I was just recently in a store and felt I had done the research and decided that an intergrated HDTV was not the way to go. However, after spending some time with the very knowledgeable salesman, I'm thinking otherwise. The upgrade to the intergrated TV isn't all that much more money and you get the HDTV/digital decoder built in. Meaning, I can put a regular antenna up on my roof and receive HDTV broadcasts from my local stations without the need for a box or any other extremity. Plus some other goodies like firewire, quad-focusing CRT's, etc. I've kept my eye on this website for some time and was hoping one of you guys could share your knowledge with me. Thanks!!
Best to not IMO, that way you have the choice afterward if you would like a dish or digital cable for hdtv signal where you can receive more channels than the regular 18 channel tuner.Dish and DirecTV offer HD-HBO, Discovery HD Theater, Showtime HD, and more.
I bought an HDTV ready model, that way I can choose what tuner I want later on at the features I want and the price I would like to spend.Because sooner or later the prices on tuners and dish tuners will come down and that way I've saved myself the extra money on the tv and the tuner all together.But if you want HDTV right that moment when you get the TV, then go ahead and get the intergrated model.
Joe, I went through the same thing and decided on a unit without the tuner. For a salesman to stand there and tell me I can do something as backwards as put up an antenna I thought was ridiculous, this is 2002!
If you are using HD Cable or Direct-TV having a tuner serves no purpose. (That I can see) However I did buy a set with the tuner simply because it was offered at a price I could not pass up, and I wanted Firewire and all the goodies on the HDTV models.