Newbie here, please help with my first HDTV purchase! (32" budget LCD)

Originally Posted by onetime1234

Can I ask why your looking at the LCD's?

As far as dvd players go you can pretty much get whatever you want to pay. You could get a $40 one, probably a little better than you ps2, or you could get a $700 bluray. I suggest you go to like a best buy or circuit city and look at some.

Originally Posted by sgt-scrotum

Oh you poor poor foolish man. Did you really think that you could just waltz onto this forum, ask for a reccomendation for a low budget 32" LCD? How I pity you. No... you are not special, you will have to follow the same steps as the rest of us. Soon 32" will turn into 40" then 40" will seem rather small when for only a few hundred more you get 46". Oh but wait thats not enough because once the TV becomes that big you might as well go with a 1080p resolution to help smooth those jaggedy lines down. Then you will start to wonder if maybe plasma wouldn't be a better choice due to its better motion and color properties. No my friend you are not special, you are doomed to many weeks and months of indecision once we are through with you.

Originally Posted by chrisherbert

CRT would definitely be an option in that price range.

Originally Posted by bluemax50

All three brands you mentioned are excellent values in the pricerange you're looking for. I think before anyone can help you'll have to provide a little more info surrounding how you plan to use this TV and what traits are imprtant to you. For example will you needing a tuner? Is more than one HDMI input important? How about how you'd like to purchase it, will it matter whether you'll purchase online or is a local dealer important?

Originally Posted by aldrumz

You might want to check out the Sylvania 6632LCT.I picked one up about 3 weeks ago and I'm very happy with the purchase thus far.My situation was quite similar to yours.I live in a relatively small apt.,I watch a lot of SDTV,movies and play video games(original Xbox,PS2)I really wasn't planning to buy a new set at this time.I was originally planning to wait another 6-8 months and then buy a nice 42" LCD or Plasma to replace my trusty Sony Trinitron tube set.But my Sony refused to cooperate and died unexeptedly so I was forced to replace the set ASAP.I was working with a very tight budget so I although I believe a 37" would have probably been a perfect size for my small living room I had to settle for a 32".But honestly the 32" isn't bad at all and actually looks a bit larger that I thought it would.

As I mentioned I'm very happy with the Sylvania so far.The SD PQ is actually a bit better than I expected.Hopefully you're not expecting to get the same sd pq out of an lcd as you would get from a crt.I don't care how much you spend but that just not gonna happen.But with that said it doesn't mean that your sd pq can be quite good with the right lcd.The one thing I have noticed with most of the budget lcd's is that for the most part HD content looks great but sd content can be hit or miss.I guess it has a lot to do with the video processor that each model uses and also the quality of the signal you are feeding into it.In any event I think sd looks pretty decent on the Sylvania.I'm still using my insisting digital cable box since I haven't had a chance to drop by the cable co to switch out the box to a HD model.Hopefully I can get that done this weekend.As far as the rest goes as I mentioned I'm currently using an original Xbox and PS2 for gaming.Both look great on this set and really no problems thus far.I know some people have reported having some lag issues with the PS2 on certain lcd models but no problems here thus far.As far as movies go I just have a basic Sony dvd player than also looks quite good.Of course now that I have a tv that will handle the newer technology I will be upgrading to a Xbox 360 and a upconverting dvd player in the near future.

The only problem with this model is you may have a bit of a tough time locating one.I purchased mine at Sears on clearance for a bit less that your target price.The salesman told me it was on clearance because this model was being discontinued and replaced with a new model.But Sylvania still list this model as current on it's website so not really sure what the deal is.But if this model is actually being discontinued you might be able to find a great deal on it somewhere.If you can't find the 6632LCT try looking for the 6632LG.This is the same exact model except for the color of the case.The LCT is gray/black case and the LG is all black.I believe that Circuit City was carrying the LG model.In any event I think in this price range if you stick with the better known budget names such as Oleiva,Vizio,Sylvania,Westinghouse,Sepctre etc.as opposed to the lesser known like Ilo,Astar,Insingia etc. you'll probably find them to be quite similar in overall quality.Of course they all will have their various issues but most of the names I mentioned are getting pretty decent reviews.Good luck with your purchase.

Originally Posted by Weioo

Well, here's all the info I can give...

-This HDTV purchase will be my first and serve as the main TV in my apartment (livingroom). We are averaging a sitting distance of 10-14 feet.

-I play a lot of Nintendo Wii with friends and so forth.

-We watch quite a lot of movies, and I plan to buy a new DVD player that has an upconverter or whatever they are, which maximizes normal DVD output to HD (have yet to look into this, and currently know nothing about it, I'm waiting to get the HDTV to research).

-I want something that brings in a nice, or at least decent picture in SD. This is a pretty big deal to me.... A poster mentioned above that he completely quit watching SD stations, but no way would I ever limit myself to only HD channels, there simply isn't enough and we love food network, TNT, TBS, and a ton of other SD-only channels.

-I have digital cable and plan to keep it. I have an STB (Motorola DCT6416 III) that's capable of HD broadcasts, or at least I think so. Does this mean I need a QAM tuner to view HD through my STB????

-This TV is only meant to serve as the main TV for me for 3-4 years, until I am able to afford something nice like a 42" @ 1080p, then it will be moved into the bedroom. Because of this, I'd like a built-in tuner for the future.

I think that about covers it... Hopefully this helps you guys to help me.