What is a good brand for an LCD HDTV?

[NowhereMan 1966]

I'm also thinking of leaning towards LED sets but for now until my finances permit, we had to put the 1982 Zenith back into service since the Sony died.

[tubetwister]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

I'm also thinking of leaning towards LED sets but for now until my finances permit, we had to put the 1982 Zenith back into service since the Sony died.

Won't be long and LED , Plasma and later on OLED will be the only choices
Toshiba,RCA and many others are not making CCFL LCD sets anymore .

[JAnoY]

I'd recommend getting a LED set myself. I recently had to replace one of the CCFL's (lamps in the set that look like the smaller versions of florescent shop lights) in my RCA. Used the set for 2 days and another lamp goes and I loose the picture again. LED's tend to last ALOT longer than the florescent lamps.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by JAnoY

I'd recommend getting a LED set myself.

Some LED lit sets have the LEDs behind the LCD panel (instead of along the edges with plastic lightguides to spread the light around). And the LEDs behind the LCD can be selectively varied in brightness to match the average brightness or darkness of the video scene in the portion of the LCD panel the LED is lighting up. Makes for deeper blacks. Essentially the LEDs are fed what would look like a very low resolution copy of the video signal.

[Jeffhs]

My Insignia 19e720a12 19" LED-LCD HDTV is nearing the end of its factory warranty (2 years), but still works as well as the day I installed it. I received an email from Best Buy a couple days ago offering to extend my set's warranty one or three more years (I chose three), but the website isn't working properly. I can enter my information (name, address, card number, etc.), but when I click "submit" at the bottom of the page, I get an error message: "An error has occurred. . . ." My input is not accepted as a result. I don't know what's going on, whether the site is down for maintenance or there is a problem with it. I have posted to Insignia's TV message board in hopes of finding out what is going on with the renewal website, but to date (two days later) haven't received a response.

Oh well. I may yet hear from Insignia on this; I hope so, as I am very much interested in renewing the warranty on my TV if at all possible. It's worked very well for me so far and continues to do so, so I'd like to keep it under warranty as long as possible.

For NowhereMan1966: First, I am very sorry to have read in your last post that your mother is ill. I hope she beats the breast cancer as soon as possible, although with any kind of cancer you can't tell. Depends on whether it is caught in time.

Second, congratulations on getting that Vizio flat-screen TV. From what I have read online about this brand, it is a good make and will serve you well. You and your mother will enjoy it, I'm sure. Since the new set has a clear-QAM tuner, you may no longer need a cable box, although since you have Verizon FiOS service it's hard to tell. Depending on the tier of service you have, a box may be required to receive the additional channels even if your TV has a built-in clear-QAM tuner. I'm not familiar at all with Verizon's FiOS cable-TV service, so don't know if you'll need a box to get anything on the new set; many cable operators have converted their systems to all-digital, requiring every subscriber to use a cable box in order to receive anything--including broadcast channels.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

My Insignia 19e720a12 19" LED-LCD HDTV is nearing the end of its factory warranty (2 years), but still works as well as the day I installed it. I received an email from Best Buy a couple days ago offering to extend my set's warranty one or three more years (I chose three), but the website isn't working properly. I can enter my information (name, address, card number, etc.), but when I click "submit" at the bottom of the page, I get an error message: "An error has occurred. . . ." My input is not accepted as a result. I don't know what's going on, whether the site is down for maintenance or there is a problem with it. I have posted to Insignia's TV message board in hopes of finding out what is going on with the renewal website, but to date (two days later) haven't received a response.

Oh well. I may yet hear from Insignia on this; I hope so, as I am very much interested in renewing the warranty on my TV if at all possible. It's worked very well for me so far and continues to do so, so I'd like to keep it under warranty as long as possible.

For NowhereMan1966: First, I am very sorry to have read in your last post that your mother is ill. I hope she beats the breast cancer as soon as possible, although with any kind of cancer you can't tell. Depends on whether it is caught in time.

Second, congratulations on getting that Vizio flat-screen TV. From what I have read online about this brand, it is a good make and will serve you well. You and your mother will enjoy it, I'm sure. Since the new set has a clear-QAM tuner, you may no longer need a cable box, although since you have Verizon FiOS service it's hard to tell. Depending on the tier of service you have, a box may be required to receive the additional channels even if your TV has a built-in clear-QAM tuner. I'm not familiar at all with Verizon's FiOS cable-TV service, so don't know if you'll need a box to get anything on the new set; many cable operators have converted their systems to all-digital, requiring every subscriber to use a cable box in order to receive anything--including broadcast channels.

Thanks. BTW, I'll have to try the QAM tuner on Verizon. IIRC, I think you have to pay extra for HDTV, I'm not sure.