HNTV Day!

[sunvalleylaw]

We finally got a new TV!

My wife and I have not had a new tv since probably 93. Then, it was a 19 inch Mitsubishi that we still have upstairs, though we have to bang on the side of it to get the picture to come on. Lately, we have been using a 25 inch RCA tube tv with red flares and poor low light performance that my buddy gave to me when he bought a new one. We have had a Wii and a DVR from Cox Cable hooked up, but were finally ready to upgrade our screen.

So we finally got a Vizio e420vl 42 inch LCD HDTV from Costco. http://www.vizio.com/e420vl.html

It was at a good price point there, and I felt I did not need the edge lighting, or any bigger. Plus we had a rebate to spend.

I have the Cox Cable DVR hooked up via the component inputs for today, and am swapping the DVR unit out for one with a HDMI output so I can hook it to one of the TV's. I am going to hook the Mac up to the other HDMI on the back to stream online video and netflix and the like (leaves another two on the side). The Wii is hooked up to the AV input, and the DVD player (standard, not blue ray) is going to replace the cable in the component connection. We are not running the computer through the Wii because we don't want to have to have the wi fi on all the time.

I have audio out to my stereo to back up the built in speakers and provide some more bass. We are not investing in a 5.1 system or anything like that now.

Pretty excited about it! The boys are glad they can see their Harry Potter games better, and I am glad we can see low light scenes a whole lot better. So far so good!

Any thoughts or suggestions from you tv system savvy folks? :AOK

 

[Robert]

Congrats! I'd sure love a new TV too... except I try to not watch so much TV. I'd rather to go the cinema.
Enjoy! Guitar DVDs will look great on that TV!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

!

Congrats! I'd sure love a new TV too... except I try to not watch so much TV. I'd rather to go the cinema.
Enjoy! Guitar DVDs will look great on that TV!

Yep, I was already thinking of breaking out some SRV and Clapton lesson discs I have. And streaming your vids shot with your new camera should look great too! Think of the veins!!!! ancake

I am excited to finally motivate to get my audio from my computer and my DVD player routed into my stereo so I can get a better sound (than my old computer speakers) too for playing along, etc., and also for movie watching. The TV's speakers combined with the speakers on my stereo sound really quite good! We like to use netflix and have started to stream it on the computer a fair amount. The kids really like stuff like Mythbusters that you can get there. So that will be good too on the new screen.

 

[Tig]

Cool beans! Welcome to the 21st century, SVL... oke

If your DVD player has HDMI output, I'd use that instead of the A/V cables, even if you have to share/swap the cable. Still, even using the A/V connection will allow you to enjoy movies with a much better picture than the old vintage toob TV you had.

If/when you ever get a home theater sound system, a 5.1 is plenty. Not much use for 7.1 in the past, but a few Bluray discs are finally starting to use it. I like Onkyo for surround systems. You can get something pretty decent for under $450.

Happy viewing!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Thanks Tig. I will look at the DVD player. It is an old 5 disc Panasonic carousel from a few years back that has managed to keep working. I could also frankly play DVD's through the iMac and direct HDMI from it. It will be kind of a long cable, but I see they sell them long enough. I keep hoping the new iMacs end up with Blue Ray capability, as we have no real reason for a carousel any more. We used to use it for CD's and hit random. Of course we now do that with iPods and now the computer into the stereo. At some point, the DVD player is almost redundant, as long as someone is not on the computer.

Some day we will look at a different home theater sound system, but I am still old school when it comes to speakers and sound, and likes my stereo. I am going to repair my really old but really nice Dahlquist speakers/monitors with new woofers and tweeters for this room too. Really good bass response and awesome imaging. Not modern movie sound, and I may choose not to use those speakers for movies, if only to protect them from sounds they were not designed for in 1985. But I was thinking we can use the couple of mid-range speakers we have and use right now as "Speakers B" for that, along with the sound from the TV itself which is not too bad really. Eventually, those mids could move out to the living room for some music out there, and a theater system could take over in the rec room/music room (about 21' by 25' room) where all this is located.

EDIT: I mis-spoke and said that the DVR was hooked up to "composite" connections. I meant the "component" inputs. As I said, that will go to HDMI, and the DVD player will go to the component inputs, as it does not have HD output that I see. Too old.

What is the best input to use for the Wii? The only cable I see is AV, I think. Is there a better connection for it?


EDIT AGAIN: Some quick searching reveals there is a Wii "component" type cable that gives a better picture. Only one "component" input on the TV so maybe there is a switcher like we were using for the AV stuff on the old tv for that so the DVD player and Wii can share.

 

[Eric]

Cool deal. I'd like to get a real TV eventually. Congrats!

 

[Jimi75]

Cool buy SVL, you will be enjoying especially the new concert DVDs that come out recently. Pristine clear colours and when you attach a sound system, you will feel like being in the middle of the crowd.
We still have our 10year old Toshiba. It's huge, it's analog, but we can't part with it 'cause it still does what it has to do in a great way.

 

[oldguy]

Congrats, Steve, you're gonna love it!

We upgraded last fall, wow, what a difference. Concerts are great, almost like being there.
We also got a PS3, so the blu ray thing's covered. Like I say, wow, what a difference!

 

[FrankenFretter]

First of all, congratulations Steve! As Doug said, welcome to the 21st century.

And now the required "Pics or it didn't happen!" statement!

Enjoy!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Thanks guys! Follow up:

The DVD player has only AV/Component and S-Video output. It may get phased out ultimately as I can play DVDs in the computer that will be connected via DVI to HDMI. Also, I think I can play DVDs in the Wii too.

The DVR is being replaced today with one that has HDMI output. Played with the settings last night, left it set to "Wide" for general use, and I am enjoying it very much so far. I will put in the Mayer concert DVD I have to check it out, and also the new one I got as part of the "Darkness/Promise" boxed set. I bet those are going to sound and look great! We will hold off on BlueRay for now.

I will do a pic after I have it all hooked up the way I want.

 

[Ch0jin]

So glad you played with the settings!

I used to repair TV's (amongst other things) way back in the day, and one thing that bugs from from then to now are "factory" settings on TV's. People will rant on and on about the quality of their cables and their Dolby (or Dobly for the Tap fans) certified sound but still run WAY too much contrast and RGB levels. The factory defaults on a TV are designed to get your attention in a brightly lit store with dozens of other TV's right next to them. They are NOT what the film maker intended you to see. I've been to so many peoples houses when they show off their new massive plasma/lcd, and cringe internally when they say "look how bright the colours are" as I watch fluorescent green grass and eye melting whites. I always set-up my TV's (running a 42" Samsung Plasma off a purpose built media centre PC) to have what I think are realistic black level and colour levels. Basically, what you'd see in a cinema.

However.....

I also run my 360 into this TV and when it comes to gaming, more contrast, colour, and sharpness looks great! Luckily my TV stores different settings per input so when I switch from media centre input to 360 input the image setup changes pretty substantially.

On DVD V BluRay though, a word of warning. Once you've seen how amazing BluRay looks, you going to want to start replacing all your dvd's (or in my case, replacing 700mb xvid DVD rips with up to 8GB mkv BD and HDDVD rips)