new tv

[neomagus00]

okay, this is probably the wrong place to put a question like this, but i like polk people :).

i'm planning on getting a new TV for the dorm next year, cause the inherited one i have now is quite literally painful to watch (my eyes get all scrunchy and twisted...). So, as this is going in the dorm, it needn't be the most wonderful thing in existence, but it does have to be good; i host movie nights on a regular basis, and my room is often a haven for bored gamers. so, where do i go from here? what info do you need?

thanks,
neo

[Toxis]

what size do you want? Obviously you're going to be going with a Tube TV in which case I highly recommend Sony. Toshiba and Samsung would be my next recommendations but if you can afford the Sony, it's money well spent.

[danger boy]

i'll also throw in Zenith. yeah no one buys Zenith's anymore. they make you think of your grand dads old black and white jobbber. but they last and last forever.

I'm on my third Zenith in 21 yrs. I still have my first one from 1984.. it's a small 13". color looks pretty good. it's got some grainniss to it.. but that's to be expected.

My 15 yr old 27" is still in use in the spare bedroom.. it does a fine job for the PS2 and DVD watchin'.

My newest Zenith is the one in the HT. it's 32" HDTV. with more connection options than any mortal human being could ever use.

All have held up well with lots and lots of hours of use. none have ever had their cathode ray tubes (crt) replaced. ever.

[cfrizz]

Second on a Sony!

[landry_p2000]

36" Zenith, I have had one for 5 years and counting. It was my main tv for my HT set-up at first until I got my projection hdtv. It is currently doing time on my bedroom HT (Sony). It has a great tube for gaming. Make sure it has plenty of a/v inputs for dvd and gaming. Sony Wega is also an excellent choice. Just my 2 cents. Good luck on your choice, and let us know.:)

[bknauss]

Another idea is to get an LCD TV (depending on price ceiling and size you want) with RGB inputs and component inputs (or DVI or whatever for the DVD player). Space is a premium in dorm rooms!

Your other option is to get a TV card for the PC and invest in a bigger monitor. DVDs will definitely look good through the computer (well, compared to some worse hookups), and the TV quality can be pretty good if you use the right software and calibrate it.

[neomagus00]

hey, wow, i forgot i had this thread :)!

so, i've been spending a considerable amount of time looking around, and have come up with a list of candidates. each has hdmi or dvi inputs (a question about these is forthcoming), component video inputs, and is HD or HD-ready.

the top two are the JVC HD-52Z575 (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-RTaL25VnHYb/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?I=25752Z575) and the Sony KDF-42WE655 (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-RTaL25VnHYb/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?I=15842WE655). i've actually seen the sony in action, and i spent at least an hour with a dvd player and my collection just enjoying it in best buy... i notice that sony was mentioned a couple times, which confuses me, cause they're essentially crap in CA (my home). are they still good for home electronics? i mean for longevity, the tv clearly looks good new (and by longevity i mean a decade, i'm not spending this much every four years :)). oh, and you'll notice that my price limit is around $2k, but this is reasonably flexible - i'll fork over a little more for a biggish jump in quality (for you math people, my cash/benefit curve becomes non-linear at $2k).

i've heard a lot about projection, so the InFocus SP5000 (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-RTaL25VnHYb/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?I=590SP5000) made the list. anecdote: i went to a speciality video store a few days ago to find my 'reference' display, against which i could compare all my choices. i chose for my reference a 16 thousand dollar projector, which was so cool that it had its own room all to itself. this made me happy. i went into the room, turned the lights off, sat on the couch, turned a movie on... and almost cried. the $800 tvs at bestbuy looked better than this thing. did i experience a fluke here? or has the day of the projector simply not yet arrived?

oh, a final question set: i want to be sure that HDMI is simply DVI plus stereo sound, yes? and the important question - is HDMI HD-quality? this seems to be a rather important point, but i can't find an answer anywhere!

bknauss - i'm kind of building the room around the entertainment center... it's also a fairly large room (as dorms go), so as long as the tv doesn't take up 12 square feet of floor space, it's fine.

[unc2701]

HDMI is DVI plus digital sound.

"HDMI is fully backward-compatible with DVI using the CEA-861 profile for DTVs. HDMI DTVs will display video received from existing DVI-equipped products, and DVI-equipped TVs will display video from HDMI sources"

"Supports compressed audio formats such as Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, DTS EX.. Driven by the DVD-Audio standard, audio support consists of 1-8 uncompressed audio streams with a sample rate of up to 48, 96 or 192 kHz, depending on the video format. It can alternately carry a compressed multi-channel audio stream at sample rates up to 192 kHz, up to 24-bits."

[neomagus00]

thanks for clearing up the sound half of that, i didn't realise it was multi-channel.

i've also recently read a lot about content protection on HD streams... will this affect quality in any way on an HDMI (or component, for that matter) input? the word 'downrezzing' particularly frightens me...

[VR3]

Sony makes pretty good video products, TVs, DVDPs, etc..

Sony sucks with audio, except Sony ES...Sony ES is nice... :)