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Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

Sam the Sham — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:48:44 GMT

Extended warranty I agree can be a crapshoot. But if you buy expensive gear with expensive parts it can be good insurance and can help protect your investment. My last PC I bought three year extended warranty and with a month left on it my expensive FX 3400 video card failed. It was replaced within a week. I get extended warranty on my autos and never regretted it.

Oh! I also buy very little high price stuff at places like Bestbuy

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

TVJohn — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:20:59 GMT

If I had to give any (general) advise on how to purchase anything, I'd say to stay away from cutting edge anything.. while published specs can attract the technoids amongst us, better to buy stuff that has been out for a bit of time and there are lots of users...with the web today, if there are widespread problems with something, you'll find out about it soon enough.

Best Buy is a retailer trying to survive in a tough time. I would agree that most sales personel are not as knowlegable as many of us, what can be expected of them considering the compensation they receive, and the competive selling margins on advertised products.

Lamps are funny things, they can last 1000 hours or 3000 hours. Good sources are Top Bulb or Pureland Supply, they have been around a while. Beware, there are some resellers that will sell a naked lamp that you would have to install in the carrier assembly. You don't want to go this route for safety concerns.

Most extended warranteees ARE more benefit to the retailer than to the user, but again, each case has to be considered on its own merits.

We certainly wouldn't to classify A-Assurance in that negative light...

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

Smetvid — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:43:10 GMT

Yeah the extended warranty is a huge joke.

1. The last laptop I decided to get the warranty. Now I consider myself a pretty smart person but I fell for the it will cover the cost to replace your battery bs line. I bought this at Best Buy by the way. Well my battery eventually croaked as well as the power supply. I brought it in and no problem they will replace it right away. Cool, I thought. Then they told we it was going to be 4 to 6 weeks to get the items replaced since it was an outdated model. Well of course it is outdated. Any laptop is by the time your first battery dies. In the end I would have been better off to save the $300.00 and buy a battery myself and had it in 3 days. It would have actually been cheaper.

2. I once thought the bulb in my DLP HDTV went out so I went into Best Buy again and they said no problem. It was going to take 3 to 4 weeks to replace it. I said that is nuts. They fed me some bs line about how they can't keep them in stock because they have a shelf life and as soon as they are made they start to die. I told him that was the most retarded thing I ever heard of and companies online sell the bulbs and can ship them within a day or two. I have found out the guy utterly lied to me in my face. Sure maybe they have some sort of shelf life but nowhere near how this dufus was describing it.

The moral here is that Best Buy makes the warranty sound simple and easy but it is more trouble then what it is worth to get things out of it. You are better off just putting the $300.00 in a safe and pulling it out as you need it. 90% of the time you will never need it and when you do it will usually be easier, cheaper and faster to just fix it yourself for those sort of issues.

Oh by the way there was nothing wrong with my bulb. The TV to this day after 3 years still works perfectly with the first bulb.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

TVJohn — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:27:54 GMT

As a rule, extended warrantees, Hyper-priced accessories (feed the "Monster") are means for the seller to compensate for the small margin they get from the LCD sale. I only consider an extender warr if the device is beyond the capabilities of myself or most shops to repair..think $3k camera or such. Also the cost of the warr must be +/- 15% or the purchase price for 4 years or so. Anything that costs less than $500 to replace is out.

Still involved with electronics repair, I can say that aside from replacing some large circuit boards, ie power supply, inverter, audio amp board, most factory services canabalise returned goods to effect repair. I have driven by manufacturers return repair operations to see dumpsters filled with new product.

When I started with RCA Service Co. in 1972 there was no such thing as an unrepairable tv. Times have changed ...

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

DStone — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:23:49 GMT

Saylur:
Did you get an extended warranty when you purchased your TV?

No. I've had exactly 1 piece of electronic equipment fail during the time when it would have been covered by an extended warranty (and in fact it had one, but only because they tossed it in as a freebie). The extended warranty for the TV was over $500. I'd rather take my chances.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

FIMoore — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:22:08 GMT

Good choice Dave. The 650 series was a favorite of many "rating" magazines including Consumers Report. You will enjoy it!

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

Saylur — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:55:48 GMT

Hi Dave

Did you get an extended warranty when you purchased your TV?

Happy July 4th to all.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

DStone — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:11:02 GMT

And the final answer is: Samsung LN55B650 55" LCD. After doing some more research, and a lot of head-to-head comparison with the slightly smaller but next-in-line model LN52B750, I decided on getting the bigger unit (for less money) as neither I nor my wife could see the difference in the picture quality. Perhaps in a dim room it might show up, but even then I'm not sure my eyes could tell the difference, and in my case bigger is better (no jokes, please).

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

DStone — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:07:44 GMT

I finally got to do my head-to-head test with the Mitsubishi today, and I'm now having second thoughts. While the image is softer than a LCD (which I had expected), it also showed notable pixel crawl around text from a SD signal that didn't show on a good LCD (Samsung 800 series). I can live with the slight softness, but not pixel crawl. And the problem is I can't tell if it's inherent to the TV or if it's a setting that needs to be changed.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

VE7AXO — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:08:56 GMT

Dave,

I'm with you. I only mentioned OLED because of a technology magazine's write-up extolling the theoretical virtues of this new display system a while ago. Three years ago I bought a plasma TV because the old CRT gave up the ghost. At that time plasma was head and shoulders above LCD, the burn-in problem of the first generation plasma TV's had long been solved and DLP was still a young technology with a lot of question marks. The life expectancy of my Panasonic plasma, I was told is 60,000 hrs. Disregarding the sales hype, even if the real life is "only" half of that, 30,000 hours is longer than I expect to be using that TV. Between watching TV and playing back HD videos from my computer, the TV get used in the order of 1,000 to 1,500 hours a year. I fully expect new systems to be in the mainstream, be they DLP, OLED, or something that has not raised its ugly head above the technological horizon yet, by the time I either get tired of this plasma or it dies.

Just my 2¢

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

DStone — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:50:36 GMT

VE7AXO:
Another technology to watch for is OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode - too late for you now, Dave ).

That's OK. I seldom feel the need to be the guy on the block with the first of everything (and I can't help but wonder how those who paid $600 for their iPhones feel about it now). Bleeding edge technology is only for those with (highly) disposable incomes and a lot of spare time on their hands for talking with customer support. To be honest, I don't mind being on the back edge of current technologies (e.g. DLP). All I care is that what I have works well.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

TVJohn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:32:39 GMT

I believe they (Sony) have for the moment given up on OLED tech. The display does not last long enough. This tech is currently limited to cel phone display, most people break or replace their phones every couple of years.

Manufacturers will want to recoup the money they have invested in LCD assembly lines, expect that the new LED backlighted displays to assume mainstream within a couple of years.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

VE7AXO — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:03:20 GMT

Another technology to watch for is OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode - too late for you now, Dave ). Sony has a TV with a very small screen by today's standards, for very much money. Last years debut of their 11" TV cost about $2500.00 US and this year Sony is supposed to be coming out with a second generation 27" set. From what I have read, the two main advantages are low power consumption (no back-light required, therefore no bulbs to burn out) and very high contrast ratio, in the order of 1,000,000 (or more):1. In two or three years this technology should become mainstream and be very affordable (remember the high cost of the first 15" LCD computer monitors compared to today's offerings?).

Unless something else comes along to upset the technological apple cart.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

dew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:16:21 GMT

Yea you will be happy with a DLP, I was. but with 4 kids it got alot of use, thats why my bulb went fast. That tv saw a lot of Sponge, Hanna Montana, and every other disney, nick show out there.

Re: OT: DLP vs. LCD

DStone — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:16:18 GMT

Theres a lot of good input here. Thanks. I've pretty much decided on getting the Mitsubishi WD-65837 DLP (it's got a much better image than the 737 series for a very small price difference). I looked at the Samsung LED units, but they want a premium price for them (more than the cost of replacing a bulb).The only thing I don't like about the set is it doesn't have a dedicated computer monitor input. But I can always get a video card with HDMI output.

The best part is that the chairs are between 8' and 11' from the screen, so this is going to be pretty immersive. Now I've got some wires to run (got to get the speakers installed). And an upscaling DVD player (or maybe a cheap BR; but I haven't decided if I'm going to bother with BR or stick to streaming media).