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In Reply to: Need advise on TV purchase.... posted by DJ on December 18, 1999 at 20:55:10:
While i'm not REAL familiar with the Sony line, here's some simple suggestions. Choosing between the tube and the projection is a personal choice and will depend greatly on the viewing distance / size of the room.Use a few different sources to compare pictures. Some TV's have much better tuner's than others. Compare picture quality of broadcast TV to that of a DVD source.
Keep in mind how far you'll be sitting when watching the TV. With a 41", you could get away with about 8.5'. It would probably help to be farther back though. The WEGA will look sharper with better detail and resolation at any distance.
Look at what jacks you have available and how many of each. The more versatile the unit is, the more likely you are to enjoy it with less hassle when it comes to hooking up other goodies.
If you buy a projection TV, DO buy the extended warranty. Check into the terms though, as some vary greatly from others.
Front Projection TV's are very sensitive to viewing angle and lighting in the room. I recently purchased a 55" Mitsubishi Gold and couldn't believe the difference in picture quality after doing the "Video Essentials" alignment procedure. Far less grain, better detail and resolution with more natural color. The amazing thing is how much better the picture looks when sitting off-axis. "Video Essentials" is HIGHLY recommended, regardless of what type of tv you end up with.
I thought that the Mitsubishi "Gold" had by the best picture of all of those that we looked at ( Philips, Hitachi, Sony, GE, Toshiba ( both their "Theater" and "Cinema" models ), RCA, Mitsubishi Silver's, etc..). I didn't get a chance to check into the Pioneer's, which are supposed to be quite good also. The Toshiba "Cinema" series was very good, but didn't have quite as bright of a picture.
Keep in mind that most manufacturers have budget models and their upper end models. While it is tempting to buy a budget 60" for the price of an upscale 50", you would probably regret it later. The budget models typically don't come with screen protectors, have less jacks and poorer quality / less video filtering, etc... Your better off spending a little bit more and buying the higher end model right off the bat.
If you can, find a dealer that specializes in BIG tv's. They are WAY better to deal with than best buy / circuit city. Sean
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Sean makes many good points in his well thought out reply. But I'm not so sure that buying the extended warranty is such a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with this advise or taking issue with it, just wondering. I've wrestled with this decision more times than I can remember, never feeling I made the right choice, even after purchasing the EW, or not. Stands to reason that stores and manufacturers aren't selling extended warrantees because thet are losing money on them, but rather, they are a profitable business decision for the seller of the plan. Therefore on average, statistically speaking, what these plans pay out on repairs/replacements is more than made up for in plan sales revenue. Then again, if you are the poor slob whose gadget goes belly up a few days after the free warranty expires, like I was once with a hi-fi flying erase 4 head vcr when they weren't dirt cheap, you would be glad if you did buy the EW. So who knows. It's a crap-shoot, but tilted in the favor of the sellers of EWs, or else they would definately not be selling them.PS: there are many reasons to avoid CC as alluded to by Sean, I agree completely. My one bad expired warranty experience, while certainly not their fault, happened to be at a CC in So. CA, which was really anoying, but what really toasted my cookies with CC, was their stupid divx consumer rip-off venture. I'm glad most of the DVD early adopting consumer public had enough marbles to cause this fiasco to fail, but as a result of CC's intentions with attempting to foist the divx scam on us, I will never shop another CC again. Just my opinion.
Larry
My comments were primarily aimed at BIG dollar items, such as large tube or big screen tv's. My thoughts are that if you can afford the 2000+ that these things typically cost, you can afford the extra insurance. Keep in mind that big screens can get dirty / dusty or need to be re-focused due to moving. Most extended warranties cover doing this in your house.The warranty on my 55" Mitsubishi Gold consists of 4 years of coverage including in house cleaning, alignment, replacement of remote, blah, blah, blah.... It cost $240 for 4 years. If you don't use your warranty within the 4 year time period, you get a store credit for 75% of the total cost ( $180 rebate in my case). It's a hard deal to beat. The place that i purchased my TV also allows trade-ins with value pro-rated based on how old it is. They were also offering 13 months of 0% financing. Between these customer oriented policies and their "bend over backwards" customer service, you can see why i purchased my TV there. None of the big chains offer anything like this, let alone know the products that they are selling or recommending.
I can understand your point of view though. I have NEVER used any of the extended warranties that i have ever bought. I think twice about them now. I did not take the extended warranty on my DVD player. I figured that by the time it gave out, there would be major updates in technology or i would want to upgrade anyhow. Why pay extra for what will end up being throw-away technology anyhow ??? Sean
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Wow...that's a great deal on your tv!! Plus your main point is made made, especially regarding in house service and cleaning. That convenience would certainly be worth a little extra cash. But you are right on in regards to dvd players. By the time it is likely to quit, some better medium could along.Larry
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