relatively cheap HDTVs

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

The bedroom TV is in serious need of an upgrade. I've done a little preliminary shopping and it looks like you can get a 32" LCD HDTV for under $300. Just wondering if you guys have any advice on what brand(s) I should look for or avoid. I'd like to do some Netflix streaming, but it looks like I can get a wifi-enabled BluRay player for under $100, so I'm thinking that might be a better way to go than buying a Netflix-ready TV. Would also like to be able to plug my MacBook into it, or better yet, use it as a wireless monitor. Is that even possible?

[Adelpiero]

check out best buy, i found a deal for a westinghouse 32inch for $300 after taxes.

picture is alot more crisp and better than the 60inch sony in front room. great tv

[ElTaco]

I'm sorry but I'll just go ahead and disagree on that westinghouse, their quality sucks when it comes to dead pixels and the colors. On the other hand, I will agree that Best buy is a great place to buy. I will also mention that January is the best time to buy. Not only are there huge after xmas deals and before superbowl deals on TVs, but it is also the time when Best Buy and other companies are clearing floor space and selling off last year's models at huge discounts. You can definitely walk out with some great deals around that time. The reason I like BB for TVs is you can walk down the line and see all the different models next to each other and decide which one is better. With that said, I think Sony is over priced from the CRT days and while they innovate, they don't actually manufacture their own LCDs anymore, so it isn't necessarily better than anyone else. I personally like Samsung right now and would argue that it is one of the better companies for TVs. They don't come with the huge price of the namebrand, but their stuff is very nice. With that said, Costco is also a great place to buy TVs. They really like to push Vizio and while I wouldn't necessarily buy it for my living room, I think it wouldn't make a half bad TV for a bedroom or office. Actually, in the last few years, Vizio has really made a push to keep up with the big boys in terms of features. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if you could pick one up that supported netflix and whatnot and still hit close to your budget.

Finally, you can always try talking your wife into an xbox/ps3 for the bedroom. Honestly, hooking up a blueray player to a 32" is a waste. At least with a game system that it may offset the smaller/crappier screen. You might be better off saving the money and hooking up some other device for a lot less if you just want Netflix. You can get a Roku box for $69 I think or the Logitech Revue google tv box was dropped to $99, which if it gets the android market soon, may be one of your best options (think netflix, hulu+, games, google, etc...). Hell, some phones now will do HDMI out so you could just hook up your phone and stream netflix. Of course you can also just skip the whole TV thing and get a tablet, you'd probably see as much on a 10" tablet 1 foot from your eyes as you will from your bed on a 32" across the room.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Thanks for the advice. Not sure if I can hold out til January with college football season in full swing. I don't have a wife to convince, but I've already got a PS3 hooked up to the 55" in the living room, so it'd be hard to justify spending $250 on another one. Are the newer slim ones backwards compatible? That might be enough to push me over the edge.

On the phone front, I just have a 3GS, so no HDMI out there. Waiting for the iPhone 5 to come out before I upgrade. An iPad would be fun, but it's a little hard to justify the price right now, especially since I just got the laptop. I could always stream Netflix from the laptop, I guess.

[ElTaco]

The Thinner PS3s are fully backwards compatible. As are the thinner XBOX 360s. Depending on your laptop, you can easily set it up for Netflix/Hulu. Obviously if it already has HDMI, it is as simple as plugging in a cable. If it has DVI, you just need a $20 DVI to HDMI converter dongle and you are set to go. If the laptop itself doesn't have a digital video out, usually you can pick up a Dock that will have DVI on it or you can look for a USB solution.

- Your easiest and cheapest solutions are probably: AppleTV (you seem to like apple), GoogleTV or Roku, which all do Netflix and than some for under $100.
- In addition you can always do a Mac MINI or your laptop, which would give you Netflix and HULU. With a Mac Mini you can do all web enabled sites from bed by using a bluetooth keyboard/mouse. Hulu might be nice if you don't have a DVR for watching current shows.
- You can also buy a refurb PS3 or Xbox from online/best buy for under $200, which may not be a huge deal if you mostly plan on using it for bedroom entertainment.
- You can also probably buy WII's for fairly cheap considering there is a new one coming out next year. No HDMI but it does do Netflix and some other sites. Its also good for some good old Nintendo games to play from bed.

[indyfrisco]

This thread has my name all over it.

LED, Mikey. LED.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

This thread has my name all over it.

LED, Mikey. LED.

Just took a brief look at the LEDs on the Samsung website and the 32" ones run $420-$530. A little more than I was hoping to spend. It it really worth the extra $100-$200 for a secondary bedroom TV? The 55" in my living room is a 1080p rear projection Mitsubishi that I bought about 3-4 years ago and I'm already on my third lamp. I'll probably need to upgrade that in another 2-3 years, which is probably gonna set me back a decent amount.

BTW, I had an "IndyFrisco moment" this past Saturday that you might appreciate. There was a point where I had Ohio St./Toledo on the big screen, Iowa/Iowa St. on the 13" and Auburn/Miss St. playing on my MacBook. My roommate walks into the living room, takes in the whole scene and says "Mike, I think you have a problem." Without hesitation I said "Yeah, not enough TVs."

[ElTaco]

Just so you know, LED TV's are really LCD TV's with LEDs to do the backlighting instead of CCFLs. Maybe everyone knows this already but it was confusing me for a while before I purchased my TV. Costco still has 32" LED LCD tvs for mid $300s. They tend to be brighter, use less power, the TVs are slimmer and the colors tend to be nicer, but its really up to you if its worth the extra $$ for a smaller bedroom TV.

[ElTaco]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/14/netg ... hot-at-th/

Netgear is releasing a little box called NeoTV which will support Netflix, Youtube, vudu, pandora, etc... with HDMI out for $80. Another option.

[Goober McTuber]

Check out http://www.tigerdirect.com. They have a 32" Vizio LED for $349, a Samsung 32" LCD for $329, a Vizio 37" LCD for $349, etc.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Well, I ended up getting a Panasonic. I went to Best Buy and they had one on sale for $404, but they had a tag for an open box one for $359. When I asked about it, the guy went to look for it and they didn't have the open box TV, so he sold me a new one for that price. It's not an LED, but it is 1080p. Pretty much all of the 32" models under $350 were just 720p.

So after I get the TV all set up and go to set up the new HD cable box, I notice that the dumbass at the Cox store forgot to give me a remote. Now I have to make a second trip. Fucking fuck...

[PSUFAN]

Can you go with your cable provider's remote? In an amazing twist, Verizon has a physical store basically in my neighborhood where I can walk in and ask for a remote any time I want and get one right away, no questions asked. So, the dog gets to chew one up every three weeks, and I get to replace it right easy.

[Go Coogs']

If you wanna go big, then plasma is better than Edge or Center back lit LED/LCD TVs IMO. I did a shitload of research before purchasing my TV and found thaat LG's 60" Plasma 3D HD TV was the best TV for the prive. Panasonic makes the best Plasma, but their prices suggests the same. LG wasn't far behind in technology and were less than half the price. Image retention/burn-in is long gone now unless you're watching ESPN every single day for 8 hours a day. If you're doing that, then they have anti-IR/burn-in technology built in to prevent it from happening. You can do white and color washes on the screen which fixes the IR immediately.

However, if you decide to go less than 50", then LCD (not LED) is the way to go. The human eye can't pick up anything faster than 60mghz on a screen that small, so you're just wasting money by purchasing a 42" LED 240mghz TV. All those sexy acronyms and numbers mean absolutely nothing unless you go bigger than 50". Go with LCD.

[Goober McTuber]

If you wanna go big

I stopped reading (and started laughing) right there.