Fairly recently there's been a huge boom in the television market. In particular, this has been in relation to flat screen technology such as DLP, Plasma and LCD. This boom has been driven by a consumer need for technology that offers better clarity, sound and image quality. The rise of DVD's has also fuelled the purchase of home cinema systems. So where does HD fit in? Well according to Sky UK I will be "wowed by the difference" when watching HD. Well, is this in fact the truth? Lets put this in some sort of personal perspective. About a year and ...
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So my wife and I promised each other not to go out on Black Friday. We didn't. But we did go out Black Saturday (errr... the day after Black Friday). Lately, I've been compulsive about getting a big screen TV. Actually, what I've been really compulsive about is getting a Wii. But since I couldn't find a damned Wii anywhere, I opted for the big screen HDTV that I'd eventually play my Wii on. So, on Saturday morning, we got our morning Ads (where we live, the newspaper delivers ads separate from the paper...wierd, I know). Those ads told me that I could finance my big screen TV at 0% interest for 18 months. That sounded tasty. Uh? Sounded tasty? You get the point. Back when I first started my HDTV pursuit, I was committed to getting a 50 incher or better. This, in turn, convinced me that I would be getting a DLP. But to be honest, I just haven't been very impressed with the DLP picture. Looks too grainy to me, even on the 1080p models. Plus, quick motion (the sort of motion I expect my Wii to have), didn't look to hot.

Next, I got stuck on LCD because of a beautiful 40 inch Samsung 1080p I saw at BestBuy. Just absolutely shocking. Stunning. Aesthetic perfection. It was with this model in mind that we went out to compare prices around the various big box retailers. Suffice it to say, they were all sold out. December 5th the earliest delivery date. But that didn't work. You see, my wife and I had spent the last 3 hours carefully picking our favorite, most cost effective TV. We were ready to spend the cash. But no. We were supposed to go home empty? Not us! My wife and I are fairly compulsive buyers. And we were determined to come home with an HDTV. So next, we decided on a 42 inch Samsung Plasma. Plasmas really do have the best picture and they are the best for video games. But they are also ultra sensitive and ultra heavy. We didn't know that. So when we went to check out, they asked us if we wanted to pay the $85 delivery charge. Of course not. We wanted to go straight home and watch this sucker. Well, then they told us that Plasmas can't lay down on their sides. Too bad, because the 42 inch model wouldn't fit into our SUV standing upright. Blah! This really sucked. We were getting depressed and were about to call it quits, when we decided, once again, to go the LCD route. Well, we opted for a downgrade from the 40 inch 1080p Samsung to a 40 inch 720p Samsung. This time it was in stock. So we bought it. Here are some things I learned in this crazy process:

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I'm in the market for a big screen, high definition television. I'm committed to getting my TV by December 2006, just in time for the NFL playoffs. Here's what I've been learning. Specs are squat. You can read all the sales literature you want about picture quality, resolution, 720 this or 1080 that. But in the end, it all comes down to the quality of the picture. You see, I've seen lower resolution 720p DLPs look better than high resolution 1080i LCDs. Even better, I've seen Samsung DLPs with a lower resolution look better than Toshiba DLPs at a higher resolution. The moral of the story is that you should only use TV ...
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Some of you might be underwhelmed with the TV that I have on my mind right now. No it's not 103 inches. It's not even plasma or lcd. But then again it's also not $80,000. The TV I have my eye on right now is the new 62 inch DLP from Toshiba. Before you question my choice, let me tell you a bit about the criteria I set for myself a while back. Rule 1: Can't spend more than $2000 Rule 2: Must be at least 50 inches Rule 3: Must be highest quality picture currently available Rule 4: Must be HD ready So there you go: 4 rules. Now it turns out that Plasma and LCD are currently priced too high to meet rule 1 and 2 at the same time. DLP is really the only candidate. Plus, on rule 3, DLP still kicks the butt of Plasma and LCD with overall resolution, color and contrast.
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