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New member Username: Noya83Portland, Oregon USA Post Number: 2 Registered: May-06 | Has anyone viewed this TV? In a proper setup (a living room with the set calibrated with AVIA)? It's available locally right now for $1388 w/an 18 month bulb warranty. At this price it seems like not jumping up to 720p would be idiotic. |
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New member Username: Brg606Post Number: 4 Registered: Mar-06 | mike, i just bought that tv last thursday (5/11) at fry's electronics. i don't have hd set up yet, they're coming out sunday to hook that up. the sd reception is good and dvds look very good. this dlp has the hd2+ non wobulated dmd chip. many think it produces sharper images than the newer (cheaper) wobulated 720p chips. i paid $1499 and am very happy with it so far. will post my impressions of hd next week. |
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New member Username: Noya83Portland, Oregon USA Post Number: 8 Registered: May-06 | Nice, a friend of mine ended up getting it also. I was going to do a basic calibration with AVIA, but it looked pretty good on "Cinema" mode. |
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New member Username: Brg606Post Number: 5 Registered: Mar-06 | mike, i use the cinema mode, but just bump up the "picture" setting to 20 and it makes it a little brighter. |
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New member Username: Tomas090Portland, Maine Usa Post Number: 1 Registered: Jun-06 | Is there any difference between the the 25 and 75 beside tuner? If I am using a HD cable box with HD DVR is there any purpose of spending extra for 75? How do you compare this set to others in price range? Can I hook cable box and computer to set at same time? Finally, I am so confused over plasma, LCD, DLP etc, is this about best "bang for buck" for someone who does not need to hang on wall and will have a viewing area of about 20o? |
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New member Username: Noya83Portland, Oregon USA Post Number: 10 Registered: May-06 | Hi Tom, I personally don't think there is any reason to spend more for the 75. A friend of mine bought this TV at the rock bottom price of $1388.00. He has a Comcast HD cable box and HD DVR...it looks fantastic. The only downside is that even though it has a CableCard slot(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cablecard), Comcast said you lose the onscreen channel guide by using the slot. Yes, you can hook up a large amount of HD capable components. If I remember correctly, while helping my friend hook his TV up, it had 3 sets of component inputs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Video), 2 HDMI inputs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI), and a PC plug in. It also has a bunch of lower quality S-video and composite inputs. And a card reader for digital camera cards. Here is a link for Froogle.com. It's a price searching website created by google. I searched for a 720p HDTV from $1,000 to $1,400. The only other TV worth mentioning is a 46" Samsung DLP. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=720p+hdtv&btnG=Search+Froogle&lnk=pruser&pri ce1=1000&price2=1%2C400.00&btnP=Go I would say the Panasonic is most definately the bes "bang-for-the-buck". DLP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dlp LCD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display_television Plasma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_display SXRD (Sony) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SXRD LCos (JVC) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lcos Good luck with whatever you decide to purchase. -Michael |
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New member Username: Tomas090Portland, Maine Usa Post Number: 2 Registered: Jun-06 | Thanks much Michael. Any idea where I can find that price? Best I can find is 18-1900. I'm still confused over the cable card: why would I use one if I used a cable box? |
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Bronze Member Username: Noya83Portland, Oregon USA Post Number: 11 Registered: May-06 | Tom, unfortunately that price was from about a month ago. It was on sale for $1388 at Bi-Mart (NW only store) and about $1400 at Fry's. Your best bet is to wait for it to come on sale again. The CableCard is used to replace the big, ugly cable box. It plugs into the TV and you use your TV remote. It eliminates a big black box and the remote it requires. So, it saves space and improves aesthetics. |
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New member Username: Tomas090Portland, Maine Usa Post Number: 3 Registered: Jun-06 | Thanks again. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your outlook, our cable provider has a free HDDVR built into cable box so I think I will be using that box for the foreseeable future |