I have a dear friend (seriously, a REAL one, not like you guys) who is not techie at all. She has a crappy, old 19" CRT as her primary display and has finally consented to improving her situation somewhat.

She wants to spend ~$700 on a flat screen TV. She also needs a new disc player (I'm assuming a cheap BD). I'm planning on a mount from Monoprice.

The only sources will be a Comcast cable box, the disc player and a Wii.

(sit down and breathe deeply...)

Audio isn't really a consideration. There's just no money for a receiver, speakers, etc. And even if there were, the UI would have to be absolutely foolproof (i.e. probably a universal remote or something).

Help?

Wow, going from a 19" CRT to (I'm guessing) a 32" or 37" 1080p is going to blow her mind. Looking forward to the results and reviews.

Oh, yeah, the helpful people should be along after a while.

OK, I couldn't resist trying to be helpful. How about this Sony Bravia 40" LCD at Costco? $699.99 with 20 watts (10W x 2) of smokin' stereo sound.

Well if ruling one out helps, I can't "in good consciousness" (as Ricky would say) recommend Samsungs BD-6500 for a BD Player. I'm still losing my center channel every time I use the skip buttons. I downloaded an update last night but it makes no reference to a fix. I should have returned the thing when it still would have been easy to do so.

Panasonic BD60 as the Blu-ray player.

The Sony BDP-N460 is a pretty good BD player. It supports Profile 2.0, and has Netflix streaming. It's from the previous model year, so it can be had for about $150 in most places now instead of the $250 list.

I'd definitely go 720p instead of 1080p, as long as it's under 40 inches.

Thanks, guys.

I need to measure the viewing distance. There's still no substitute for "bigger", but it certainly does imply higher resolution, so there's a balance to be made there.

I really like the idea of getting a BD and TV from the same company - that could really help the remote/UI issue. Anybody know how the current generation Sony remotes are?

Excellent advice. Thank you very much.

I'd look real hard at the oppo BD 80. Can't help with the TV. Try Craig's list. Lot's of 'new' TV's to be found there.

Thanks, Mike. Craigslist might be a good idea. The Oppo is way overkill (and too much$) for this installation. That Sony that Chris suggested or the Panasonic BD-60 are solid choices at $150, though. I can get a refurb of the Panny for even less, but have to make sure that my friend can/will use her Wii for the Netflix streaming.

I just bought a Panasonic BDP-65 at Best Buy on sale for $150. I upgraded from a BDP-30 that was starting to get a little sluggish.

The current Sony remotes are pretty standard fair but have nice chunky buttons so are fairly easy to operate. Also keep in mind if you get newer Sony products (BD or TV) they all use the XMB menu system ala the PS3 - I think that's a good thing but can be confusing if your not used to it.