Here's a picture of it:
And here's the story:This past Saturday, Marnie and I were out shopping (getting some Christmas stuff done already which might be a record for me!) and were near Future Shop, so we went in to have a look at the TV's. You know, just for interest sake... So we browsed around and liked a few, but nothing really stood out. So then so I suggested that maybe we should stop in at Best Buy because we were already out looking at TV's and these one's were fresh in our mind and could compare them... Well, Best Buy had the TV that I had been watching for the last few months on sale. A Samsung 50" 1080p Full High Definition DLP rear projection. The first time that I had seen it on sale... so I got a little excited! We sat there and watched it for a while and both really liked the picture, but we still keeping a few plasma's in the back of our mind because we really like the viewing angle of those compared to the rear projections. So we decided to hold off on it, because the sale would be on all week and that would give us some time to mull it over. On our way out, I suggested that we should go to Natural Sound (a high-quality stereo shop in Kitchener) to see what they had and compare them again. Thinking that I had pushed my luck with that request, Marn said, OK, let's go!
We walked in and straight in front of us were a bunch of LCD and Plasma screens on the wall, so we walked over and had a look... Price tag's were $9,999, $4,999, $3,999... you get the idea. Yeah they were gorgeous TV's - one connected directly to your Computer on the network and allowed you to play downloaded movies, MP3s, pictures, etc. VERY cool, but not $5000 cool! So the sales guy comes over within about 5 minutes and asks us what we're looking for and if he can help, etc.... I told him what we had been looking at and our price range and 45 minutes later, we were sold! He basically talked us into a Philips brand - One that I hadn't considered before, but had seen in Magazines. He had tons of good things to say about the brand, but that it wasn't very well known in the North American market, but owned the Europe and Asian markets. He convinced us both that it would be a very good choice for the middle market brands - which so far it has been (after one night of viewing using the crappiest equipment interconnects available - coax and composite cables). When we get digital interconnects, the quality can only improve. Probably the biggest thing that sold us on this TV was that it was on sale as well. $600 off it's "normal" price which put it right in the middle of my budget, but just over Marnie's... She liked it enough to bend her limit. I'm assuming that the manufacturer is trying to move these sets in order to prepare for their next model line, but that's fine with us!
It has this "Stereo Ambilight" feature that lights up the wall behind the TV and changes colour as the scene on the TV changes. It's stereo because it has two independent lights that can display different colour if the left of the screen is different than the right side. I thought that I would be turning that off the first thing, but after 5 minutes of it on, I was hooked. It's actually very cool, and really does make it easier on your eyes when you're watching in a darkened room, as Philips claims. It also tricks you into thinking that your TV is bigger than it actually is.
This will give you an idea of what Ambilight is, although ours doesn't light the top:
Anyway, the thing that has blown me away so far is the image quality for Standard Definition TV coming from our Satellite. And since most of the TV watching going on these days, and probably for the next few years will be in Standard Definition, that was important. It was amazingly clear and sharp for a non-HD signal. I've seen plenty of HDTV's displaying standard signals and so far this is one of the best. The only thing that I didn't get with this TV that I wanted and that the Samsung DLP had, was support for 1080p HD signal. Now, to most of you that might not mean much, but technically, it's the "best" HD signal out there. It does handle 720p/1080i, though, which could be considered "2nd best". The difference is interlaced (i) vs.. progressive (p) scan. Progressive scan is supposed to be better. The 1080p plasma screens are relatively brand new in the market and are twice the price of this anyway, so it really wasn't an option if we went with plasma.
We are going to hang it on the wall with a bracket at some point, and eventually would like it above the fireplace, whenever that happens. That's the bonus with the plasma compared to the projection we were looking at - up and out of the way of giant noses, tails and feet (Echo!).
We are super excited about it and now want to go home and watch TV! (On our old TV, we couldn't read the ticker tapes at the bottom of the screen, or the scores at the top when watching sports... this was a much needed purchase!)
Happy Christmas to us, because we're done between us!
