San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

After all these years of denying myself, that 42 1080 for 799 looks pretty tempting. I have a 36 big tube TV, not even flat screen and it seems good enough. Outside of sports I don't know how digital I'll get since I just now stepped up to networking movies with my "modded" xbox. Those films are rarely more than 1GB because of compression. So everything is basic DVD other than my movies I've ripped and compressed. Plus my cable and DVR bill goes up (Cox).

FLU I had the exact same thought. The advert was front and center on the website. I thought, wow, my cheap ass might buy one! Now that's deflation, pre-xmas deflation!
Josh

Yes, I was looking at the combo deal...52" and 36"... Here's my dilema...While I think the idea of one for the family and one for the bedroom is nice....Unfortunately, I was one of the early adopters that has a 42" plasma in the bedroom and 25" trintron old tube in the family.

(don't ask, but among other reasons,

*keeps the guests away when you have a sh1tty tv in the main area

*gives me an excuse to my daughter why she can't watch too much tv.

*The cabinet I have right now was some junk I bought from sears/kmart for $100 12 years ago that is made out of particle board. I'd like to get an custom cabinet put in, but until recently carpenters/etc have wanted an arm and leg for custom work.)

The old tube has a door falling off, the remote doesn't quite work anymore, and I keep saying, I'll wait until the ole Trinitron breaks before I replace it with a flat screen. Well, it is a trinitron, and short of pouring water in it, I doubt it will break. for awhile..And I don't like the idea of donating it, or throwing it away..Anyway, with these prices, it's really tempting, though it's probably gonna fall considerably lower.....

Anyway, I wouldn't know what to do with the 32".., I just thought the price for the two 52" and 32" were about how much I paid for the plasma, which is just nuts. I wish they sold just the 52" less $500 from the combo...Oh well, i guess I'll wait until 52" are below $1k.

Side note: I just wonder if some of the stucco boxes these days can take 52" tv. I'm looking at my family room, and it seems like 52" might be overkill. There's about a 15-18ft distance from the seating area to where the tv is. I'm just wondering if the screen size is a bit big. They just don't make family rooms like they use to... :(

Anyway, the deals at costco is tempting...You think they'd take foodstamps? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

To be honest.. I run OTA on the local channels on the upstairs HD plasma. I get pretty good reception from all the local tv channels with a 12 inch wabbit ear I put outside on the deck along with my international satellite. Getting a multiplexer to merge the two signals together was sort of a challenge. I'm an old cheapy, and only get basic basic cable....I hate Time Warner, but at the same time not thrilled about dish.

My friend recently told me about ATT U-verse...They live in one of them newer Pardee communities in CV, and i have to admit U-verse seems pretty good alternative to cable and dish...Not sure if I can get it in my community though, since I live in an older area...Don't know if att runs fiber directly to my hood.

LCD Price fixing

This might be the reason for the recent dive in LCD pricing:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/ar...

Lucky In OC

FLU, this might help (sorry for the large image):

Cool... Thanks...I'll have to try that out. I might do the costco, buy the TV, bring it home, and then return it within 90 days thing to test out if a 52" is ridiculous in my stucco box family room :)

Wow that image suggests it doesn't really matter that much. My long couch has to be at least 12 feet from the tele. The Love seat is only about 5-7 feet away. Given I only have a 36 today I figured that 42 or 46 would be plenty but I question whether I really need the 1080. However given the price, maybe it's worth it sticking to 1080.

Nice chart Afx, thanks for posting it. You would not believe how much misinformation there is out there on screen resolutions and screen sizes. I've gotten into arguments with people who claim at less than 50" the human eye cannot distinguish 720P and 1080P. As your chart shows, this is rubbish as long as you are close enough to the TV.

FLU, as for your TV deal, the 2 46" sets is better, as this is a later generation Sharp Aquos than the 52" and 32" combo. The 64 model (46") was the first one not to be plagued with horizontal and vertical bands visible in some scenes. I actually own the 42" version of this set, and let me tell you, it is incredible. I have my eye on the 65" version ($3999 on at the NEX) for my living room after me move next summer.

An amazing forum for AV equipment is avsforum.com. Any conceivable question you could come up with can be answered there. You may recognize a poster over there.

HDTV or HD/Blueray Movies:

Keep in mind the format used for movies (HD or Blueray) use a different aspect ratio than the HDTV 16:9 format. You may want to buy the largest LCD you can afford and/or fit in your home.

Lucky In OC...

Thanks for the site. Yes, I know.. But I'm trying to control the sites I visit. Otherwise I come down with a serious case of material envy :)....

That's why I'm staying away from some of my older auto blog sites....

Just kidding.

So inquirying minds want to know. Anyone want to split the 2 for 1 deal for the TV at costco?

Regards the high-def topic, has everyone noticed the $150 pricing on the Memorex Blu-Ray Player - MVBD-2510. No, that "$150" is not a typo. Check Amazon.com and Buy.com

Now, I do acknowledge cnet.com implies that the MVBD-2510 might be the same guts as Insignia's NS-BRDVD, and cnet wrote they "have issues with the Insignia's Blu-ray image quality."

But cnet doesn't appear to have actually reviewed and tested the MVBD-2510. Honestly, how different can the picture be when it comes to blu-ray players?

For $150 I decided to grab that bargain deal.

No point yet imho. The blank media is still too expensive. Can't wait until these thing sell for $50. It doesn't matter what the economy is doing. Good or bad, Blu-Ray players/recorders are going to naturally fall flat on prices.

>>The blank media is still too expensive.

Agreed. However, I'm in China having been here so far another three weeks. Some shops now have the blu-ray knock-offs, but I haven't had chance to check quality. I didn't check the prices of those blu-ray here yet. Still you can get those blu-ray from Netflix.

I just picked up another DVD player that is region-free on codes. However those DVD players here are rather expensive, about $60 for the cheapest. The region-free DVD models that have the 1080p HDMI outputs are as much as $130.

Prices of EVERYTHING (except DVD's) in China that I typically buy have gone up far more than the exchange rate has moved over the last three years.

Yup...Actually, my friends want us to bring back designer bags (real ones Coach, Gucchi,etc). Because it's more expensive to buy over there than in the states.

The thing though is you don't need to buy a region free dvd player overseas...You just need to know or know someone that knows how to hack up some of those no-name-brand DVD players that are available from Fry's. Or pick up one from Montrey Park.

Speaking of LCDs and Costco, the Samsung 2443BWX 24" widescreen is on sale for $349.99, and it's a beaut' of a computer monitor. 3 years ago I spent $800+ on a 21" Samsung LCD that looks like crap compared to the 2443BWX. So 3 years later, for half the price you get 3" extra screen real estate, 5x better contrast ratio, 2x better response time, and 3x power savings. I personally thank Obama because his election obviously correlates to the increase in LCD quality... this is change we can believe in!

Yeah, they came down in price but the quality isn't there, at least on Vizio products. I bought a 47" Vizio two weeks ago (LCD) and it keeps getting these crazy green lines on it. Sucks. I'm going to return it to Costco tomorrow. I love Costco. I'll try a new brand tomorrow and let you know how it goes. FWIW, the remote control ceased to function after two weeks as well.

Any suggestions on a replacement brand?

Don't buy a no-name brand. I've long learned Vizio's aren't great, and at one point, they were much cheaper than brand names. But recently, not so much difference. For LCD, I like sharp. For plasma, I was pretty happy with Panasonic when they first came out (the ones that are manufactured as a monitor, not with the built in tuner). Not sure these days.

Definitely second the Sharp recommendation for LCD's. They have the fastest response time and superb pictures. The Sony's are nice, just very expensive with no imprvement over the Sharps. The Samsungs are also excellent, but I hate the reflective screen. That's also one of my objections to Plasma sets. One cautionary note, get one with the last 2 numeric digits 64 or higher. The Sharps also have the benefit that they are extremely flat anf look terrific when hung on the wall.

It's funny, Sharp tube TV's used to be crap, and I wouldn't have taken one a few years back if you gave me it to me, but for some reason their LCD's are superb.

I had good experiences with their VCR's and camcorders.... (yeah, you do remember what those relics are, don't you?)