Wednesday, November 21, 2007
There’s an interesting blog post on CNET’s Crave advising shoppers not to purchase a center speaker for their home theater sound systems.
“But for one or two people sitting directly in front of their TV a center isn’t necessary, and almost always sounds less good than the left and right speakers. Center speakers tend to sound boxy, so Denzel Washington sounds like he’s in a box. Ditch the center and your A/V receiver will redirect the center channel sound over to the left and right speakers.”
I’m just starting to research surround sound systems for my Vizio GV47LF. I’ve been looking for a budget system ($300-$400). It’s looking like you have to spend that much on speakers alone. I’ll report on my research and progress here.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The best deal for this year’s Black Friday may be the 46″ Sharp Aquos 1080p LCD (Model: LC-46D64U) for $1,300 (a $500 savings according to Gizmodo’s Ultimate Black Friday Deal Guide). It can be found at Circuit City. CNET.com reviewed its 52-inch brother and gave it a good review. (BlackFriday.info’s Circuit City deals.)
720p plasmas have always been a smart bargain. So, the second best deal might be the 42″ Panasonic TH-42PX75U for $900 at Best Buy. CNET hasn’t reviewed this set, but they did review its close cousin, the TH-42PX77U, which got a great review. Panasonic plasmas review very well in general.
Filed in 1080p, 720p, Best Buy, Black Friday, CNET, Circuit City, David Katzmaier, Full High Definition, HDTV, Hot Deals, LCD, Plasma, Sharp
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Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Vizio GV52L is on sale at Sam’s Club for Black Friday for $1890 (link). That is only $110 less than its price at launch when it had a $200 off coupon. I think they can do better than that. The 42″ Sharp Aqous for $900 is a much, much better deal. That is a great television.
Check out Costco’s Black Friday deals. They are offering a 47″ Philips 1080p TV for $1,499.
It is a great time to buy a television. Of course, things will always get cheaper, and better televisions are always being made. But the quality of even the cheap televisions is enough to satisfy most people.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
*Update 10/6/2008* I’ve determined that buzz only happens when the dynamic backlight has the
AI setting turned on. This mode can be found in the GV47LF’s advanced picture settings in the menu system. This is a shame because I think the AI settings delivers the best picture in terms of brightness and vivid colors without being too bright. I now have the dynamic backlight set to
On instead (There are three settings for the dynamic backlight:
Off,
On, and
AI). The screen becomes too dark for my taste with the dynamic backlight turned off. I suggest setting the dynamic backlight to
On and setting your brightness to around 50.
My GV47LF has developed a buzz. I think it’s the backlight buzz I read about on the AVS forums. It sounds like old refrigerator. It gets louder when there is a lot of black on the screen. The television did not do this when I purchased it. It started buzzing 5 months after I bought it. It’s not loud enough to make the television unusable, but it’s distracting nevertheless, more so because it’s not a constant sound, but rises and falls with the black levels.
