screen to fill the whole screen.

03-01-2005, 01:55 PM	#3
thekidrocks Lieutenant Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Northen Indiana Posts: 357	I've had excellent luck with Samsung and Toshiba sets - never had a DOA one, nor one that caused me trouble. For that reason, I went with a 26" widescreen Samsung for the bedroom and am very happy. The focus seems a little soft, but I blame it on the source. Something an HDTV really will reveal. At the time, Toshiba didn't have a 26" one, and the Samsung just fit in the space I have - and it has a built-in high-def tuner. Having said that, I am considering the very Philips set you mentioned for another room. Positives are price as they can be had from Philips directly for cheap as refurbished units. That model is $510 delivered - there is an older model (30PW850H99)for $450 that mainly lacks the HDMI input. When you have a source with an HDMI or DVI output, that makes a big difference. My only concern with Philips is reliability. I've seen the 30PW850H99 at Sam's Club - turned on, and defective. I was just there yesterday while doing my own shopping, and notice that the red gun (or circuit driving it) was out. I've heard other horror stories of Philips issues, however I've also heard that they've since got a grip on their QC issues.

03-09-2005, 08:24 AM	#8
bbrian Lieutenant Commander Join Date: May 2000 Location: La-La Land Posts: 676	Call just about any TV repair shop and ask them what they think of Phillips. That will answer your question. Notorious for poor/defective solder joints.

03-11-2005, 05:08 AM	#9
zero2dash Commander Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fenton, MO - but I wish I was at the beach. ANY beach. Posts: 1,367	I think I've been scared into not buying anything...sigh I've been looking all over the net for info, from Consumer Reports to the AVS forums, etc. There's a lot of double talk going on. 1/3 of the people out there love Sony and hate Toshiba. Another 1/3 hate Sony and love Toshiba. The remainder complain about both and say most of the others aren't good either (Samsung, Panasonic). I've seen complaints with every HD set I was looking at; sure, opinions are to be taken with a grain of salt but I'm more confused about buying an HDTV now than I was when I bought my car in December (and I didn't do much research at all on that; I just said "I like the Focus" and I drove a barely-used 2003 4dr SE Focus home three days later, instead of something like a Taurus). I have a Sony set now that has worked ok for me. Aside from the curved line while using the s-video input that has plagued me ever since I bought it back in 97 or 98 (which is a problem with this model, of course I found out AFTER buying it and taking it home), I've had zero problems with it. Not so lucky on other Sony products though; I'm not a big Sony fan per se and I'm trying to purchase another brand name and shy away from Sony stuff. So I figure Toshiba or Samsung. I figure Samsung stuff is supposedly decent, but then I read problems about quality/reliability, etc. So, ok...Toshiba. People claim to have wavy/curved line problems on the one I was looking at. D'oh. I looked at a Panasonic at Walmart the other night also and that had a curved picture even though it was supposed to be a flat screen. And Philips gets bad knocks for reliability as well. sigh I think I'll wait this whole HD thing out for another year or two... man just when I was looking forward to Halo 2 in 480p widescreen...sigh

03-11-2005, 07:36 AM	#11
thekidrocks Lieutenant Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Northen Indiana Posts: 357	While it's been a while, I used to follow a repair tech forum as for years and years I restored audio equipment. Anywhoo, I'd read of issues with a lot of television brands and the problems techs were running into. It seems as though every brand/maker is cutting costs as much as possible to compete with the next company which is doing the same. Once in a while, someone goofs and makes a cost shaving that blows back in their face. Philips and exploding power supplies, Sony and poor deflection yokes, Zenith and bum picture tubes years ago... on and on it goes. Problem is that for the consumer reading CU's repair history, that does not account for the brand new sets on the store shelves today. Then you get the bum set - I recently replaced my older 43" 4:3 Toshiba HDTV (trouble free) with a 51" 16:9 Hitachi CRT based rear projection set. Beautiful picture for a CRT design, and not a single problem so far. A friend of a friend bought the 57" version of the otherwise same set - which was repaired so many times that the store replaced it. Pick of the draw. BTW a freind of mine was so inpressed with my Toshiba 43" 4:3, that he bought a 42" 16:9 set within a year. It's been repaired many times - last time took 3 months for parts... set was down that long! Meanwhile I still have the 20" EXR series Sony set I bought back 15 years ago - stored away in a spare bedroom closet. I don't need it, but am keeping it. I know that if the Hitachi 51", and the two Samsungs I have (26" widescreen, 27" 4:3 - both High Def) blow... I still have a reliable set that I know will work. Mind you, I paid $450 for that 20" set back in 1990! It replaced a 15" Sony I bought in 1979 for $530... do we see a trend here??! And then we get mad at the SalesDork who presses us to buy that blasted service contract (LOL)

03-11-2005, 07:44 AM	#12
cheapie Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: raising my pimp hand strong Posts: 13,038	i can guarantee you that i'm shelling out the $400 to cover the tv!

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