Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Opinions on widescreens....I cant decide!

Im looking at getting a "small" widescreen tv. The room I have will allow for one in the 42"-46" range.

My three choices are:
Toshiba 42H83
Samsung HCL473W
Sony KP46WT510

I think they all look pretty similar picture wise to me. Anyone have any of these TV's or one by the same company a year older or newer.

Almost all the reviews I've read for these online seem to be pretty positive, but most our just from ppl who just spend $1500-2000 on something...so no matter if its good or bad, its the best thing they've ever purchased =)

Thanks in advance for the help...hopefully I can decide within a couple days.

pecker,

What are the price ranges for those 3? you might want to consider one of the Mits line, their smallest I believe is a 48in. RPTV. current model include ws-48311, ws-48411 or ws-48511 (integrated tuner) and these could be had for 1500 or less since they have the new models coming out, ie. ws-48413 if I'm not mistaken. the Mits widescreen RPTVs WILL give you the best looking RPTV (quality/image wise) at that price range after a professional calibration. Best thing is to look around and see for yourself. Advice: Don't be fooled by the way the TVs are shown @ the retail shops b/c they'll turn the contrast all the way up to make it look nice and bright.

ps: not Sony bashing or anything, but I'd stay away from a Sony when it comes to RPTVs

boohk it!! ;-)

Aside from myself, i believe jbz also owns Toshiba.
Our model is the 50HDX82.
I've been very satisfied so far to date but knowing how to get into the service menu and perform some extra tweaks has been very helpful.
You may want to head over to Hometheatrespot.com to do some browsing in those forums.
I found it extremely helpful in solving some common technical issues. The forums are separated by individual brand to make it easier to find info on a particular name.

These 3 tv's are all in the $1400-$1600 range (sale prices and what not).

I looked at two mitsu. today. Both the same size, but totally different in quality. The cheaper of the two (in my price range) looked horrid. The one that was about $800 over my price range looked beautiful....but not another $800 worth of beautiful.

And why anti-sony for rptv? I was very impressed with picture quality on the one I saw.

The mitsu. TV I checked out in my price range was the WT-42311. Like I said...I was not impressed.

pecker,

I'm not familiar with the WT-42311, I'd have to look into that one. Why don't I recommend Sonys? If Sony sells a widescreen RPTV, they most likely spent $300 on R&D and the rest on marketing, while with the Mits they spend almost all of that into R&D. Then again, it's your hard-earned $$, you're free to spend it any way you wish ;-)

just my $0.02

Pecker,

I've never seen Mitsubishi RPTV looking good in stores, but at trade shows I've seen some impressive sets. And Sony RPTVs have greatly improved in the last couple of years. The KP46510 looks very good, and it just received a good review by Shane Buettner in a magazine whose name escapes me.

That's nonsense about Sony's marketing vs. R&D. This is the codeveloper of the CD format together with Philips (Philips did the optical disc technology, Sony the electronics.)

For huge expenditures on marketing and mediocre performance, the all-time champion is Bose. But Sony has a long list of impressive technology.

In that widescreen size and price range, I've also seen a 47-inch Panasonic RPTV that was quite impressive (don't know the model). It had less light falloff at angles away from the screen than the Sony. Toshibas used to be poor in this regard, but I think they've improved.

Regards,

I don't know much about Apex, I've heard good and bad about them, but seen them for as little as 900.00 for a 42". Have you checked out the Phillips? Those usually are about that price range, I have two Phillips CRT TV's and quite happy with them, I saw one at Walmarts a 48" I believe for about 1300.00 that looked really nice.

Sony's R&D expenditures are some of the largest in the world. They spent about $3.6 BILLION on R&D and about the same on Marketing last year.

I've had horrible experience with their quality control on non-televisions, but questioning their innovation is absurd.

When I was shopping for rptv last November, my short list was Mitsubishi and Sony, both were excellent rptv's. I bought Sony because its picture was sharper than Mits. I am still enjoying my Sony.