Secondary TV room

[bk jackson]

This is not about the "main" TV room with surround and 60 inch plasma. These questions are about the den where only a 40 or 42 inch without surround is possible due to room and spousal configurations (hey, you choose your battles!) Due to the bright lights from all of the windows, LCD is the best option.
1) What is the best 40-42 inch LCD for mainly watching SD and HD programming with no 1080P DVD player? (Remember, the other room is for the serious movie watching).

2) My viewing distance is 10 feet so do I even bother with a 1080P TV because some have said that after 6 feet your eyes can't tell the difference between 720P and 1080P on a screen this size? Or do I get the best I can and not worry about it?

3) Do any sets upscale regular 480i programming to higher rez or is it garbage in, garbage out?

I get different answers from every place I go so I welcome your input.

Thanks,

bkj

[Kevin Miller]

Hi BKJ,

The best 40-inch LCD out there in my opinion would be the Sony XBR. I believe they just released the XBR4 series. It is 1080p but then any LCD 40 inches or larger is going to be. Yes it will scale everything to 1080p, which is what any fixed pixel display must do. There are specific settings for the Sony DRC video processing that need to be set correctly. DRC mode needs to be set to off, and you must find the Cinemotion feature and with a 480i cable or satellite feed trick it so you can turn it on. With a 1080i signal it will be grayed out. This is important for film based material in both SD and Hd formats.

[JerryDelColliano]

1) What is the best 40-42 inch LCD for mainly watching SD and HD programming with no 1080P DVD player? (Remember, the other room is for the serious movie watching).

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On the high end I can recomend Runco. We just saw the one we will be giving away (winner coming soon - like Monday). On the low end, I saw a 1080i Vizio for $1100 at Costco. For the money, it was pretty bitchen.

2) My viewing distance is 10 feet so do I even bother with a 1080P TV because some have said that after 6 feet your eyes can't tell the difference between 720P and 1080P on a screen this size? Or do I get the best I can and not worry about it?

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I think 1080p is important especially for someone with discerning tastes like you. The more pixels the better. With that said - you have to make sure you don't go broke on a 2nd HDTV room otherwise people will start calling you Dr. Ken Taraszka (see his many posts on the forum and reference system).

3) Do any sets upscale regular 480i programming to higher rez or is it garbage in, garbage out?

My recording professors talked about the idea of "no matter how hard you rub you can't polish a terd." For the most part I belive them however look into DVDO's video processors. They are VERY trick and can scale video nicely. I have seen two demos at CEDIA and CES where they can make even progressive native signals look noticibly better. Its not a cheap unit but worth it if you want to get the absolute most out of your HDTV 1080p system.

[kennyt]

Jerry,

Couple points;

1) For middle of the road LCD's, I'd recomend the Sony XBR3's, to my eye they do the best blacks and just got a $1K price drop from Sony, I found the 52" listed for $3,100 on line, and YES, I did consider selling my 42" Pannie plasma to upgrade to this in my bedroom.....

2) I've considered the DVDO scaler... and may get one soon...

OK, you are correct, I have an illness, but isn't the first step admitting you have a problem??

KT

[bk jackson]

Thanks! I hear a lot of recommedations for the Sony XBR 40" but I also hear a lot of things about the Samsung LN-T4065F. Does anyone have an opinion on this particular Samsung? It seems to have a very shiny surface which may not work due to the light level in our den but it gets a lot of praise.

Respectfully,

bkj