Monitor Advice again...LCD HDTV

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BoysNightOut

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I wanted some feedback on this monitor if at all possible. I was originally sold on getting the 30" Apple Cinema HD Display Monitor, but realize why not get an LCD HDTV that can plug into a PC as well and be used as a monitor + HDTV as well. Why not. So I found this monitor and it looks pretty slick and is actually $300 less than the apple one and is 12" bigger.

It's a Westinghouse 42" LCD HDTV, with HD ready, DVI/VGA port, s-video, everything included on it really. Wall mountable, stand included.

It's only like $1600 after rebates. Which is 300-400 cheaper than the Apple which is about $2k. This monitor/TV would be massive and kick some major *** I think. It's contrast is 1600:1, 8ms response time, 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen, 2x 15W speakers built in as well. Looks pretty good.

Anyone have any experience with Westinghouse, they seem to be sold out a lot so I hope they're good products. Thanks for any feedback guys!
 
I have that 42" Westinghouse, and decided to get it over the Dell 30" ... it works great, I'm glad I got it. It's quite excellent. :)

By the way, the Dell 30" is $1250 ... in case you still haven't made up your mind. It is better than the Apple (as much as I hate to admit it) ... Anyway the only thing I don't like about this TV is that it doesn't have a crop mode so when I play widescreen laser discs, I have to either stretch it or have black bars on all four sides.

Standard mode:
img1464jw9.jpg


Fill mode:
img1465bo8.jpg


But DVD players you can set it to 16:9 progressive so it's no big deal. I have a Gamecube, and it works great on it, the speakers are loud enough but I use a different sound system.

Oh, and you can't exactly use it as a regular computer monitor unless you sit at least 8 feet away from it, the text is too big and it hurts your eyes.

If you have more questions about it, feel free to ask.
 
Wow that's awesome man. Sounds good. We also have a gamecube for it haha ;)

Well, I have a 21" widescreen PC monitor already, but I thought it'd be neat to hook up oncein a while and play halo or some shoot 'em up type game on such a big screen hehe. I work with PC's allday so my eyes are already gone anyways =) who needs em!

So you're saying if you play any widescreen DVD movies, they don't stretch to fit all the way basically? Well I mean ****...it's a widescreen TV shouldn't it do that lol. But yeah I have 2 DVD players to my TV now and they work great, plus I think they have aspect rati osizing and everything I'm sure so it's probably not a problem anyways. It's a nice looking unit with a lovely pricetag so I've been contemplating it pretty hard ;)

I didn't know the dell 30" was only $1250 right now...thats an awesome deal too....****...I hink I'd rather be able to use it as a regular TV though as well...
 
Laser discs are not DVDs. This laser disc player is from 1991. DVDs work just fine on it, you just need to go into the DVD player's settings and change it to 16:9 mode. ;)

But yeah, I came to the same conclusion that a huge TV would get more use than a big computer monitor. Especially when the TV doubles as a computer monitor. :D
 
I would make sure that if you are going to spend money on a big monitor or HDTV you get one that is HDCP compliant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection).... you don't want to get a couple of years down the road and not be able to play HD content in HD because your screen isn't compliant.

Also, if you decided to get monitor instead of an LCD HDTV, couldn't you just put a TV tuner card in you Comp. to use the monitor as a TV?
 
I thought so. LOL. I was like laser disc...maybe he's just sounding cool and means DVD's hahaha.

Yeah I figured I'll use it more as a TV/video game TV etc. + a monitor if I wanna be cool sometimes hehe. This way a Dell 30" looks/sounds nice as ****, BUT it's only a computer monitor, can't exactly play gamecube/wii on it can we. I might get this TV then, looks like a great deal. We have a sound system to use for it as well. My DVD player will do the job then. Sounds good. Thanks for the pictures, helped a ton!
 
moisiss said:
I would make sure that if you are going to spend money on a big monitor or HDTV you get one that is HDCP compliant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection).... you don't want to get a couple of years down the road and not be able to play HD content in HD because your screen isn't compliant.

Also, if you decided to get monitor instead of an LCD HDTV, couldn't you just put a TV tuner card in you Comp. to use the monitor as a TV?

This TV is HDCP compliant, but you shouldn't be recommending people that. HDCP is a BAD BAD thing that needs to disappear because if it doesn't I'll probably start shooting people. HDCP is what makes an HDTV a High DRM TeleVision.

The more people that don't have HDCP stuff, and the more people who are unwilling to buy HDCP stuff, the more likely it is that these big corporations and their DRM will be stuffing it up their arse in the next few years, which would be good.

Yes, you could say that you want to make sure that you can play "protected" content in 2 years, but it would be better to have unprotected content in 2 years.

BoysNightOut said:
I thought so. LOL. I was like laser disc...maybe he's just sounding cool and means DVD's hahaha.

Yeah, when I talked to Westinghouse on the phone trying to get help for this, they thought I meant DVD's too. But I didn't! I meant laser discs!

0e683ec0.jpg

800px-LDDVDComparison.jpg
 
Yeah, I think it sucks... but I also don't think it will just go away (I mean DRM sucks... everybody knows it... but it's not going anywhere and people aren't boycotting music that has DRM). I just know that I would be real upset if I went out and spent $1200 to $1500 on a "HD" screen to find out that I couldn't play HD-DVD's or Blue-ray at full resolution (if they would play at all). I just think people should know so they can decide for themselves.
 
moisiss said:
Yeah, I think it sucks... but I also don't think it will just go away (I mean DRM sucks... everybody knows it... but it's not going anywhere and people aren't boycotting music that has DRM). I just know that I would be real upset if I went out and spent $1200 to $1500 on a "HD" screen to find out that I couldn't play HD-DVD's or Blue-ray at full resolution (if they would play at all). I just think people should know so they can decide for themselves.

People should also know how evil DRM is. And if they buy non-HDCP stuff, then they will find out. ;)

Join the resistance. www.defectivebydesign.org
 
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