I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon narrowing down the choices for purchasing an HDTV. There are so many variables to consider, from image quality to price to possible technical problems. I narrowed the field first to rear projection LCD TVs which are not as huge and heavy as CRT rear projection TVs, cheaper than LCD and plasma TVs and don't have potential burn in problems like plasma TVs. I further narrowed the choice down to a 42 inch DLP from Samsung and a 42 inch 3LCD rear projection from Sony. When I got to Best Buy I was amazed at the image brightness, nice contrast, exceptional resolution of the Sony, and it is packed in a very compact housing, so it will take up considerably less space than some of the other TVs I was looking at. It has a digital processor that increases clarity of analog sources and also adds lines of resolution to other sources like DVDs and camcorders.
I will update you with more commentary after Santa installs the box, and the cable guy installs a cable card in the card slot (I won't require an additional box and remote for HDTV cable).
Oh, and the price from Best Buy was $1730. I rarely pay for added warranties, but this time I did go for the 4 year extended warranty for $400. This will cover replacing the single projection bulb once, and that cost is about $200 alone. So I figured that $50 per year isn't too much to ask to protect such a big investment.
Finally, I know that I could have saved probably $200 - $300 more by going online, but again if something went wrong I wanted to be able to go down the street a couple of miles and complain to somebody in person!
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