Our current TV is really showing its age, so I’m planning to buy a TV next week; any advice, whether about specific models or attributes to look out for or good places to go for reviews or good places to buy them from? I imagine I’ll spend less than a thousand dollars on the TV, the place it will fit is approximately 47 inches wide, it’ll get used for TV, video games, and movies. I’ve been assuming I’ll buy a receiver at the same time (our current setup is from before the HDMI era), though one of my coworkers today was arguing that receivers aren’t necessary today, that you can do enough switching between devices and driving of speakers (of which we have 5 + subwoofer) from your TV; is that true? (For what it’s worth, I’ll have 4 HDMI devices that I want to plug into it, and that will probably change to 5 within the next couple of years.) Also, currently I use optical audio cables; has HDMI rendered that obsolete, or are there good audio protocols that travel over optical cables but not over HDMI? Anything I should be asking about but am not?
Any advice is appreciated.
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Not sure who told you receivers were obsolete, but I have yet to see a TV that accepts 4 or 5 HDMI ins or has an amp that can drive (passive) speakers. Of course, you can buy one of those sound bars or other active speaker setup, but even those don’t do that many HDMI ports (that I’ve seen). You can buy an HDMI switch box, but most have no remote or other issues.
With that said, you definitely need a receiver to drive your speakers. I’ve found some great deals at Best Buy. Go there and ask for display/open box models. My best purchase was a Pioneer Elite VSX23-THX, which had an MSRP of $1,000. They sold it to me for $313, and when the clerk retrieved the box, it turned out it had never been opened, even though it was listed as open box. Brand new, less than 1/3 of the price.
I do recommend the extended warranty, though. Learned that the hard way. Over the past 6 years, I’ve gone through one Harmon Kardon (died after 2 years) and one Onkyo (HDMI board became flaky, repaired, broke again). I’m now on a Denon (at home) and the Pioneer mentioned above (in Tahoe). Both seem solid, and both are now covered with extended warranties.
As for TOSLINK vs. HDMI — HDMI audio actually has more bandwidth. TOSLINK won’t do some of the BluRay audio formats, the best you can run through TOSLINK is Dolby Digital (5.1). HDMI 1.4 actually goes further and supports bidirectional audio, as well as Ethernet, so you should be able to truly run everything through one cable.
Can’t say I’m too up-to-date on the latest TV models, but again, it pays to shop and ask for deals. The TV we have at home was the top-of-the line Samsung LED backlit model with local dimming in 2008. We purchased it as a very briefly used floor model without any visible signs of wear from Best Buy in 2009 for less than 1/2 the original price (which compared to today’s prices was still a lot).
As I mentioned over lunch, I’ve also been happy with the LG 47″ we have in Tahoe. Same model as the 42″ in amnesty and upstairs. For the price point ($549), it’s hard to beat. Fry’s runs LG specials every week, if you’re patient, after a few weeks you’ll find a good model at a very attractive price.
Happy to chat more in person :)
1/14/2012 @ 1:45 am
Yeah, poking around last night after writing this blog post, I’m not sure what that person had in mind in terms of avoiding a receiver: I sure don’t see that working for me. Right now, I’m leaning towards the Onkyo TX-NR609 (among other things because it has 6 HDMI ports), but who knows. (And thanks for the info about TOSLINK vs. HDMI, glad I’ll be able to get rid of two more cables.)
Maybe I should go to Best Buy; I’m just really allergic to stores like that unless I know exactly what I want. :-( I might end up doing that anyways, but I might just order from Amazon.
I’ve seen a couple of mentions of Panasonic Viera; currently I think I wish I could get the TC-P50ST30, but it’s out of stock on Amazon, so I’d either have to go slightly smaller with the TC-P46ST30 or bump up the price and get the TC-P50GT30. They’re plasma, so I’m a little worried about burn-in from video games, but hopefully that’s not a big deal these days? You and Bruno both mentioned LGs, though, so I’ll look into that some more. I suppose I really should go to a store; though I’m not sure how much I trust in-store appearance to be representative of in-home appearance…
1/14/2012 @ 12:14 pm
I agree with Weirded that you still need a receiver, although I don’t know much about buying one.
As far as TVs go, I know that for gaming you really want a TV that does blacks well. Plasma displays do this the best (and the best color in general) but they cost more than LCDs. I’ve heard that LCDs have made great strides in that area, especially the OLED backlit displays (because they can turn off smaller regions of the screen). avsforum.com is a good enthusiast site that has an overwhelming amount of information, but I think there are some good summary threads in the forums somewhere.
Sorry for the quality of writing, this was written hurriedly.
1/14/2012 @ 12:14 pm
I’ve heard burn in is solved in modern plasmas, but I did see this with our older set. It never interfered with play, but was noticeable.
1/14/2012 @ 12:16 pm
Wow, avsforum.com is interesting but scary, I’m not used to forums with 1600-page threads…
1/14/2012 @ 12:30 pm
Went with the Panasonic TC-P50GT30 TV and the Onkyo TX-NR609 receiver. Oddly enough, finding a TV stand I liked was as hard as any of that; for now I’m going with http://www.amazon.com/Convenience-Concepts-131031-Designs-2-Go-3-Tier/dp/B002HWR598/ but it wouldn’t shock me if we eventually end up getting something else instead. (It was cheap.)
I was happy to see that Amazon lets you schedule delivery times for TVs; less happy to learn that the first available delivery time is a week from Monday. :-(
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