(1) EXTENDED WARRANTY:
Consumer Reports March 2007 issue on HD television sets, page 25:
"It's not worth the money to buy an extended warranty for an LCD or plasma TV. Our survey data from thousands of TV buyers show that both types have had a very low rate of repairs for the first two years of use, and most repairs cost less than $200. A warranty often costs as much if not more than that."
Note that Circuit City (and other electronics supply store) workers are trained to push, push, push extended warranties on their customers - their evaluations and bonuses are based on their success in pushing the extended warranties - it becomes part of their mindset - the extended warranties are almost pure profit for Circuit City, et al.
Buy with certain ("gold" / "platinum") charge cards and your basic included warranties may add a year or be doubled - call your charge card customer support and learn the details before buying.
Check out the store's return policy before buying. For example, Sears has a 15% restocking fee. I believe that Costco has a six-month no-questions-asked return policy on electronics. Night and day.
(2) CABLES:
If you are taking your time wandering through retail stores looking at all this stuff prior to purchasing, also ask about the cable connections that you will need, whether or not the cables are included with the price of the set, and/or the price of said cables. Consider buying those cables separately from a high-quality Internet supplier prior to buying your HDTV.
My eyes (wandering through a retail store yesterday) say that HDMI cables carry a much better image than do component cables. Of course, it could just be how they had things set up.
$5.84 plus shipping - 28AWG HDMI Cables > HDMI Cable male to male - 6ft w/Ferrite Cores
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product....at=2&style=$17.93 plus shipping - High Quality (overkill, but heck - why not?) HDMI to - HDMI Cable (24AWG) w/ net jacket- 6ft (Gold-Plated)
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product....at=2&style=The full line:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepar...0240&style=Monoprice reviews on reselerratings.com:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/monopriceTwo typical recent resellerratings reviews of Monoprice.com:
<<1/29/07 9:08 AM
I could tell no difference between these HDMI cables and the same ones that sell for $100 more. I received the cables promptly and I appreciated the fact I didn't have to find a power tool to open the package. Thank you.>>
<< 1/25/07 7:43 PM
I first tried Monoprice about 2 months ago when ordering HDMI cables for my Dad. The cables worked great. This time I bought some cables for my new home theater system and again Monoprice has shown they can provide great products at a awesome price. I can't believe that someone would spent 5x the price of a cable at Best Buy when Monoprice is around.>>
I have had nothing but excellent results in dealing with Monoprice.com.
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The computer and home entertainment manufacturers have largely surrendered to pressure from the retail sellers to not include cables with their products. The retailers then sell the cables separately at astronomical markups.
For example: at one point our local Office Max - with a straight face - was charging $98 for a DVI-D cable for hooking up an LCD monitor to a computer. And - yup - the $200-250 LCD monitors that they were selling (Samsung) only included analogue cables, but did not include the DVI-D cables.
The sales formula: sell the product cheaply - make your profit via overpriced cables.
The DVI-D (male/male) cables needed were available separately online from
www.monoprice.com for $6.35-$11.48 plus $5.70 shipping. I went ahead and bought the higher quality cable - 24 gauge/6' - the cable is incredibly thick (halfway to garden hose), has massive ferrite cores and has gold connections. Much higher quality than the DVI-D cables that came with Milady's Dell XPS Ultrasharp stuff. Overkill - but, heck, it works well.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepar...0209&style=Don't buy "Monster Cables" and their ilk - computer, video, audio, whatever - you are paying for retail marketing. Buy Monoprice.
(3) SCREEN SIZE:
Consumer Reports advises (page 20. March 2007):
"Whichever you choose, heed the advice of HDTV owners we've surveyed: Buy the biggest screen your space and budget allow."
A friend tried that. An electrical engineer - no fool, he.
He said that the set was twice as big in his house as it was in the store. It completely overwhelmed his room. He had to send it back (too heavy and bulky for him to transport himself).
Quite the misadventure.
There are guidelines out there as to screen size vs. viewing distance from the screen. Don't push the envelope.
(4) For the true home-theatre experience, surround sound is perhaps 40% of the effect. 5/6/7 speaker - whatever - I have not kept up.
I don't believe that the sound system needs to be of the highest quality - or all that expensive.
You might want to research this as well, prior to buying the set.
(5) I was looking yesterday - brick-and-mortar retail - LCDs, plasmas, rear-projection.
From my reading, I expected the plasmas to have the best picture. But in the store, the plasmas were too dark and their colours were way oversaturated. The picture was just kinda bizarre.
The LCDs looked much more natural.
To my surprise, the rear-projections actually had the best picture of all. And they were larger and were not expensive. A far cry from the washed-out blurry rear-projections screens of the past.
I looked for the "rainbow effect" on the DLP technology sets and I just could not see it.
Of all the sets I viewed yesterday, I would buy a rear-projection set over any of the LCD or a plasma sets in the store.
(6) Party last night. CAD draftsman as host - consider how visually oriented such a fellow might be . . .
By golly - a new HDTV set.
And it was a Rear Projection.
I was amused - exactly what I would have chosen from the sets I had seen earlier that same day.
Great surround sound system, too.
The HDTV set was turned off, so I cannot comment on it's quality - this was a people party.
But the music was very rich on the bass (musta been a subwoofer around there somewhere).
(7) Homerama(s) - we have attended two lately in two different cities.
"Parade of Homes" - whatever you wanna call 'em.
Builders struttin' their stuff.
Lotsa "home theatres."
Lots were poorly set up. Sofas situated six-eight feet from huge plasma or rear projection screens in rooms that were much wider than they were long. Your eyes would have to do a lot of horizontal scrolling to try to watch the movie.
Like sitting too close on the front row of a movie theatre.
Also - screens set up with lots of reflections from windows.
All sorts of obvious setup errors.
I mean - if you're gonna do this - you might as well do it right . . .
The best set-ups, by far, were the front projector setups - image projected against a wall screen in a dimmed room.
Image sizes as large as 108" and 120".
Vivid. Beautiful.
And they are just getting better and better.
Yet you do not typically see front projector setups like these on display in stores.
Why not?
Because they would take up too much retail space - retailers care about how much they sell per square foot, and front projector setups take up too many retail square feet. And - many are less expensive than the LCD/plasma/rear-projection sets. That spells a lose-lose situation for brick-and-mortar retailers.
Front projection is what we will probably actually buy when we buy.
Front projection does best in a narrower, deeper, dimmed room - which matches our viewing style pretty well - we favour watching a full DVD movie around twice a week, and do not watch much other television - I think that a front projection home theatre set-up will work out best for us.
Recommendation - bypass the retail brick-and-mortar electronics stores and find someplace that puts together front projection home theatres. Check out the experience. If they charge too much - and they probably will - check out information on the web and do it yourself for much cheaper.
(
Same party last night. Electronic engineer videophile with three - yes three - HDTV sets in his home.
Apparently you can never have enough HDTVs.
Each of a different technology: LCD, rear projection and front projection.
I decided to pick his brains.
He likes the images from all three just fine but says "front projection is the way to go." His projector only ran $1500.
He is concerned about the possibility of burn-in on the plasma sets.
We discussed the DLP "rainbow effect." He cannot see it, either. He says that it may be improving technology currently, or may just be a matter of better vs. worse quality projectors. Whatever it is, neither of us seem to be able to see it in the DLP technology we have seen.
He noted that the sets in the stores are set to maximum brightness and oversaturation to pull in customers. He advised that, once you get home, you calibrate everything with a DVD designed for that purpose. Brightness gets set way down. Much better picture that way.
He noted that the nomenclature is confusing. That the image on a 720p set is superior to a 1080i set. The hierarchy of images (if I have this right) is 1080p > 720p > 1080i.
However, no one is currently broadcasting in 1080p - the only way you can get 1080p is via Blueray and similar components (I forget the name of the competitor to Bueray). Limited availability of the discs, as well. Broadcasting is done in 720p. "Whether or not anyone will ever broadcast in 1080p is anyone's guess."
And 780p has to be interpolated to show in 1080p sets, which actually degrades the image quality. So, if your interest is broadcast signal, you may actually be better off with a 780p set over a 1080p set. If your interest is in Blueray (and its competitor's) discs, your best choice may be a 1080p set.
I hope that makes sense.
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My current take - HDTV technology at this point is still in flux and is in no way mature.
Buying an HDTV now is like buying a CDROM back in the 2X and 4X days.
Me? I waited to buy a CDROM until it was at 48X speeds - and cost $50 instead of $250.
We will sit back here and let the early adopters do their early adoption thing while prices continue to drop substantially and wait until the technology has settled out a bit.
We will only make our final decision then - with an eye towards a front projection setup with good surround sound - including a subwoofer.
Your mileage will vary.
Best regards,
Epaminondas
