Since my ancient (1970's vintage Zenith) TV finally expired this week, I
was forced to enter the 21st century and buy a replacement. I found that
the reviews on the CNET site <http://reviews.cnet.com/televisions/>,
although somewhat difficult to navigate, very helpful. My problem was
that many of the ratings depend on features/functionality that I will
never utilize (gaming, internet access, use as a computer monitor, etc.)
and definitions of screen characteristics that I have trouble relating
to - "saturation", "contrast", "sharpness", "color depth", etc.
Then I had to deal with Direct TV to "upgrade" my service and hardware
to handle HD. And don't forget to buy an HDMI cable - neither the TV nor
the cable/satellite box come with them.
I should point out that I don't watch TV, but my wife does, so my
proposed alternative of doing without was rejected out of hand. :-)
Oh, you might ask what I bought. It is a 42" LG brand LCD model with LED
backlighting and "local dimming" (a combination of which should allow me
to see the sweat oozing out of a baseball player's pores - something I
never realized I needed to observe until now). It too new to be "in
stock" at the local appliance dealer in whom I have a lot of faith, but
they committed to setting it up for me for free later this week (and
take away the old Zenith) as part of the deal. From what I understand
from reading forums, there is a lot to be said for having the unit
installed and supported by the seller, failed/damaged units on delivery
being not all that rare.
Mike
[email protected] wrote:
On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 5:24 AM, Jeff Miles <[email protected]> wrote:
I wish I'd known all this before. I had an old black and white tv I
could have sold you.
I was just trying to point out that trying to compare one TV set to
another in a store environment does not really work very well because
the sets will all have different settings for brightness, contrast,
sharpness, color, etc. Most stores also only use customized
programming to show of their televisions. You are probably not going
to be able to see the same program source in a store that will be
available in your home. I think that the best way to evaluate one set
versus another is to read as many user or expert reviews as possible.
Steve
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