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.