New House Means New TV: Help Me Choose

[Adam AR Moderator]

The Panasonic 32HX40 is going to the living room. That means Adam needs a new TV for the family room. I'm open to recommendations so long as they meet the following requirements:

Price: Under 1650
Brand: Anything but Sony
Aspect Ration: Widescreen
Type: HDTV or HDTV Ready
Inputs: At least 2 Component video inputs

Any thoughts are of course appreciated.

From the research I've done it looks like the Toshiba Widescreen Theater series is a good option as is the Pansonic PT series (ie PT47WX53).

Thanks.

[Over50]

I like the Toshiba and also the Samsung

[FAIELLO]

I like Mitsubishi and Hitachi for RPTV. These are the best IMO.

[Keith from Canada]

Hey Adam.

As I've mentioned several times in the past, the Panasonic models tend to offer a pretty mediocre picture quality out of the box and require some tweaking to get a moderately good picture (Toshiba is superior out of the box IMO). An hour or so with DVE or Sound and Vision's calibration discs and you should see a big improvement in the Panny and it should provide you with as good a picture as the Toshiba.

In addition, I recently had my set (Panny PT-47WX51 -- the two years old 47" model) ISF calibrated and was told by the calibrating pro (MichaelTLV) that the Panny sets are prefered by him and others because they are so easily 'tweakable' and provide one of the better pictures post calibration. Having gone back and viewed other sets, I would have to agree with him. My post- calibrated Panny looks FAR better than anything on any showroom floor and it competes well with sets that are properly calibrated at twice the price.

In short, my advice would be a) if you plan on purchasing the set and have no interest in doing any 'tweaking' or basic calibrations, I would recommend the Toshiba. b) if you plan on playing around with your set and venturing into areas like the service menu (or if you plan on getting an ISF calibration), I would give the Panny VERY high marks.

[Adam AR Moderator]

Keith and company thanks for the information. The tweaking is what HT is all about. I've heard good things with the panasonic models as Keith was able to confirm. I will explore the models a bit more.

Thanks

Adam

[TomStanoch]

Brand: Anything but Sony


I'm just asking....why anything but Sony?

[topspeed]

I'm just asking....why anything but Sony?

I'd like to know that too.

Personally, I'm a Hitachi & Toshiba fan myself but I have to admit that I've never really had anything against Sony with the exception that I think you pay lot for the name recognition. However, their products always seem to be well respected (their recent rptv quality issues notwithstanding). In fact, the latest TPV ranked their KP-57WS510 as product of the year and a stellar bargain at only $2199. One of the most intriguing things to me was that it was right straight out of the box with very little calibration necessary. The Hitachi actually had a sharper picture but only after a $600 ISF calibration. I don't know about you guys, but after dropping anywhere from $2 to $4 large on a TV, I expect the damn thing to be right out of the box and not have to spend one extra penny to make it so. I'm not saying ISF calibration is a rip-off, I'm wondering why do we need it in the first place?

I don't think of Sony as the Bose of TV's, so why no love for 'em?

[gcsuper]

Hi Adam,

I went with an Hitachi after looking at Mits and Pans for several months and reading reviews here. It looks great even w/ non-hd stb. Like all rptv's it took some adjusting to get the best picture, and I used Avia. Once, I was in the menu and accidently hit default settings (contrast and brightness were about 100%!!) and the picture was horrible after being used to the "correct" settings. Of course the manufacturers know the brightest sets on display will sell the fastest.

I found mine at uecweb.com after waiting 2-3 weeks for the model I wanted to become available. Great price and no probs.

Good luck!