HDTV Help

OK, I know we've done this before. Indulge me. I'm finally succumbing to pressure at home to upgrade the TV.
I have no clue but am told this one is pretty good at the price I can get.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Video_Conferencing/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A2288408

Thoughts? Suggestions? 1100 is about the best I can go at this point and even that is a reach.

 

Moddy, It has been more than a year since I got a big HDTV, so I have no idea what prices should be. But that looks like a nice set. You can't go wrong with a 1080P TV at that resolution -- 1920 X 1080. One thing some less expensive sets scrimped on when I got mine were the inputs. The TV you are looking at looks great on that front, though. Plenty of component and composite inputs, back and sides and 5 HDMI inputs, which is key, if I am reading that correctly. One other thing to look at on sets is the contrast ratio, but that link says "not available" under "Image Contrast Ratio." I'd want to know, and would want a set that offers as much of a ratio as possible on an LCD TV. From what I understand, the contrast is an important part of the picture on an LCD TV, so you want the difference between the brightest and darkest aspects of the picture to be well defined. They are making TVs now with a 2 million to 1 contrast ratio. I'd make sure this one has a decent ratio. Other than that, the TV looks good. I'd want to actually see it in a store, and I did, but it was probably useless, because you have no idea how they have the thing hooked up or if your picture is going to translate to what you see in a showroom. My LCD TV was made by Samsung, by the way. Was very happy with it.

 

Thanks, slap. Looked at that one, too, wasn't sure what made it cost more - you think it is worth the difference?

 

Slap, The one he was looking at comes with the Blu Ray player also.

 

Another difference between your link and Slappy's is the response time. The one you are looking at is 6 ms. Slappy's is 4 ms. It is an indication of how fast the screen displays moving images. Slow response times create ghosting. It is particularly important for gaming, but if I remember correctly, 16 ms was a cut-off point where ghosting becomes a big problem with DVDs and games, so even though faster response time is probably better, both of those numbers are probably good.

 

"Succumbing to pressure at home to upgrade the TV" ... now that's one sentence I'll never get the pleasure of typing. My wife wants to get rid of our Dish and doesn't see any benefit in HD programming. Heresy!

 

My son is back home for a while thanks to a promotion/job transfer so I need to take advantage of his expertise (and trash removing ability) while he is there. I think the only thing we upgraded in his six years away was a new crock pot.