Best Place to Buy HDTV: In-Store or Online

well I had a TV dropped off the crane and complete obliterated, so it arrived smashed, so the delivery guy said, "oops, back to sender".

they sent me another one right away and said it was a freak accident. the shipping company is usually pretty good, but crap happens sometimes. they have shock sensors on my packaging. I thought that was cool.

 

Well, my old Panasonic TV finally died. I bought that right after college and it has served me competently for 13 years. I'll miss it.

Of course that means it's finally time to buy an HDTV!

I'd appreciate any advice y'all can offer. I'm adamant about buying top brand. I've been pretty set on getting a Sony. I've been looking at these 2:

32" Class BRAVIA® L-Series LCD Flat Panel HDTV

40" BRAVIA® S-Series LCD Flat Panel HDTV

I live in a townhome and have a kid, so I can't buy too large a TV or spend too much. The setup of our living room precludes any kind of surround sound. The price difference between the 37 and 40 is negligible, so I'm down to the 32" or 40".

The 40" is 1080p vs. the 32" with 720p. I'm curious if you think the better resolution and larger size is worth an extra $400 or so. Does a 1080p image look crisper on a 40" inch or on a 32" inch with 720p? Any thoughts on these specific models?

I'm not going to buy from Sony directly and will be picking this up online (PC Nation seems to have the best prices now). We have a loaner TV for now, so we're going to wait for holiday sales (maybe post-holiday sales) for the prices to drop. Just trying to settle on a model and then lock in for sales on it.

 

I find that the 1080p is not very important if you are buying anything smaller than a 50inch tv. however, if you are choosing between a 32 and a 40, i'd choose a 40 easily.

what about plasma? another panasonic? did you look at samsung too?

I recommend this if you want another panasonic, free shipping
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3921383&CatId=2518

 

Thanks for the advice, Tinman. I knew you could help illuminate the situation.

That's good to know about the 1080p.

I hadn't really considered plasma, and I kind of locked in on Sony (I always try to buy name brand electronics). It seemed that Samsung and Panasonic didn't have the name recognition and rave reviews of Sony (although I haven't heard many reviews at all). Good to know that Sony isn't the solo top brand. Any other brands you'd recommend looking at other than Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic?

Sorry if my questions are basic. I really had not planned on buying an HDTV until late 2009 and have been trying to get myself up to speed from scratch. Gotta say I'm looking forward to the HDTV experience.

 

Toshiba, Sharp, Pioneer are also great brands.

Panasonic/Pioneer are considered the best tvs for plasmas. did you check out that link I sent you on the Pioneer plasma? its a great deal IMO.

That 40inch Sony you posted is a good tv.

what was the best price you got on that? it was $1099 on sony's site.

oh this is a good deal too:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3649442&CatId=3647

 

I had a chance to check out that link and it looks pretty awesome from a first read. I do worry slightly about the size. 40" is probably as big as we can go for the living room we have. I made lifesize graph paper representations so we could see how they'd look in the living room. I'll mock one up for the 42" as well and see. It's probably a bit out of the price range as well. I'm trying to top this out at $1,000. A second kid is not too far down the road, and we're trying to conserve our money (although I do view a quality TV to watch the Rockets as part of their education).

I found the 40" for about $1,010 shipped at PC Nation, although I'd expect that to drop sometime in the next 2 months. (at least I hope so). I think Amazon probably is a bit cheaper, but since I'm in Seattle, I have to pay sales tax.

Thanks for the other brand recommendations. I'll definitely cast a wider net for my search. I'll also check out some plasma options and see what I can find.

 

plasmas are going to be 50inch or higher now since they have chosen the larger size to have a competitive advantage vs LCDs.

so the 42in plasmas are going cheap. really cheap
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3811032&Sku=P333-4270

also for LCDs, the 37inch is going for cheap cause 40inch models are the standard

 

I bought my TV from these guys.

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=91478

Sony KDL-37L4000 LCD TV
37-Inch BRAVIA LCD HDTV

$883.00 Free Shipping

 

I just bought a Panasonic 50" Plasma this weekend, and it is incredible. Normally $3K, I got it for $2K at Circuit City. Got great reviews...everything I read has Panasonic right behind Pioneer as the top two plasmas on the market.

If you are in a pinch about plasma vs. lcd, check out:

http://reviews.cnet.com/televisions/?tag=TOCleftColumn.0

I ultimately decided to go plasma because the picture is just better IMO. Plasma has darker blacks which makes the colors more vibrant. The refresh rates are quadruple what LCD offers, so if you are a gamer, it makes for a better picture. Also, the big knock on plasmas were always the life span, but from everything I've read says that plasma has caught up to the lcd in that regard.

If you are "looking forward to the HD Experience", go plasma. I was afraid if I bought LCD and got it home, I'd have buyers remorse because I would know in my mind that the plasma has a better picture. I've had the plasma for 3 days now and not a bit of buyers remorse at all.

Good luck!

 

The Samsung HL67A750 is 1796 in store at Conn's. Price match at CC and get 10% of the difference to make it 1726 + tax coming out to 1868 after taxes (8.25%)

http://www.conns.com/hl67a750.html

 

so i take it you are enjoying your tv that you are recommending it to others

 

Enjoying it very much . I'm also keeping an eye on the prices since i have a 60 day price match. I have to go back to CC and get my 45 bucks

I have some overscan issues with the PC connected to it. I've gotten the desktop to fit right but some of the games have overscan issues on them since they can't do 1920 x 1080. I don't know how to adjust those games so that part sucks. The TV is beginning to shrink in my eyes though. I hate that adjustment but then again everything else seems so small.

 

Cool! did you get the 800U? I am look at the 800U myself, getting close to pulling the trigger.

 

you got your HD right? don't you have a bluray player too?

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8723045&type=product&id=1200703056300

its the 720p, Panasonic 50in
for $999

1080p is overrated and this is a freaking steal

 

PS3 yes. HDTV not yet. Still trying to decide but it looks like U-verse is the way to go, though I did want the tennis channel but it's not offered on U-verse. I think I can live w/o that though for the price savings over comcast.

 

about freaking time!