New to newer TVs

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Rurik

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Been trying to find the most suitable place to post this.

I received a bonus from work and decided to get an LCD flat panel for my small living room. I've been using a 27" or 3 years, and a 25" for 4 years before then. Today, I picked up a Vizio 37" LCD.

First off, I'm kind of bummed... when viewing TV in "normal" mode, the actual viewable show is only about 2"x1" bigger than my 27". I can change to "wide", "zoom", and "panoramic" views, but they all skew the images in some way. I even popped in a widescreen DVD, and it didn't even come close to using the whole screen, I had to still use zoom. My HTPC (SageTV) looks great in the menus, but the TV shows are normal sized, only the size of my 27".

Are people using normal modes to watch TV? Should I just stick to zoom and live with it?

The wife is telling me to just return it and get a 42", but will that even make that big of a difference over a 37", if I can barely tell a difference between the 37" and a 27".
 
For standard TV, you just have to decide if you want the bars or not. They annoy me personally so I've gotten used to a stretched image.

The DVD you tried probably was in anamorphic widescreen, that is, wider then a standard widescreen TV. I've noticed that many if not most movies are released in it.

You would see the biggest difference in image quality watching some HD content. I would recommend heading over to http://www.apple.com/trailers/ and watching some HD trailers on your HTPC. And depending where you live, it may be worthwhile buying an indoor antenna and trying to see what kind of reception you get of local channels. I very much prefer HD over the air since its less compressed than usual cable HD. If you like what you see, look into getting HD service from your cable/satellite company, there's a lot of good HD stuff you can't get over the air.

I've heard good things about the 37" Vizio. If you feel the 37" is too small or isn't enough of a difference, a 42" is a nice jump. Although its only 5 inches, its a noticeable size difference.

Hope this helps.
 
We sit about 8' to 10' back. You're right about that one DVD, it was anamorphic widescreen (The Office, season 1), I'll have to try another.

The old TV:
OldTV.sized.jpg


The new one:
NewTV3.sized.jpg


NewTV.sized.jpg
 
I'd put as big a screen as you can fit there. I think 60 inches or even a little more would not be too much for that viewing distance. And for cost reasons, I wouldn't rule out rear projectors, especially for bigger sizes...
 
you would be much happier with the 42" widescreen HDTV, then when viewing normal 4:3 programming you would get roughly the same picture size and widescreen movies and HDTV will look fantastic, check circuit ciy, recently when i was helping my parents shop for a HDTV they had the LG 32" and 42" hdtv's for $900 and $1100, with the 42" $1100 LG being a much much better value

this is the number one thing i tell people when they say they are looking to replace a 27" TV with a widescreen HDTV, they need a much bigger "inchage" size to get the same picture with regular programming, but they dont listen usually, they go from a 27" TV to a 32" HDTV, thinking they increased size, and get pissed when it doesnt work that way and take the HDTV back.....idiots dont listen
 
You guys were right. I just picked up a 42" Vizio ($898) and installed it last night. A HUGE night and day difference. I'm actually very happy with it now. I also ran new cables, and have my SageTV HTPC connected through a VGA cable... the bad part of that is that now all recorded 4:3 shows are shown in widescreen, but I can deal with everyone looking fatter.

Just played some Wii on it, and wow!

Thanks all.
 
got a pic to add of the 42"? either way, glad you like it, i wish my parents had listened, they have a really old house, the kind with a living room alone that measures like 30x18, and they sit like 20 feet from the TV, and let me tell you, trying to watch 4:3 programming on a 32" widescreen is like watching it on a 19" SDTV......

but my mom is weird, she is all religious and says she was "convicted" to not buy a bigger TV.....she said when she sits in my living room which is maybe 15x12 with a 46" HDTV in it she feels overwhelmed and hates it.....heck, she also says she hears no difference between standard analog stereo coming from the TV speakers and dolby digital surround coming from properly mounted 5.1 speakers......"it sounds like the same dialog or music to me" she says.....so i didnt expect her to go for the 42" we brought home, she actually made my dad take it back and get the 32"....such a shame

as far as the stretch mode on your TV, some TV's do it better than others, my 46H84 Toshiba is quite excellent at it where you honestly dont miss more than .5" of picture on the sides but keep things at the proper aspect ratio, you dont even know its stretched, but some TV's like the 32" LG LCD my dad ended up getting when he returned the 42" LG LCD....it sucks at scaling the image properly, so they are forced to watch 4:3 with 4" missing on both sides or else everything looks severely distorted, and that's running HDMI too....

nice choice, enjoy!
 
Yes, my LCD projector has that mode. It has the option to stretch the L/R outside edges but not the center so you don't notice the image distortion as much because the actors are usually in the middle of the frame. But with a projector my screen is big enough for 4:3 anyway so don't use that mode for SDTV. I'm not ready to move to HDTV yet as I don't feel it is good bang for the buck at present. The service providers are doing the usual scam us for max profits while the technology is still fairly new. They want me to pay over $650.00 for an HDTV PVR. Screw that.
 
BTW, here's a pic:

42_2.jpg


I love the black trim on this better than the silver on the 37".

And, after less than 24 hours, already having issues with the new TV. At random times, the remote will only work within 4' of the TV :mad:
 
That's what I thought, but I tried both remotes (still have the 37" here in the box) and they're both doing it exactly the same.

It really put a damper on the whole situation. If I hold the remotes at a precise angle, stretched out to the left, I can change volume from the couch; otherwise I have to move forward to do it.
 
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