I just purchased the Sony 40 inch KV-40XBR800 HDTV with stand and love it around 2K @ ABT Electronics...

 

Actually my understanding is that all of them are to become compatiable with cable or satellite compatable, as the old method of TV broadcast that can be picked up with a simple inside or outside antenna are being discontinued.

They intend to open that bandwidth to more cell phones and possibly wireless internet, something along those lines I didn't care to read alot of it.
That is something we really need, more dang cell phones and wireless internet that can be accessed from the road so that not only will they be driving and talking, they can now be playing MMUD's while driving back and forth to work.

I find it very odd that we have already developed bombs that can toast all electronics in the area, yet we are allowing ourselves to become totally dependant on a communication setup that will be wiped out should we get nailed with them. No means of falling back to a method that would be easily repaired and up again. Even though they are already aware of a certain country working extremly hard on something that will disable satellite's in our orbit.

Oh well, we been going down hill for years now, so I guess it would be silly to think that anyone would wake up and stop the fall.

 

Go to: http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/p...nceptions.html

Pay particular attention to myth #8

Scott

 

Some info on HDTV:
http://msn.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,122629,00.asp

 

Lemme tell you guys a story.

We were loading a dvd into our player, and the thing stopped working. Wouldn't read the disc. So I put it in our PS2. Worked fine. Next movie, wouldn't go in the dvd player. Into the PS2. No go. So, we went to where my wife bought the dvd player. Out of warranty. No kiddng. So we start looking around at new dvd players. I didn't really care what we got, as long as we could watch the stupid movie.

Well, long story short, we somehow ended up looking at widescreen tv's. And came home with a 50" Samsung DLP. And a Samsung DVD player. And a HDTV converter, and about $500 worth of DVI and HDMI cables. I honestly couldn't give a rats behind, but my wife said since we were gonna buy a tv, why not a big one. Out the door with all our stuff about $4400.

And I gotta tell ya, regular broadcast tv on the big 50" absolutely SUCKS!!! Grainy and pixelized. Like looking at an 8x10 photograph taken with a 1.1 megapixel camera.

But pop in a dvd, or watch HD broadcast, totally amazing. We watched Mr and Mrs Smith, Four Brothers, and some other movie I just can't remember right now, on New Years Eve. And Star Wars Episode 3 last night.

And the part I like, it only weighs 80 pounds.

 

Sounds like an awesome setup...I just can't bring myself to spend that much on a TV setup. We bought a 42" Panasonic HDTV widescreen projection TV a couple years ago at Walmart for $1400 and absolutely love it. I bought the whole surround sound setup with dvd player on ebay about the same time for just over $100 and our movie experiences are all I can ask for...not the best, but plenty acceptable. Normal network broadcasts look good too!

 

My grandma just gave me her 27" rca color tv w build in record player / radio from 1973, she paid 3200 for it

 

bigrigfixer,

I bought an LCD a few weeks ago or so and thought that standard cable looked like crap as well... Until I started doing some tweaking, now it looks at least as good as a standard quality dvd on almost every channel, save for a few that look like a really good VCD and there's no reason CATV can't look that good; I am actually quite blown away that the coax from the wall, split twice and plugged directly into the TV, can look this good. Have you tried connecting the cable directly to the TV, or are the SD channels scrambled as well?

The biggest difference will be lowering the sharpness down and possibly fine tuning each channel's frequency if need be. An RF amp may be a good idea as well, I use one and it makes quite a noticeable difference - got it free from the cable company.

I might also suggest hiring an IFS technicial for an HDTV of that size

 

I own a 25" Magnavox that serves me just fine for no more TV that I watch. I can't justify spending over 1000 dollars for a television that I watch maybe an hour a day.

When the time comes to make the change....the prices will be lower I'm sure so I will wait until I have to make the switch.

 

That's the GREAT thing about electronic devices...the longer you wait to buy after a new technology hits the market, the cheaper to own...remember the first LCD or plasma flat-panel to hit the market...it was what, about $10k??? Now they can be had for less than $2k.

The first VCR I bought set me back $450 on sale...that was about 1985...now, you can buy a 4-head hi-fi VCR for less than $50!

Scott

 

Scott....I remember the first vcr I ever bought. It was a Sanyo Beta unit....way back in the days and I gave right at 900 dollars for it. I ran that thing until the video heads went out on it and the only reason I didn't repair it was because by then, vcr's were cheaper than getting that one fixed. Not too mention that the beta format was on it's way out.

 

Beta...man that brings back some memories! Hard to believe that was 2 decades ago...time sure flies!!!!

 

I second this decision, if you have kids the plasma is not the way to go with the "burn in" issue. Video games can ruin the screen!! My LCD Sony has been awesome so far and if I have to replace the bulb in a few years its 100.00 to do so and well worth it.

 

My first VCR was a Sony Betamax SL 5800 in 1981. It cost me over $1300 CAD.

 

I personnaly have the projection 54". Not HDTV etc. I built it into a closet. People come over and it's part of the wall. Can't tell the difference is my point. I'd wait a few more years and they'll be cheap!