who can get me a deal on a flat screen?
 

I want a 50" plasma but I hate paying retail prices. I dont want to do anything until after March 1st so I'm missing out on a few good president's day deals, anyone got a hook-up?

Shoot me a PM

they piss me off cause the tv i want is on sale, but they wont take my 12% "rewards" coupon off the top :( since it's already on sale.

gay:td:

I can help you out; I'm a low voltage contractor, which means that I design media rooms, automation systems, lighting control systems, a/v distribution systems, and integrate related items... Actually there is a good deal available on an LG 50 right now. Really needs to take it to PM or better phone conversation though

Several of my distributors will allow drop shipping, so that's not an issue...

I thought it was you, Ben, who mentioned that, that's why i posted. I'll PM.

hp's 50" was 1700 a month ago. where were you?

i like the fujitsu (not made anymore) 50" best but I'd "settle" for the panasonic.

I close March 1st so I dont want to buy anything untill after it's set in stone. I'm acutally looking at the Panasonic TH-50PX60U, it's really a matter of I need to mount this sucker on the wall, cuase it's the only place a tv will go, I'm happy with 720p (I have a 32" CRT widescreen), and damned if I don't just want a big ass sucker to impress all my friends, and I'm cheap, I have other junk to buy for the new palce as well, don't need to put all my eggs in one basket.

I wouldn't quite classify forking out $1700 on a tv as "cheap"

i could easily find one for $3000+

Now you are talkin! They have a 70" widescreen plasma in our breakroom at bby because they couldn't sell it and are too stingy to mark it down to sell it.

for a 50" plasma? it's way cheap. everything else is 3500 and WAY up.

for you, MUAHAHAHA

I don't think I've ever paid retail for anything. I'm getting this thing one way or the other, but if I can afford a 50" over a 42" then yeah I'm doing it.

There are actually amazingly good models from LG, Panasonic, and Pioneer that would come in at $2000-2500. 50s have severly come down in price (map and list). They have not dropped as severely in dealer cost. Margin on the cheap consumer shit you see at bestbuy/circuit city is often only 10%.

Hmm, the LG 71"? It was retail $75k when it hit the market. Didn't think LG would distribute it through a bestbuy, and can't see a tight ass corporation like bestbuy give its employees such an expensive break room tv. You sure it's not a 60"?

FWIW, that same tv which came out at $75k is now at $15k or thereabouts :gay:

maybe its a 60", its definately bigger than any tv ive ever seen for sale anywhere. It might be a 65". When it gets that big it starts getting hard to tell the difference in a few inches. Also things given to employees are at the GM's discretion, not corporate. If they marked it down and sold it then the GM would take a huge loss on the daily numbers, if we keep it then it is still in the inventory and no money has been lost. That just one of the ways they try to look good to the corp office.

We had a ginormous TV back when I used to work at best buy lol...full surround sound...x-box...;)...talk about some sweet lunch breaks.

hell ya bro! we never had videogames but we do have direct tv hd with all the channels. Watching sports on those tvs in hd is amazing!

lol, that is true...we used to play halo w/ 2 12s" behind the sofa...:D

haha I play Halo/xbox 360 on a 129" with a 1080P projector
you don't want to know about the audio system
:cool:

Thats good and all, but we are talking about at work.

yeah for me. what kind of deals do you get on high end virtual reality products? :naughty:

yeah, so am i :gay:

hah, we are doing that in my dorm right now...5.1 surround....12" sub...Very nice projector...very well painted wall...nothing like sitting 20 feet away from the wall and killing people :D

I wish it was my equipment we were playing on though.

its setup in the lobby...we just close the fire doors and turn off the lights...its sick.

damn ben, I have a fetish for electronics. Can you get denon or pioneer elite by chance? :x:

denon yes, elite no

also carry marantz and B&K

I might be in touch :x:


(fuck marantz unless it's the old US made stuff BTW)

yeah, no worries. I'm Denon Authorized & Denon CI Certified (which means I'm the shit as far as Denon dealers go).

Marantz quality slid HARD, which is why I went to Denon. But they are both owned by the same company (D&M Holdings).

Probably can't get Elite any more--burned that bridge a while ago. They were assholes and wouldn't stand behind their product.

Anyway, if you want to go big, I carry B&K. Used to sell Parasound too (that's what I have at my own house), but their price points are just too high.

You should hold an Atlanta turbo miata get-together at your place then ;)

I have an elite now and I've really enjoyed it, but it's time to move that one back to the bedroom and get something newer...

Only problem I have is the volume knob has gone wonky, I'm sure I could order the part and repair it but I just don't care.

how about furniture? Any hookups there? That's where the real markup is, that and speakers but I build my own.

dude i get enough vampires as it is. everyone will come over to watch 24 tonight. i hate 24.

i regretted getting sunday ticket at like week 3 or 4

Yeah i carry all sorts of stuff, depending on what you're looking for. Some of it may not be worth shipping though. We also have bedroom furniture with integrated plasma lifts, and also paintings that roll up to reveal the tv behind.

If you want a Denon receiver, wait until June or so when all the new models will be out. The 07 models are getting some serious upgrades over the 06 stuff.

got our 45 sylvania for 800 bucks at circiut city not to long ago. works pretty well to.

:gtfo:

boy I'd love a plasma lift or even a nice entertainment cabinet for the bedroom but the prices are just outrageous for the quality you get.

There are pricey, but pretty nice, good quality:
http://www.cabinet-tronix.com/main2.html
Check out the bedroom stuff. They have cabinets that go at the end of the bed. Bad ass.

Do these over fireplaces:
http://www.mediadecor.com/
Did one in a formal dining room once. Worked out well. Formal for company with the tv off, but hey who doesn't eat in front of the tv when they're alone.

I'm telling!:gay:

My sis is the Assistant Art Director and her husband is the Buyer for Wireless Accessories for BBY corporate. You employees have probably seen the magazine they send out, Tag Zone or something, my sister is in charge of that.

To stay on topic, they have a Panasonic 50" plasma, I wanna say it was a little under $2000 with their discount. I'd sure like one in my dorm room.

You folks and your TVs. I have my little ol' 20" CRT flat screen (def. not flat panel....) without cable. Really revs my engine.

the GF would kill me if I bought a $4000 tv cabinet :rofl:

+1 i have a 27" that works fine, besides i'm on the internet way too much to pay any attention to the tv, i harldy watch tv unless the gf is over

geez that must make her feel special. :gay:

Plasma or LCD?

I personally really like the look of LCD better. The Sharp AQUOS looks pretty damn skippy to me. When my house is finished being build I want to buy something around 42"-50".

Opinions?

I just got the 42" HDTV Panasonic plasma. Very nice quality and great picture. The 50" is even nicer, but it was a little above my pricepoint and my living room is too small to justify a tv that big anyway.

I just hate the way you can't get native 1080P resolution in a Plasma or DLP t.v. unless it's like 50+".

What's the deal with that, Ben? Any ideas?

That haven't been able to produce pixels small enough probably. Remember when plasmas first came out? They were all 42" and above for a long time. There are much better technologies coming out in a couple years anyway. Assuming Canon doesn't ruin everyting, SED TV technology will be the next big wave. It can reproduce CRT quality color, black levels, sharpness, response, etc... but keeps the thin packaging of an LCD.

Jay.... I've seen a whole bunch... it's a toss at the moment for me between the newer Samsung 40+, the LG (they are OK) or the Sharp.... One of the boys bought the samsung (slightly older version) 40, before Christmas.... oh man, it's sweet. Especially, since he's been plugging the VGA on the laptop into it. Nothin' like surfing on a 40" monitor. <VBG>

Check them out though, everybody has their own preference.... I was looking at screens with 3 guys from the office... we decided we all liked the colours on three different models. <G>

Dave,

Hey Ben.... I'm curious.... what's the normal price on the 4306, or the 2307.... I know what they are roughly going for in CND (yes coloured money)... but I wonder what they go for down south.

I'm not askin' for "special" pricin' either, just off the street is cool.....

Dave,

this is fun and all but I just can't commit to a TV technology until something new and better comes out.

I'll keep rockin my HD toob.

BEN --
What's your price for a 42" flat?

once i move in and really see what will look good above the mantle I might end up with just a 42"

gotta love the add quote button

Personally, I'm not a fan of the aquos, but it's not my eyes that will be viewing the display. I generally only use a large lcd display if it will be installed in a high rise, or other building constructed of steal. As strong as steal construction is, I've found the weight of a plasma will bend the studs. LCDs are much lighter than plasmas, particularly because the plasma panel is glass, where the lcd panel is plastic. The plastic panel will also glare less. Generally, I prefer a plasma display for their enhanced contrast and brighter color reproduction. Also a plasma generally consumes less power than a comperable size lcd.

1080p is a fairly recent evolution and too many people still don't have 480p capable display devices. You'll see more and more 1080p small screens come to market at "reasonable" prices, especially as consumers start to own multiple HDTVs in one household (which isn't common in a typical household). 1080p sets look wonderful with hd content. Standard def content, and standard dvd content, imo does not look good on a 1080p display device. Seriously, if you want to make all your source content like dvds look like shit, get a 1080p display.

They're still for the most part 42" though some of the larger sizes are gaining popularity. IIRC, Panasonic is the only manufacturer to ever offer anything smaller, and it was a 37" panel, which actually costs the same or more than the comparable series 42".


Dave, sorry not in the office today, and it doesn't look like I have a denon price guide here at the house. If you're looking to pick up a receiver, wait a few months for the 08 models. They'll have big improvements, especially in the video switching.

Could you be any more specific?

If it won't bankrupt ya, go for the 50"; it's substantially larger than a 42. I regret not getting a 50 for my living room after getting the 42. Sometimes I'll watch tv on the 50 in the bedroom just because its larger.

Yeah, I'm currently running Xbox Media Center on my Xbox, and runs the OS natively in 720P and upscales std. DVDs to 720P with a bunch of post-processing filtering. On a 37" 1080i LCD, the 720P upscaled DVDs looked friggin' great! However, I've not seen what the 720P upscale looks like on a native 1080P screen.

That said, I was planning on getting an Xbox 360 with HD-DVD drive soon, so I wanted to have 1080P capability. There are several 360 games coming out soon that'll be 1080P.

Nope not really shopping. I've got an 1804, which I've had for years now.... And I would only trade up with a really, really good excuse. Definately can't complain about the functionality, etc.... The only thing I've ever had reason to complain was the functionality of the denon remote (and the codes for other devices). But hey, I've got stuff that works fine, so I'm OK with it.

If anybody is shopping, I would definately recommend the Denon stuff.... better than most of the off the street stuff. But not into the stupid pricing for the really good stuff. It's definately nice down the middle. It's not NAD level quality, but good enough for me.

The reason I'm curious Ben, was for the pricing for guys in the office. Some of them are shopping, and we are occasionally drooling over the stuff that's out there now. <G>

Dave,

I'm confused. Which is heavier? LCD or Plasma? What kind of weight are we talking about here?

Thanks for the opinions. When I go into a store it's always the LCD that grabs my eye, and from what I've read the Sharp is well recieved by critics.

720p hd content scaled to 1080p looks great. 480p dvd content scaled to 1080p is imo not so good. With a terrific video processor (been using the dvdo stuff) 480p can be made to look ok. My take on 1080p has been it looks fantastic with a fantastic source input (native 720p or better), and awful with a marginal source input (in this case marginal is anything less than 720p native).

I didn't know that the 360 was going to have 1080p games. I remember microsoft specifically saying that the hd dvd drive was going to be for movies only. If that's not the case, I'm gonna go get the hd dvd drive. Frankly I was waiting for a combo hddvd/blueray unit to hit the market under $500 before I personally took the plunge, but will go ahead if I can play 1080p Halo3. I'm still kinda pissed about sacd/dvd-a.

that's baddass.

The remotes are a joke. They actually are even worse with the newer stuff, where you have to turn the remote over and flip open a hatch. But it's kind of intentional. They say they come with universal remotes, but it's really just to have the feature on a spec sheet. The remotes were designed to easily program into REAL remotes via outputting their specific "discrete" commands.

If anyone needs something specific, I'll look it up tomorrow. But like I said, I'd wait a few months because the avr models coming up soon are better. Their dvd players and what not aren't going to be changed much, but the new receiver line is getting a good make over.

A typicall lcd display weights less than a typical, similarly sized plasma display. By weight, (going back to ye ol college physics) I of course mean weight x G or mass :gay:. Plasma displays may appear to be light, but they ain't. It's not an issue if you're securing the display into wood studs, though.

Pleasing your eye is what's important. Check out the LG lcds. I personally prefer them of the "mass market" lcds. The samsungs also rate well, but I don't like them at all. There are a couple of boutique brand lcd displays that are pretty impressive, but not worth their outragous cost.

Of course, if Sharp were to give me a free lcd display if I promised to rate it, of course it's getting a high rating. If you give it a low rating, they won't give you anything in the future, where if you give them a high rating, they will send you the new model every year. And if your publication rates them poorly, they'll pull their advertising $ out of your rag. Not kidding.

hahaha so much for unbiased reviews eh? :gay: