Please Help Pick My TV! Must Buy In Next 48 Hours!

All,

I will be getting a store credit from Circuit City and Samsung for my dead TX-3079WH, so I need to purchase a new TV from Circuit City. I'm looking at 32" LCD's. I'd like to end up with a total cost of $1000 or less, but I'm looking for the best value, not merely the cheapest price.

The TV is used for some HD viewing, a lot of Comcast SD (History Channel, Discovery, Cartoon Network, etc.), and the occasional DVD movie. I'm planning to hook up a home-built Linux NTSC DVR at some point, (HD DVR is also a more distant possibility), so computer display compatibility would be good but not mandatory (I can always just go DVI --> HDMI or S-Video). 2 HDMI's would be nice but not mandatory. My $350 antique-cabinet-made-into-entertainment-center very barely accomodated the old set, so physical width less than 35" is important -- this unfortunately eliminates the Olevia 232v that Circuit City sells.

If it were your money, which would you buy? I've tried to disguise the pricing while leaving it possible to compare my cost.

BRAND MODEL COST PREMIUM
Polaroid FLM-3232 -$100 (I'd still have store credit left)
Panasonic TC32LX60 $0
Sharp LC-32SH20U +$80
LG 32LC2DU $0
Samsung LN-S3241D +$120
Sony KLV-32U100M +$100

Or ... Something else Circuit City sells.

I'd appreciate any and all help; my wife is recovering from surgery and is getting very tired of the 20" SD I brought up from the basement on Sunday.

Thanks,
doc

Yes, I wish I could do the Olevia, esp. if I can get the store to give me last week's sale price ($600). But it just won't fit where I need it to go.

doc

All,

Thanks for the helpful replies. I was able to convince Circuit City to give me a refund instead of a store credit, so obviously my range of choices got a lot bigger.

phipp, what do you think of your Olevia 537? The 532 is very attractively priced at Tiger Direct, which is 15 minutes from my house. That's high on my list at the moment.

All, would you get the Olevia 532 for $600ish, a Panasonic TC32LX60 for $850ish (open box but looks fine)? Any opinions on Viewsonic or some off-brand called Konka? So many choices, so little time!

doc

All,

I do see that the Panny's have considerably better contrast ratios than the lower tier manufacturers. The wife and I did like the Panny's PQ a lot when we were @ CC last night. Their open-box 32" Panny for 850ish is high on the list of choices.

Please bear with my n00biness ... is there a simple way to see the difference in the pictures when the sets aren't side-by-side? How does one tell the diff. between a lower qualilty set and a poorly tweaked one? Wife and I agree we want best value, which may or may not be lowest price. We also know that messing with the settings on the lower priced screens is one way some salesmen like to bump people up to the higher-priced models.

As far as my Konka question goes ... "Mainland China" is all you needed to say. Quality and QC just aren't there yet.

doc

All,

Well, tonight the decision gets made. The finalists are:

Vizio P42 42" Plasma, Refurb, $875ish total cost, would need extended warranty
Vizio VX37L,
Westinghouse LVM-37W3 37" LCD 1080P Monitor, $1100ish total cost
Olevia 537H 37" LCD, $740ish
Olevia 232V 32" LCD Refurb, $530ish
Panasonic TC32LX60 32" LCD, $900ish
Samsung LNS3251D 32" LCD Open Box, $950ish

Here's where we are:

1) We didn't care for the Sylvanias we saw last night -- always looked 2nd best to us when next to another TV.

2) Sonys and Samsungs look great with prices to match.

3) We saw one Olevia LCD and thought it looked a bit washed out, but it may have been set up badly (the sales guy couldn't get the brightness etc. changed).

4) We rather liked Vizio LCD's.

5) Haven't seen the Westinghouse, but the reviews I've seen are positive, and it's 1080P.

Thanks again for the interest and guidance,
doc

Well, I ended up with the 42" Vizio plasma refurb. Once my wife saw a soccer match on the LCD's in the store this AM, the blurred motion drove her up the wall. So for us, the plasma makes the best sense. Early results are that it's great, and that I get to build a new top for the entertainment center. Life has its way sometimes ...

Thanks for all the help and thoughts, it helped us make an informed decision. I'll be floating around with a few questions I'm sure ... there's certainly a learning curve on this stuff!

doc