Are Off-Brand LCD TV's any good?
 

I am looking into a new TV for the bedroom...probably a 26" or 32"...the large the better I suppose. Anyways, I was curious if the off-brand TV's were any good...such as Dynex, WEstinghouse or Insignia. I have some Best Buy RZ/Gift Cards to spend. Just curious if they are worth it or if I should wait a while. 720p would probably suit my needs also....1080p may be overkill for that size anyways.

A friend of mine actually tried all three of those brands and settled on the Dynex. He seems to really like the picture.

Granted, he's comparing it to his old 19" tube TV and not other HDTVs.

Good is a relative term. Have you looked at any of them? What is your source going to be for this tv?

For a bedroom TV, sure.

I run a 37" Olevia 337h for our daylight display device, we bought for $600 last January (main display is a projector). It's been a pretty good set. Blacks aren't fantastic, but hey, it's an LCD. I don't expect much.

I was looking at 46" Westinghouse for a while. But the problem is the top brands have come down so much in price, you aren't saving that much.

I have an Olevia in the bar (27") and for the bar it is good. Very bright, very sharp. But terrible black levels and you don't get the depth (almost 3-D effect) you get with a good HD and good source.

I ended up with a Samsung LCD in the living room and very please with it. Much better then the Olevia.

I have 2 Westinghouses. The 32 inch has been fine for me, the 27 inch sucks ass. Burn in developed from watching 4x3 material. I am guessing the higher up models are better. However, I won't buy another Westinghouse TV.

Mainly, the source will just be Comcast cable and I'll have a progressive scan DVD player up and the moment. It will be replacing a 20" APEX Tube TV.....this is no urge for it, the wife actually wants it.

Bill, is this the 32" Westy you have:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1169512290376

I noticed there is a 37" Dynex for similar price:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1184369165787

Although, I may wait for some sort of "promotion" Best Buy usually has.

just be careful with the size of the lcd in a bedroom. we bought a 32" westy and it was way too bright for the room at night, even turned down. we had to shrink it to a 26" LG.

vizio from costco seems to be popular.

Interesting, I never even considered that....thanks for the input.

BB has a special on the 26" Insignia this week - just set it up with some music video dvds last night and tested my Xbox HD-DVD player tonight with King Kong - looks very nice at the moment, but I'll run my DVE disc tomorrow. I just picked one up as a temporary living room TV (to migrate to the bedroom once my 42" arrives from Korea).

I got a 32" Insignia for a steal and am using it in the bedroom. It's a decent tv (it's in the bedroom so I'm not looking for perfection). SD cable signals predictably look kind of crappy on it, but I hooked up a spare HD DVD player to it, and HD DVDs and upconverted DVDs look very nice. I think Insignias are rebadged LGs, FWIW.