DVDizzy Forum

I'm currently looking to replace my 12 year old 27 inch RCA thats in my bedroom.

I really don't want to replace my entertainment system so thats limiting my TV choices. Right now I'm looking at 4 TVs. A 32 inch Toshiba, 32 inch JVC, 30 inch Samsung Widescreen HDTV, and a 30 inch Toshiba Widescreen HDTV.

All four of these TVs will fit nicely into the entertainment system, but I have no ideal if I should go with a 4:3 set or a 16:9 set.

The TV is used 70% of the time to watch SD channels from the satellite. The other time is used for DVDs, and some random Gamecube games. I can upgrade the reciever and my dish to recieve a few HD channels, but other than a few movie channels I will never watch the rest. Personally right now I don't think the price is worth it for a few channels. I can get some over the air HD channels. I know that I can get NBC, PBS, and Fox. CBS, and ABC are pretty far away and I doubt I could get them without a roof mounted antennia (I'm in a rent house so nothing on the roof anyway). HD though Cable is also not an option here.

The widescreen HD sets would help with my DVD viewing, but from what I've heard from others SD channels do not look very good with a HD set. This worrys me because I do watch a lot of SD channels. Also my screen size will be smaller than my old 27 inch when viewing 4:3 material (24 inch vs. 27 inch).

The 4:3 sets will give me a larger image when viewing 4:3 content (32 inch vs. 27 inch). And they will also give me a larger image for 16:9 content although not quite as big as the widescreen set (29 inch vs. 30 inch). With the 4:3 set I would also still be 480i and not take advantage of progressive scan on the DVD player. Also no HD content at all with these two sets. Although this isn't a problem now, it might be in a few years when more channels go HD, and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray become mainstream. Then again the 4:3 sets are also a lot cheaper and if I went with one I would probably take some of the additional money and finally get a DVR for the bedroom.

Anyway... finally my question. I'm planning to get one of these four sets in a few months. Should I go with a normal 4:3 set/DVR, and save the rest. Or should I just get one of the 16:9 sets and live with slightly worse SD content, and a few over the air HD channels?

The bedroom the TV will go in is 10 foot by 13 foot.

70% of the time it will be used for TV from the satellite, 25% of the time for DVDs, and about 5% for Gamecube

ALWAYS the biggest!

I'd say skip the widescreen and go for the better quality from a Satellite, since that's what you're using it for most of the time. Your Widescreen issues are solved by the fact that the TV you're getting is going to be honkin' huge anyway, so if the quality of the TV is good, a few black bars shouldn't bother you...right?

I know there are TV's where you can adjust them from standard TV ratio to widescreen, this is what a friend of mine does when he watches DVDs then switches to TV...however, I think he has a Sony...I'm not to familiar with Toshiba and Samsung...all of the TVs in my house are Sony.

Get the 30 inch 16:9. It will fit in better with your room.