Looking for LCD HDTV, ~$900, ~27" recommendations or thoughts?

So... I've decided not to upgrade the PC this summer. Its good now, and alls I need is a new GPU, so rather than pour in like $900 into a new Conroe upgrade I've opted to just buy a 7600GS AGP (when they come out) and pour the rest of my funds into a decent TV.

My friend and I are splitting the cost (dorm mates, and apartment mates for the next 3 years) about 70% me and 30% him... and in the end I'll take the TV and I'll just repay him like 20% of the cost (years down the road probably, plus I keep it over summer break).

So, since we are really keen on getting a nice TV, I want it to be HDTV. Our price limit is $900... that way I would be paying around $600 and him $300. We'll probably be buying online too cause its cheaper and you can get different brands than the standards you find at Best Buy & Ccity.

After looking at prices around the $900 range I've come to the conclusion that you can get anything from 23" to 30". Now, 30" is a bit big, and I already own a 19" LCD Monitor so I wanted something inbetween... so it looks like its gonna be a 27" model. On Amazon I found two different used & referbished models around $850 (Toshiba and Panasonic... both well known names). Now on other sites such as newegg & PlasmaHouse I could find $600-$700 prices giving me the same specs as the Amazon ones. So my first question would be "is it ok to go with an off brand name such as X2gen?" or maybe my question should be "are their any brands i should clearly avoid?".

Lets see, well be running a standard coaxil/tv tuner cable into it to recieve normal TV channels. Also my PC will be hooked up to it via DVI/VGA/HDMI almost all the time to run movies off my computer. Most 26" HDTVs will do 1280 X 720 video, which is fine. So when I get a HD-DVD drive for the PC in the next year I'll be able to run video right to it. Also will be doing gaming on it occasionally. By the end of the year we'll also have at least a Wii and possibly a 360 hooked up to it. So, while we won't be getting High Def TV channels, well get use out of the HD aspects through gaming and PC hookup.
So were looking for AT LEAST:
1 composite
1 component
1 DVI OR HDMI
possibly VGA
1 coaxil/tv tuner

Here are a few possibilites:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16889222001
$600 with a $100 MIR, looks really nice.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._13/104-4313739-4585543?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video
$900 on Amazon for a Toshiba, once again looks really nice.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=dp_olp_2/104-4313739-4585543?_encoding=UTF8
Priced between $1200-$1400 normally, this one is refurbished for only $700 through a Amazon reseller (warehouse deals).

http://www.plasmahouse.com/SHARP-LC-26D6U-PLASMA-TV/LC26D6U.HTML
$770 Sharp brand from plasmahouse.com.

http://www.plasmahouse.com/SAMSUNG-LN-S2641D-PLASMA-TV/LNS2641D.HTML
$850 Samsung from plasmahouse.com


So what do you guys think? Got any personal suggestions? Any place that would answer these questions? Anything!??! Haha, yea this TV will be bought by the end of August, and I don't think prices will drop that much by then. Any other catch I should be looking for?
Thanks!

Dell has a nice 26" one as well. Keep an eye out for deals.

JCLW said:

Dell has a nice 26" one as well. Keep an eye out for deals.

Click to expand...

I could only find three different sites selling the Dell 26" LCD TV. Dell's site being $999, CompuDirect being $899, and ComputerGeeks.com being only $749. The stats of the thing are about the same as what I was looking at before, with one of the major pro's being the amount of inputs. Seriously, Dell is crazy with inputs...

Left Side Connectors:
# S-Video
# Composite Video
# Audio Left/Right
# 3.5 mm headphone jack

Rear Connector Features:
# DVI audio connector
# 15-pin VGA
# DVI
# 3.5 mm audio jack
# NTSC/Analog coaxial
# HDTV/Digital coaxial
# Composite out/Audio L/R out
# Composite out/Video out
# Composite A/V 1 in
# S-Video
# Y/Pb/PR/L/R component AV 3 in
# Y/PB/PR/L/R component AV 4 in

The only thing I didn't like was the viewing angle... ~89 degrees horizontally which isn't that much compared to the other TVs which were anywhere from 170 to 140. So I would be angled 90 degrees and then the quality would start to give out. Hmmm.... that computergeek.com site might be revisited... might make a grid of about 6 options. Later though, sleep time now.

32" LCDTV for $800 + $35 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824022006


I bought this back in November and have been very pleased with it. I ended up paying $700 after a $300 rebate.
The viewing angle for that Dell is actually 178 degrees horizontal (89x2).

27" LCDTV for $540
http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=5454&siteID=.7WaaTN6umc-4A4_kpfJkLKtECQo77JmCg

Use coupon code CS10 for 10% off and free UPS ground shipping.

and no...... I don't work for Syntax

Well.... I recently purchased an Olevia LT27HVX for $535 shipped *SCORE*

(buy.com -- deal is gone now)

Anyways... It just came in today, and I haven't had a chance to use it yet. But everything I read says that Olevia pictures are wonderful. People complain about the remote, but thats easily fixable w/ universal.

I'd shop around for an Syntax Group Olevia tv. See website: www.olevia.com

Shane

tLove said:

The only thing I didn't like was the viewing angle... ~89 degrees horizontally which isn't that much compared to the other TVs which were anywhere from 170 to 140. So I would be angled 90 degrees and then the quality would start to give out.

Click to expand...

Dell measures +/- (89 left plus 89 right) while the others measure total (170 total arc). So to compare the Dell #s to the others you have to double them (and you'll find they are all about the same). And 89 is about as far as you can go - a few degrees more and you'd be behind the TV.

edit: Plus it has a digital (ATSC) tuner for OTA HD stations.

JCLW said:

Dell measures +/- (89 left plus 89 right) while the others measure total (170 total arc).

Click to expand...

Yea, thanks to JCLW and Serraph for pointing this out to me... should've know .

I'm really liking this Dell. Cause they make amazing PC monitors... and I would think they're three different TVs would reflect that, right? Plus, if I can get it for only $750 at computergeek.com (as in difference to $900 off Dell) thats a real bargin. I was thinking some more of the cost, and keeping in mind that right now its only for college dorm life (and then an apartment for the '08 & '09) I don't want to spend too much incase it gets damaged. So I think $750 would be a reasonable price to pay. Sure 26" isn't that big... but honestly... who else is gonna have bragging rights of having an HDTV in a dorm room! (I got to a medium size school). I can already see movie nights happening .

Gotta talk to my friend still, and we might be buying it soon since I don't know how long a low price like that will be sticking around. I thought about the 32" LCD that Serraph mentioned... but $900 is a lot of money and 32" is a lot of space... so I think a nice 26" one would be great.

By the way, how much do you think a pc HD-DVD drive will run once they come out? Hopefully my friend will own a 360 by then and well just split the $100 price of the add on HD-DVD drive.

Well guys, I kinda spent less that originally planned. My roommate and I talked over it some more and we both agreed we wanted to spend less money. Hell, its just dorm/apartment TV for 3 years, no need to spend too much.

So we bought an X2gen 27" LCD TV off newegg.

I'm really happy... a real deal for the amount of money. Sending off rebate(s) today. For $500 it seemed good. I know were not getting some of the great features of a $800 26" LCD, but it just seemed like a good price for us. For instance it will only do a 1280 X 768 resolution (1280 X 1024 max), and most 26-27" LCD's will do a 1366x768 resolution. Still, everything looks great. The entire TV is slightly (and I mean ever so slightly) washed out compared to my nice viewsonic 19". Still looks amazing, but when I compare the two screens with the same picture on each screen you can tell. I'll try to get some pictures up within the month comparing the two side by side.

Also the speakers suck. Hell, thats expected with most TVs though. When you crank the volume up you get a lot of background "noise" too... so were just gonna hook up a small set of $30-$40 speakers from wallmart, nothing fancy (like 20-40w total).

Other than that stuff its great! Nice and sturdy, very hard to move (which is good cause it needs to stay still during drunken stupors in the dorm room), tons of inputs, no dead pixels, remote easy to use, lots of options on remote, normal video broadcast looks fine (as good as it will on an HDTV), running a VGA from PC to it looks great, quicktime trailers are smashing, gaming is ridiculous (i need something better than a 9800 though), DVDs look good. OH...

forgot to mention. I had a DVD playing from my PC to the TV and it looked real shatly... my xbox faired much better. Whats up with that? Anybody?

I learned that in the Xbox (1) dashboard, if you click the thumbsticks down while holding the triggers you can change it from 480i to 480p. Looks so good in 480p, nice and clear text.

Hopefully my roomate will have a 360 by winter and well be gaming in 720p . So that's all guys, thanks for the input. Pictures up sometime soon. Cheers!

tLove said:

forgot to mention. I had a DVD playing from my PC to the TV and it looked real shatly... my xbox faired much better. Whats up with that? Anybody?

Click to expand...

What connection are you using for your PC to TV? May be that or some settings, or something that I haven't considered yet .

Burdman27911 said:

What connection are you using for your PC to TV? May be that or some settings, or something that I haven't considered yet .

Click to expand...

Right now its a VGA from the PC to the TV. (GPU has DVI, VGA, and s-video). I tried out the DVI cable but didn't notice much difference and I totally forgot to try a DVD to see if it made a difference. Right now I'm just gonna use my xbox, which looks just fine... as good as any DVD player will make it... 480i.

Gonna go out and rent either Tony Hawk 4, THUG or THUG2 for xbox because its one of the maybe 10 games that displays in 720p, and the rest I didn't care for (mostly sports and enter the matrix, and that was horrible ). I might take some pictures comparing the 720p to 480p to 480i. Would you guys like that? Heh.