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  1. #1
    AR Newbie Registered Member
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    Help! Display dilemma...

    I'm in the process of assembling a home theater set-up. I'm trying to decide on a display right now, but having some trouble. I can't decide whether to go rear projection or LCD.

    My budget is ~$1200 for a display. I'm torn between wanting size and clarity (rear proj.) vs. reliability and size/weight. (LCD).

    Minimum screen size I want is 26". Must be HDTV.

    Help! For $1200, would I be better off with a rear projection display or an LCD display?

  2. #2
    Forum Regular edtyct's Avatar
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    Your LCD pickings at 26" for $1200 are slim, and if a home theater experience is what you want, I certainly wouldn't go any smaller. You might well want to go bigger. JVC has a 26" LCD at that price that I've always liked, the LT26X575. It certainly isn't perfect in greyscale or color reproduction, but I've seen it make it brightly lit HD images that look almost three-dimensional. Personally, I wouldn't buy an off-market brand that appears to offer you the world at a low price. The warranties sometimes aren't very good, and neither is the picture, at least comparatively.

    You'd do better in nearly every respect, so far as HT bang and PQ are concerned, if you spent your $1200 or so on a CRT rear projection set. They are tried and true, with good color and the kind of primordial black that LCDs can't hope to approach without the kind of cutting edge tweaking that costs a lot of dough and still may come up short. The problem is that they aren't sexy any more--full figures and avoir dupois have long gone out of style--and like all dinosaurs losing touch with their environment, they aren't long for this world. Nonetheless, the selection of CRTs at $1200 has come to be limited, except for an RCA and a Toshiba at 52" (if Best Buy is to be trusted). The Toshiba, or something roughly equivalent, is where I'd go, if that was my budget, and I wanted the full-fledged experience, though I realize that the lure of flat, light, and novel can be hard to resist.

    Ed

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by edtyct
    Your LCD pickings at 26" for $1200 are slim, and if a home theater experience is what you want, I certainly wouldn't go any smaller. You might well want to go bigger. JVC has a 26" LCD at that price that I've always liked, the LT26X575. It certainly isn't perfect in greyscale or color reproduction, but I've seen it make it brightly lit HD images that look almost three-dimensional. Personally, I wouldn't buy an off-market brand that appears to offer you the world at a low price. The warranties sometimes aren't very good, and neither is the picture, at least comparatively.

    You'd do better in nearly every respect, so far as HT bang and PQ are concerned, if you spent your $1200 or so on a CRT rear projection set. They are tried and true, with good color and the kind of primordial black that LCDs can't hope to approach without the kind of cutting edge tweaking that costs a lot of dough and still may come up short. The problem is that they aren't sexy any more--full figures and avoir dupois have long gone out of style--and like all dinosaurs losing touch with their environment, they aren't long for this world. Nonetheless, the selection of CRTs at $1200 has come to be limited, except for an RCA and a Toshiba at 52" (if Best Buy is to be trusted). The Toshiba, or something roughly equivalent, is where I'd go, if that was my budget, and I wanted the full-fledged experience, though I realize that the lure of flat, light, and novel can be hard to resist.

    Ed

    Thanks for your post! That is very good advice. I think I will be going the rear proj. route because my girlfriend is a huge football nut.

    The RCA, I've heard, is a good unit. I've also got my eye on a 46" Hitachi (model 46F510).

  4. #4
    Class of the clown GMichael's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jollyrogerpirate
    I'm in the process of assembling a home theater set-up. I'm trying to decide on a display right now, but having some trouble. I can't decide whether to go rear projection or LCD.

    My budget is ~$1200 for a display. I'm torn between wanting size and clarity (rear proj.) vs. reliability and size/weight. (LCD).

    Minimum screen size I want is 26". Must be HDTV.

    Help! For $1200, would I be better off with a rear projection display or an LCD display?
    Here is a good site to compare TV's. I like the Toshiba rear projection 65H83. But that is over 1700.00. Great for that price. Many others to choose from.

    http://store.hdtvtime.com/projection.html
    WARNING! - The Surgeon General has determined that, time spent listening to music is not deducted from one's lifespan.

  5. #5
    Suspended topspeed's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jollyrogerpirate
    Thanks for your post! That is very good advice. I think I will be going the rear proj. route because my girlfriend is a huge football nut.
    Don't let that one walk the plank, matey, she's a keeper .

    The RCA, I've heard, is a good unit. I've also got my eye on a 46" Hitachi (model 46F510).
    Hitachi and Toshiba both make excellent, reliable RPTV's. Woodman, our dearly departed video sage hated Sony with a passion due to very poor reliability. Honestly, Hitachi and Toshiba would be the only two makes I'd consider for crt rptv. Also, if you really want the theater experience, bigger is better. 32" would be my absolute minimum.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by topspeed
    Don't let that one walk the plank, matey, she's a keeper .

    Hitachi and Toshiba both make excellent, reliable RPTV's. Woodman, our dearly departed video sage hated Sony with a passion due to very poor reliability. Honestly, Hitachi and Toshiba would be the only two makes I'd consider for crt rptv. Also, if you really want the theater experience, bigger is better. 32" would be my absolute minimum.
    Thanks for your advice. I'm probably going to going with the 46" Hitachi.

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