|   36" tv help! | snooka
Jul 6, 2001 7:32 AM | | my uncle has put me in charge of buying him a new tv... he wants a 36" set, dual tuner pip...under $1000. he has no brand preference, he just said that he wanted the best tv for his $$.
please post any suggestions or horror stories!!
thanks! |
| re: 36" tv help! | Josh Studrawa
Jul 6, 2001 7:45 AM | | http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11009137&m=1&cat=24&scat=26
Toshiba makes incredible TVs for the money. Best picture I've seen in a non-HDTV tube.
Also look at the 35" Sony they have also. Flatter screen may appeal to him more. |
| re: 36" tv help! | singha
Jul 6, 2001 10:06 AM | | My friend just picked up a sony wega 36fs12 for $1000, tax included. The fs12 is a discontinuing model, if you can find one you should able to land a similar deal. Good Luck. |
| re: 36" tv help! | Brad-
Jul 6, 2001 11:11 AM | | To start, 36" televisions have many more PQ problems than smaller 32" sets.
Instead of defining strengths, I'll define weaknesses. The reason for this is so you can determine what you can tolerate and what you can't.
After you find what you CAN tolerate, then pick by features, large differences in picture quality(small difference are most likely due to a stores poor demo setup), and reliability according to you.
Toshiba 36A60:
The worst. It was inflicted with the MOIRE PROBLEM. This distorts the picture with thin horizontal lines in oranges, reds, and smokey grays. At the screen edges, the lines wave towards the center of picture.
Philips 36PT71B:
Convergence problems. Whites and grays get red blotches on them. This is all over the screen in any area. It takes roughly 3 seconds before the discoloration begins.
Tuners are shielded very poorly between each other(2). While watching one tuner, the other tuners picture can be seen faintly in the background. This is obviously a RF problem related to poor shielding.
When connected to my DVD player, the DVD player's remote control occasionally is disabled. This must once again somehow be contributed to poor RF shielding. The RF must be traveling on the cables. I've had RF noise cause the remote not to work on many of my components from simply using small electrical motor within 10'.
More overscan than other televisions.
The sad part to this television is that it seems to offer the best picture out of most televisions when not inflicted with the RF trouble.
JVC 36230:
Doesn't have enough rear inputs that allows one composite/video output to be used with an additional S-Video output.
Geometry not as good as Philips and Toshiba.
JVC 36D302:
Just received it this morning, but I'll describe in short.
Geometry not as good as Philips or Toshiba
Demo models show weird vertical band of thin horizontal lines on reds, oranges, and smokey grays. This may be an isolated area of Moire problems. This is not nearly as irritating or distracting as Toshiba's entire picture MOIRE PROBLEM.
Sony 32S45(my old, none repairable set):
Poor power transformer shielding leading to dark vertical hum bars(1st year of ownership and with problem adjusted/grounded to be better but not free of this).
Poor shielding lead to tuner bleeding onto composite/video input(2nd year of ownership with no fix. Retailer bought back as lemon).
Geometry not as good as Philips, but very good overall.
Funny, the Sony's problem wasn't that bad compared to Toshiba and Philips. Although, it was bad enough to be distracting and irritating while watching programming through the composite/video input.
These are all my findings only. Make your own decisions, and read the review forum. If I only avoided Toshiba like most reviewers recommended, I would had saved some headaches.
Although some models I mentioned didn't have dual tuners, you can use my findings as a starting point to the more featured related models. |
| Tell your uncle you're busy | Norm Strong
Jul 6, 2001 11:21 PM | | Tell him to look at the March issue of Consumer Reports, and to quit bothering you. |
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