Need to buy a TV in the next few days, input?

Another vote for Samsung. then get a Roku/Review/Appletv/HTPC for all the internet stuff.

I'll never buy another LG appliance again. Our LG microwave E36 M3 the bed after six months. Took it back to HD, got another one, after six weeks half the buttons stopped working. Now you can microwave something for 9:99 and that's about it. Maybe they make great TV's. I'll never know. Our Sharp Aqous has been nice, but it's only 2 years old.

Consumer Reports ranks Samsung consistantly awesome for TVs. That + what everyone else here is saying = slam dunk IMO.

Samsung. /thread

I vote projector, LCD with the most lumens and best resolution in your price range.

I have had mine since 2003 and have yet to ever change a bulb. The built in bulb timer says the bulb is 1000 hrs past due to go out, I am not worried about bulb life.

The projector is very versatile, it has 4 or 5 different inputs. When I first bought it I plugged it into the desktop. After the desktop died I picked up a Wii on CL, and stream netflix through that.

The Wii makes a good alternative to the Roku if you ever want do some other stuff. The wife hacked our Wii and we added a 3TB HDD. It plays saved DVDs, MP3s,radio, tens of thousands of old nintendo, sega, commodore... games, weather... plus a thousand other things I don't even have a clue about.

Samsung seems to be the front runner in the fridge world, too.

My vote is Panasonic and Plasma though if you are worried about your electic bill go with and LED.

I'd add my voice to just getting a 'normal' TV and an add-on box if you want to do more. I LOVE my AppleTV, but then I have a lot of Apple devices and it integrates perfectly with them- if you don't have an iPhone/iPad/Mac it will likely be less useful- but may get you hooked.

poopshovel wrote: I'll never buy another LG appliance again. Our LG microwave E36 M3 the bed after six months. Took it back to HD, got another one, after six weeks half the buttons stopped working. Now you can microwave something for 9:99 and that's about it. Maybe they make great TV's. I'll never know. Our Sharp Aqous has been nice, but it's only 2 years old. Consumer Reports ranks Samsung consistantly awesome for TVs. That + what everyone else here is saying = slam dunk IMO.

Ditto. We bought my dad a Vizio, the picture was pretty damn good but at the beginning of year 3 it wouldn't turn on anymore. Turns out the insides were made by LG (aka that crappy kmart brand Lucky Goldstar) and it was just outside the store warranty. Luckily we used AmEx and after they couldn't find an authorized repairman nearby they credited us with the entire purchase amount.

My Panasonic plasma is still running beautifully, knock on wood. Heard good things about Samsung LCDs as well but I'm still stuck on the plasma's picture quality.

Another option is the Mitsubishi DLP, slickdeals guys seem to love them, the price/size is hard to ignore and bulb replacement is $100 every few years. I'll be in the market soon and it's mostly going to be between the Mitsubishi DLP and another Panasonic plasma, with a projector setup being the wildcard.

I have a panny plasma as well... 4.5 years and going strong. LOVE it.

For the most part, stick with any of the respectable big name brands, and just look for the best deal otherwise. My panasonic has been flawless for 3 years. I also picked it up under an employee purchase program for about 40% off.

+1 on normal tv+streaming box.

Grtechguy wrote: Another vote for Samsung. then get a Roku/Review/Appletv/HTPC for all the internet stuff.

does this Roku/Review/Appletv/HTPC stuff make a regular (dumb) tv Smart?

I'm electronic illiterate

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: Another option is the Mitsubishi DLP, slickdeals guys seem to love them, the price/size is hard to ignore and bulb replacement is $100 every few years. I'll be in the market soon and it's mostly going to be between the Mitsubishi DLP and another Panasonic plasma, with a projector setup being the wildcard.

I bought a 60" Mitsubishi DLP slim rear projection set over 4 years ago and it is still going strong on the original bulb (this was when LED DLP sets were just coming out), although sometimes I think it isn't as bright as it used to be but it's probably just my imagination. Of course 4 years ago the biggest LCD or Plasma I could get for the same money as my 60" Mitsu was about 40", too small for our living room.

However, I do believe Mitsubishi has finally dropped out of the DLP game as the last man standing so you may be limited to existing stock if there is any left.

EDIT - Yep. http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/02/mitsubishi-rptv-rip/

fasted58 wrote:

Grtechguy wrote: Another vote for Samsung. then get a Roku/Review/Appletv/HTPC for all the internet stuff.

does this Roku/Review/Appletv/HTPC stuff make a regular (dumb) tv Smart? I'm electronic illiterate

Yup.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTPC

I use some old Windows XP computers with HD-compliant video cards (ATI HD-series cards) with a combination of MediaPortal software and Hulu Desktop to access my content. With a cheap HP Media Center remote ($15 on eBay) I can control the PC like any other device.

Most of the PC's in my house have Wireless N network cards in them to access either the internet (Hulu mostly) or our central file server (Pictures, Music, backed up copies of movies/TV shows) and I experimented with TV Tuner cards to get Over the Air HD TV on them. However, I've found very little on broadcast TV that I care enough about to deal with commercials and the rest of the junk since most everything we care about is available online after the fact.

The drawback is that I had to put everything together myself, which for some people is a huge pain to get right and dealing with things when they go bump can send folks over the moon (usually just reboot the PC and all goes back to normal again).

Roku, Boxee, AppleTV, etc. require less effort to configure (plug it in and walk through the configuration settings to get it online and add any local file shares) However they do have their own limitations in that they are based on what the companies allow you to have access to, so that may or may not be an issue for you.

mtn wrote: Wait until 1-10 days after the Superbowl.

We're planning to buy a TV and had this same thought. We'll see if it pans out.

fast_eddie_72 wrote:

mtn wrote: Wait until 1-10 days after the Superbowl.

We're planning to buy a TV and had this same thought. We'll see if it pans out.

Probably more than a few get returned to Costco or show up on CL.

It seems as though approx 50% of posters skipped over the "it will be in spare bedroom for watching while on treadmill/elliptical"

I don't need an HTPC, I have a DLP in my living room, I don't need $1000 TV whilst wiping sweat out of my eyes.

z31maniac wrote: It seems as though approx 50% of posters skipped over the "it will be in spare bedroom for watching while on treadmill/elliptical" I don't need an HTPC, I have a DLP in my living room, I don't need $1000 TV whilst wiping sweat out of my eyes.

Yes and cars running in "stock" don't need R-comps either

Seriously, our bedroom HTPC is an old HP slimline PC connected to a resurrected 25" Viewsonic monitor (the caps like to die in them, a quick soldering job and they are good to go again). Now if we had room to put an eliptical in there, then maybe I wouldn't be so fat.