Archive for March, 2010

« Older Entries

Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 in Panasonic TV.
Tags:

No Comments

Panasonic VIERA TC-P50G25

My wife and I bought bought this TV two weeks ago and we have been very happy with it so far. This was our first big-screen/HDTV and we were glad we chose this TV. We were able to find it for $1000 on sale at Nebraska Furniture Mart.

I have been most impressed with the color quality with the TV. The depth of colors, especially the blacks, make me happy we chose a plasma over an LCD. Plus, the 600 Hz refresh rate blows away even the “state of the art” 240 Hz on LCD/LED. There are no awkward looking movements on this TV like you see in the LCD/LED TVs in the stores.

The sound quality on this TV is fine; I have read a lot of reviews that say that similiar Panasonic models have horrible sound quality. Unless you are expecting Bose-quality sound coming from the TV, the sound is fine and in fact better than our previous CRT TV. It’s not a big deal to me if the sound isn’t Bose-quality; I’d rather pay less for the TV than have to pay more for a built-in speaker upgrade.

I really don’t think the THX certification is that big of a deal. The THX picture mode is nice, but I prefer the custom picture settings that I have self-calibrated to my preferences on the TV. All the THX cerfitication really means to me is that the TV your are buying is one of the manufacturer’s higher-end models.

We did have a problem with a couple of the pixels going completely white during one of the first nights we had the TV. We were worried at first, but it’s been over a week and we haven’t had any problems. I’ve heard that plasma TVs may require some time to get running at full capacity (or something to that extent) so we weren’t too concerned.

The only other thing I notice about the TV is that it does make a faint buzzing sound while running. I have read this is standard with all plasma TVs. It’s not really that noticable unless you are really close to the TV and have the sound way down. It’s quite minor if you ask me and I wouldn’t let it change your mind between buying a plasma and buying a LCD/LED TV.

Reviewed by : jjbjhawk,   Mar 24, 2010

Share

Samsung UN26C4000 26-Inch 720p 60 Hz LED HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 in Samsung TV.
Tags:

No Comments

Samsung UN26C4000

Let me just say that I was really excited to get this TV. So excited that I simply forgot to check the pixel response time before I went to purchase it. When I hooked my PS3 up to this TV via HDMI, I noticed horrible ghosting. This is not a fast display. If you’re going to be doing any type of gaming on this display, I would go with something else. Then, after I saw how bad the ghosting and overdrive was, I immediately went online to try to find out what the response time was and what do you know… there’s no response time listed for this model on ANY website. Even the websites that list response time put “N/A” in that section. Do yourself a favor and make sure you know the response time of your TV before you buy it. If it doesn’t list a response time, you’re probably in for trouble.

I also purchased the new 32″ LN32C530 and that screen also had the same horrible ghosting… again, no response time listed anywhere that I could find.

In conclusion, I was not happy with the performance of this monitor. If you want to go ahead and order it anyway, that’s your call, but I’m just putting the warning out that if you don’t like ghosting or overdrive, do not buy this. You’ll be disappointed. Note: I also saw a lot of ghosting in movies too.

Reviewed by : Jayson Allyson “Spaztik”,   Mar 18, 2010

Share

Samsung LN32C450 32-Inch 720p 60 Hz LCD HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 in Samsung TV.
Tags:

1 Comment

Samsung LN32C450

It was easy to set up and plays cable and DVD’s beautifully.
Relatively compact size.

It has a very special feature for those that are hard of hearing: there is a sound setting called “clear voice”.
It appears to raise the treble information relative to midrange and bass, and also, makes the distinctions between sounds much sharper. For those hard of hearing, who usually have good bass/midrange hearing but rolled off treble, this will be a revelation. No more annoying your neighbors because you have to blast the TV in order to understand the voices. Also the TV does seem to play closed captions about as well as it can.

My aunt is using closed captions on cable TV and standard DVD playback and it works great. We had trouble using CC on a new upscaling DVD player using HDMI but that turns out to be a problem with the HDMI specification; HDMI relies on the source to decode CC and put the words on the screen, whereas older cable formats and resolutions like composite carry the CC signal distinct from the picture to the TV for decoding. This appears to be a major step back but it’s not the fault of the TV. If you Google “cc dvd hdmi” you will find a LOT of conversation on the net about this problem. No one seems to have a solution.

Reviewed by : A. Altman “Art”,   Mar 19, 2010

Share

Viore LC19VH54PB 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 in Viore TV.
Tags:

No Comments

Viore LC19VH54PB

I really wanted to give this Viore LC19VH54PB 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV a chance. Searching through Amazon I found that this HDTV Monitor had all the options I wanted: (Composite, Component, HDMI, Cable Input and VGA) at a fair price and for it’s size it was 9 inches larger than other HDTV’s in its price range. The only thing I had going against into this purchase was it was an off-brand model – not a common big name brand model such as Panasonic or Sony.

The first one I got didn’t have a power cord. I figured since it was a HDTV monitor it wouldn’t have one. I e-mailed Amazon about it missing a power cord and they said to e-mail or call the manufacturer. I had in fact e-mailed the manufacturer the same time I wrote Amazon to see who would respond first. It has now been more than 10 days and the manufacturer has yet to e-mail me back a response. An automatic response e-mail from the manufacturer was sent but those all say the same thing, “We will respond shortly.” The manual did state that a power cord should have been included. I had a spare power cord which worked for the monitor and it had a dead pixel on the far right of the screen, 1 white pixel.

So I sent the item back through Amazon’s RMA system, which is great, I recommend it if you have any problems with a purchase you made through Amazon. I requested a replacement unit and it was delivered the very next day which was a Saturday. I found that to be amazing since I didn’t have to wait until Monday or Tuesday for delivery. I checked it out and this time the unit had a power cord. I setup everything and all I got is a gray screen. None of the buttons on the remote work other than Power and Volume Up /Down. I figured I’ll use the buttons on the side of the screen and again only the power and volume work correctly.

So now I am sending this back for a refund and buying a name brand HDTV monitor for a slightly higher price but I hope I will not go through the same struggles as I had with this one. The other thing I would mention is the remote is long, nearly the same height as the monitor itself, and the actual range is really poor. I was going to use this at work not even 2 feet in front of me and the remote would only work nearly touching the monitor itself. Most televisions are setup so the remote works in the center for better range and this one is set to the far right. I also noticed that both units when plugged in but turned off had a strange hum coming out of the front speakers. I did unplug the power source to see if in fact the noise was coming from the TV and not some other device in my office and when I did it was the TV.

In summary, I really wanted to to keep this TV for a long time as the unit itself looks great and the images I did see on the first unit, minus the dead pixel, looked great but I got burned twice by this Viore TV monitor and I feel that the manufacturer is not worth anything based on my experience with them so please avoid Viore at all cost. Spend a little more for a brand you recognize and with better reviews.

Reviewed by : C. Valle,   Mar 23, 2010

Share

LG 55LH90 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz LED Backlit LCD HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 in LG TV.
Tags:

No Comments

LG 55LH90

I bought this TV after doing a bit of research and spending (too much) time checking out the different models in stores. It is my understanding that this model & the 47″ version are discontinued, so if you are interested buy now before you have trouble finding one. I paid $2K at BB on clearance last weekend (and had to check 4+ stores to find a new one instock).

A few comments that may help other uses make a decision about this TV:

Other customer reviews on this TV have mentioned a problem with the sound sync’ing. I have not seen that at all (using a Comcast hd box). I understand there is the ability to get a USB drive from the manufacturer to fix this problem should you encounter it.

I liked this TV better than Samsung because it does NOT have a glossy screen. That must be a preference thing…. some people think there’s more depth of color with a high gloss screen. I know I would HATE it because i would hate seeing lights, windows, movement in my living room, etc reflected back at me as if the TV is part mirror. If you don’t already know what I am talking about you should go to a store & look at various TVs in person and decide whether you want a glossy screen. Only LG, Sony and Toshiba have no-gloss screens. All Samsungs I saw have them.

The LED-LCD technology adds a definite depth of color to this TV beyond what any other LCD has (based on my research & comparable viewing against other TVs). I really love the picture quality of this set, and I have not even explored customizing the picture settings yet. The default setting bring in a picture so clear and deep I feel like I could reach into the screen.

Sound quality is reasonable. Remote & controls are also fine. The stand swivels (somewhat). Viewing the TV from an angle is just fine imo. The TV setup was extremely easy, the screen is already connected to the stand, you just have to lift the box off & get rid of styrafoam and put it in place.

The negatives imo…. I’m not crazy about the size of the frame and the stand on this model. The TV is 38 inches tall in total, but the bottom 9 inches of that are the stand plus the bottom frame of the TV….leaving the actual screen size to be 27 inches tall (2 inches top frame). It bothers me b/c this TV is so tall it eliminates my ability to use the bridge on my entertainment center to display objects and also causes the TV to sit higher then i would want.

I would highly recommend this TV….Get one while you still can!!

Another note..Do NOT buy expensive HDMI cables or packages. BB tried to sell me a Monster cable + powerstrip + cleaner for $200 and I laughed at them. After doing research it is my understanding that there is no reason to pay to upgrade that cable; I used the free one Comcast gave me and it seems great

Reviewed by : R. Morris,   Mar 9, 2010

Share

Panasonic TC-P42S2 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 in Panasonic TV.
Tags:

1 Comment

Panasonic TC-P42S2

I’ve owned this for 3 days now, and wanted to wait until I fully tested it to write a review. After seeing how it performs with videogames, blu-ray movies and basic cable, I feel I know the television enough to offer my thoughts.

Picture quality: Incredible. Blacks are as deep as the bezel surrounding the TV. Colors are bold – everything you’d expect from a top of the line plasma. I own a 62″ DLP, a 26″ LCD, a 50″ panasonic 720p plasma and this plasma, and the plasmas are the only sets that really “pop.” This model is head and shoulders above even the 50″ 3-year-old model I own.

Video game play: There’s a game mode, which bumps up the brightness and sharpness. It’s great for PS3 games. I’ve played Demon’s Souls and Wolfenstein on it so far, and both look amazing. The system touts “1080 lines of moving picture resolution” to help with motion blur. Honestly, I never felt plasmas had an issue with motion blur to begin with, so I’m not sure how much of a difference this feature is making, but from what I understand in doing research it helps to have it.

Cable: HD looks good – even the reds aren’t blown out. Basic cable is standard definition – a thing on it’s way out anyway, lol.

Aesthetics/connections: The TV is very sharp looking, and the anti-glare feature on the S model (as opposed to the U model) actually makes a difference. I rolled my eyes when I read the feature, but I’m watching it in the daytime in a well-lit room and the glare is really minimal. The only minor dissapointment is no VGA connection, but I’ll figure out a way around that. Was going to use VGA to hook up my 360 (since I’m using computer speakers for audio at the moment), but will go the component route now. By the way, a TON of controls and an HDMI input are on the side of the tv, making it very easy to get to.

Burn-in/image retention/ghosting: Haven’t experienced any signs of even ghosting yet. Had my game on pause for a few minutes a couple times to test it.

Audio: Haven’t tested the TV’s speakers, just using an external set of logitech speakers with subwoofer at the moment.

Overall: For the price, I highly recommend the set. Like I said, I own 4 televisions of 3 different technologies and this one shows off the best picture. I have a collection of almost 800 blu-rays, and stay up to date on all the high-def news, etc… I do extensive research before purchasing a product, and actually went into this thinking I was going to give in and get an LED. I don’t want to get into an LED vs. Plasma thing here, but the LED’s are simply LCD with different lighting, and it brings all the inherent LCD problems with it. They make catch your eye in the store, but once you get home and get into your environment, it’s a different story. That said, this plasma in game mode gets the picture as close to LED as I’ve seen but with much better blacks.

Reviewed by : Joshua Pearl,   Mar 13, 2010

Share

VIZIO SV472XVT 47-Inch Class XVT Series TRULED 240Hz sps LED LCD VIZIO Internet Apps HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Monday, March 15th, 2010 in Vizio TV.
Tags:

No Comments

VIZIO SV472XVT

I’ve had my Vizio SV472XVT TV for around 2 months so far (I bought it directly from Vizio in a special deal they had pre-release). I can’t say enough good things about it.

First, the LED backlit screen produces an excellent picture. I would go so far as to say it’s on PAR with any Samsung or Sony that I’ve seen. Blu-ray movies and PS3 games look perfect.

The collection of “widgets” is amazing. Netflix Streaming, Amazon-on-Demand, Vudu, Pandora, Rhapsody, Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Flickr, various Yahoo widgets, the list goes on. Some games like Sudoku and Texas Hold’em, which are neat, but would be better if you could watch TV while playing them. They have even added widgets since I bought the TV. That was actually an unusual experience seeing my TV doing an automatic firmwear update. My TV is connected to the internet through my wireless G router and a cable internet connection and streaming video quality is excellent. I’ve taken to watching a lot of Netflix HD streaming (there’s a good amount of TV shows that stream in HD. The movie selection isn’t as great), but I’ve also watched streamed HD video from Amazon on Demand and Vudu (HDX on Vudu which is 1080p). I haven’t had a single video quality problem streaming from any of these sources.

The bluetooth remote is a bit of a love/hate relationship though.
The Loves:
1. Having a full qwerty keyboard is awesome, especially while searching through the widgets, or posting to twitter or facebook through the TV.
2. The bluetooth connectivity is great. I don’t have to point it at the TV to change the volume or turn it on. It unfortunately still needs to be pointed at the cable box. That’s something I can live with.
3. It was very easy to setup.

The Hates:
1. I was hoping a bluetooth remote to be able to communicate with my PS3, unfortunately I’m still using a PS3 controller when watching blu-rays.
2. It’s just not very comfortable. It’s square and there was no thought to ergonomics. And the shiny finish is a fingerprint magnet.
3. It doesn’t have all the buttons that I would like from my cable remote. Page Up/Down and Day +- are the main ones. The absence of Page Up/Down can be a drag and at times leaves me reaching for the cable remote, the Day +- isn’t as much of a loss.

All-in-all, it was absolutely worth the price and I would buy it again. Although, I would consider the 55-inch as well.

Reviewed by : J. Gowan,   Mar 11, 2010

Share

Viore LC24VXF60PB 24-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 in Viore TV.
Tags:

No Comments

Viore LC24VXF60PB

I picked this TV up this morning at my local bait and switch shop. It wasn’t on fifth or seventh avenues….if you live in the NYC area, you know who I am referring to. They had it for a bit less than you see on here, but to be honest, I was looking to get it today.

The salesman there mentioned that a lot of people are having issues with this TV and cable boxes. I guess Viore is new to the scene and not a lot of cable box universal remotes work with the Viore TV’s. The salesman was gracious enough to show me another, higher priced TV that he knew would work with local cable boxes. I hate when they do that. And that is why I am writing this review.

I got this TV to work with my TiVo using the Samsung remote codes. How did I know to do this? I did some searching on this TV before I headed to the stores. I saw a few people write online that this TV uses a lot of Samsung parts. I have no idea if Viore is a division of Samsung, or some kind of partner, but if they use similar parts, maybe they use the same remote codes. On my TiVo, it had one code for Viore, which did not work. However, there had to be a dozen codes for Samsung. The third one I tried worked, I think it was 0092.

If I got it to work with the TiVo using Samsung codes, I would bet it can work with other companies boxes too.

Now, about the TV. It has a nice, bright picture. This is not one of those super thin (2″ or less thick TV’s). It is about 3″ thick. It is also really lightweight, maybe 10-15 pounds. I have it sitting on top of my TiVo in my bedroom. The picture is good. I have a Sharp Aquos and Sony Bravia in the house to compare it to, so maybe I am being harsh saying it is just good. For a bedroom, it is going to be great. I have read elsewhere that a lot of the cheaper LCD TV’s have tinny sound quality. I would bet that this is part from the TV’s getting so thin. The small TV’s cannot generate good bass cheaply in a small cabinet. This TV sounds pretty good. I turned the bass and treble up to about 75% for each and it sounds good. It is not tinny at all.

This TV has one HDMI, component, and a 15 pin VGA port to use it as a monitor. The manual is really sparse. This is a value priced TV, so I didn’t expect much in terms of documentation.

Overall, I think this is going to be a nice TV for my bedroom. Would I buy it for my living room? No. But as a small TV to catch Conan before I head to sleep, it will be just fine.

Reviewed by : R. Goltsch,   Jan 23, 2010

Share

Samsung LN55C650 55-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Friday, March 12th, 2010 in Samsung TV.
Tags:

No Comments

Samsung LN55C650

About me: First HDTV, but I am an Electrical/Software Engineer so I have a high level of technical ability, with a low expectations. I have been micro analysing which TV to buy for far to long. I attended CES in 2009 and 2010, and have seen all of the new TV that are coming out (probably why I kept waiting so long). This is the perception from which this review was written.

I received this TV yesterday and watched it for most of the evening. Very good picture! I was considering the LG55lh40 but after viewing the Samsung LN55B650 side by side with the LG at Best Buy my wife and I realized there was little competition. We had the tech at best buy let us mess with the settings for around half an hour (starting with the auto-calibration from LG) but just couldn’t get it to look right compared with the Samsung. I was rather upset, as I have read numerous great reviews about the LG and it was a considerably cheaper price. Logging into Amazon I noticed the LN55C650 was on sale for $1620 (even cheaper than last years B series) but had no reviews, so I was a little nervous to order it. Hindsight is 20/20 and I definitely made the right choice. The picture is very clear and has that crisp look that Samsung is famous for.

My surround sound system will not be delivered until today, so I was stuck using the built in speakers last night. I was very impressed with the sound this thing could pump out. I varied the sound between 25 and 50 (out of 100) and it was more than loud enough and filled the room nicely. This is by no means comparable to a nice sound system, but compared to any other TV I have heard, it is definitely up there in sound capabilities.

Looks wise, I think this is much better looking than last years B650. I didn’t care for the red touch of color that surrounded the whole TV. This model only seems to have the red at the bottom center, and it adds a really nice accent without being overpowering like I felt last years were. This is just a personal opinion.

Cons:
The 120HZ feature, which was heavily complained about in the LN55B650 still has problems. The first thing I did when I got the TV was watch The Dark Knight BD (1080P) on my PS3 using a V1.3 Cat2 HDMI cable. I thought something was wrong with the TV as it was doing very strange things with background motion, but after turning the 120HZ feature off the picture cleaned up perfectly and I no longer notice any problems while watching it. I tried all of the different 120HZ modes, and they all had the same problem. That said, I turned it back on while watching HDTV (720p obviously) and it seems very clean with the 120HZ.

It is 2010 and they still can’t put a wireless radio built into the television? I find this to be ridiculous that you have to purchase a separate module in order to get wireless. My router is very far away from my TV and it will be expensive to have network cables added.

I will update this if I notice any other issues.

Reviewed by : Adam Thompson,   Mar 10, 2010

Share

Samsung PN42C430 42-Inch 720p Plasma HDTV

Written by Best Buy HDTVs on Friday, March 12th, 2010 in Samsung TV.
Tags:

No Comments

Samsung PN42C430 

After researching HD plasmas for about a month, I was all set on an LG model from a different website because it was the least expensive 42 incher with the best reviews I could find, but then I came across this model on Amazon for a hundred and fifty dollars cheaper (This was onsale for under $500 then..I dont think it is anymore). This is the least expensive 42 incher I’ve been come across, and I’m very satisfied with the quality. After watching a lot of movies with dark scenes, I was concerned because if I increased the brightness the colors seemed to wash out – well, after selecting the ‘dynamic’ picture setting instead of ‘standard’ that has been resolved – the colors are crisp and dark scenes are sharp and more visible.

I was concerned that this tv might have the ugly red stripe on the base of the tv like some pictures of other samsungs I’ve seen, but thankfully it does not. The tv frame and base are a sexy piano black. My opinion on why it’s inexpensive is because it has the fewwest inputs on it. It only has 2 hdmi inputs. Perfect for an hd cable box and a ps3. This tv also has 2 sets of component inputs, which are ideal for a vcr or other video game system that isnt in hd (like a wii).

I don’t have digital cable, just a plain old basic cable service and the QAM tuner picked up all the digital channels, but they’re not in hd so I’m still thinking of getting a comcast hd box, even though I despise the significant compression comcast utilizes with its signal. Compare comcast hdtv to a blu ray and you’ll notice how compressed the comcast video signal is (tiling and pixelating and motion blur is evident from the comcast signal).

All in all, at this price point, this can’t be beat.

Anyway, feel free to ask any questions on this new model via the comments section and I’ll be happy to respond.

Reviewed by : The Duke,   Mar 6, 2010

Share
« Older Entries

Site Navigation

Pages

Recently

Archives