TV's... what does the typical audiophile have?


Like a good stereo system, does the quality of the picture matter to the enjoyment of a program? Or is a high quality picture even necessary to "get the message" of the show?
So what do you watch your favorite show on?
cdc
1985 Mitsubishi 26" color set w/original remote. Hey it beats getting up to change channels & adjust the rabbit-ears! I'll replace it when it croaks....
"Like a good stereo system, does the quality of the picture matter to the enjoyment of a program? "

Of course!

"Or is a high quality picture even necessary to "get the message" of the show?"

Nope!

"So what do you watch your favorite show on?"

Well, don't have any "favorite show", we like watching a lot of documentaries, news and movies... both classic and contemporary...

We have a 50" Pana HD which is wall mounted that we purchased a few months ago - in fact a bunch of friends are coming over this weekend to watch some classic science fiction and some independent work this weekend.

Should be fun...
When we got out XBR WEGA HDTV it was $2500 I think (won it in raffle 3 yrs ago), boy have they came down in price....but as I and others have said it beats every picture out there, period.
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The Sony 34" XBR's are amazing machines, obviously I own one. The best thing is, I got mine from Ebay for $600, including the dedicated stand! I occasionally browse and it amazes me when I see the prices on these fine TV's. Yeah, she's a tube TV and she weighs alot, guess I'm just an ol' school kind of guy! Besides, the quality's more than worth it.
I have two of the 34" Sony Wega XBR HiDef TVs. Agree on great picture. I guess one is a backup. A Sony G90 and a NEC XG110 LC both in action. Three LCDs for size convenience and an old box TV in the gazebo.

With college football, I have two games playing.

My wife would be satisfied with just one in the house. Thank you wife for my excesses.
34 Sony Wega XBR HiDef, yup the flat panels, and projectors are big but there is no better picture than a good old heavy tube set, friends have Plasma, LCD, and the super huge slim projectors and ceiling units and I love a big picture, but for pure quality...this Sony I doubt can be beat. In fact I am sure of it.
Upgraded to OPTOMA HD-80 1080p Dlp projector. It's wonderful for $2699. Haven't hook it up yet.
Bigger is better.... 103" Vultec SilverStar screen
Sanyo Z4 (replaced an Optoma H76 DLP which was a mistake to replace..)
when you go this big quality input is required or you will get crap out... so a Lumagen upscaler is used... Absolutely the best money spent.. There is nothing like surfing on a 103" screen. Toshiba HD-DVD is amazing, Nintedo Wii and xbox are also fun...

My main Computer monitor (serving 3 PC's) is a 37" LCD Westinghouse 1080p with a second 20" Dell LCD and a 768meg Evga 8800GTS card, and bedroom has another 37" for that Media Center PC. Guest room has another Samsung 19" LCD TV/Monitor on a server system.

HP TabletPC for slimserver control and so I can watch my tv anywhere from my HD slingbox.
50 inch mitsubishi that is 10 years old and the tuner is starting to go out. So if you turn it on the first 1 to 2 hour only channels 45-67 work properly, then after the 1 to 2 hr warm up it works properly so you dont shut it down till you go to bed just turn the volume down. ( It`s getting ready for father`s day as I on the computer).
I plan to buy a new one since in that industry there to is a format war to. I was going to buy a plasma but I don`t like widescreen so the one I`m interested is the new DLP technology Mitsubishi has their`s comming in coulpe of month`s, so until then I will let it warm up. Beside`s I have had the upgrade itch on a tubed linestage so maybe the TV can wait what do you think? David
A Sony 32" Vega (Wega? - who knows?). Nice flat screen, good picture and I can't wait for the new season of Simple Life tonight? That's what TV is for!!
19 inch Electrohome from 1980. I don't watch much tv. It serves me just fine.
I've got a 20" Hitachi circa 1990. Had cable TV but that left along with the roomate. Boy, I never saw him do anything so fast before or after as getting the cable TV hookup.
Yo Dean, I saw on some documentary just a few nights ago on Sports Century that Isiah was bumped from the first Dream Team because Pippen and Jordan would boycott against playing with him. I really feel for the man.
27" Magnavox. It mainly shows Teletubbies, Wiggles, and Sesame Street for our daughter. For some inexplicable reason it automatically turns off whenever a Barney tape is loaded in the VCR :-)
27" Phillips in the living room for watching baseball (let's go O's), college basketball (go Terps and go Orange, Md native and Syracuse alum), and the occasional program, Sopranos, Deadwood, Coupling, The Daily Show. My better half has a 25" Panasonic in the bedroom on which she watches all kinds of dreck, including, gasp!, soap operas.
Ellery, you're exactly right!

Color is a garrish, exagerated illusion. It can never hope to match the tonal beauty and sensuality of black and white.

I can remember when the message came blaring out of my TV when I was a kid, "The Rat Patrol, IN COLOR!"

What garbage! Sand is sand.
Man oh man...you guys just don't get it...you chas after NOS tubes every day and bicker that old school vinyl is better than any new school digital format.

Get with the program

we all know that Black & White is better than color...the neuances provided...the deep blacks & rich grays...wait...who am I trying to kid...I'm just another sheep with a color t.v. Toshiba cinema series 32" 1998 vintage...but I dont even have cable...I get NBC and that is it...usually just watch movies.

Ellery
Toshiba 56 Theatre wide HDTV have both dish network and Canadian express view HD satellite systems. Getting to the point if the program isn't available in high definition it's really hard to watch it anymore. standard definition signals totally suck.
I have an old 30-something inch Mitsubishi and it's between the speakers so I want to get rid of it. TV in the US is so mind-numbingly dull and, to me, the antithesis of high-end audio. I have no place for it any more. We watch movies on the TV but we should probably ditch it for a projector.
I have upgraded to a Hitachi 51" HDTV. It is on most of the time. I`m the only one that cares about picture or sound. MY wife would rather lay in bed and watch history channel on our 20" Panasonic. I mentioned putting speakers in there and she nixed it really fast. I guess as long as I get the honey-do's done on time...
I have a Dukane ImagePro 9015 projector that I picked up from a DotBomber (failed software-guy) and I love it. I am lucky enough to live in an area where off-air HD TV is available and I recently upgraded my Satellite to HD.

Of network TV I usually only watch Football, 60 minutes and, sometimes Star Trek. PBS is great.

The Satellite HBO, Showtime and ESPN are lots of fun.

I prefer the projector as this is how movies were made to be seen in the theater.
I have a Sony 32" XBR TV in the family room and no other tv sets. We are waiting for the prices to get lower and for more HD stations but I am looking a DLP (Samsung 50") and plasma (Marantz 42") sets. Several of my friends have recently purchased the Samsung 50" Wide Screen HDTV with DLP and like it very much. My audio retailer recommends the Marantz Plasma.
Good choice Ed, if you live in LA who wants see a bunch of spoiled, lazy, over-paid punks get out worked and out played by an honest hardnosed team. After the game a KABC guy was interviewing Isiah Thomas. Now there's a guy that knows about heart and determination! He was talking about how physically and mentally draining the games were when the Pistons and Lakers played in the late '80's. Then walks in Magic and he says that this isn't the real Pistons/Lakers series. THEIRS WAS 16 years ago. I couldn't agree more.

LIke Ed, I am a Discovery Channel, History Channel fool. With the great programming they have whether it's Mystery of the Black Mummy, In Search of Genghis Khan's Tomb, The Real History of Troy, The Rise and Fall of the Spartans, or The Planets, I am enjoying my little 20" Sony TV.

With that kind of cool programming, DirecTivo, my Canopus AVDC100, and my hotrodded Apple Cube with iMovie and iDVD I'm able to enjoy and archive all my favorite shows on history and science.

The little wall mounted Sony has been good to me, but I'm considering getting the Panasonic TH-37PWD6UY o replace it.
Typical audiophile would answer, "What's a TV?"

I have a 27" GAOO Panasonic from '91. I download lots of stuff and watch on my laptop which has a 14" screen. I prefer watching things on my laptop. And, I am considering getting the sorta new Sharp 17" monitor/tv.

I am a History channel junkie... I was watching "Samurai" instead of the Laker game last nite... = X
Wow Richingoth! I had a Toshiba too. 36af61. It was a gorgeous standard definition tube, IMO. My mom has the 27af41 and loves it.
Sharp XVZ-10000 DLP front projector and 100" screen. I have not watched network TV since I was a kid. All of my viewing is movies and sports, but I'm as avid about both of those as I am music.

Nobody should be staying away from a projection system just because you have to watch in a dark room. There is no doubt that to get the best picture, you should watch in a dark room, but that is true for basically any TV. The DLP projectors really send a bright picture - I could have mine on in a completely lit room if I was just watching casually, and I watch all the time with lighting at the back of the room where I'm sitting. The DLPs are also incredibly easy to set up and require no ongoing tweaking, ala CRT front projectors.

Also, while I concur that there is a lot of dreck on TV, there is absolutely no reason to abstain from TV because it has commercials. If you haven't discovered Tivo you should - you'll never watch another commercial in your life, including when watching sports, if that's your goal.
Just a 27" Mitsubishi w/black diamond tube. You can tell that my priority is on music and certainly not video.
9" CRT front projection with Faroudja NR+ scaler, C-band satellite, and 100" screen.
When I do watch TV (which is somewhat rare), I use a nearly 20 year old 13" Commodore computer monitor. This was marketed as the monitor for use with the Commodore 64 and VIC-20.

For a tuner I use a Sony TU-1041U broadcast-quality CATV tuner. Source first, right??

-Richard
I've got a Sony 40" Wega. I don't have the HDTV adaptor. The picture is great. I only watch HBO Sunday nights and sports (primarily NFL and NBA). I don't have an HT set-up for fear of becoming a couch potato. With Reality TV , American Idol , Bachelor etc., I think TV is the visual equivalent of today's music industry, with MTV combining the worst of both worlds.
50" Panasonic Plasma HD.

Movies (mostly DVD, some small dish sat) and College Football only. Have even stopped watching any PBS since our local station has sold out to evil corp zombies.

Although I have a combined 2 channel/surround set up, I never watch music DVDs. Even the best ones have bored me after a single viewing. Also, I find the sound through the theater setup pretty bad.

I have a bunch of televisions, which is suprising since I have no use for the dreck on public television and I never, ever watch movies. I read a lot and of course listen to music constantly. My family likes TV and movies so we ended up with a whack of 'em disbursed around the house:

- 36" Sony in the family room
- 20" Toshiba in the garage
- 20" Toshiba in the bedroom
- 27" Hitachi in the basement
- 13" Toshiba in the home office

Five people, five TV's and the kids still bicker about what to watch. I admit to being a NFL junkie, Sundays and Monday night I do watch football. I think I'd be happy getting rid of all them, maybe keep one for football.
Toshiba 27AF41 on a Tech-Craft stand made for a Sony 32in TV. Perfect fit, form, and funtion.
No TV, but a front projector. Got an Optoma H30 DLP front projector about two months ago. I sold my TV back in January to buy a pair of speakers. I don't miss it one bit. (obligatory Onion link ) I fire up the PJ once or twice a week to watch a DVD or laserdisc.

Jax2 comment above about having to have a light-controlled (darkened), nearly dedicated room for front projection is sort of enlightening. I imagine we see a similar comment regarding high end stereos from the unwashed. "But it needs a dedicated room." "You need to set the room up around the speakers." "Need need to sit in the sweet spot." Etc. Same thing with video and film. Both regardless of technology look best in a light-controlled room. But some people refuse to make that tradeoff. But that's OK. That's their particular set of criteria. nothing is wrong with that. Just an observation.
Have a Sony 27" XBR in the bedroom. Moving to a 42" HD plasma this Fall. Very BR friendly.....