TV shopping
 

We are going shopping for a TV this evening and I couldn't find the thread that compared them. The Vizio LCD's are really reasonably priced, does anyone here have one? We are trying to stay in a budget- so trying to stay at $500 or under, and we cant get any bigger than a 37" at this time (I'm not ready to also go shopping for a new entertainment cabinet...the one we have will have to do.)

Any thoughts?

Tigerdirect.com

Lots of great information about hundreds of different tv's there. Can easily narrow down by size, price, features, etc. It's a good research tool even if you don't buy from them. They have videos of each product and tons of customer reviews. Great place to start.

Thanks Bullitt. I will check it out. To be honest though, I am starting to get confused with all the reviews I'm reading. I cant be sure what I really want or if it is essential to pay the extra bucks or not.

No personal experience here, but there was a similar thread on another forum I visit.
It was a year ago, when Vizio was one of the "best buys" from Consumer Reports, along with LG and Sanyo.
A 32" was available back then from WalMart and Costco for about $350.

Thanks Lamp...its interesting to note that you don't need a 1080 for anything under 40...that lowers the price a bit. Im guessing a 37 in falls in that category.

Your best bet is to stick to a price/size, then go from there. You have a certain cabinet you want to use, so use that size restriction as your base point. Then sort by price, then best reviews. TV's for the most part tend to stick to the "you pay what you get for" saying. If it seems too good to be true price/size-wise, it is.

For 37" and below, don't worry about getting something 1080 because with that size and your viewing distance, the difference between that and 720 is negligible. Take stock of what you want to connect to the tv, and make sure the right ports are there and easy to get to.

I get the whole inches thing but what the heck are 1080 and 720? Is it like the 710 fluid you put in your car? :confused:

Dots per Inch I think.

I was sort of afraid my link was out of date.
Here's another link that seems to be pushing the 1080p

Is a puzzlement...

Dots total, vertically.

What HM said. It's a measurement of the screen's resolution. The higher the #, the better resolution. Generally speaking, 720 and 1080 are the normal HD resolutions. BUT, springing for the highest HD resolution isn't worth it if your screen is 37" or below, and your viewing distance is the normal 10 ft, because at that size and distance your eyes cannot tell the difference between the two.

What about computer monitors?

I bought a cheapo 20" LED monitor a while back. It's 1080p, and I never want to program on anything less ever again. Not sure if I could tell the difference between 1080 and 720, even at my usual two foot viewing distance.

Computer monitors are different since your viewing distance is much closer. At that range, the better resolution can make a huge difference.

If you play video games on the tv, you often sit closer and will see the difference, but then the video game system's resolution will determine what you should get. The Wii, for example, would be just fine on a 720.

Well, we got a Samsung 32" 720p 60hz. It fits perfectly , so we are glad we didn't go with the 37", plus it was only $329, so we had extra to get the X box 360 with Kinect. We played a dvd and are very happy with the picture. However, its not as ideal off of Att Uverse. I guess, since its a HDTV and we don't get the HD signal, its just not gonna be as sharp? Im gonna be playing with my service anyway...eliminating the land line and parring down to U100 from U200, I could probably pick up the HD signal. Im also considering jumping to Comcast if I can get a better deal through them.