Hobgoblin

I am on the lookout for a good widescreen TV for under $1000. Can anyone tell me if the Philips 30PW850H is any good? It goes for $999 at Best Buy. How do Philips TVs rate in general?

If I can't get a decent WS TV under 1K, I would like to get a flat screen 27" TV for now until prices come down for WS sets. Is Jensen any good? It appears to be half the price of a 27" Sony Wega. Only it does not do the anamorphic squeeze. How big a deal is anamorphic squeeze on a 27" TV? Does it make much of a visible difference? WHat is a good 27" flat screen TV for under $600?

Also, what is a ED (extended def) TV? I have heard of SD and HD, but never heard of ED before.

chipmac

I have no personal experience with them but from what I've heard they're only fair. Jensen is also not such a well thought of brand and I wasn't even aware they made TVs.

If you have any intentions of buying a WS set now or later than anamorphic is very important. On a WS set discs that aren't anamorphic will need to be enlarged to fill your screen thus loosing resolution. So if you buy a 4:3 TV now that has the anamorphic squeeze you can take advantage of the added resolution now and in the future when you do buy a WS TV these discs will be ready to take advantage of it as well. Any discs that aren't anamorphic will needed to be repurchased for the improved version if there is one for your new WS TV to fully see all of the resolution the TV has.

Keep in mind how much viewing you'll be doing with HDTV or DVD in anamorphic mode versus 4:3 mode and decide if a TV that's 4:3 with a anamorphic sqeeze is a better choice than a true WS TV.


EDTV is only DVD resolution of 480p. Some WS TVs hit their limit here and even if they accept a 720p or 1080i HD signal that signal gets down rezed to 480p for display.

I haven't shopped around but I hear that Samsung makes a good small HDTV. Look to see if they have one in your price range.

Hobgoblin

Thanks for the feedback chip. I know Anamorphic mode makes a big diff when watching an anamorphic DVD on a BIG widescreen set. But on a small 27" 4:3 set, does the squeeze make a visible difference? Sony is the only one that seems to do the squeeze trick among the 27" 4:3 sets.

Samsung is probably available under $1000 as a 30" widescreen set. Is Samsung any good?


BTW, I went to Best Buy today to check the picture quality of the Samsung and the above mentioned Philips widescreen TVs. The picture was grainy as hell and looked a 1000 times worse than a 30 year old curved tube TV. All the TVs were showing the same picture and the WS sets (Philips and Samsung) were horrible. But the non-flat screen old technology 4:3 sets were looking 1000 times better. I dont know if this is a calibration problem or whatever. If BB wants to sell these TVs, the least they could do would be to show a good anamorphic DVD like gladiator or something.

chipmac

Well if you watch an anamorphic disc on a standard 4:3 TV every 3rd or 4th line gets removed and diagonal lines tend to be very jagged and flicker can be a problem. The same disc on a WS or 4:3 TV that has the vertical squeeze removes none of these lines and you get the full res image. I had the 32" 4:3 that did the squeeze and I was able to notice a big difference. How far you sit to a 27" will matter a lot but sitting close enough you should be able to tell.

If you're looking at 30" widescreens be aware that for 4:3 shows the image will be pretty small. That's another thing to keep in mind when deciding on AR of the TV and what size to get.

As for BB displays you'll need to ask what kind of signal they were being fed and how often the signal was split. See if you can bring in a DVD and hook it up to see if the PQ is what you want and if it handles progressive signals without locking into WS mode. Be sure you can change AR on the TV for nonanamorphic discs if you go with a WS set also. IMO from what I've read I'd go with the Samsung.

Hobgoblin

Just one more question:

Can normal RCA jack wires be used for component input?

What is the longest length wire I can get? I am asking because my entertainment set will not fit the new TV and I will have to place the TV on a different stand and pull the video wire from my DVD player to the TV. I would probably need at least 10 feet of cable. Is that available and will it compromise the quality of the picture due to the length?

chipmac

Yes RCA cables can be used for component cables but it's usually not recommended. The standard yellow,red and white cables you would use for stereo and video sometimes have the stereo cables not made to handle video signals without losing quality. At the 10ft length you're going to need I would suggest the Acoustic Research component cables. I bought a length of 12 ft for myself and they only cost about $50.

Cusm

This is just MHO, you are nuts to spend over $300-400 on a 27" tv. I would not spend over $250 on one. You might try to save a little more money and get a bigger tv. I have seen some 47" going for about $1200-1400 now.

I would not recommend Phillips, GE or RCA. Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony (although pricey), Toshiba and JVC are some of the highest rated and recommended brands.

The PQ difference you mention is due to looking at 2 HDTV sets (the 2 widescreens) on a crappy split 100 different ways analog feed. These tvs will make an analog feed look like crap. See if they can hook up their digital or HD feed to these units, there will be no comparisons.

Hobgoblin

It is a good point. But the $250 27" TVs do not have a flat screen and do not support anamorphic squeeze.

Is $950 a good price for a 30" direct view widescreen set? Both Samsung and Philips offer sets at that price.

cruller54

I was also looking at Samsung and Philips 30" HDTVs for $999. Since they were in different stores I wasn't really able to do a good comparison between the two. Does anyone know how these sets stack up against each other? Also, can you access the service menu on either of them to adjust overscan, tilt, etc?