[mythtv-users] OT: Advice on choosing a TV

[paul10 at planar.id.au]

I had problems with buying a new TV - due to my pathological tightness
with money.  A good TV just costs too much - it's a big decision - so I
spent months looking and thinking.  After a while the better half got sick
of not actually having a TV whilst I dithered.  We settled on a different
scheme - we'd just buy the best we could get for AUD1000 (I guess about
GBP500 at the moment), but we'd upgrade every couple of years.  We can
upgrade 4 times with the money we would have spent on the biggest and
bestest.

So, first round was a Samsung 32 inch LCD.  1366x768.  By all accounts not
ideal for mythtv - particularly that resolution is crappy. But far better
than the CRT that it replaced, and actually was just fine.

Time has rolled around, and I'm into the first upgrade cycle.  For the
same price, I can now get a 42 inch Samsung LCD, 1080P.  Buying that 2
years ago would probably have been $2,000 to $2,500.  Sure, I had a smaller
TV for a while, but now I have two - one 42 inch in the lounge, one 32 inch
in the spare room.  Who knows what I will buy in 2 years time.  

The arbitrary limit made it easier to make a decision - finding the best
TV for $1000 is much easier than working out just how much I want to spend,
whether it is worth $500 for another 4 inches, etc etc.  And,
realistically, I've learned that unless you're a pixel peeper, most modern
LCDs are pretty good.  If you don't have a flasher one set up right next to
it, you don't notice what you're missing out on.

Anyway, my 10c worth.

Paul