Please help me pick a small, high quality, high definition, flat panel television.
September 22, 2006 10:56 AM Subscribe
Please help me choose a small, high quality, high definition, flat pannel television.
The televison will be hung from a 14' ceiling, at the end of a loft. The inputs will be handled by a multi-zone AV unit, using an RF remote, so I have some very specific requirements:
1) Small: (14" - 20" diagonal)
2) Flat pannel (LCD, most likely)
3) VESA mount
4) HDMI input
5) Component input
6) Composite input
7) Speakers optional
8) Tuner optional
9) Remote and IR port optional
10) High quality analog signal conversion*
A do-it-yourself option, using an LCD monitor with external handling of analog and digital inputs; input switching; and sound, is a completely valid solution to my needs. If you should have some experience with such a solution, links to bring me up to speed would be greatly appreciated.
Price is not a primary concern, though I would balk at needing to mortgage a small television.
*This is the crucial requirement. I've owned a number of LCD televisions, and seen many of them in your run of the mill AV stores (Tweeter, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Bernies, and Sears). I've returned all the ones I've purchased and outright rejected the ones I could adequately test in-store. The problem, to my eyes, is that analog to digital conversion has come a long way in at least tube based HDTVs. (My living room television is exceptionally close to the quality and watchability of an analog television when displaying an analog signal.) On the other hand, the LCD technology from the usual players (Sony, Samsung, Philips, Toshiba, etc,) does not compare. I have found every analog signal displayed on the LCD televisions I have seen unwatchable, even at significant distances.
The televison will be hung from a 14' ceiling, at the end of a loft. The inputs will be handled by a multi-zone AV unit, using an RF remote, so I have some very specific requirements:
1) Small: (14" - 20" diagonal)
2) Flat pannel (LCD, most likely)
3) VESA mount
4) HDMI input
5) Component input
6) Composite input
7) Speakers optional
8) Tuner optional
9) Remote and IR port optional
10) High quality analog signal conversion*
A do-it-yourself option, using an LCD monitor with external handling of analog and digital inputs; input switching; and sound, is a completely valid solution to my needs. If you should have some experience with such a solution, links to bring me up to speed would be greatly appreciated.
Price is not a primary concern, though I would balk at needing to mortgage a small television.
*This is the crucial requirement. I've owned a number of LCD televisions, and seen many of them in your run of the mill AV stores (Tweeter, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Bernies, and Sears). I've returned all the ones I've purchased and outright rejected the ones I could adequately test in-store. The problem, to my eyes, is that analog to digital conversion has come a long way in at least tube based HDTVs. (My living room television is exceptionally close to the quality and watchability of an analog television when displaying an analog signal.) On the other hand, the LCD technology from the usual players (Sony, Samsung, Philips, Toshiba, etc,) does not compare. I have found every analog signal displayed on the LCD televisions I have seen unwatchable, even at significant distances.
Response by poster: Mwongozi, I can work around the VESA mount, I suppose. How do analog signals pan out on your TV?
posted by sequential at 11:41 AM on September 22, 2006
posted by sequential at 11:41 AM on September 22, 2006
They look just fine. I pipe a signal from my satellite receiver downstairs to it via a UHF cable and that looks great. My analogue TV reception is slightly poor, but the set has two functions to clear it up, noise reduction and "dynamic picture", which continually adjusts the contrast based on the picture received. Both work very well.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:44 AM on September 22, 2006
posted by Mwongozi at 11:44 AM on September 22, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:29 AM on September 22, 2006