Going out on a limb here, but I figure like me, most of you are into cars, electronics, sports and of course, women.

Being from the Boston area, I used the Patriots AFC conference win as an excuse to buy a new TV. I went with a 50" Sony LCD Projection (http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-cWCzSC83qez/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=16&g=153950&I=15850WE610&o=m&a=0&cc=01&avf=N) . I was tempted to go for the 60" version, but it would over power the room (wife talking there).

I saw these LCD and DLP TV's a few weeks ago and was very impressed with the price, quality and slim profile. I actually bought this TV without ever seeing it. I read a few reviews and figured I could not go wrong with Sony. Can anyone comment on either of these new technologies? Pro's / Con's etc.?

Sorry if the OT offends anyone.

Um, wow!

Only sort of OT, as I bet 90% of us here either have a big-screen TV or plan to get one (I'm in the latter group).

For a Sony, the list price appears to be pretty good for a 50" set. Sony has one of the best pictures, IMHO, and the one you got looks sweet.

Not an expert at all, just slowly moving up the learning curve.

OK - well in general, LCD TVs only go to about 30" and few of these are true wide screen (16:9 ratio). In fact their ratio is somewhere between 16:9 and normal sized ratio (3:4). More recently though manufacturers have been making them bigger.

I personally have a Mitsubishi. Sony wide screens are ok. I say this only because I have never heard really bad things about the Sony's. This may not help you but that's my $ .02.

STAY AWAY! :)

I have a projection-based setup in my room. For 1500 I got a projection screen and a surround sound setup. I am thinking of getting a HDTV tuner next.

My screen size? a cool 100 inches. Quality? DVDs are crisp. Negetive effects? what effects? I can not watch TV/play video games for hours without hurting my eyes, I can now with the projection. Trust me You get spoiled with the size of the screen afer a while.

My friend has a widescreen sony TV (2 years). He got burn in on the sides since when you watch normal tv it has black lines on the sides of the screen where there is no signal. So now when he watches something in widescreen he has annoying lines from the burnin. That is another reason I say go for projector based.

Funny you should mention the topic now. With the Pats heading for the Superbowl again I vowed to get my 4 year old (to me) DLP working better so I can have some folks over to enjoy the game. The projector was bought used, along with an electrically controlled screen (ceiling mount, over the fireplace). I rigged the screen up to X-10 so it can be raised or lowered in more ways.

It is old enough (Davis PowerBeam - made in England) that bulbs seem to be harder to find these days, so I am hoping that with only 235 of 1000 hours used, it will not die in the middle of the game (grin). It is a 575W metal halide type.

The picture is huge though not as crisp as current technology DLP's or the Sony XBR2 that we normally watch (which is why the screen stays rolled up a lot of the time). But for watching hockey, football or any other sport it is great to have.

In preparation for the game I am trying to isolate some faint horizontal scrolling bars so I switched from using the rca video input to s-video. The lines are fainter now but I'm at a loss to understand what else to do to get rid of them altogether. I called my local electronic outlet so see if there was a higher quality s-video cable than the 50' footer I got and was surprised when they said s-video at 50' should be perfect, no matter what cable I had. So I when I have time I'll start looking for something else as the cause.

Anyway, until I can get a proper Runco http://www.runco.com/ 16:9 unit, it will do (grin).

Go Pats!

Here's what I have and will be watching the game on. 110" screen, surround and so on. The sencond best part is the kegerator I have in the other "bar area". It really is a sweet setup and man the picture is nice and clear/crisp!

BTW, I just counted the number of Sony tv's I have in my house and there are 6, a few of them are approaching 5+ years old and they all still work like I bought them yesterday (knock on wood). IMO, Sony is a good brand of tv's and other various components.

Originally posted by Auraraptor
My friend has a widescreen sony TV (2 years). He got burn in on the sides since when you watch normal tv it has black lines on the sides of the screen where there is no signal. So now when he watches something in widescreen he has annoying lines from the burnin. That is another reason I say go for projector based.

Can he not stretch the picture up and down? I have just a 32" Sony plasma hanging on my bedroom wall and I can pretty much stretch and adjust the picture so I see the tv show in the whole tv.

Also does he have tivo? I have heard of some people getting burn marks on their tv from pausing it too long. My ultimate tv (outdated but better than tivo IMO) has a screen saver that kicks in to prevent burn marks.

Just wondering.

He doesnt have Tivo, and stretching distorts the image. If you pay that much for a TV you should not have to watch stretched TV.

With the projector, you can select what setting you are gonna watch it it, so that way you dont have issues with the black unused space.

I bought several NEC 40" LCD monitors for work, so I know LCD is getting up there, but I have yet to make the switch for home viewing. I just cant justify the cost to watch a picture thats cropped down to a 20" picture (althought much wider) OR one that makes people look fat.
dumb dumb dumb...

I think the industry needs to find a suitable solution beyond telling me to PAY for HDTV , and then only really get it on a few shows..

arrhhggg.. now you got me started!!!

Thanks for all the replies and thanks to the mods for letting this stick. This would have been removed in about 4 seconds at Roadfly. I realize there is an OT board here, but sometimes you just want to converse with the same folks you talk to day in and day out about 7's.

This is not an old style big box projection or a computer-type flat panel LCD. Check out my link above. This is more on par with the new DLP technology you have been seeing in stores recently. I caught my first glance a Best Buy over holiday shopping and knew I had to have it. I determined a while ago that I wanted to keep the telvision kiddy cornered in my great room. I considered a wall mount plasma, but the absolute best scenario when taking furniture and asthetics into consideration was a kiddy corner. My problem was that my large floor to ceiling fireplace abuted and end of the TV, including the hearth. So I had little room, if any, for a monstrous big box, unless I moved it off the wall a lot and then it would look stupid. I wanted a big screen, but I did not want it to dominate the room. To put a plasma on a stand seemed like a waste of money. This TV is only 14" deep and all screen. No big bottom below the screen like old style projection. Another consideration was quality. No offense, but I watched the colts game at my buds last week on his i-year old Mitsu 65" and the quality is not worth the $4K he played. Especially taking into consideration he pretty much has to watch it in the dark to get decent results. The set I am buying has ZERO burn in ramifications. It is actually video game firendly. There is also very little lighting and glare concerns with this technology. I did some research and from what I understand, the first units (build date Oct-Dec) had a high bulb failure rate. Sony has corrected this. Mine TV is due to come into the warehouse this Friday and is a 2004 build. I plan on getting the extended warranty and I also am buying it from a reputable dealer - Tweeter. If I am not happy, I will send it back and consider Samsungs DLP set or Plasma if that it what it takes. A >50" plasma is big bucks though. Sure 42"'s are cheap right now, but 42" is not a big enough upgrade for me.

I have my fingers crossed for a delivery this Saturday and Comcast is coming by with an High Def box this coming Wednesday. I'll post some pics and an initial review.


You guys have some sweet setups. The LCD projector is going to go in the playroom some day, once my kids grow older and I actually am able to use the room without being sickened by the mess of legos and GI Joe's!

About a year ago I purchased and subsequently returned a Sony Grand Wega 60" LCD rear projection TV. LCD projection tvs have terrible contrast ratios making the whites look grey and the blacks look grey. Gray grey grey. I also couldn't find a sharpness setting that I liked: they were either blurry or so sharp that diagonal lines looked like staircases. My sister and her husband recently purchased and returned the same tv (this year's model) for the same reasons.

I've got my eye on the 50" Samsung DLP rear projection tv now. That, or a 50" plasma. My wife says that once xyz gets done, then the TV.... something about replacing our new couches with new couches..?

One thing I forgot to mention: don't buy any TV that you haven't seen in standard definition. Stores love to show the TVs in high-def mode, but high-def TVs vary widely in picture quality when running standard def stuff.

Originally posted by Auraraptor
He doesnt have Tivo, and stretching distorts the image. If you pay that much for a TV you should not have to watch stretched TV.

With the projector, you can select what setting you are gonna watch it it, so that way you dont have issues with the black unused space.

I understand how aspect ratios work, and that is why I find it hard to believe that the tv you are talking about can't be adjusted. Maybe it doesn't have the capabilties to do this, dunno. Sony tv and 2 years old hmmm, but yet again some older dvd players don't allow you to mess with the aspect ratio. This is why technology sometimes suck.

With most newer tv's the aspect ratio can be adjusted without "distorting" the image or making the people/picture look like it has been stretched. I would have returned the tv for a full refund if it was me, because that just sucks.

Originally posted by Arbys_Night
About a year ago I purchased and subsequently returned a Sony Grand Wega 60" LCD rear projection TV. LCD projection tvs have terrible contrast ratios making the whites look grey and the blacks look grey. Gray grey grey. I also couldn't find a sharpness setting that I liked: they were either blurry or so sharp that diagonal lines looked like staircases. My sister and her husband recently purchased and returned the same tv (this year's model) for the same reasons.

I've got my eye on the 50" Samsung DLP rear projection tv now. That, or a 50" plasma. My wife says that once xyz gets done, then the TV.... something about replacing our new couches with new couches..?

One thing I forgot to mention: don't buy any TV that you haven't seen in standard definition. Stores love to show the TVs in high-def mode, but high-def TVs vary widely in picture quality when running standard def stuff.

Interesting - the one common theme about this TV is that it handles analog very well and this pretty much swayed me away from the Samsung. Sony's have always been a little grayer and softer than other brands. I remember years ago comparing Sony to Mitsubishi and they both looked great, but both looked different. I swear sony does the gray thing to hide over contrast and to make lousy signals look better. The tech at Tweeter said that the Samsung looked a little brighter for HDTV broadcasts, but there was no comparison with analog broadcasts.

I actually called today and upgraded to the 60" Sony. It was only $500 more than the 50". My concern was too big, but then I asked myself, could there be such a thing as too big of a TV!