[RHickey]

I have been researching 32" & 37" LCD TV's and I trying to decide between a cheap brand(Olevia, Westinghouse or Vizio) or a name brand like Sharp, Samsung or Sony. and I keep reading conflicting information on the differences and if the name brands are really worth the extra cost.


In past years I would have just bought the name brand, but now I have a family and a budget of $1000 max and I would like to get out for few hundred dollars less if possible so that I could put the extra money towards other stuff.


So how close in quality are the cheaper & name brand? I don't expect the cheaper brands to have the exact same quality, but if I could get 90% of the quality for a fraction the price I would be very happy.

 

[Justanopinion]

I took my 75 yr old mother to look for a HDTV 32" for her bedroom. She doesn't know a thing about any of the new technology for TV's but she was curious.


In 32" at the store all the sets had the same video feed, tropical fish.


The Vizio / Olevia economy type sets were next to the name brand Sony / Samsung / Sharp sets....She took one look at the " Economy" type sets and pointed at the Samsung and said " I like that one"


I know she does not need a set like Sony / Samsung / or Sharp for her needs, I wanted to get her interested in the more "Economy" type sets


She wanted nothing to do with the Vizio / Olevia type tv's....She said " I like the picture on the others better"....the Sharp 32D43U and the Sam LN-T3253H to be exact....


At the end of the day, after all the information you take in.....it's your eyes that tell you which one you like best.


It's Just An Opinion

 

[Dueling_Cartmans]

I honestly have not researched the "econo" brands personally, although I understand Olevia has a very good reputation.


What would concern me most though would be reliability and how well the manufacturer responds to problems. I have had a Sharp for almost 3 years and have had no real problems to speak of.


You might want to read through some of the brand specific threads to get an idea of those aspects.

 

[thowe21]

When your jumping to from SD to HD, it's going to be a huge difference no matter what brand you buy. I had about the same budget as you and went to Costco and took a look at the Vizio next to the Sony and noticed the Vizio was pretty comparable for like $700 less. For what you pay for in the value brands, I think it is money well spent. Once you get into HD and become a semi-expert, than you can start nit-picking. But believe me, you'll be hooked on HD no matter what brand you buy.

 

[kirth]



Quote:
Originally Posted by thowe21 /forum/post/0


When your jumping to from SD to HD, it's going to be a huge difference no matter what brand you buy. I had about the same budget as you and went to Costco and took a look at the Vizio next to the Sony and noticed the Vizio was pretty comparable for like $700 less. For what you pay for in the value brands, I think it is money well spent. Once you get into HD and become a semi-expert, than you can start nit-picking. But believe me, you'll be hooked on HD no matter what brand you buy.

I have a 32" Polaroid in the bedroom, and a 46" Sony XBR3 in the den. While the Sony obviously has a better picture and is a superior set, the Polaroid looks great and has worked flawlessly for over a year now. As a bonus, the Polaroid has perfect screen uniformity (no clouds), unlike the Sony. The only problem I have with the Polaroid is that individual inputs cannot be setup separately. I used someone elses settings as a starting point to calibrate using component, and they work really well, but changing to HDMI yields a red push.


You absolutely cannot go by th picture in the store. Even if the feed to all sets on display is identical, the sets must be properly calibrated in order to do a fair comparison. The colors on my Sony XBR3 were horrible out of the box, after programming petmic's settings with Boltjames' modifications, the picture is extraordinary.

 

[bk1987]

i have a small Olevia 23in hd tv for my bed room and i love it, imo it has the best pq of any tv i have ever owned

 

[mikelets456]

Monkey wrench..


I bought a Toshiba 32HL67 for about $100 more than the Vizio and Olevia...I guess I hit it at the right time. To me the PQ seemed better and there was ALOT of tweeking option on the Toshiba. Also I like Toshiba's QC and though their products are not perfect, I find their "price to quality" very attractive.


BTW, justanopinion brought up a good point with his analogy. Whatever looks best to you...However, look at QC as well. You don't want a product that craps out a week after the warranty. I know that can happen on any product, but some companies' have it happen ALOT less than others.

 

[brettatk]

Here is my opinion. You arent going to have the name brand sitting right beside the cheap brand in your house. Maybe the picture was slightly better on the name brand but I guarantee you or when your friends come over and watch it they arent going to notice any difference. All they are going to say is wow, what a picture.

 

[Gmaxx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by brettatk /forum/post/0


Here is my opinion. You arent going to have the name brand sitting right beside the cheap brand in your house. Maybe the picture was slightly better on the name brand but I guarantee you or when your friends come over and watch it they arent going to notice any difference. All they are going to say is wow, what a picture.

This is the point I always bring out when a question like this comes to the boards. I am generally a guy who buys "name brand" products. But when came to buying and HDTV I was saving up and saving some more to buy a Sony or a Samsung when I came across Vizio. I then did some research on these boards and found most of the posts to be very positive. Even professional reviews of the Vizio TV's have been great. When I bought my set I was saying to myself, even if the Sony has a tad better PQ it's not going to be sitting next to the Vizio in my livingroom. Also when I bought my set 8 months ago the 40" Sony was selling at Costco for $900 more than the 42" Vizio. I could not be happier with my set. My Dad who has a Panny plasma came over the to my house and the first time he saw the TV he said "why did I pay $2500 for my Panny?" That's saying a lot coming from him. If you want to save the cash get the Vizio. You will be happy with it.