http://www.geardigest.com/2007/08/ [...] index.html

It's possible to get a nice 30"+ HDTV, components, cables and even a couple of cosmetic additions for less than a grand. You just need to know what to look for and where to find it.

Good Article, But even at 20$ for 6' your HDMI cable is still expensive compared to what these guys are offering:http://www.mycablemart.com/. I've bought 2 cables from them so far and even including shipping to canada, they come in at about 20$ shipped for a 10' cable, so for anyone living south of me, it's even better.

Also the way I see things, as of right now one of the best option on any HDTV set i can think of is PC connectivity, since this can let you use your TV as a monitor, extending it's life cycle further, even after you upgraded to a new set 5-6 years in the run.

Check out www.monoprice.com and www.pchcables.com for even cheaper prices.

Good article, but I'd like to know a bit more.

Such as, at 32", what is the difference between 720 and 1080? Most people say that for television purposes it's hard to tell the difference.

BUT, a lot of people are now using these (specifically the 32" models) as monitors (which is why a lot of them also have DVI inputs). Sharp even has a 1080P 32" model specifically for gaming (LC-32GP1U model). How is 720 on a 32" monitor? Is the text fuzzy in word processors?

Also, you only listed 3 models - one of which is from HP who isn't exactly known for their HDTVs (they only make 6 models of LCD tvs, 2 models of Plasma, so their WHOLE HDTV line consists of 8 models...) and the other two from Westinghouse (which isn't exactly top tier) and Toshiba.

I'd like to see a comparison between these budget 32" tvs and the more popular 32" tvs like Samsung's LN-T3253H (which seems to be consistently reviewed as the BEST 720P 32" LCD model and as of today (8/1/07) can be bought for $918.07 (with Free Shipping) from Amazon - which technically makes it a sub-$1000 tv now) as well as models like Sharp's LC-32D43U and LC-32GP1U, and maybe a more mainstream budget model like the Vizio VX32L.

Specifically, how do they perform in gaming and as PC monitors, as well as the typical stuff (i.e. SD performance, movie performance, etc.)

I have a question...

What do you make of this:
http://tinyurl.com/2wdwtq

For those of us who have entertainment centers made for 32" CRTs, shouldn't this be a viable option? I've not seen a rear-projection LCD as of yet, but from what I've read the picture quality is nothing to sneeze at. The only downside seems to be start-up time... granted you'll have to change the bulbs every so often, but that's a minor annoyance.

It is just so hard to resist DLP though. 65" Toshiba 1080P for less then $1300. That is very nice when compared to a 40-47" LCD at the same price.

I don't understand.
Why this can't be decoded on a chip costing less than $50 and a cheap PC computer monitor ??
Like every other previous generation.
The gain of 1080i isn't that much different than DVD already..
Just ranting..

Sorry, but much of this article is flat out wrong. Please do your research before writing an article. Projection TV sets are amoung the best TVs on the market. DLP sets can be very inexpensive and offer excelent picture quality. The artifacts you speak of and didn't name because you probably don't know what it is is called is the rainbow effect. Very very few people can see it. When you buy your set, ask to see a dark image with white text and move your eyes around the screen. If you don't see it then you are amoung the 99% who can't see it. Lcos TV sets from Sony are just about the best TVs you can buy and they are rear projection. New digital projection sets can weigh less than comparable plasma displays. There are some rear projection sets to aviod but they really don't sell them anymore. Rear projection analog CRT TVs are not good anymore. These TVs always have a maximum resolution of 1080i and are very heavy (600 lbs for my parents 65" ) and are difficult to maintain. We replaced it with a 70" Sony XBR2 rear projection Lcos display and are amazed at the quality.

So, this brings me to your other major failure in the article. You did not describe resolution properly. Yes 1080i is an interlaced picture. No, your digital TV does not display one even frame and then one odd frame. That is what the old analog TVs I just described do. You got that mixed up. Your new digital TV (LCD, Plasma, DLP, Lcos) can only display a progressive frame (720p, or 1080p) so the electronics in the TV converts the 1080i picture to a 720p or 1080p picture using a process called deinterlacing. The quality of your electronics determines how good the 1080i signal is display on your progressive screen. This is why manufactures can charge more for higher end displays that end up using the same screen. The electronics in the higher end TVs is better and results in a better picture for interlaced material. Progressive scan material is easy to display and the electronics are not as involved so you will see a more consistent image across different displays. about half of US HDTV is 1080i while the other half is 720p.

Anyways, very disappointed again to see your online magazine get basic priciples wrong and mislead the public even more.

Edit: One more thing though. I want to commend you on your choice between plasma and LCD, and you also recomend some pretty decent TVs. Plasma can look great but the cost and size are not right for this article. Also, he didn't say this, but don't get sucked into a 1080p display. Unless you buy a very big TV and sit close(50" at 8ft) or you buy a small TV and sit very very close (32" at 4 feet), you can't tell the difference. If you are really interested there is a diagram that shows the recomended viewing distances and resolutions for TVs. I can't find it now for some reason.

The biggest applause goes to your cable recomendation. I build prototype Satelites for Lockheed Martin, and I can say that digital is digital. A cheap digital cable meets exactly the same specs as the expensive cables and gives you a picuture that is 100% as good as a $150 cable. Thats right no difference at all. There can be differences in build quality that might make your cable not work with your TV (very rare, never seen it), but you will not see subtle differences between cables, you will see a black screen or a blocky mess. That is the only indication a cable is not working right. Digital signals transmit 100% of the quality no matter the cable quality. One cable will not look different than another cable unless one is totally busted. Analog cables? Well that is another matter and is where all this cable mess got started. Analog cables CAN change the signal slightly, especially if they don't meet the specs (75 ohms for component cables) but a decent cable from radio shack will work very very very close to a expensive cable and 99.99% of people cannot tell the difference and those that can are making it up.

I totally agree with autoboy. This article really down graded the standard of Tom's hardware and their related publishings.

I come visiting and viewing because of the high quality and accurate technical information. Now, I am really disappointed, by this article and another article that the title does not match the content really well (about future interconnects?).

Thanks, autoboy, for pointing out the errors in this article. Unfortunately, Tom's quality in the TV/Home Entertainment arena has mostly been lacking - IMHO. As I see it, it is unfortunate that they publish articles in this arena. The person who is going to lose big time is the person knows little to nothing about home theater, but trusts Tom's because of the quality of the articles elsewhere on the site. IMHO, Tom's should significantly ramp up the quality of their home theater articles or get out if this arena since the majority of their home theater geeks really don't know home theater.

I also disagree with this article's conclusion that you should ignore 1080p at this time and buy something else. I hate to state the obvious, however, what this means is that if you want 1080p and buy a 1080i or 720p set at this time, you will spend more money in the future when you buy your 1080p set because you bought 1080i now. If you push slightly higher in cost, ($1,500 US) Sony has a 1080p 46" rear-projection set that has what looks like a fine picture, although, I did not get a chance to view the set in a critical manner. So, for spending $1,000 or less now for a 1080i set, you might just spend $1,000 or more later for that 1080p set when it is possible to spend $1,500 now for a decent 1080p set.

The general statement that there is little 1080p content out there is very misleading, IMHO. IF Blu-ray is your format of choice, all content is 1080p by default.

Agree with Autoboy et. al. I spent a ridiculous amount of time in 4+ AV stores (from Best Buy to a high end custom place) looking at sets before the cost/benefit analysis prompted me to get a Samsung 1080P DLP. I have yet to meet someone who sees rainbows and the liklihood got even less on the newer high speed color wheels. Response time problems? I have an xbox 360 and PS3 hooked up and my place became the preferred locale for gaming amongst my friends, I've never had lag or artifacting issues.

The only issue I've had is one roommate who complained about jagged pixels occasionally - until we realized it was because she was complaining on how bad some Standard Def (SD) signals were. Yes, a good HD set will accentuate bad quality signals and make them look even worse, but that will be aproblem with most HD sets. She got used to it and it isn't an issue anymore - we stick to HD channels when we can anyway.

I had a few people coming to the stores with me for opinions and frankly most of them preferred the DLPs over anything other than the really upscale sets like Pioneer Elite Plasmas or some of the LCDs that were 2x as expensive as the set I got. We even dragged a customer service rep tv to tv with a HD-DVD player and set the sets to non-showroom settings to make sure we were doing apples to apples (same source to same source) comparisons.

1080P was a no brainer for us - if you have a next gen game console (other than a Wii) it would be foolish not to.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 56+4000041 1+138982080&Description=westinghouse&Ntk=all&name=1080p

I have the first model 37" westinghouse.

now i'm not big into Audio and video products. i don't need to have my amplifier made with vaccuum tubes from the 1940s(or from russia).

I play games on it in 1920x1080 with my 8800gts and it looks increadable. well good enough for me.

I have a 1080p 24 inch monitor hooked to my vcr with digital tuner allowing me to view hd content the price well under 1000 dollars the picture is razor sharp ,clear and vibrant colors.

LG- L246wp i also put my ps3 on it when playing blu-ray movies in 1080p the picture quality is amazing the monitor has 2 setting one for computer other for video.

I also have Eureka Lx-350hd multimedia player outputs at 1080p i drop all my dvd's to this box and keep the real media for backup which is legal here in canada, that way i don't have to look through my dvd collection at the end of the day.

Buying a 1080p plasma or lcd tv would be waaay beyond the price range the monitor cost me 500 bucks the vcr 250 bucks i could never get a 1080p at that price.

This monitor has hdmi and component inputs PiP very rare for a computer monitor but the quality for the price is amazing.

I have to support the consensus here that 1080p is the idiot-proof solution. Computer connectivity is a very important point that the article missed - PC gaming and HTPC applications run at their best at 1920x1080 resolution. Most video cards come with component hdtv cables for direct connection, or let you select 1080p output through DVI.

As for price, Westinghouse recently had a great 37" model with DVI and 1080p for under $1000. I wish I had it. Sadly this model is now discontinued, but you can still get the 42" version for $1300 and the 47" for $100 more. It won't have a hdtv tuner built in, but with a HTPC or cable box connected you don't need that either.

Likewise, if you've already started your blu-ray "rip-fest" , 1080p is THE way to go.

I bougth the Westinghouse 32" model some months ago. It's size goes well in my smaller living room. I prefer to keep it on a tv stand since in the smaller room, the seating can cause sharp angles to the viewing and the stand allows me twist the set as many degrees as I like when just one area of the room has watchers...

I bought the set and haven't looked back. I paid $699 (+ tax) and have been impressed and elated at the picture quality. Initially watching only local broadcast HDTV then adding DirecTV's HD package, the HD movies and channels are spectacular. The HD Television, XBox 360 look great. When attaching my laptop for monitor use and movie viewing, I cannot complain. It's spectacular. I would certainly recommend this set to anyone looking for an entry to HD.