New Shiny! (teevee)
 

I've decided that most of the movies I rent look like crap on my old skool TV since the wide-screen formatting has squished it to a tiny viewing area.

I've been saving up to get a new shiny and have no idea what I am looking at/for.

I've found some options I'd like opinions on:

Vizio 32
Vizio 37
Vizio 40

I don't have a cable box or a HD Tivo and upgrading isn't at the top of my list. Digital cable doesn't work well with the TIVO and I really don't like the DVR layout of the cable DVR (nor do I want to pay money for something I've already paid for). I also don't care about Blu-Ray at the moment. But I want to get something that I'll be able to use for at least 5 years in some way when I do decide that I want digital cable and have to move to Blu-Ray.

I'm also not locked into Costco, I'm looking at them since their return policy and warranty extension is awesome.

I have a 32 inch Vizio. I'm completely fine with it. Though by many people's standards I'm sure that it is shamefully puny. I kind of like not having a TV wall.

My current TV is 27in CRT. I was looking at a 32 (it's not going on the wall) and it looked tiny. It was also next to the giant ones, so I know it isn't as small as it seems.

Scoot on over here and spend some quality time. ;)

After all, if you are keeping this for 5 years you have at least a chance of seeing your Ducks play for the cup on it one day. So it needs to be what you want.

Pshhh. I have friends with much better set-ups than what I'll be doing to watch my Ducks go after another cup.

Thanks for the link!

I love avsforums.com :)

If you're going to be only watching standard definition (low-res) material on a bigger high-def TV then be prepared for even more disappointment. It looks horrible. DVD will look fine, but at least consider getting an antenna for over-the-air HDTV programming.

It's not the size of the box that matters. It's what you put in it. ;)

If a line ever deserved to be saved for posterity...

I've seen SD pictures on big TVs (not every channel is in HD you know) and it looks fine. But since I keep getting told that unless I am going to upgrade to blu-ray and spend the money on a cable box it's going to completely and totally suck I guess this was just a really stupid idea. Not everyone wants to spend $60+ a month on cable* and not everyone cares about blu-ray. I own less than 20 DVDs. Blu-ray is a waste of money for me. I just wanted a new shiny to watch stuff blowing up on. :(

*I don't have a south facing apartment for satellite options, FIOS isn't in my area yet and the cable box won't work right with my TIVO anyway.

You can actually get a pretty inexpensive tuner ($200-$400) that takes a SD video signal and upconverts it to HD. Plus, it'll give you a big boost audio-wise.

Not all blu-rays are equal. In fact, for a while I was thinking they're not worth-the-monily better than DVD, but they saw a couple that were really impressive.

Maybe it's like the early days of DVD, where some are authored poorly and others terrifically.



Anyway, a friend of mine has a Vizio and is happy with it. It's apparently a good quality for low price option.

Just to make sure there is no confusion, PB is not talking about satellite TV. Most local stations now broadcast at least some HD content over the air for no charge just like in the rabbit-ears days. Assuming your new set has a digital tuner, all you need is an external antenna and you are good to go. To get an idea of what you can pull out of the air and the type of antenna you need to do it from your location visit antennaweb.org

Don't worry about blu-ray at all. We haven't gone that route yet and we're happy. We're like you, own a few DVDs. We did get an upconverter but that was way cheap refurbished, and now we're playing with using the DVD drive on our server instead.

As for the cable issue...I believe we had a reg tivo and digital cable no prob, just had a cable card, which was no big deal...but I'm no expert on that so I could be mistaken.

Her TiVo doesn't support CableCards, so that's not an option.

Another idea for programming is Boxee.

I think with a new TV, DVD, an antenna (not dish as Moonliner clarified), and Boxee you should be pretty happy. Ditch the cable.

I know he's not talking about satellite TV. I was saying that it's not an option in reference to not wanting to pay for a cable box that I can't use anyway since it doesn't work right with my TIVO.

Not sure if any of the TVs I linked have a tuner in them. It's an option but right now I am more concerned that my hardware will work and the TV is good and won't be outgrown in a few years (even if it's not zomg the best picture ever) with the TV. I watch maybe 4 stations and a handful of TV shows. OTA picture quality is not high on my list.

I understand DVD quality will be fine and that's what I really care about. It's not that I don't think blu-ray is better than DVD, it's that I don't care about the difference. I've seen both, it's not enough to make me drop the money on a blu-ray player when I only own DVDs, and very few of them at that.

So far the impression I am getting from the various opinions I asked for is that I am insulting the HD TV community and wasting my money on the TV since upgrading everything else isn't a priority.

All I wanted was a TV that didn't show everything to be 2 inches tall with the wide-screen formatting. But it looks like I'll just have to stick to my POS for a few more years.

If DVD is your primary concern then I'd say go ahead and upgrade the TV and don't worry about the wounded feelings of anybody else.

If you plug it into your set up and don't like the experience for some reason then take the TV back and go back to the way it was.

I'd never watched a Bluray or HD-DVD on my Vizio TV. Standard DVDs play fine, the only thing to be careful of is making sure you get the best picture out of what is there (I have to tweak settings so that a 4:3 classic movie doesn't get stretched to widescreen or vice versa.

Can I make it support cable cards? I'm looking at the new TIVOs, or at least series 3. It kills me to have to lose my "lifetime" subscription on it since it's not transferable to a new box and the new "lifetime" is only a couple years. I've had this one since LOST started. It has sentimental value ;)

And if I upgrade the TIVO does it convert the signal to HD?

No, a series 2 TiVo cannot take a cablecard, only series 3. If the TV you get supports cablecard, then you can watch digital cable on the TV, but you won't be able to record any digital content with the TiVo. Which might not be a terrible option since you could still just record the SD version of whatever you might want to watch.

Yes, a series 3 TiVo upconverts SD content to HD. We are perfectly happy with the picture quality we get from SD content via our HD TiVo. We were even happy with the picture quality we used to get on our HD tv through our SD series 2 TiVo. Some tv's are better at that than others.

One thing to keep in mind. If you're going to be watching a lot of SD content in 4:3 format, pay close attention to screen size. We went from about a 30" tube TV to a 40" flat screen, but when watching anything that was 4:3, the picture was really just about the exact same size as with old TV. Make sure the new screen is at least as tall as your old screen if you don't want to be watching a smaller picture.

In the minor clarification department, the lifetime option is still for the lifetime of the box.

For example, on the TiVo Premier, there are four service plans:
Monthly: $12.95/mo
Annual: $129.00/year
Three-Year Service: $299.00
Lifetime: $399.00

The Lifetime plan covers itself in 31 months (vs. the monthly payment) or in just over three years vs. the annual plan. I couldn't figure out the attraction of the Three-Year Service, but then I realized it might be a good plan based on the life cycle of this technology - after about three years, one would probably be ready for the next option. I wouldn't do it, but it is there.

Thanks Kevy. Can the lifetime subscription be transferred off a Series 2 to a Series 3 box? Or is there a credit or some enhancement to upgrade?

I'm not opposed to upgrading, I will have to eventually. I thought I would have to get a new TIVO, digital cable and new DVD player. That all equals a ton of money I don't have laying around. If it there is some sort of enticement to upgrade to a series 3 and all I need are some cables (from one of them cheap intertubes places) then I would probably take that plunge sooner than later.

I'm not a big TV watcher but we do watch movies. I live our whatever inch Sharp. My next thing is to get a WiFi doohickey so I can stream netflix. I may end up with a bluray player but only because netflix rents them. I have no desire to start buying them.

If you're considering bluray anyway, be aware that there are now models that also do the Netflix streaming so two devices aren't necessary.

ETA: Whoops, misread what you wrote so you probably already knew that. But I'll leave it in case.

HA! TIVO sales has chat.

Full price TIVO Premier box (they don't sell series 3 anymore) for $299 and $200 off the $299 Lifetime ($199) for a total of $500.

That doesn't seem like a good deal.

Or I could find a series 3 box somewhere like Best Buy or Amazon and get lifetime for $299 with my 'multi-service discount' + the cost of a box. or not. I didn't look hard but they aren't much cheaper than the Premier. Which would also meet my wanting to watch Hulu and YouTube on the TV.

So I need another $500. Money tree anyone?

I read somewhere that Hulu might start charging for viewing. I can't find the article though so you'll just have to (or not) take my word for it.

Having said that, and all of the other technical stuff aside, I just got a Samsung 32" and am very happy with it (it was the largest size that would fit in my armoir, which I'm unwilling to ditch for a giant tv).



On another note, I have my cable company's dvr (time-warner) and am relatively happy with it...what would tivo give me that this, combined with a dvd and xbox live (so streaming netflix) don't?

You could have saved a little time ya know (and you started the thread :D)

When is Fios coming to your neighborhood? Ours came with some recording magic device that we use on occasion. (I'm so familiar with our TV it astounds me!)

You start talking all technical and things go right over my head

I know. I had some other questions for them too.

No idea when it's coming but I'm on their notify me list. The recording magic device is a DVR. My cable company offers one too but I hate the layout. I'm also not fond of the FIOS DVR format.

I did look, and the premier comes with a cable card but says the cable company may charge for digital cable service. Does that mean I'd have to subscribe to digital cable through them to use the cable card or can I just watch what I have through the TIVO (which will upconvert it).

I feel so dense when it comes to this stuff. Give me a network or some servers and I'm all over it.

The cable card is used to decode the digital cable signal. It is in lieu of a box.

You would probably want to get TWO cable cards with your TiVo (it accommodates two). That way you can be watching one channel while you record on another (or record two shows at once). (At least I assume the Premier accommodates two cards.)


ETA: Hmm... it only shows one Cable Card slot, but it says it is for a Multi-Stream card.
ETA2: It appears you only need the one card. From Wikipedia:

But... but... I thought it said it came with a cable card. And I thought it said I could record 2 shows and watch something else.

Does that mean I don't have to do any fancy wiring like I have now to watch one show on the TV and record something else on the TIVO by changing the channel on the actual TV and leaving the TIVO station alone?

Damn this is complicated. Can someone make me a cliff notes or a "you're going from a tube TV to a flat screen TV, here is what you need to know" guide. OR a buy this this and this guide. That would be helpful. I am so confused :(

The cable card is supplied by the cable company.Not record two and watch a third live program, but record two and watch a previously recorded (as long as you get the M Card and not the S Card from your cable company).

Choice 1 is the TV - it is separate from the TiVo (or not the TiVo).

Choice 2 is whether you want to buy a new TiVo.

Tonight a friend suggested that I buy the TV, then if I am unhappy with the picture quality get the cable box with their DVR until I can figure out a better DVR solution. He pointed out that standard digital cable is not much more than I am paying now and I may be able to get a promotion that would make it less.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and trying to explain this stuff to me.

TIVO premier isn't getting the best reviews and I don't like being a first generation adopter so I'll probably end up going the Cox DVR route and then migrate to another TIVO that can handle the cable card unless someone can recommend a non-cable DVR service.

Direct tv has a DVR that can record up to 3 shows at once.

As I said up-thread, I don't face the correct direction to get satellite.

So you did. That should (but likely won't ;) ) teach me to read up.

So I've saved up and have enough for a new shiny. I'm 99% decided on this. I'm also going to suck it up and get the DVR through the cable company until I decide if I want to do another TIVO or somehow do something different.

Thoughts on that TV?

BTD ~ Yes, ma'am, I like it. I certainly do. And, best of all, it's from Costco and if you don't end up liking it you can return it. Their return policies rock.

Nope, but it's being discussed over here.

That's a foreign language to me. Can you translate?

My best friend has a 50" Vizio and loves it. I love my newish Samsung (but it's a 36"- the largest that fits in my armoire). I think it's pretty hard to go wrong.

This is now set up in my living room. :D

Ooh, awesome! How do you like it?

So far I love it.

Cox DVR on the other hand...

It won't let me record anything in HD. Says there is no room. But the drive is at 100% availability.