Hope you have cable and can get HDTV. Digital is like night and day compared to analog!

choosing screen size

High Definition TV

We have a 50" plasma and our room is 15X18. We sit probably 8-12 feet away depending on where you're sitting.

It's plenty big, but one a little bigger might have been nice!

At one point, we had a TV screen the size of large computer screen in our FR (main viewing tv). LOL Not much tv viewing other than cable news, sports and a few HBO & Showtime series or an occasional movie. We felt guilty and bought a larger TV for FR for when we have guests for a football game during the season.

However, despite the actual small amount of tv viewing, we have 6 tvs in our home. All HD except kitchen tv. FR, I think is something like 42" flat screen but not wall mounted, kitchen, tiny 13", my office was our former main FR tv, (size of computer screen something like 16 or 17"), DH office approx. 17", MBR 32", DDBR, 32".

Then there are the 2 tvs sitting in the attic that have been taken to and fro college by DD. One small, one larger, I think about 36". The larger worked better for dorm viewing!

BTW, our cable bill is ridiculously high. I keep threatening to cancel the cable.

If you've got room for the 52", go for it. That's what we have in a room where the TV is about the same distance from the viewers as your TV will be.

I'm negotiating the 52" Sony. It's a display model on clearance locally and I've printed out some internet prices for him to look at. The model was discontinued in March and the list price was $2499. Now it's on clearance for $1599. but I found it for a hundred $$ less on line. Brand new, not a display. But I want them to deliver, set up and ***remove my dead, extremely heavy TV***, so I am shopping local...

This store doesn't leave their display models 'on' all day. They turn them on for a demo and shut them off immediately after. (I know this is true. We're prior customers. Bought our Subzero there and they are located near our business. Display TVs are never on.)

The owner wasn't in today so I left my name, phone number and the amount I found a brand new one on line for... I'm certain he will call tomorrow as stores are very hungry here. There is a small dent in the bottom of the frame but one must look close...

What should I offer him when he calls? What is a good strategy? Should I buy a current model that is smaller? Otherwise, the budget says it's a 46" replacement... WWYD?

Our family room is 17 x 20. We have a 50" flat screen mounted on the short wall, opposite the sofa. The sofa doesn't sit at the wall, so it's probably something like 16' from where you sit to where the TV is.

The 50" is a really good size. But hey, when we replace it, (hopefully not for several years!!) I'll probably get something even bigger. Why not. We bought the 50" about three years ago. I'm betting by the time we replace it, we'll be able to get a larger one for a lot less than what we paid then.

Natal posted the link to Crutchfield that I thought of as soon as I read your post. I think we often go smaller than we should (disclaimer: yes, I am having trouble seeing our small tv in the kitchen family room and am thinking of replacing it). I would ask him to match the internet price, but maybe add back the shipping cost if there is any just to give him something back. Say the internet price is $1200 and it costs $300 to ship, then I would offer him $1500 and tell him that is how I figured that might be a fair price for him.Have fun-hope you get the deal you want!!!

I just received a call from the owner of the store with the Sony display unit. He offered me the unit for $1499 and no tax. For $30. he'll haul my old unit to the recycle.

Total price would be $1529. for a 52" Sony. Should I go with the new model 46" or the display 52"?

I would go with the 52 inch TV. It sounds like that is what you really want, too.

Are you going to be viewing in high def? If so, you could probably get away with the 46". For that kind of money I wouldn't settle for a display.

Crutchfield offers free shipping. Setup is easy. Get a couple guys to hall off the old tube TV.

Natal, I'm sorry. You asked me this before. I don't know. I have DirecTV. No cable available here so we have a dish. Our bill is high, I think. $130. per month. I have no idea if DirecTV is HDTV or not.

My old TV is so heavy because it has a very thick glass on the front. It's a 1991 Sony Trinitron Wega. They are infamous for their heavy weight. Three of us together couldn't lift it when we re-did our floors in that room. We had to slide it around during construction on the rug pad already under it (that I cut to fit the stand). The rug pad is still under it because we can't get it out.

I don't worry about set up of the new TV. I worry about the old TV. I want it gone. I don't have a truck even if I could lift the dinosaur.

For $300. more, maybe I should buy the new model 52 or 55 incher... Ugh. I'm in TV Torture Land. Course, it'll be more than $300. cuz of the taxes.

First I would check about the DirectTV. I believe that all of the new TVs are high def (HD). My DSIL had the DirectTV before switching over to the Comcastand her television is HD. That said, you do not have to view the tv in high definition:).

Personally, I wouldn't want a display tv regardless of whether they keep it on or not, and would go for the new tv. I think 46" will seem very large compared to your old tv.

Are you looking at the sony just because it's a good deal, or you liked that tv best? I agree with work - I wouldn't buy a display tv. Do you still get full warranty? I would not pay that price for a tv with a chip either.

For me, I take into consideration how much tv we watch. Which is not alot. It's not a priority for us so it's not something we spend alot of money on. We do have two flatscreen tvs and an older tv (not as old and heavy as what you're describing) that still works great. I'm not sure what size the tv in the great room is but it's not huge - maybe 30 something? It's in an armoire and I like the armoire much better than tv so won't be getting anything too large for the armoire! LOL

As for HDTV, I believe Work is right on that too. So you can get a better picture, etc. with the newer tv's without taking the hd service. We don't have it. Again, for how little tv we watch, we would be throwing money away to pay $$$ for the extra service. We also have satellite, but we have dish and they do have HD, so I'm sure Direct does too. It is an additional charge, not sure how much. I recently had our Dish DVR removed and the basic receiver installed again, because we never, ever use the DVR and we were paying an additional fee. Don't get me wrong, if you watch alot of tv, then the additional features (and fees) will be worth it to you. For us, we were paying extra for something we do not use.

tina

We have Cox cable and pay $5.25/month for their HD receiver. Without the HD receiver we would only be able to see the network channels in high def (ABC, CBS, NBC, LPB, and FOX).

The picture quality is so much better! We still have a Sony tube TV in the living room armoire and I thought it had a good picture until I saw high def. No comparison! You don't have to watch a lot of television to appreciate the new technology.

Btw, I was always a big proponent of Sony. Worked in production for the local ABC affiliate and all our cameras and monitors were Sony.

When we bought the flat panel TV we looked at Sony and Samsung. Samsung won.

"You don't have to watch a lot of television to appreciate the new technology." No, of course not. I do appreciate the technology, but doesn't mean the price is worth it to us. With Dish your package was higher for the HD channels (not sure what it is now, haven't looked in some time)and have no idea what the hd receiver costs. It's just not worth it us, other things I'd rather spend the money on.

I can't think right now what brand our flatscreens are, but we first looked at all models and narrowed to a few with the best pic and went from there regarding features, warranty, etc. I don't believe Sony was one of our picks.

tina

I researched both Samsung and Sony Bravia. I can't decide which one to get. The two companies are in a war against each other right now, according to what I read. Sitting side by side in the store, I can't tell the difference between the two pictures and the price points are the same.

I fell in love with a Mitsubushi with built in surround sound but the $2500. price tag pushed it away from my heart. (Other priorities,) I don't own a DVD player and can't think of how I would even use a TV with internet.

I wasn't planning on buying a TV and am out of touch with TV technology. I'm trying to be aware of how large the stores are and how much they dwarf the size, compared to my house. I bought a 12' Christmas tree that (barely) touches my ceiling because Costco's ceilings are so high and he next size down looked so very small. LOL! I'm worried the same thing happens with TVs in big stores.

Natal, what sold you on Samsung over Sony?

We looked at both in the store and agreed it was pretty hard to tell a difference. Crutchfield had a better deal on the Samsung.

Buy a NEW TV. Buy it from a reputable company & buy the extended warranty. TV's are the only appliance we buy warranties for because they're expensive.

Get a HD TV. But you need a HD/DVR/DTV dish for it also. You would not believe the difference. When watching a movie on our HD that wasn't made in HD, I need glasses, that's how bad it is. lol.

DTV offers most of their channels and movies in HD if you have the HD TV and HD dish.

Also, one reason you want to buy from a reputable store (we used Ultimate Electronics, better prices too) is because they'll take the old TV away, deliver the new TV, and install it to all your cables, no matter how many cables you have. We have a lot of cables because we have a separate power box in case of storms, sound system, plus DVD player, etc.

It took the guy a couple of hours to hook it all up but boy was it worth it.

A few months later there was a problem, and they came out to fix it.

We have a large LCD flatscreen (not plasma, the LCD's are better) & the living room is 25 x 35. BUT...before we built the new room, it was in a 12 x 20 room and we loved the size.

If you all watch TV a lot and love movies, the investment is well worth it.

My dh is a movie buff, has Netflix and Netflix on demand.

We have regular DTV, DVR/HD/DTV, and DVR/DTV. Three rooms with TV's in them.

This is probably one of the biggest "appliances" you'll invest in so don't take the one that's been on display.

We're in the country too, and movies are a big deal to us.

We have Samsung in FR and my office. Sony in MBR, DDBR, DH office and kitchen. I prefer the Samsung, but can't really say the picture on the Sonys are that much different.

We do have the HD box on the FR tv. Does make a very small difference in the picture quality, but I can't see putting an additional $6. plus dollars a month per HD box for every tv. We have digital boxes on 4 other tv's at 4.75 per box. The digital boxes give us a perfectly good picture, and we receive all of the same channels that are a part of our cable package.

I do pay for the HD service into the house. The way I see it is that there is no point in paying for an expensive tv and not having access to the appropriate signal to support said tvs.

So, for as little tv as we three actually watch, I pay my cable company monthly for:

HD signal itself;
Charge for 1 HD box;
Charge for 4 digital boxes;
Charge per each of the 4 digital remotes; and
Charge for HD remote.

The little tv in the kitchen doesn't have a box (totally unnecessary), the signal comes directly from the spliced cable wire straight from the wall. Yes, my cable bill raises my blood pressure every month.

Friends and some family members have changed to the DirectTv, but then have issues with their signal in bad weather, the way it is wired, etc. IDK, haven't really looked into the price difference. DH doesn't want the dish on the house, so I've never investigated having one.

Work, that's the same reason we've avoided DirectTV.

Our total cable bill which includes internet is $107/month. We have expanded basic cable and recently added a movie package, but no HBO or Showtime.

Well, the deed is done. We chose the 46" Sony because it was $65. less than the Samsung and the picture quality was a bit better (higher numbers).

Thanks everyone for all your help. You helped me go for the new TV over the display model. It's coming tomorrow morning.

Oakley, we bought it from our local store who is very competitive in their prices. It is not a chain store (Gawd knows chain stores are NOT allowed here).

If we could get cable, we certainly would get it. I hate DirectTV. We've been with them since we bought this house in 1989. Our old equipment was so old and they wouldn't give us an upgrade to where I could record things SO I called them saying I got a 'divorce' from DH. The bill went from his name into mine and I got the new stuff. In a few years, I think Robert will move back in and take over the house as I'll move out of state or something. Then we can get new boxes again. LOL!

"Our total cable bill which includes internet is $107/month."

Okay, y'all are making me feel better about my decision to finally pony up for television reception. Actually, several bouts of bad weather this past spring with no quick way to track storms on dialup made the decision for us, but it sounds like we're getting a decent deal.

We pay about $140 and some change every month which covers DSL, local and unlimited long distance, and cable tv with about 100 channels but not HBO or Showtime or the fancy sports stuff.

Our tv has a built in DVD and VCR, (necessary for old movie collection) and at 20" it would be too small to be practical for the FR in a modern house, but then, our living room is maybe 14 x 14, so we don't have trouble reading the subtitles and CC across the room.

Littledog, you ARE getting a good deal. I pay $130. for DirectTV, $60. per month for wireless internet (computer upgrade a few years ago wouldn't recognize my dial-up) and the phone bill is on top of that!

I learned that we do have to pay extra for HD at the store today. Oye. DirectTV costs us $4.33 a day for two TVs and we need another upgrade? I'm trying it without.

We live 5 minutes from town but you would think we lived in the boonies from the lack of services available to us. There are houses all up and down my road but we're on an acre or so apiece. Guess we wouldn't make them enough of a profit to install cable here.

littledog - I just wanted to mention that back when DD got her first BR tv, we bought her the tv/vcr combo so as to avoid watching "Barney & Friends" videos 24/7. Not long after the purchase, the tv started a small fire. Luckily we were home. The tv combo was NOT in use when the fire occurred. When the repairman came out, he told us to get rid of the combo and buy separate units. He would not even repair the set. Shortly thereafter came the recalls of tvs with the built in VCR. While I am sure these types of tvs have come a long way in design, I'd check out the fire hazard aspect of the combo to be sure it has been resolved.

Sorry I'm late to the post..

Maximum PC just did a story about how to buy a TV. They tell you to get a thumb drive, what to put on the thumb drive and what to do with it once in the store.

We are partial to Sony/Samsung. My pain management Dr has a nice Sharp TV.

My son (works for DirecTV) sees a lot of Visio's; but when it was time to upgrade his TV Christmas 2009 - he chose Sony. I would have rather he picked an upgraded version of the one he got but he said this one was fine. It had a few more features & was on sale for the same price as what he picked; when it went for hundreds more.

As far as the WildBlue internet service - have you looked into Verizon? IIRC, they have net built off of their mobile net service. My son is one of the lucky ones trained to do WildBlue - IMO - waste of money, but when nothing else is available what can you do?

Do you know model numbers of your equipment? I can show it to my son and see what he says to do. Do you have a service plan? Over all, we are happy with DTV. Comcast was a little better but for the discount we get, we can't complain.

Here's a few articles -

How to Buy the Right Display

Disp[lay Myths Shattered: How monitor & HDTV companies cook their specs

23 tips for buying the best HDTV

We also live in a rural area although cable is now available (it wasn't for years). We actually pay a good bit less for satellite than the cable would cost. We pay around $90 for the mid package. Loads of channels, many which will never, ever be watched, lots of music channels, including satellite radio which my husband sometimes listens to. We have the local channels and the local sports package, but no showtime, hbo, etc. About 15 years ago when we first moved to this little area, we had DirectTV. We had a few glitches, but no major problems. After building our present home, we switched to Dish and have had only one problem. We've had good service and to the best of my memory, have never had a significant outage, only occasionally short ones if there is a bad storm. The dish is small, it's not seen from where we have it installed. We did once have a receiver that apparently went bad. We could have someone come out and replace, but my hubby installed most of our receivers, wiring, etc. so we just had it sent to us. They sent it over-night and he swapped out receivers. The problem we had, came after we got the DVR receiver (another reason we decided to go back to the basic receiver) we kept getting charged for video-on-demand viewings. We've never used/ordered video-on-demand. They finally figured out that it must be a garage door opener or something interfering with the signals. We did get the DVR receiver with no cost (only monthly service) because we have been long-time customers. I know they sometimes offer that free to new customers, so I was prepared to argue the point, but it didn't come to that.

BTW, I don't think a tv will ever be the appliance we spend the most on. LOL

Anyhoo, congrats on your new tv Goldie, and let us know how you like it!

tina

On the topic of packages-I posted awhile ago about ATT U-verse. Installed it at the end of April so it's now been ~3 months of having it. I bundled the television, internet and land line phone. Our bill is ~$160/month for all three. The tv package is something like 200 channels and includes a DVR master receiver and 2 other boxes.

So far, am liking the U-verse a lot. The neat feature of the tv package is that any box can record and/or watch shows. Also, you can watch a program while recording another one. Maybe it was just my DirectTV package but that wasn't possible before and it bugged me to no end, just because it was less functionality than I'd had back in the VCR days!

I haven't even gotten into a lot of the whizbang features though so I'm sure there are tons of things that can be done. One feature we do use and like is that now when the phone rings the caller id displays on the tv screen. So handy, you can see who is calling before you even have to get up to check :).

Also, with DirectTV anytime there was a storm we lost signal for awhile. Usually only for a few minutes but living in Florida that meant a LOT of few-minute-outages.

The big downside of U-verse is that because everything is bundled, if it goes down we are out of tv, internet and phone service. Not fun. That has happened a couple of times and usually it is easy to fix; just reset the modem bu unplugging and then replugging it in. Still, something to consider.

Ann

Gold, are you saying DTV won't come out and install the DVR/HD box and dish? That's not right. You'd have to pay for it but it's the only way you can watch your shows on HD and record them.

They did it for us, no problem.

Natal, I have to have Showtime and HBO! They make their own movies now and they're fantastic.

I also love Stars. We don't have Cinemax though, that channel is useless with the others we have.

You need the High Def dish. It wasn't even worth buying a new TV if you don't watch the shows in high def.

It is worth every single penny believe me. What is the incremental up charge from what you pay now? We have Time Warner and I think they charge $7 a month for a high def box. But the other thing that is worth the price is the DVR box!!

OMG, I love my DVR. It is so easy to record things, and when watching live TV you can rewind and watch things over again even if you're not recording the show. Just love it.

oakley - while we have HD tv's, we didn't get the HD signal until well after we bought the HD's. You can get only a digital signal, which will allow you to watch your HD televison. You cannot watch it in hi-def mode, but you can still get a decent picture and all of the channels provided in your package.

Oakley, sometimes I wish we had HBO & Showtime, but for an extra $30 a month it's not worth it to me. I know I've missed some good series along with movies. I do occasionally rent an HBO movie. Loved the HBO version of Grey Gardens and next on my list is You Don't Know Jack.

With my current DT box, I can rewind, pause and record one other show while watching something else. I can schedule regular recordings and can either record first runs only or both first runs and reruns. I can schedule up to 50 shows to record. I love it and never watch commercials anymore and can hardly stand to watch anything in 'real' time.

I definitely need to look at my DirectTV bill and decide what we are really watching now that the boys are gone. I really suck at this kind of thing. It could be that I can switch out something for the HD capability and not have my bill go up.

I don't watch HBO or Showtime much but DH does. (How is it that he can watch the same movie over and over again?)

Gold, do you have a net line and phone line hooked up to the DTV box? If so, it opens up other features. The phone line does the caller ID on screen.

They are going to start that we can watch something recorded on one box in another room. My son has been telling me though I don't remember what he said; if we'll have to upgrade our boxes or what.

Ann you've lost service a few times in 3 short months? Sorry, once is one thing but more then that & I'd be done.

We've had DTV about 2 years; we had 1 issue a few months ago on 1 box due to the bad software update; we lost service due to a bad storm once. Last week I was watching something when we had a storm & there was a short blip; I did not miss anything with my program.

For what we pay for DTV I can't complain. I feel so bad reading what everyone else spends on it. Our Comcast (net & TV) bill was outrageous; now we just use them for net. I would use Comcast for a phone but our alarm doesn't support it yet.

Golddust, if you don't have a contract w/ DirecTV and don't mind switching to Dish Network, they are offering free HD for life for new customers.

Two TVs here: 21" in a bedroom and 15" in the kitchen, both tube-type, not f/s. Not used much.

No cable or satellite available in the area, and needless to say no high speed phone connection. I'm on this forum usually at 16,400 kbs, occasionally as slow as at 9,600, so I hate it when someone loads heavy pics in their posts.

Before the change to digital TV, we got 4 channels (big 3 plus, plus PBS) year-round, though somewhat woozle-ly at times. Since the switch we can get same 3 main ones, three channels of PBS, Fox and couple of outdoor sports channels, but only in the late Fall through mid Spring. So at this time of year I'm largely TV-less, despite extravagant antenna and converter box set-ups. I think the switch was designed to boost cable and dish companies' revenues and completely ignored what it might do to people who for one reason or another relied on over-the-air broadcast TV. However, after a period of adjustment when it felt weird not to have even TV news available, we've adjusted pretty well. Once the seasons change and we can get TV again in Nov., we go on a two-week TV binge, but then revert back to "normal".

It's interesting how necessary it must seem to the majority of posters. I feel sure some of the readers here are incredulous that I can live so unplugged, and so contentedly. I am taken aback, in turn, how much you guys are paying for the TV and internet connection services!
L

L, I consider it a luxury like some would consider an RV or a boat. The internet and television are more than just entertainment though, they're a window into the world and they can bring things to you instantaneously.

We went from a 36" tube television to a 52" LCD flat screen. It was a huge difference, but now we wish that we had gone larger.

Our tv wall is 16' wide by 8' tall, and our media cabinet will accomodate up to a 65" screen.

"Ann you've lost service a few times in 3 short months? Sorry, once is one thing but more then that & I'd be done."

For us, that's an improvement! With DirectTV we lost the signal whenever a rainstorm passed by. In Miami that is pretty often :).

Over the 3 months, there have been 2 outages that were fixed by unplugging/replugging the modem. The 3rd was caused by an attempt to 'fix' a misinstalled feeder box. Comparatively that is wonderful service...then too we lose power for other reasons pretty frequently. Our neighborhood is full of mature trees, the electrical infrastructure is old and people don't trim and prune as often as they should. So the power goes out occasionally and of course for any storm, no matter how minor, our neighborhood is down for many more hours or days than most in the area. So the tv service is good comparatively believe it or not.

Ann

I don't have cable either. We do use cable for our internet connection but I have absolutely no interest in having cable TV. I don't really watch TV at all, so no need to pay for it.

When we were shopping to put in surround sound, every store we went to they started talking about how it would connect up to cable. Everytime we'd say, well, we don't have cable. And they would either: A. look at us like we were speaking a foreign language or B. Completely ignore that and keep talking as if we did.

I do consider a good internet connection to be indispensible now, but not TV. Oh, and I don't do netflix or blockbuster, I get all my dvds from the library. And yes, they do get all the new releases, including all the TV shows.

We bought a 32" flat screen simply because that's what would fit in the e.stand we bought right before. 37" was wee bit too big. I honestly didn't want anything over 40". Our LR is 18x15.

DH wants to put a huge whopper in his man room when finished.

We have basic cable. I wish we could just purchase ESPN for DH instead of the whole huge package. He's fine without it for now.

Growing up we didn't have cable (my parents just recently got it) and we got some funny looks too, lol.

liriodendron, due to the topography, we never had any kind of broadcast reception here. You get used to not watching tee vee fast that way. ;^)

But this past spring, we had several major storms (including a tornado that skipped along the tree tops within a half mile to our west), with no way to monitor the weather on our dial up that usually connected at a dismal 28.8 Kbps. I even took storm spotter training just so I'd know what to look for, because the only warning we had was what we could see. (tough cookies if the storm went over at night)

When the phone company was able to offer DSL internet, local and unlimited long distance for the price of what we were by then paying for long distance alone, I was ready to sign up; the cable tv (and the weather!) is just the icing on the cake. True, the television reception added another 30 to 40 dollars to the bill, but it's very reassuring to hear Gary England say "Now, you folks in Seminole County, this is gonna go right by to your west..." ;^)