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KDS-60A3000 or HL-T6176S?

post #1 of 8
2/22/08 at 5:45am
Thread Starter 
A couple of weeks ago I finished remodeling my living room and decided I needed a big tv. I wanted a Sony KDS-60A3000. Found one locally and went after it the next day.

I walked in the store, told them I wanted the Sony and a stand, applied for their card (no interest for 12 months) and bought the tv and stand. Waited for about 20 minutes for them to bring the tv to my car. Finally I walked up front and, long story short, someone screwed up and they actually didn't have the tv in stock. Instead they offered me 3 options: 1, $150 off the floor model; 2, order the Sony and ship to my house for free; 3, give me a Samsung HL-T6176s for the same price (the Sony was on sale for under 2K).

Checked out the Samsung and decided to take it home. Get home, start looking up reviews on here and don't like what I read. Now, I think the pq of the tv is pretty decent (most of our viewing is SD through Dish) but Im afraid to keep it after all the bad things said about it here. The set I have now has minor bowing on the left side of the screen. This really doesn't bother me because the only time I notice it is when I have the dish guide up. I think the cosmetics of the Samsung are a lot better than the Sony but Im wondering if Im missing out on better pq by keeping the Samsung.

Could you guys help me out? I only have about a week and a half to decide if I want to keep this tv or not? Should I keep the Samsung or return it for the Sony? Thanks and sorry for getting windy. This is my first HD set and I want to make sure I got the best one.
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post #2 of 8
2/22/08 at 6:07am
Take it back and get the HL-T6187...no color wheel and no lamp to change and much less chance of seeing rainbows...
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post #3 of 8
2/22/08 at 6:27am
I'm not too familiar with the Samsung sets. My dad has an older 720p set and it has held up pretty well. I've heard pretty good things about the LED sets that came out this year, but I'm not sure which one you got. I have the Sony 60A3000 and I love it. Personally I would have gone with Option 2. If the store model doesn't have any cosmetic damage it might be an OK deal as well since the 150 bucks is close to the bulb cost. If you want to see how many hours the bulb has on it turn the set off, press:

[PWR OFF], [DISP], [5], [VOL-], [PWR ON]

You have to press these within a second of each other.

Note the Vol - NOT Vol + which takes you to the service menu instead of the statistics screen which you want.

There are a string of 5 digit numbers at the bottom. The last number are the bulb hours. I personally would still go with the new unit ordered for under 2k, but you don't know if the store will really be able to get it. Looking at the bulb clock will give you and idea of how much the floor model has been used.
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post #4 of 8
2/22/08 at 8:03am
Thread Starter 
The 6187 cost about $300 more. I don't want to go over 2k.

I called the store and asked them if they had gotten any more 60a3000's in since I was there last. The lady said they had 2. I asked her to go make sure they had them physically in stock since I witnessed inventory error last week. Two minutes later she came back and gave the affirmative.

The only thing I have against the 6176 (right now, anyways) is all the bad reviews on this site. Im afraid that if I hold onto to this tv I'll be joining that thread. Am I just being paranoid?

I also heard that the Sony has better pq when viewing SD channels. All of my channels right now are SD but Im going to get an antenna to see if I can grab any OTA DTV channels. I can't justify the $150 upgrade to DishHD at this time. I do have a HD-DVD player which looks awesome on the Samsung. Decisions, decisions.
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post #5 of 8
2/22/08 at 12:47pm
The HL-T6187 is less than 2K...online
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post #6 of 8
2/22/08 at 2:20pm
Thread Starter 
The 6187 isn't available where I bought my tv. I bought it at this store because of the no interest for 12 months.
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post #7 of 8
2/23/08 at 7:20am
In December and January I wen't through the same decision-making process. I had a three-year old Panasonic 50 inch DLP light engine fail out of warranty and it was not economical to fix it. After a week of research, including this forum, CNET, etc., I realized the Sony got the best reviews (especially with the 120 Hz refresh rate), but I really liked the DLP picture and the cosmetics of the Samsung, and the Samsung had the cable connections on the right, near my cable box, receiver, and HD-DVD player (Sony's connections were on the far left, which meant longer new HDMI cable runs). I am embarrassed to say it, but the location of the cable connections was the determinant factor in favor of the Samsung. I knew if the set I got had objectionable bowing I had until January 25th to return the Samsung 61" and replace it with either the Sony 61" or the LED based 56" Samsung for about the same price. I had minor bowing on the bottom right corner (less than 4 mm) out of the box, but the picture blew me away, especially after stopping down the optical iris in the service menu to reduce the black level. I couldn't make myself actually return it, although my friends all told me to get the Sony. So I still have the Samsung HL-T6176 and I hope the bowing doesn't get any worse. Except for the little curl up of the ESPN logo on the bottom right, I can't imagine how the Sony or the LED Samsung pictures could be better.
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post #8 of 8
2/24/08 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks to those that have responded.

Anyone else have any input?
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