which HD screen for home

I just helped my mother pick up a 42" HD this weekend from Sam's Club. The brand is AKAI. Never heard of it before last week and from what I've read, they aren't too bad.

The TV was only $1,099.00 and has 1080p full hd resolution. I made sure I hooked her up via HDMI cable and I have to say even the SD channels looked great.

The picture is gorgeous. But, either way you go, good luck!

Rick
 
Resolution isn't as imperative as people like to make out. It's all relative to 1) how close you sit to your screen and 2) what size screen you want to buy. Buying a screen with more resolution than you can percieve at a distance won't do you any good. It's all relative to viewing distance.
 
Shaw said:
Resolution isn't as imperative as people like to make out.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree. The only time I would tell someone to REALLY look at a 1080p display is if they are going to invest in BluRay or HDDVD right away. Otherwise, it's better to spend money on quality stuff that's gonna last a long time.

In a store you can look at TVs side by side and compare/contrast them. But, once you get one in your home, what do you have to compare to? You only have your eye's judgement...if it looks good to you, good. But, as expensive as TVs are these days, I still say it's a smarter buy to stick with a brand name...you need to feel like you are getting a little bit of piece of mind when spending $2000 on a TV. I'm not sure about y'all, but I want a TV to last me at least 5-7 years, and I'm not gonna trust that much time to an offbrand set.
 
Now a days i would trust an off brand almost just as much, considering that everyone entered this generation of technology at an almost even playing field. Also that alot of the screens come from the same place, and just get put in different housing with different firmware/software/hardware features than others.

I think the only problem with 'off brands' is the customer support, but as consumers continue to trust them more, they can get better support through customer loyalty, such as Olevia. Growing 'off brand' LCD manufacturur. In either case, you wont find many off brands doing the higher end spectrum of 1080p sets, as in 50"+. I havnt seen one yet that wasnt a brand i know.

Its really a market not tapped by off brands, but projection based sets imo are the best displays out there. HD-ILA and SXRD (both LCoS) give easily the sharpest picture of the bunch, LCD projection seems to be being left behind, but can be found by great companies for amazing prices. 50" for around 1000 bucks or less.

DLP has been around for a while but will have alot of catching up to do with LCoS , which has only been around for about 2 years now, maybe a little more. 6 million pixels (3 chips on top of eachother) for 1080p sets as opposed to the current DLPs which have around 1 mil + pixels thanks to wobulation. i can go on really, its fun to talk about. Too much info in me noggin
 
New Panasonic plasmas (several 1080p models) are coming out this month and some more in June. Check their press release for more info:
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prModelDetail?storeId=11301&catalogId=13251&itemId=112113&modelNo=Content03302007105538525&surfModel=Content03302007105538525

One of their models is a 42" 1080p, but you probably won't be able to distinguish the extra detail at that size from the typical viewing distance. Gizmodo comments:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/panasonics-42+inch-plasma-is-1080p-can-you-tell-the-difference-248218.php

Also some good discussion at:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=782840&page=1&pp=30

Personally, I'll be going with their 50" 1080p plasma. :thumbup: Good luck!
 
Cynic821 said:
I think the only problem with 'off brands' is the customer support, but as consumers continue to trust them more, they can get better support through customer loyalty
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I definitely agree about that. I trust some off brand products. If they look good, dont have a lot of negative press, and cost hundreds less, I give them a shot. Sometimes they have an excellent product but undersell to get a piece of the marketshare. I for one do not want to throw $700.00+ dollars away for piece of mind. Thats a lot of money. Take SONY for instance...their Brevia line....WAAAAY overpriced....

My computer monitor is 19" AG-NEOVO. I bought it 4 years ago. I fell in love with it. It was the only monitor I found at the time that had a clear piece of glass over the monitor. Plus its performance was great. So, one thing I did to 'test' the company was to call them on the phone to see how long it took to talk to a person. I called 3 times. Each time, their customer service rep answered the phone directly. So, I bought it (at the time, this thing was $610.00 bucks. I wanted to be sure). Couldn't be happier with it. So, you never know.

Okay...enough soapbox....

Rick
 
Do they even make standard TV anymore? I saw a couple at best buy which were perched desperately in the graveyard ailes, but that was it. I
 
rlm7189 said:
The brand is AKAI. Never heard of it before last week and from what I've read, they aren't too bad. Rick
Click to expand...

Wow, you've never heard of Akai? They were really big into audio, I think I still have a 1/4" Akai 4 head reel-to-reel...:crybaby:
 
Wow, lots of info guys. I am still reading through some of the links on here.

I was in another shop the other day and must say Samsungs and SONYs seem to be put up best everywhere. They look great. But they almost always play BluRay on them. Panasonic looks not so glossy in the stores and along with Sharp, LG and Philips seems to be fed with standard def in stores here. Stupid. But definitely a margin thing: they are the most overpriced brands and the shops must have the highest margin. So they push those SONYs and Samsungs.

I will probably go for the initially planned Panasonic 42´´ (rez only 1024wide) for less than € 1200. I can deduct it from tax so it will be only € 600 effectively ;-)

My couch is about 7 feet from the screen. so I guess 720p will do for now. Lateron it will end up in my sons room and I can get a 1080p screen when they drop down in price.
 
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