Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: a, quality, hdtv, for, less | Themes: Display Panels and Monitors, Home Theater
1. Introduction
"High definition" seems to be the buzz phrase of the 21st century, but the seemingly high-cost barrier for HDTV has been troublesome for many consumers. However, you can experience the HD way of life without being a financial mogul. You just need to know what to look for and where to find it. It’s possible to get a nice 30"+ HDTV, components, cables and even a couple cosmetic additions for less than a grand.
Avoid The Really Cheap And Really Expensive
I know what it’s like when you’re in Best Buy or Circuit City browsing the wall for the affluent, with the $5,000 HDTV sets and sound systems that are equal in price to one year of your mortgage payments. The truth is that these TVs, much like the electronic store droids who try to peddle this stuff, don’t have much substance right now.
It takes no more than a quick Internet search to find an HDTV for just a few hundred dollars, but buying one that’s too cheap could be a big mistake. Format, size and technical specifications are all factors that must be considered. A good entry-level HDTV is a flat panel model with a screen size of at least 30" and a resolution of 720p.
Honestly, no one really wants a hi-def TV unless the size is big enough to really take advantage of the extra pixels. There are even HDTVs in the channel with 15" screens. Trust me - you can’t fully appreciate Jessica Alba on Blu-ray Disc with a TV that small.
Jessica Alba in "Fantastic Four"
Also, if you are mulling the purchase of an HDTV at a brick-and-mortar or online store, make sure to look at the actual specifications. Some of the shadier merchants will group in sets dubbed "EDTV." Avoid this like the plague. Seriously. It stands for "enhanced definition," and only offers 480p, the same sort of resolution that HDTVs give to standard-definition DVDs and the like. In other words, you won’t be able to see anything in true high definition with this kind of TV. What’s worse is that EDTV sets are usually marked up significantly over standard TVs, and usually for 10% - 20%, you can get a true hi-def model.
Sharp’s LC-20AV7U may look like an HDTV but this EDTV set is not even worth considering.
- Next page Avoid The Really Cheap, Continued
Ya know, I agreed with alot of what you had to say right up until I saw "A cable is a cable."
Do me a favor. Don't publish something until you're damn sure what you have to say is the truth. I'm really sick of this rumor.
Did you even once put a cheap HDMI cable against a more expensive on in an eye-pattern test? Even once? No. No you didn't. You just jumped on the band wagon of "EXPENSIVE CABLES ARE RIP-OFFS! I KNOW CUZ' I READ ABOUT 1'S AND 0'S ON THE INTERNET!"
Tell me, did you do all your testing on a 3 foot cable? Probably. I doubt you tested cable against cable on 10 foot runs and above. In fact, I know you didn't. I didn't see a single eye-test pattern following your claim. Where's your source of this information anyways?
Am I telling everyone to go buy a Monster cable? Heavens no! You'd be a fool. But I am going to tell you to at least buy an HDMI 1.3 -CERTIFIED- (that's the key word there) cable and probably spend a little more than a few bucks on it. Honestly, you probably spent 800+ on this HDTV. Would it kill you to drop 20 bucks in a cable?
So, before the flames turn on, I realize you said 20 bucks from Cables Unlimitted... and I agree, why pay more? But don't go making claims that a cable is a cable. Many of your readers are going to think they got this great deal on a 5 dollar cable, when that couldn't be any farther from the truth. They'd only be ripping themselves off a great home theater set-up.
Go do some research on HDMI and eye-pattern tests. See what holds up. Then think about this: What about outside interference? Is that cheap cable going to resist interference and how will it effect my picture? How long am running this cable? Among other things, these are factors that WILL influence your picture quality when choosing a cable.
A recommendation: Monoprice. GREAT cables for about $15 - $20