Looking to buy a LCD....

[Bill Ayotte]

I have a friend who is looking to buy a LCD TV between $600-800. She is kinda on a tight budget and can't wait for me and my 50" dlp to get there in June I guess. :D Does anybody have any suggestions/one they want to get rid of? HD rating is of little concern to her, as she doesn't even know what the hell it is. As long as it is better than her crappy tube TV, she will be happy.

[GV#27]

Olevia and Westinghouse have some good performing reasonably priced LCD's.
http://www.olevia.com/jsp/home.jsp

http://www.westinghousedigital.com/c...rodcat=LCD+TVs

[dane_peterson]

I would never buy one of the 3rd-party displays.

My friend bought a Westinghouse 1080p LCD a few months back, COMPLETELY ignoring my suggestion to go with Sharp or another more trusted brand. Two days later he calls me up and says "You were right." Ended up returning the Westinghouse 2 days later as it completely failed.

I would check out 2nd Act (www.secondact.biz) They should have several options in that price range, all with trusted names.

[Bill Ayotte]

I checked out Second act earlier, they have some decent stuff, but shipping will be the bastard of that one. Maybe I can cover that for her birthday.:D

[GV#27]

s.

My friend bought a Westinghouse 1080p LCD a few months back, COMPLETELY ignoring my suggestion to go with Sharp or another more trusted brand. Two days later he calls me up and says "You were right." Ended up returning the Westinghouse 2 days later as it completely failed.

Any product can fail and I have'nt heard that reliability was an issue with Westinghouse.From what Ive read most owners are quite pleased with theirs.Any way budget seemed an issue so a new Sharp or Sony would be a bit too pricey thus my lower tier recommendation..

[dane_peterson]

Understood, GV. No disrespect, just personal preference.

Bill, is there a certain size she's looking for? You can land a 32" Sharp from there for $650 with only $50 shipping.

[GV#27]

Understood, GV. No disrespect, just personal preference.

Bill, is there a certain size she's looking for? You can land a 32" Sharp from there for $650 with only $50 shipping.

No problem dane:)

You guys south of the border have it good,that 32''Sharp would sell for a $1000 or more up here.

[Bill Ayotte]

That 32" is a great deal, I was just trolling to see if anyone else here has a good place to look. The Sharp looks like the winner so far. I know she will get the warranty for it as well, that is why I was looking cheaper. Thanks for the help.

[Maurice]

Last month I bought my daughters a 32" Scepter 720 LCD. 650.00 shipped from Costco. Nice little set with good pq. Check it out on their website.
Also you can pick up a 32" Vizio at Sam's club for 599. Dont know much about shipping to Canada though.

[Bill Ayotte]

She was going to check out Costco, My only concern is she is kinda electronics dumb so I don't want someone selling her a piece of crap. I think she is going to pull the trigger on that sharp though. She thinks it's pretty.

[Willow]

from what I read most LCD are or were made in Asia as plants were to expensive to build so most LCD were made with certain specifics for different companies. LG/Phillips come to mind that they made LCDs for many other big name and they slap on their logo. This may not be so true now as I know sony has their own plan and so does Samsung. But if she is not going HD it will look like Crap if it;s just reg and not even Dig cable. I did that once for the hell of it, I pluged in straight cable from the wall to my LCD and it's looked like bad, hooked it back up to my SA HD box and clear as can be.

[JimBRICK]

legend and Prima make really good offbrand lcd panels

[fireshoes]

Toshiba has a new 32" that should be coming out this month for $799 msrp.

[johnADA]

from what I read most LCD are or were made in Asia as plants were to expensive to build so most LCD were made with certain specifics for different companies. LG/Phillips come to mind that they made LCDs for many other big name and they slap on their logo. This may not be so true now as I know sony has their own plan and so does Samsung.

There are 3 major manufacturers of LCD panels in the world that comprise of 90%+ of all panels made.

AU Optronics Corp
Chi Mei Optoelectrics
Chunghwa Picture Tubes
Every other ones out there owes there existence to one of these 3.

Chi Mei has sold one of its first plants and technology to a venture between Samsung and Sony.

Earlier in the game it worked in co-operation with Sharp to build another plant.

The others either have direct sourcing or joint venture with many more.

The only differences to be found is in the electronics of the TV's, not in the panels.
The same companies that make computer display technology are involved in the electronic display capabilities, chipsets and boards etc.

There are some cheap LCD makers that just get by with bare minimums.
There are also NAMED makers who have nothing different than some minor brands within their TV's.
Firmware also makes a difference.

On the final end of it all, talk to a reputable ISF tech.

He'll tell you that amongst all the brands out there, once calibrated are within percentages of each other and only cheap units can not be made to calibrate to the 90+% accuracy level which most others obtain.

He also tell you that most major NAME's are sent from the factory Glamored.
Colors, saturations, contrasts etc all set nearer the maximum levels to give them show room appeal.

You could do what I did when I finally had heard all this info and purchased one. Buy something like a Olevia, Vizio, ILO, actually second tier manufacturers, use part of whats saved, which can translate into at least a $1000 at times, use $300 of the savings and get it calibrated then these TV's will look and perforrm as good as Sony's, Sharp's and Samsungs just to name a few.

As to the 3rd party problem thing I saw posted. Amount of TV's returned and or serviced is higher in the overall percentage game with most of the major brands as it is with lower named brands. Sharp has one of the highest failure rates followed by the rest of the names I mentioned. Westinghouse had a glitch which since has been fixed and now it surpasses those names also in initial build quality!!!!

[GV#27]

Great post John,I take it that you found the ISF cal to be very worthwhile.

[myork]

I have the Westinghouse 42w2 1080p monitor and am very pleased.

[johnADA]

Great post John,I take it that you found the ISF cal to be very worthwhile.

Yes I actually would recommend having it done for someone that wanted true replication of the video.

I had the #1 Component and DVI inputs calibrated.

We had a fairly long discussion as he went and did his thing with me I thought at times driving him nuts with questions, but he was very informative.
He basically said what I quoted and gave me and insight to how manufacturers set the perimeters before shipping. Most every TV he has ever done, specially with NAMED units, there is no way you can get the levels within specs just by your menu options.
Before he got going in calibrating we went through a series of channels to find certain things you compare to looking out your window. Black top, lawn coloring etc etc etc. Driveway shots looked overly too black with a sheen to it. Grass looked liked artificial turf, colors were cartoony. Once done a whole totally different, more matching truth was apparent. I didnt realize how much over saturating it really had. And according to him, mine was fairly close in initial settings then alot of the NAME brands he has dealt with.

I bought my LCD over a year ago for $1300, cheap for that time frame and spent $300 to calibrate it. The only TV's close to it in price were still over $600 more for a NAME brand lower model. The NAME brands at that time on their better models average $1200 more, so just under $3K for a 37 inch. YUP it was worth it!!!!

Basically now it runs straight through, no adjustments done which was also another area he hit hard on. DONT use noise reduction, white and black enhancers etc, just fine tune colors and contrast/brightness levels because those others cause artifact problems etc he said.

[dane_peterson]

Interesting input. I always appreciate enlightenment when it leads to potentially saving money.

Where did you find this calibrator, and are there any you can recommend? Given we probably live in different states, but maybe some nat'l names to look for?

[johnADA]

I found my tech on another web site.

http://www.imagingscience.com/

Thats a link that may help you.

HT Theater
Alcoholics, er audioholics
are 2 sites that have calibration areas in which some techs post up. AVS could be another, but I havent looked there.

[ben62670]

Thanks John I was trying to remember who the three were that made almost all LCD screens in a previous LCD brand debate.