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TVS ELECTRONICS
Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Audiovox.
There are some available for $69.00.
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No comments about Audiovox VE700 Ultra Slim 7 Inch Widescreen LCD Drop-Down Monitor with Built-In NTSC TV Tuner.
Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Sharp.
The regular list price is $3,699.99.
Sells new for $2,648.00.
There are some available for $2,149.95.
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5 comments about Sharp Aquos LC52D62U 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV.
- After 1 month, i am completely impressed with this boob tube.
Havent seen any of the banding problems with the picture, and have been impressed with the ease of use.
From what I have seen, this is one of the better 52 inchers in the market (that's what she said)
Pros: great picture
Cons: I cant afford to get one for each rtoom of my house
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After a year, still no issues. Baseball and Football look great on this LCD. Cable HD stations look great (I wish there were more offerings). The new Xbox360 is also looking great too.
I've got mine wall mounted with HDMI (30' cables!) and Power going through the wall.
- We purchased the Sharp to replace a rear projection HDTV in our family room. A large southern exposure that faces the television made daytime viewing unwatchable due to the glare. The Sharp remains bright & vivid despite high levels of light and windows in this room.
The picture quality is extremely good on HD (crisp & vivid.) SD is fair at best. No visible banding on this yet (perhaps I'm lucky.)
The sound is ok, however it seems to suffer from dips and elevations when switching between show & commercial.
Overall I am quite pleased with the set.
- I have had my Sharp for about 2 months now and have had no problems with it at all. I cannot see any banding, even when looking for it, and no one else who has watched it has been able to see anything either.
My only complaint is the location of the A/V jacks on the back which makes it so you pretty much have to unmount the TV from the wall in order to change something. The simple solution for that, though, is just to run more wires than you need right now. Wires are cheap.
- I purchased my 52 inch Sharp Aquos from Circuit City in April of this year. I am aware that this particular model has been around for some time, and was pleased to have found a dealer that was clearing out its inventory. I purchased the floor model for $1,360. For that price I was able to afford the warranty, HDMI cables and etc... I knew it was a steal and can't complain about any negatives because of the price I was given. I was only shopping for a 42" but once I got the the store, the large LCD's (playing the Transformers movie) really got my attention.
I connect Comcast DVR to an HDMI input for 1080i quality. I watch sports and the picture quality is absolutely amazing. I used to laugh at commercials that advertised Televisions that allowed you to "make the call" whether an athlete goes out of bounds or being able to see strands of hair. I scoff no longer!!! I can literally see individual blades of grass on a football field.
I connect my XBOX360 to the Component input and the quality is very good. I previously had a Olevia 27" LCD that I used for games and I like the Olevia better than the Sharp for gaming. The colors on the Olevia were richer. But, the contrast for the Sharp is better. Go figure.
I connect my Apple computer to the other HDMI input for 1080i quality. Once again, I like how my Olevia looked in this mode better. The Sharp is exactly that: too sharp. Words are hard to read and motion (grabbing windows and moving them) hurts my eyes. Overall it is difficult to sit close to this screen (maybe because of its sheer size).
Currently, I have no HD/Blue Ray player. so all of my movies are played back at 480p. Between the Olevia and the Sharp, the Sharp fares much better in upscaling the image. The Sharp looks great in every mode, but to me does the best in watching SD and HD television. I feel the most awe when in those modes, followed by movies, and finally the Xbox. The Computer connected through HDMI is really not as good as it should be.
The 2 really big negatives are:
1. The strands or bands everyone else complained about. Mine are not that bad. But, I noticed that I have one bright green vertical strand and one barely visible purple strand. I realized finally that these strands correspond to the exact placement of the picture being displayed in HD being upscaled from SD. In other words, when watching sports in HD the picture will either display in full screen or in 4:3 where the picture will fill top to bottom but not left to right. Whenever a commercial comes on, the picture will display the green band purple band to the outside of the picture. When the game comes back on, the bands disappear.
2. Changing the brightness, contrast, or any other picture related setting will change the setting for ALL MODES of operation. For instance, if I want to increase the contrast while playing video games, and then immediately switch to watching cable, the contrast will continue to be increased. I switch back and forth between modes more than 5 times a day and this problem is the worst in my opinion.
Overall this television is very overwhelming, beautiful, full of color and contrast, yet not overly clear in all modes. The band problem is a hit-or-miss problem for some people. If you watch a lot of TV and movies, you will love this TV. If you play a lot of games on PC or Console, this is not your first choice, but maybe top 10.
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Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By DISNEY.
Sells new for $229.77.
There are some available for $139.77.
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Purchase Information
No comments about Disney Pixar Cars Lightning McQueen 13-inch Speedy TV.
Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By BenQ.
The regular list price is $649.99.
Sells new for $626.99.
There are some available for $756.66.
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No comments about BenQ MP622C - DLP projector - 2200 ANSI lumens - XGA (1024 x 768) - 4:3.
Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Panasonic.
The regular list price is $1,799.99.
Sells new for $1,245.00.
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5 comments about Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK 42-Inch Plasma EDTV.
- I bought the TH-42PWD8UK after exhaustive research and dozens of showroom screenings. To be blunt, these Panasonics have (both the HDs and EDs), by far, the best picture you can have in your home and I'm delirously happy with it. There are a bunch of caveats and issues, though. The flat screen TV decision cuts across a mess of issues:
1) Plasma versus LCD. LCDs look better in the average showroom because they have smaller pixels (finer grained picture) and brighter backlighting. Plasma's hidden strength is their rich blacks and more vivid colors. In real life you sit back 8 feet or so from the screen - so the pixel size issue disappears. The brightness issue disappears in real life too - where I, like most folks, do most of my viewing in evening or night hours in a partially lit room. Plasma's strengths in dense blacks and vivid colors equates to a greater image dynamics - more akin to film than regular television. Once you start to spot it, LCDs look a bit washed out by comparison. Plasma's vividness can be a dual edge sword. Sometimes flesh tones can look too pink. Panasonic gets this right - better than most other plasma screens. Rear projection and front projector units can't compete for vivid picture or image contrast (not to mention angle of view - the big drawback of rear projection BTW).
2) HDTV versus EDTV. HD has higher resolution - but only HD broadcasts can take advantage of it. All the rest of the content you throw at it (DVDs, regular TV broadcasts) must be upsampled. (EDTVs have to upsample regular broadcasts too BTW). Resampling can introduce artifacts (blocky shapes). The quality of resampled images varies quite a bit among different manufacturers and is the reason why you shouldn't necessarily go cheap. EDTV is designed to have the same resolution as DVD - and DVDs look amazing on the 42PWD8UK. HDTVs can actually look inferior to EDTVs on DVDs and regular broadcasts because of the upsampling issue. HD content looks pretty darned good on the 42PWD8UK too - even though it must be downsampled. I spent a good long time looking at an HD demo on the HD and ED models of this monitor and found the difference surprising subtle. I haven't regretted the decision so far. Obviously the only major reason to go with HD is that you have HD channels on cable or satellite, and plan to go to blue-ray or HD DVD soon. If these moves are not immenent for you - then don't pay extra for HD. By the time HD fully penetrates, prices will have dropped a lot and it will be close to time for a new TV anyway.
3) Consumer versus Commercial line. The 42PWD8UK is from Panasonic's commercial line. That's why it is sold without a stand, speakers, and without a tuner (and has such a low price). Stand or wall mount is your choice - but you must budget to buy one or the other. I found a Panasonic brand stand for $185 and it's great. Most folks have external cable or satellite boxes so the internal tuner you buy with the consumer line model is wasted money. The fact that HDMI interface is a cost added option is a non-issue with EDTV - since you will not benefit from the higher resolution of that interface. The 42PWD8UK comes with three inputs standard: BNC coax digital composite, Component Video (the three R-G-B cables), and computer SVGA. Trust me - Component Video is good enough. The inclusion of SVGA is awesome too - for those who have a computer in their home entertainment system. As for speakers - a big screen like this screams out for a good surround receiver and 5.1 (or 6.1 or 7.1) channel audio speakers. If you don't invest the extra $500-$1000 that a decent 5.1-7.1 audio setup will run you you are really cheating yourself. Immersive audio is hugely important in home theater and will really augment the great picture you'll get with the 42PWD8UK. Given that you own your own home theater audio setup - or will be derelict if you don't get one - the issue of the 42PWD8UK not including speakers is irrelevent.
4) Panasonic versus the other guys. Short and sweet - there's no better picture at anywhere near the price. At the high end only Hitachi and Pioneer compete. Interesting offerings like HP end up just being rebranded Panasonics. Cheaper units like Philips (much as I normally like their stuff) look too pink on flesh tones and have inferior black detail. Don't get a cheaper HDTV just because it's HD! The resolution difference is negligible compared to overall image quality. Image quality is where the 42PWD8UK rules - and isn't that really the bottom line here?
- Great TV. Much more affordable that HDTV and it looks pretty much the same. So much so, I bought this TV twice and may buy two more. Make sure you decide if you're going to mount it on the wall or put it on a stand and buy these accessories at the same time that you are buying this tv. You may also need some adapters BNC to RCA etc. All in All...I great buy.
- This is a beautiful TV. I've had it for 6 months and I am very happy with it. For one, the minimalism of it. I just wanted a monitor. I didn't need a tuner since I have a HD cable box and I didn't need speakers since I have a great surround sound system. Also, I find it distracting that consumer versions of flat screens have all that stuff attached, as one reason people like flat screens are the aesthetics. I think the EDTV picture is excellent, and I feel comfortable I made the right decision to not jump on the HDTV bandwagon right now. I am constantly comparing my EDTV to friend's HDTVs and I think their picture is totally inferior, whether it's DVD or regular television or even an HD broadcast. It's a great buy and a great upgrade from a CRT. Very happy.
- This is an excellent plasma TV. I have it for little more than 6 months and I am happy that I bought this baby!
I did research for about 8 months before I bought Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK. First thing, look @ at consumer reports or any website for reviews on Plasmas - on top 10 list more than 50% will be from Panasonic. This company knows how to dig plasmas. Second part is you need to decide about your needs - what exactly you are looking for. In my case, I wanted a plasma that's slim & slick. I ddin't want any speakers associated with the plasma for two reasons - the OEM speakers are NEVER decent quality & I didn't want huge looking thing on my wall. This plasma is basically industrial/commercial display - no speakers, no stands. And that was perfect for me as I can just hang it on the wall (I had to buy seperate wall mount).
Another thing to keep in mind - this EDTV not HDTV. To be frank, I still can't understand the hype for HDTV. I don't have HDTV cable so for me it didn't matter. The quality I think equal to or better than HDTV (compared to HDTV plasmas what I had seen in retail stores).
This TV doesn't have any stand or mount so you need to buy something on day 1 - otherwise you won't be able to put it anywhere. I bought the mount from CostCo and happy with that.
For the connections - look @ the other review over here - there' all possible technical details on that one so I won't bore you with those.
In the end, I will say this is a great plasma with awesome picture quality. If you are buying plasma, get yourself decent home theatre system too. Your A/V receiver can handle all the connections to your cable box, DVD, VCR, CD player etc. And finally, get yourself one of the fancy Logitech/harmony universal remote too. I got harmony 880 and love it. Tip - Plasma on wall, nice slick speakers with high output and 1 universal remote to manage everything will impress anyone anytime - including yourself!
- I've been pretty happy with the performance of the TH-42PWD8UK. I've had it for over a year now. Picture quality from DVD using component cable is very good, and has been what I am using it mostly for. I never feel the need for HD. DVDs looks awesome, as this unit is the native resolution of DVDs. I won't be far off to say that none of the HD sets in the store looks better than this one.
But the reason I am writing this review is my surprise finding of how well it scales 1080i or 720p image when fed such signals. I recently got a Samsung HD tuner, and naturally I set the output to 480p, my TV's resolution. I also tried a Panasonic DVD recorder with HD-tuner, and the picture quality was about the same as the Samsung, very good.
However, while tweaking some settings on the Samsung, I changed the output setting on the back of the unit to 720p and 1080i. I was expecting the TV not to display anything, but much to my surprise, a proper image is displayed. Even to my bigger surprise, the picture looks noticeably sharper and more detailed!! How can that be? The set is not HD! I pondered this for a while and came to the conclusion that the TV must have a much better scaling algorithm than the Samsung tuner.
With HD tuner sending a 1080i signal, picture quality looks astounding! My friend was looking to buy a Panasonic 50" plasma, and came by to take a look at my TV. Both he and his wife were stunned by the picture quality and how it looks better than all the HD units they've seen. Anyway, I am extremely happy with the performance of the scaling algorithm on the TV. If you have HD source, set it to 1080i output and enjoy! You will not be disappointed.
One thing that still puzzles me a bit is why HD materials look sharper and more detailed than DVDs, and I am talking about good quality DVDs here. Since this set is the native resolution of DVD, theoretically it's as good as it will get. HD material should look the same as DVDs, since the end result of what you see, IS 480p.
I wonder if I get an upconverting DVDs, and send the unit a 1080i signal, whether it will look better than the standard DVD. In theory it shouldn't, since scaling 480p to 1080i and scale back would not gain you much, but does it? I guess when my current DVD player dies I'll get a new one and find out.
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Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By In Focus.
The regular list price is $749.00.
Sells new for Too low to display.
There are some available for $671.18.
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Purchase Information
No comments about InFocus Work Big IN2104EP Projector.
Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Philips.
There are some available for $224.99.
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Purchase Information
No comments about Philips USA 15PF5120 15" LCD TV with Crystal Clear III - 15PF5120/28.
Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Syntax Corporation.
The regular list price is $894.02.
Sells new for $695.00.
There are some available for $565.00.
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5 comments about Olevia 532H 32-Inch LCD HDTV.
- I bought this computer december of 06', on black friday, i ended up getting this tv at around $500, at the time the closest thing was over $1000.
there is one word to describe this awesome tv... perfect.
maybe its the amazing 1080i picture, maybe its the ability to play all my pc games with stunning clarity (crysis,COD4,FEAR) and have this act as a double monitor, or the Xbox 360 1080i graphics, im not sure, but everything i wanted or wished i had from a HDTV i got with this one.
- After having this product for 5 months, the picture went dead and volume wasn't always working. Kept taking longer and longer to actually turn on and I could only tell this when the volume was working since picture was already out. Called Syntax customer service and they notified me I had to ship my old tv back to them so they could look at it. Took 3 weeks for them to ship the tv back (with a different remote, not sure why). Worked like normal again for about 2 days. Volume doesn't always work. But I didn't bother to call syntax back since it was a pain. I recommend not buying this tv or buying a very long warranty from the store. Looking for another tv and spending the extra money for a better brand, like LG or Sony).
- That's what it means! I've had mine for about a year. No problems, great picture, average sound (you always need a home stereo or surround system to get the best from TV sound). Menus take a little getting used to. Just one HDMI port for your DVD or BD player - so get a multiple switcher if you need more. Most of us don't.
At $600 currently, this is a steal. I paid nearly $800 then. You can spend two or three times as much and get a little more, but not much more. If you already have a much bigger screen TV, this will be great for another room. If this is your choice for a first digital HD 1080i TV, congratulations - you are on the right page.
No paper user manual. Upgradable ROM via USB port. Make your relatives and neighbors jealous that they paid so much more for a lesser performing HD TV.
- I have had this TV for about 5 months now and have used most of its features. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. The picture and audio are very good. I had a Superbowl party and all my friends watched the game on this TV and very were all quite happy. My only complaints so far are:
1) The TV takes some time (around 10-12 secs) to start up. I wish it booted faster
2) The remote control is not compatible with my Comcast DVR; so i need to use 2 remotes
Given the low price of the TV, I am happy to live with the above mentioned shortcomings. Ofcourse, you know this is not a "top of the line" TV. But if you looking for good quality for an affordable price, you would like this TV
- Don't buy a Syntax Olevia! I bought one and it died almost to the day the warranty went out. Customer service said I would have to pay to ship it back and pay the parts and labor to fix it and that would cost over half of the TV's cost. They wouldn't offer to help with anything and they said they lost my registration card, the same one they used to call me with to ask me how I liked it a week after I bought the TV. So all I can do is to post this to every blog I can to try to inform others.
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Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Emerson.
There are some available for $449.88.
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1 comments about Emerson 32" LCD HDTV.
- I purchased this TV from [...] refurbished. It looks like new and after changing my directv service to HD, the picture looks great. The definition is excellent. The only - thing is that there is no code for the directv remote to be able to set this TV to work with the directv remote, so you have to use both remotes. Since I use it in the room, it is ok. I read many reviews about this and apparently cable and dish tv customers have the same problem. About Emerson, I used to have a small Emerson TV a while ago and the picture was great and it lasted for ever, so I trust this brand even thought many people have not heard about it. Keep in mind that for HD LCD TVs you'll need to get HD signal to get the best picture quality. This is a great TV and I recommend it highly.
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Posted in TVs (Tuesday, October 7, 2008)
By Panasonic.
Sells new for $2,100.00.
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Purchase Information
No comments about Panasonic TH-50PZ800U Viera 50 Inch 1080P HD Plasma TV + Accessory Kit w/ 3 Year Extended Warranty.
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Audiovox VE700 Ultra Slim 7 Inch Widescreen LCD Drop-Down Monitor with Built-In NTSC TV Tuner
Sharp Aquos LC52D62U 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
Disney Pixar Cars Lightning McQueen 13-inch Speedy TV
BenQ MP622C - DLP projector - 2200 ANSI lumens - XGA (1024 x 768) - 4:3
Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK 42-Inch Plasma EDTV
InFocus Work Big IN2104EP Projector
Philips USA 15PF5120 15" LCD TV with Crystal Clear III - 15PF5120/28
Olevia 532H 32-Inch LCD HDTV
Emerson 32" LCD HDTV
Panasonic TH-50PZ800U Viera 50 Inch 1080P HD Plasma TV + Accessory Kit w/ 3 Year Extended Warranty
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