What Do I Need to Know to Buy a Tv? - Where Have You Seen a Great Sale?

I have a 51 inch Vizio my kids got me for christmas year before last. Walmart and bestbuy usually have great sales on them. They got mine for 500 and the quality is great. Definitely dont go plasma and if you can go bigger than 42 you should.

If you go to Best Buy you can ask if they have any "opened box sets". They are just boxes thats have been opened for one reason or another. Or sometimes they will sell you the display for 20% off. I have a 32" LCD Samsung and it was the display model and I paid a little over $300. I did a lot of research on the TV that I wanted and I waited until it was on sale so I got a really good deal. I have had the TV for about 2 years now so it being the display model hasn't mattered much.

Just read consumer reports on anything you are interested in. The consumer "us", give comment on satisfaction, quality cost etc. My hubs buys nothing till he reads them and all our electronics have been amazing.

We went to Best Buy since you can compare the picture quality and prices for yourself. We shopped forever (my husband is anal when making a big purchase) and ended up with a Sony LCD. Very happy with it but so many are comparable and there are a lot of sales out there!

We have a 42 inch Phillips hubby got at Sam's Club. I like the fact I can read the words on it :-p Just go stand at the 'wall of TV's' and see which one you like the picture best on.

That's how I do it. I then have the cable guy hook it all up (prior to having a hubby).

BEST BUY!!!! Dont buy a TV anywhere else. My husband and I have bought all our tvs from there. Their tv people know what they are talking about. We actually have to 46 Samsung Lcd in the bedroom and 32 Samsung Lcd in son's room and our living room has 58 Plasma. All great Tvs.

I trust Best buy people. Best buy always has great deals going on where they even include a blue-ray player for free.

Hope its helpful. Good luck!

Well, nothing lasts 20 years in my house, so i got an Element (it's an economy brand sold through Walmart). I've been SOOOOO happy with it. I paid $199 for a 26" screen, with 1080p HD. That said, I can't recommend a GREAT tv because I just don't do GREAT tv.

I did want to tell you though, that for Christmas I got a blue-ray player with WiFi. It's an LG BD570. It cost under $200 all in. I can stream from netflix, youtube, pandora etc and link with my home pc to watch/listen to things I have downloaded. It doesn't actually "surf" the web, it just has apps for those particular sites, but it's awesome. If you can find a tv with room left in your budget, the wifi bluray might be a good way to get the internet tv you're looking for. (but make sure you get one that has wifi built in not "wifi ready" because then you still have to pay for the adapter) :)

we bought our new TV last year right after the superbowl when all the stores put all the unsold TV's on sale, we got a great deal! we bought it from B&H Photo (online, google it I forgot the website, sorry) it was great. Best Buy usually has great deals also. but we waited till after the superbowl and we got a great deal. I learned this trick from an article that I read about when is the best time to buy different products, and that was what they suggested for the best prices on TV's were Black Friday and right after the Superbowl. Good luck!

The Walmarts in our area typically put their display models on sale, especially right before a big move in TV sales like Christmas and Superbowl weekend. And they're typically 25% or more off the original price of the TVs in the box.

Features wise, make sure the TV has a USB port (most of the new ones do) for easy connections to cameras & enough HDMI inputs that you'll need to connect your DVD player/stereo/etc. The TV I purchased only has a few, and it's a pain to constantly switch the wires out back and forth whenever I'd like to use our Wii or DVD player! Also, if you have a Wii or gaming console that connects to the internet, you could easily use it to get onto Hulu or Netflix and stream things from the internet. Hope it helps!

We bought ours from Nebraska Furniture Mart and love it. It's a Toshiba. Personally, the only brands we would buy would be Toshiba and Samsung. You should also make sure it's got the 120 Hz, dont get plasma, LCD or LED are the best. LCD is top of the line, we bought LED in Dec and we love it. We did shut off the 120 Hz capabilities because it was hurting my eyes and we dont have blu ray, but we wanted it for in the future when my husband talks me into blu ray.

Check Tigerdirect.com
Get as many HDMI ports as you possibly can.
720p is okay, too, in my opinion.

Good luck!
L.

costco has great prices.

We just bought our first flat screen and I love it. We bought a 42 inch LG from Walmart. One think we asked was about service and what happens if it needs to be sent for repairs. If you plan on a wall mount, be sure to include that in your price. I love having it on the wall, keeps the tv away from little hands. Ours is LCD, with HD and 1080p. Look around at the different brands and ask anout service, ours will be sent locally and turn around time should be a few days should it ever need to be fixed.

Do NOT buy plasma. Go LCD. Plasmas need recharged every so often and a still pic will literally get burned in to the screen. Best Buy has some really good deals. You neen to see the screens in action for yourself, so go, stand back and compair the sets on display. Don't just buy for "brand name". I was happier with some of the off brands than I was name. Good luck!

Check out woot.com bought through them for all our TV 's be patient they have great deals you just keep checking.

we bought ours on black friday its a 46" apex lcd hdtv with 1080i and 60 hz. it was $450 plus $50 for a 3 year warranty. (from target)

if u plan to do any gaming? i would recommend one with 120 hz- means the screen refreshes faster. if not, go with the 60hz.

Apex isnt the best brand, but it was pretty good according to the reviews.

We are also in the market for a new TV.

We are going back and forth between Sears and BestBuy...we probably wont go with Walmart, although for what you are looking for I think Walmart is your best bet.

~Here is what I know is important to us:
Plasma is out. It is old out-dated technology.
LCD is OK but LED is where we will probably go.
HD 1080p 120Hrz
We are thinking between 42-47 inches and we are resigned to spending between $800-$1200.
We also will go with a name brand. We went with an unknown brand for a bedroom TV and our cable remote does NOT work with it so we have to use the TV remote to control the volume and power buttons, talk about irritating!

Good Luck!