krblgc

I finally caved in last week after years of research and almost buying.

I bought the Panasonic PT50LC14 Rear Projection LCD TV. I chose this one over Sony's 50 inch LCD TV because of the inputs, the overall look, the quality and of course, price.

I bought it from PC Richard & Son and just got it for $2,300 [last week's price was about $2,899, Circuit City had it for $2599]. I think this was the lowest price among stores that time. I also got a good TV stand from the store [$399 list price, bought for $249.99]. All I can say was that I was very satisfied that I bought it at PC Richard & Son [which is a NJ/NY only store] as I was able to bargain price with them. And if you're living at PA near the border of NJ, they could ship there and sell you the item without sales tax!!!

So far, everything's been great. HD and DVD are phenomenal. SD are ok. Cartoons in SD are much better. It's the inputs that really make it well. 4 components, HDMI and 2 RGBs [up to XGA]. It also has SD card and PCMCIA slots. It's very light at 88 pounds and very thin at 15 inches of depth.

Overall, I'm one very happy camper. Been watching TV for hours since receiving it. Very very happy indeed.

Big Worms

Nice! Congrats!

drmoze

There's an excellent chance that A&B Drimmer's in Brooklyn would have beaten PC's price. They did on every major appliance (incl. a Mitsu 65" rptv) that we were purchasing for our loft buildout. But I guess it's too late to take advantage of that info now.

How's the contrast and black levels? Have you calibrated it? Curious as we're looking for a bedroom replacement...

krblgc

The price that PC Richard gave me was a negotiated price. I negotiated with them until finally we agreed on the best price possible without me showing up any ad for them to pricematch to. They only pricematch local stores and I'm in central NJ. Does A&B drimmer's have a website? I have about 33 days more to present a lower price and PC Richard will adjust it to that.

Contrast is excellent. Black levels is average to good. As you may have read, LCD, DLP and Plasmas are all having a difficult time rendering black. But the overall picture quality and brightness were good enough reasons to overlook the black levels. But HD movies are great. I've been watching a lot of programs at INHD and BRAVO and also HBOHD. It's really quite stunning to watch those HD channels.

My friend bought the 60" model for $2,800 yesterday at the same store [Bestbuy has it for $3,400 this week].

Cusm

Congrats and that is a great price. I bought the 50LC13 earlier this year and I love it. I wish it had the built in Cable card, but this was not a sticking point for my purchase.

eXcentris

I just did months of research too and bought a PT-50DL54 DLP.

I'll have it next wednesday!

thejammy

congrats

krblgc

eXcentris,

How's the Panny DLP? any pictures or stories on it?

eXcentris

Picture is great, no rainbow effect that I could notice and the blacks are well... black.

Here's some impressions I posted on another forum:

I installed my Panny yesterday and so far I'm impressed! Haven't done any DVE calibration yet but have used settings recommended in this thread by the ISF technician. Don't have HD yet but frankly, from what I had read here, I thought the PQ on SD would be much worse. It varies from channel to channel but it's certainly watchable. I thought it looked worse on stretch modes but I prefer using 4:3 mode anyway. Split screen is great for watching 2 football games at the same time. I used the LG DVD player upconverted to 1080i hooked up via component and watched Nemo, Alien 4, and X-Men 2 on DVD and the picture was amazing. The only thing I noticed is some slight grain/shimmering in scenes with a lot of white (is that what "white crush" is?) especially in X-Men 2 in scenes with a snowy environment. haven't tried playing Xbox games yet.