TV recommendation ?? cheap, HD, LCD

[bhelms]

Howdy all! My wife sleeps in a separate quasi-living room many nights. "Her" TV is on all night even tho' she's fast asleep most of the time. But she does wake up and wants the TV on when that happens, so for me to try to get her to use a timer function in the TV won't get us anywhere. "Her" room is also a frequent viewing area for the rest of the family during normal waking hours so that TV location is considered semi-prime viewing. I'm embarassed with what we have there now!

The current analog, CRT TV in that location is about to fail - it owes us nothing! - so I'm considering replacing it with a 32" to 40" LCD HD unit. I know I can get a 40" for about $1,000 or less by today's prices, and for this location I'll be satisfied with a low-cost "throwaway" - as long as it lasts at least 2-3 years I'll consider it having served its function. I'm guessing however that the component that's most likely to fail in our application will be the backlight. Some sets allow user replacement of that light.

Do you know of a cheap LCD unit with user-replaceable backlight? It doesn't need to have a tuner or a lot of functions beyond the basic stuff, and a single HDMI input would be all I need. (It will be paired with an 811 now, and probably a 211 after the rest of the voom channels move to MPEG-4.) I assume it would also have at least one set of component/audio inputs.

TIA...

 

[Dah-Henny]

Wally World or Sams has about the best prices anywhere I've seen. Bought a VISIO VW37 LCD a few weeks ago for under $800 and am quite pleased. It has 2 hdmi inputs, but I don't know if the B-light is user friendly.

 

[bhelms]

I was looking at Wal*Mart. I would never buy a "quality" unit there, like for my HT, but for my current purposes this might be a strong option. One local WM store has a close-out rack loaded with a bunch of price-downs. Some look fairly new. I suppose I could ask to look at an owner's manual to see if the light is replaceable in any of the LCDs, or else google the brand/model number, etc.

(They have one "ED" plasma unit that I swear has been there for 1.5 years, since I first started looking at HD sets. It probably played 24/7 during that time. I wonder how much life that display still has? It's priced the same as the other HD units to boot! I bet some poor schmuck buys it thinking it's HD. Where can you even get an ED unit anymore...?)

 

[Van]

Dont go walmart for lcd, dahenny hit it on the head about going to sams club for a vizio. I bought a vizio 32 inch lcd after taking back a sanyo vizzion or what ever its called to walmart and I got a %100 better tv for $100 less and its comparable to higher end lcd tv's.

2 hdmi, 2 componant, 3 rca and one with svideo on the side for a video camera, coax connection, a full range of options just for the video settings and another full range for the audio, goes to 1080i and sd fits to automaticly to the screen and doesnt look half bad. Hooking up a non hd dvd player to the tv will give you PQ thats much more crisp than sd cable, it also puts out alot less heat than other comparable lcd's. I got my 32 for about $594. pluss tax, dont be confused by the vizio that walmart has on sale, its not the same model and only goes to 720P, you will be able to tell the diference by the speaker base color, the one walmart has is black while the better model that Sams has is a silver base.

 

[Van]

BB still sells EDTV's and I think CC does still.

 

[navy8ball]

i bought a 42" panasonic plasma from walmart and i am very happy with it the only thing i wish i had got the 50"

 

[stone phillips420]

Newegg.com - Olevia Black 37" 16:9 8ms LCD HDTV w/ ATSC Tuner Inside Model 237V - Retail

i bought one from them during black friday last year could be happier

the first one shipped ups and arrived on it side broken so called and had them ship replacement with rma tag replacement shipped via fedex no problems
awesome tv and a cpu monitor as well

 

[Kevinw]

I recomend Vizio for low cost. ONLY get a VX model not a VW. VW are dumbed down models with fewer features only found at Walmart. Shop Costco, Sams or even Sears

 

[smokey982]

Newegg.com - Olevia Black 37" 16:9 8ms LCD HDTV w/ ATSC Tuner Inside Model 237V - Retail

I bought this same TV in a 32" model. I have also been VERY pleased. It's blown away my expectations.

 

[VinceT3]

Costco had a 42" 1080p LCD on their site for $999

 

[BKP]

Check out this one... It's made by Funai and only sold at WALMART... The picture quality is excellent in SD... I bought mine for $525 tax included and love it..

Emerson 32" LCD HDTV with Built-in Digital/Analog Tuners, LC320EM8 - Wal-Mart

 

[bhelms]

Taking a new tact

Tks everyone for your replies. At this point I think I'm going to take a different direction on this one. My original intent was to get a cheapie TV (relatively speaking) for minimal risk. The area it was destined to occupy will someday be converted to a "real" TV, probably a 50" 1080p, and decent SS system. I started looking at the cheap sets and they did look reasonable for the price. But they understandably didn't seem to stack-up with my 40" Bravia XBR that has been serving me well in another room for about a year and a half now. So the bug is biting me to cut to the chase and just buy what I really want in the longer run and apply the $1K I was planning to spend toward that goal. I'm seeing 52" 1080p sets for $3K. Perhaps a bit more time will bring them into the $2,500 range and I'll bite then.

Tks again. I'll report back.

BTW - I have a plan to have 2 sets in that room, the "Great One" for general family use and an old CRT set for my wife to run overnight. But maybe that's not even necessary to conserve the backlight. One of interest to me has a 60K hour half life...

 

[bhelms]

Check out this one... It's made by Funai and only sold at WALMART... The picture quality is excellent in SD... I bought mine for $525 tax included and love it..

Emerson 32" LCD HDTV with Built-in Digital/Analog Tuners, LC320EM8 - Wal-Mart

That's an interesting looking set and apparently well rated! I don't recall seeing that brand in my 2 local WMs - I'll have to look closer or ask. I was interested to see the "RoHS" note - I'm making a living out of RoHS issues at my company. I suppose most of these sets are compliant, certainly if they are intended to sell into Europe or China.

I still have a box full of 8-track tapes somewhere. And I still have a couple of players that I think might work...

 

[navychop]

You can get a JVC D-ILA RPTV in fifty some inches for around $2,000. 61" for a bit more.

 

[BKP]

That's an interesting looking set and apparently well rated! I don't recall seeing that brand in my 2 local WMs - I'll have to look closer or ask. I was interested to see the "RoHS" note - I'm making a living out of RoHS issues at my company. I suppose most of these sets are compliant, certainly if they are intended to sell into Europe or China.

I still have a box full of 8-track tapes somewhere. And I still have a couple of players that I think might work...

I didn't notice the RoHS note so I just looked and sure enough it's right under the photos.. Actually, I googled RoHS first because I had no clue to what it was.. That is good to know about a product, though..

PM me if you're ever interested in getting rid of those tapes..

 

[8bitbytes]

I couldn't bring myself to spend $2500 on a tv so I kept my 32" Sony CRT and bought a 720p Home Theater projector for about $800 instead. Now, I can watch what I want on a 90 inch screen!

 

[diogen]

I have a similar setup but with a hard torus screen (it was started over three years ago when we didn't have those light canons).
A lot has changed (projector twice, HTPC - 4 times, screen paint - a million times, etc.) but the basic setup remains the same.

Here are more details.

My favorite quote: "What? You measure the size of your TV in inches?"

Diogen.

 

[8bitbytes]

I have a similar setup but with a hard torus screen (it was started over three years ago when we didn't have those light canons).
A lot has changed (projector twice, HTPC - 4 times, screen paint - a million times, etc.) but the basic setup remains the same.

Here are more details.

My favorite quote: "What? You measure the size of your TV in inches?"

Diogen.

I had to laugh for awhile when I saw how you glued your screen down!

That's a nice setup, thanks for the links!

I love that quote! It was one of the things that encouraged me last year when I jumped into the PJ ring.

 

[diogen]

I had to laugh for awhile when I saw how you glued your screen down!

Yeah... At that point it still looked like a pilot project for a few months...
But now I'm quite happy as it turned out, does the job nicely for all the projectors I had.
I had the Optoma HD70 for about 6 months, but its ~30% offset was too big for my setup
(only 7' ceiling) and I had to tilt the screen quite a bit (I don't use keystone correction).
But satellite hidef was just perfect on it.

Diogen.

 

[bhelms]

I bit the bullet again...

Well as I often do, I started out with small ambitions and ended-up on the high end. I bought a 52" Bravia XBR2 that was a left-over demo unit with (probably) several hundred hours on it. The set was spotless and dust-free, and that tells me it couldn't have been on display very long. I was headed to the 50" range ultimately, so I just ended up there sooner than I planned. I got this one for about $3,300 from a local small shop I have supported with my $$ over the years, compared with $3,800 at BB and elsewhere. They are also the only local authorized Sony service center, but for some reason they only service what they sell.

With LCDs, I actually prefer a set that has been "burned-in" a bit. I checked the display very carefully before I bought it and I could not see any defective or "stuck" pixels. In my experience, the "infant mortals" in LCDs often appear in the first several to 100 or so hours of use so I'm thinking if this one made it this far with no problems it will continue to be free of bad pixels for years to come. My 40" Bravia developed one "weak" pixel within the first 2 weeks (the green element won't give full brightness so that group looks reddish in a bright white scene), but otherwise it has been free of additional defects. Since for the most part bad pixels within reason are not considered cause for a replacement or warranty claim, I'm wanting to see any such problems appear immediately. I think (hope!) I'm now good to go with this set.

Anyway, as expected my wife is leaving it on for extended periods, so I'm keeping the brightness and backlight settings low when I'm not watching it.

So far, I think I made a good decision. I hope it ends up that way. Someday I'll clean-out my basement and turn it into a man cave with the projection system. For now this will have to do, even tho' it's measured at only a paltry 4.3 feet!

Thanks to all who commented...!