Best TV for $1000.00?

I bought a Sharp Aquos 46" from Dell.com last year. With a 5% education discount it ended up being around $850 shipped or so. If you can wait until November when black Friday comes around they always have killer deals, even a couple weeks leading up to that day. Walmart has 46" 1080p Vizio and Sonys for around that price range. Not top of the line TV's but they are decent.

 

IMHO... extended warranties are wastes of money... you will very rarely ever use it.

As for Best Buy... I think that is going to depend a lot on your local best buy. Apparently some managers are very uptight and will try anything they can to not price match, while others are very easy to deal with and are willing to do what they need to do to make a sale. But remember, Best Buy now has a policy that allows you to haggle on just about everything, especially major electronics, so as long as you go when there is someone with the authority to do so, you can potentially talk a significant amount off of the purchase price.

Also, be very wary of their "displays" Best Buy is known for intentionally misleading customers as to the quality of the displays.

Also... NEVER NEVER NEVER BUY ANY MONSTER PRODUCTS!!!

As far as TVs.

For 46" and up @ <$1,000, your best bet is going to be an LCD or DLP, not a plasma. You will also want a 1080p TV, as far as the refresh rate, that you are going to need to see with your own eyes.

For instance... my parents can't tell a difference between a standard 1080p TV and their 1080p/120hz... but both my girlfriend and I can detect irregular movement that is incredibly annoying to us on their 120hz TV.

 

Most any 46 inch LCD TV is going to be @ that price or cheaper.....I just bought a 46 lcd 1080p Samsung @ $900. Never had any problems with Samsung stuff myself and I have 4 of them.

 

saw a good 50 inch samsung at fry's for like 740$
720p

looked great, was amazed it was so cheap and that it was 720p, had a blue ray playing on it tho

think its this one
http://www.frys.com/product/5868493?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

on sale from 1k

 

They're giving DLP's away if you have the space. You can easily get a 1080p 50" for $1k.

 

Seems to be. My dad had no problem dealing with Best Buy. Not only that, but they did not try to sell him Monster brand cables. I was shocked!

 

Sams club is selling a 54" panasonic plasma, does 1920x1200(1080p) and has a 600Hz refresh rate. The best deal on a good tv I have seen lately. Looks fantastic. Its $1297.

 

That 600hz thing is not a refresh rate like you're thinking. It's a subfield drive. It's a marketing thing to compete with LCD's 120hz stuff. Completely two different things, meant to make one sound like it's so much better, when the two things are very different.

 

Whats wrong with Monster products, besides the price?

 

the price.

Nothing technically 'wrong' with the products... they work... but the claims that their cables are somehow 'better' than their competitors are nothing but snake oil.

For instance, as long as an HDMI cable is rated as v1.3b compliant, it is 1.3b compliant, and will do everything just as well as any other v1.3b compliant cable.

 

1.3 is just a spec, alot of it has to do with cable construction, connector type, soldering, striping and etc. especially when you get beyond 2 meters. Than you have to worry about insertion loss(loss of signal) so its even more important to have good cable construction. Maybe in that way Monster is saying they are better, but not 80 dollars better.

 

In Jan of this year, Conn's had a sale on Samsung 61" 1080p DLP w/ LED bulb (vs lamp/colorwheel) for $999. Price was so low that no Best Buy would price match.

Needless to say, I bought one, my brother bought two, and a couple of co-workers each bought one.

///Michael

 

For an analog connection, yes this is true.

For a *digital* connection, like HDMI, if a cable is rated at 1.3, then it can handle everything that spec is supposed to handle, and length will not become an issue until WELL beyond most people's needs.

For instance... I bought a 26' (7.9 meters) v1.3b spec HDMI cable for $35 W/ SHIPPING. It works Perfectly. For comparison, this Monster HDMI cable from Best Buy is only 16', and is priced @ $249.99.

I guarantee that there will be no measurable difference in received audio or video signals between the two cables.