Cheap Sony 52" HDTV - Canada

[Philonious]

Futureshop has 8 Days of Deals and today's struck me as being pretty darned good: 52" Sony Bravia 1080p for $1399.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0770HDS0010112311&catid=&langid=en#

Now if only my gaming room was bigger and I wasn't moving in a few months.

[Johan]

It's insane how much TV you can get for around or thousand or less nowadays (I know this is a bit more, but it won't be for long at the rate prices keep going down and features keep getting added).

[EternalGamer]

Your right Johan. I remember when the Plasmas were around $4,000 to $6,000 for a 50" five years ago. At the time I just bought a 300lb HD CRT (not LCD or Plasma) because they were so much "cheaper" and had better color and black levels. That thing was a 36" Sony XBR960 and I think I paid $2000, and again that was the "much cheaper route" compared to the LCD and Plasma prices at the time.

Today at Best Buy we bought a Panasonic Plasma 50" for $1099. And that was actually the RETAIL price, it wasn't even on sale. This same type of TV (with inferior performance) would have over 5x's that much four years ago.

[biosc1]

Man that's a great deal. Unfortunately, I'm looking to sell my 50" Sony because it's much too big for the small room it's in :(

That's a very tempting price...considering mine is a DLP...I think I could wall mount an LCD and make it fit :o

Also, I saw on that link that the Logitech Harmony 550 Universal remote is only $69.99. That's a great deal. I've been using the remote for a few years now and have had very few complaints (can be time consuming to set up, but once it's set up, you don't have to touch a thing).

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000fs10114821&catid=25336

[MachEnergy]

Not a bad deal for your first nice TV purchase. However, I'm not buying anything below 120hz now. I'm hoping to hold out until the 240hz models are reasonably priced before I feel the need to upgrade from my Samsung DLP.

[EternalGamer]

Not a bad deal for your first nice TV purchase. However, I'm not buying anything below 120hz now. I'm hoping to hold out until the 240hz models are reasonably priced before I feel the need to upgrade from my Samsung DLP.

This is why I went for a Plasma. While LCDs have refreshs of 120HZ, the Panasonic 50" I got for $1099 has a better refresh rate and a contrast ratio of 30,000 to 1. Now that they have come down in price, Plasmas are much better deals, in my opinion. They are still a little bulkier but the old problems of burn in, lifespan, and higher cost, have been eliminated.

[LiquidRain]

This is why I went for a Plasma. While LCDs have refreshs of 120HZ, the Panasonic 50" I got for $1099 has a better refresh rate and a contrast ratio of 30,000 to 1. Now that they have come down in price, Plasmas are much better deals, in my opinion. They are still a little bulkier but the old problems of burn in, lifespan, and higher cost, have been eliminated.
The only/best reason to go LCD is power consumption. Plasmas eat power like no tomorrow. Also, I believe 1080p LCDs are much cheaper than 1080p plasmas. At least that was the impression I got when window shopping.

[EternalGamer]

Yeah, but the plasmas have gotten better. For example, the Plasma I bought uses a maximum of 399Watts which is 100 Watts less than last years model. I think, by comparison most LCDs use around 250 watts. It is a difference, but my old 36" CRT used 290, so comparatively, 399W for a 50" plasma doesn't seem too bad.

You are right about the 1080P sets, but personally, I think picture quality matters a lot more than 1080P resolution. BluRay is the only thing I'd watching 1080P and it really is pretty difficult to tell the difference between it and 720P frankly. The color and black levels matter a lot more. So I'd much rather have a 720P plasma with great color and black levels thana 1080P LCD that looks more washed out.

[Iron Past]

Not a bad deal for your first nice TV purchase. However, I'm not buying anything below 120hz now. I'm hoping to hold out until the 240hz models are reasonably priced before I feel the need to upgrade from my Samsung DLP.

Since I don't really like 120hz, I'd be willing to sell you my new TV (Bravia, 46") for a little cheaper than I picked it up for (on clearance at CC, still have the box), but I doubt it'd be worth it after I shipped it to Virginia. Coming to Texas any time soon?

[LiquidRain]

Yeah, but the plasmas have gotten better. For example, the Plasma I bought uses a maximum of 399Watts which is 100 Watts less than last years model. I think, by comparison most LCDs use around 250 watts. It is a difference, but my old 36" CRT used 290, so comparatively, 399W for a 50" plasma doesn't seem too bad.

You are right about the 1080P sets, but personally, I think picture quality matters a lot more than 1080P resolution. BluRay is the only thing I'd watching 1080P and it really is pretty difficult to tell the difference between it and 720P frankly. The color and black levels matter a lot more. So I'd much rather have a 720P plasma with great color and black levels thana 1080P LCD that looks more washed out.
Yeah, the 1080P thing is what's hooking me though. For games and movies I totally agree with you, but I'm not sure that's all this TV will be used for. So it'd be nice to have 1080p as a backup "monitor" of sorts should I ever use that functionality.

And a 100-150W difference *is* pretty big. :)

[Gorvi]

That's actually the TV I just bought, $1480 shipped from Amazon. I couldn't be happier with it.