What screen is the sweet spot?

iggy8n

I just lost the high-voltage in my hand-me-down 25" TV. Even if I squint, I can't see the vertical expansion of the picture. Oh well, it was free and we had the Wii working on it.

So, now I've gotta find a flat LCD screen that will be the main 20 x 20 foot living room home theater screen. I have netflix unlimited. So, I could play high resolution videos - like 1080P - I think I could get it over my 2.5Mb DSL line. I saw that one needs about 4.5Mb for instant streaming video. But, I used to wait for the buffer to fill up before. I suppose if I didn't want to wait, I could just lower the res to 720p and watch it like that.
I don't know yet. Anyway, is plasma so much better for the money? Is LED lighting worth the $100 bucks? Is 120 hz worth another $100 over 60 hz?
We've lived OK with the 400 lines on the old vacuum tube for quite a while. I could start getting blue-ray disks from netflix if I bought the player - another $150 or so - plus $4 per month more to netflix.

I found a $500 42" Vizio 1080P 60hz LCD at Costco. It would certainly be large enough. I'd also hafta get a wall mount for $40 and some HDMI cables. I'm not sure if a 6 foot one would make it. I'll hafta move all the boxes around.
Is a wireless connection OK? It eliminates the cat5 cable. But, I've always been wary of anything wireless. The microsoft mouses and keyboards alway would need a new battery or pushing those restart microswitches. That all seems to be worked out nowadays. But, I like wired mice and keyboards. I've got a wired printer, along with 3 wired computers coming to one 4 channel router. Everything works fine. Now, I've got to rework it all again.

Anyone buy something over xmas? Did you compare the various screens against prices, consumer reports, Tom's hardware, etc. I could use some advice about how to avoid finding out how long the technical service wait can last.

cyclo

In my opinion, you can start appreciating 1080p resolution on 50" and bigger sets assuming you are seated around 7 to 10 feet from the screen. That being said, 720p/1080i is more than enough quality for me I still watch lots of DVDs and when I am enjoying a movie I seldom notice the picture quality. What is more important in the movie watching experience, again just my opinion, is the dolby or dts surround sound.

When I had HD cable, I used to stream the HD signal from the TV (via a slingbox) wirelessly to the PC at around 6-8000 Kbps. The Slingbox is hooked up to a Linksys WRT54G in wireless bridge mode using the open source Tomato firmware and the gateway router where my PCs are hooked to is a WRT54G running DD-WRT firmware. I could also stream from the Slingbox to the gateway then wirelessly to a laptop or netbook but the throughput is slower at around 3-4000 kbps. Quality is still very good.

I have since given up the HD STB box as I don't watch that much cable TV anymore... saved me 100 bucks a month.

iggy8n

ManofGod

I personally think you would be very pleased with that 42 inch Vizio set. I have a 37 inch Vizio 1080p unit and even though it is not perfect, it does work quite well for everything I do with it. (I could probably take the time to adjust it to make it look better but have not done so yet.)

If you hook up your computer to it, you could also do hulu as well as Netflix. (I use hulu myself and rarely turn the satellite box on anymore.)

iggy8n

Sounds good, MOG. I'm glad someone in our group has seen the box I'm considering. Your recommendation makes me feel better. It is a fairly expensive item to get without spending the research time.

genoski

I to have intentions of getting a Vizio, the 47" from Sams Club, around $600.

genoski

cyclo

Iggy8n, the 8000 kbps streaming source is not from the cable provider but from the Slingbox. The way the Slingbox works is that it is hooked up to the HD cable set top box (STB) via component outputs (3 RCA Jacks). The Slingbox then converts the component signals for streaming via ethernet or if you have a wireless bridge, wirelessly over the LAN. You can also broadcast the stream over the internet so you could be anywhere in the world and watch from your own TV at home.

Knuckledragger

IMO, 120 hz is worth $100.00 more than 60 hz.

Cngevpxhaqrefpber

My neighbor, who has Comcast, also has an HDTV (LCD, I think it's newer). Totally forgot to ask if it was 720p or 1080p, but he was watching a hockey game in HD, and while overall the picture looked great, the crowd looked sorta fuzzy / lower quality than I thought it should be when I got a bit closer.

Is that a problem with the HD provider, the TV, or is today's HD technology not as good as I always thought it was supposed to be (near perfect)?

Also whenever I look at the HDTVs at the stores, those demo videos they always show never sell me on the TV, as the text -- even big text -- doesn't ever look as smooth as it does on my computer monitor.

Is it that my expectations are unrealistically high?

Knuckledragger

iggy8n

So, I got the Vizio 42", 60hz for $500 (E422VA). It's a pretty good picture. I can definitely see the difference from 480p to 720i and on to 1080p. I couldn't find anything with 120 hz in the Costco store for $100 extra. The 47" had the 120hz refresh. But, they wanted $800 for that.

I have had a lot of trouble getting used to the remote. I'm learning. But, it's not very intuitive.

I'm waiting for a 15' DVI to HDMI cable to connect the PC from Newegg. (I went to Target to get the cable. But, after finding that they wanted $50 for an 8 foot HDMI to HDMI cable, no DVI to HDMI at all, no adaptors, so I walked.)
I've got an old 120W stereo with Bose 901 speakers that I have to feed with the 1/8" stereo-headphone-out connector from the TV. It would sure be nice to feed the rca input connector on the amp thru a selector switch from the DVD player, the Wii, the PC, etc. You have to select the right video input via a few menus (and way too many button pushes) after making the electrical connections to get the audio. No control of the audio volume from the remote. The brightness does adjust to the ambient light level.

It does provide apps to interface with DSL and play Netflix streaming or other sources you hafta pay for. So, you don't need the Wii to do that. The Wii also is only 480p resolution. I think the PC will provide the better interface because there is a mouse involved. The search engine using the TV requires one to spell out the title of the movie you want using the arrow keys on a keyboard grid. Not easy to do that.

What about a wall hanger? They had one in the store for $130. I saw a few online for $30. I'm using the stand that it comes with at the moment and that works fine. But, I have to have a table
under it. I still need a place to store the game controllers, headphones - when others don't want to hear the TV, etc. I could probably weld together
some bed frame angle iron to hang it on the wall. There is some need for distance from the wall - like a few inches. I don't think there'll be any need to turn the whole thing to one side or to change the
angle to get more brightness. Any suggestions?

I'd give it 4 stars - I'll put it on Newegg's and Costco's feedback.

Knuckledragger

Cngevpxhaqrefpber

iggy8n

iggy8n

So, to resolve my original question, I shopped and compared the features for the bucks. I only bought one flat screen so I haven't compared my Vizio to others.
I'm happy with the 46" screen size. It has a internet cable connector and apps that will access Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and quite a few other places that provide
HD video. Most require a monthly payment.

If you're a student, you get free shipping from Amazon along with a selection of free instant videos.(HD on some) That's kinda nice. I decided to pay the $75/year for prime shipping from Amazon which
gives me student status. I like that they do something that makes a difference from the rest of the crowd. I've been comparing the Amazon price with Newegg and they seem to compare. Their return policy is also similar.

If Amazon would have been nicer to WikiLeaks, I would be a one-stop shopper. I didn't like the way they just shut down the WikiLeaks financial interaction because of pressure from our secret government. I don't have all of the facts about this. So, I'm still holding off the judgement. It'll come out in the wash eventually.

I have become used to the rather cruddy remote. It requires a lot of key strokes to accomplish what you want. The single letter positioning using the arrow keys on a grid of letters is really awkward.
I end up having to go to the computer keyboard to find the movie title I'm looking for. I also check Rotten Tomatoes to get an idea if I'd like to watch the movie. It's not possible to get this done on the Vizio alone.

I think the 46" Vizio was worth $500. I got it from Costco and drove it home in the car.

Cngevpxhaqrefpber

Cngevpxhaqrefpber

genoski

iggy8n

I've found that most of the movies and TV shows from Netflix and Hulu end up being 480P. There's an occasional HD movie that Netflix will just put out on instant-streaming. The same resolution comes out
of my current DVD player. So, I rarely watch anything in HD. I haven't seen any 120hz/60hz quality missing. When I was in the store, I tried to see a difference in the motion scenes and I just couldn't see any. So, I didn't pay the extra bucks.

Overall, I'm happy to have replaced the big old 25" console with the much slimmer, wall-mounted, Vizio. It is difficult to get to the back to reconnect some cable. I think there could be a more user-friendly way to work out that problem. But, it's easy to say it should be easy to be compatible with every kind of audio/visual input/output situation because I want my problems solved. I can imagine
some of the letters these appliance makers get. So, I can live with it. I generally have to lift the whole TV off my $50 Rosewill wall-mount to fiddle with the cables and then lift it back up there. If I spent another $100, I'm sure it would all pull away from the wall and serve me a cup of coffee while I determined what to connect where.

I'm still waiting to buy a blue-ray player - because of all the complaints about the software needed to keep playing the blue-rays. They give you a free 30 day trail, then you gotta buy a contract. No thanks, I can wait. The blue-rays disks cost way too much to buy. I could rent some from Netflix - if I paid another $3 per month. Thanks, but I can wait there too. The 480P resolution is decent enough for regular movies and TV programs. Avatar or Toy Story would be nice to see in HD. But, that's still a reason to go to the IMAX theater and watch them in 3D.

I'm happy to have the big screen. I'm also happy not to get every piece of hardware/software on the shelf to spoil myself just a bit more.

genoski

iggy8n

It sounds like you've got the ticket.

Did you see the video about that Sony box saying that it was slow and it didn't connect to internet very well? I guess just because one can make a video,
doesn't make him into an expert on blue-rays.

All I want is the ability to play a blue-ray - no making copies. The blanks cost way too much for
the average consumer. Maybe they are trying to make the blue-ray intrinsically more valuable by charging more for the blank disk. I'm still planning on
waiting for the price of the player and the blanks to come down.

genoski

iggy8n

Yeah, I have a few flash drives that I plug into the car player. Those players are cheap and pretty good. They're way better than the bouncing CD/DVD laser tracker or
the cassette tape player of before. I've got a lot of cassettes that will go to the landfill I guess. Maybe I could send them to Mexico or somewhere where they can still use them.