LCD For My Parents, Help! :-P

[Sehnzeleid]

Here's the deal, after my parent's 36" Sony Trinitron SD CRT bit the dust a week ago, they've been watching on a twenty year old 27" RCA ColorTrack 2000.

They want to go hi-def, with certain guidelines:

- LCD (they are quite paranoid with Plasma)
- 1080p (if 46" or more)
- "around" $1,500-2,400
- "around" 40" to 50"
- wall-mountable
- high reliability

***Purchase has to be made by May 15th***

I've tried to point them towards Sony Bravia and Samsung's 650 ToC series...but their price limit might screw them out of these...?

Any suggestions? links? Is there any "diamond in the roughs" I'm unaware of? They also entrust me with online purchases, so options don't have to be necessarily be at B & M stores.

I want whatever they decide on to be eye-popping! They'll be sporting my old HD-A1 for DVD/HD DVD playback and they'll be getting ComcastHD. Plus they'll be getting my old Polk 5.1 surround system and H/K receiver.

Thanks guys!

[Ruined]

Amazon.com: Samsung LNT5265F 52-inch 1080p LCD HDTV: Electronics

edit: sold out now, it was $1999 from Amazon shipped....

[SilentBob]

Toshiba Regza 52" 1080p from Best Buy for $2,000

[videoworx]

- LCD (they are quite paranoid with Plasma)

Tell them to stop listening to idiot salespeople. For the price range they are looking at, nothing beats the Panasonic 8 series plasmas. There is no burn-in, and they last 100,000 hours. And the contrast ratio rocks, even on the entry level models.

The only disadvantage to plasma is that your electricity bill goes up $20/month.

[billnye97]

Originally Posted by videoworx

The only disadvantage to plasma is that your electricity bill goes up $20/month.

Really? How come?

[Sehnzeleid]

I must be nuts.

I had some free time after work so I took my parents to Best Buy. We look around and they see the 52" XBR4, it's $3,399, but they really like it.

It's directly playing the Fantastic Four BD on a Panny DMP30, the main menu looks fantastic, and I watch some of the trailers (Ice Age, Speed). Bright image, but the image looks rather "average". I tinker with the image settings and it still doesn't look quite right. We leave still in debate and part ways. I'm sitting here watching the same trailers on my ol' DLP and they look much better in an obvious way...

What's going on?

Also thanks for the suggestions, the list they have is getting long.

[Ruined]

Set it to this:
Sony KDS-60A3000 Owners Settings Thread

Then have Best Buy turn off their lights, and you will be all set Also hit the "display" button on the TV remote and make sure it reads 1080p24 for optimal pic quality.

[Iguana Man]

"around" has new meaning for me.

[Sehnzeleid]

It looks like this will be the one:

Toshiba REGZA 52HL167 LCD

It was hard keeping them off the XBR kick, though it's just massive overkill what what they will watch (SD/HD cable/DVDs)

My mom keeps bugging me about whether the Toshiba's picture quality will be good or not.

[Sehnzeleid]

Final selection:

52" Sammy 650 ToC

[Iguana Man]

Whats with the two-tone border? Or is that just the way the pic came out?

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Whats with the two-tone border? Or is that just the way the pic came out?

HDTV Origin: Samsung Touch of Color HDTV Introduction

I dropped by this morning with my H/K for them and did some A/Bing of speakers, snapped this pic:



They still have to run more cables and drywall the wall the TV will be mounted on. The surround sound wiring is already ran in-wall. I made an outline drawing of the cabling from the wiring to the TV and AVR. They're even talking about getting a PS3 for Blu-ray.

I also helped them order this wall bracket from Monoprice.

[ddeee]

There is a great deal for JVC LT47X788 47 in 1080p LCD HDTV $1365

[Sehnzeleid]

My parents officially have a better HDTV than me.



Set it up quick and dirty. 120Hz is shit so I shut it off, it's like when you stare at TV static for 30 seconds and then look around your with eyes being hyper sensitive to any motion. It creates the allusion of the video and the audio being off-sync, at least to me. It also makes grainer material look like crap, like the grain is freezing on screen every half-a-second.

After a few hours it went back in the box for a few days while they finish up the wall.

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by Sehnzeleid

I also helped them order this wall bracket from Monoprice.

Also they showed me this since it came in yesterday, my dad already assembled it, only has like 4 parts. Excellent weight and strong build quality. The tension in the "scissor" arms is just right.

[Sehnzeleid]

I phoned today and they're still finishing up the wall. The cable TV is installed, the drywall up, the mud spread, cable holes cut, and the bracket mounted...only need to sand. Afterwards the LCD should be mounted, I'll have to be there for that.

They're also looking into component cabinets at Ikea.