The second step in shopping for a TV is finding out what features are available on today’s TVs.  Researching TVs can be time consuming and tedious for most folk.  Here’s…

Where to do your Shopping for TVs research:

1. Ask your friends & family –  Talk to people who are techies–they like TVs– or to friends who have recently purchased a TV.  My friends and family are a unique group of the top TV reviewers, analysts and the manufacturers themselves.so I hope to get some insider info to pass on to you.
2. Go to review websites- tech websites like Home Theater Mag, Digital Trends, Sound & Vision, Big Picture Big Sound CNET, Gizmodo, etc. (or search “TV reviews” on Google & YouTube), AND go to online retailers or other sites that have user reviews. (Like Best Buy) 
3. Go into your local stores and talk to the salespeople – see what they like. If you want to look at them right now, it’s helpful to bring a DVD or Blu-ray disc so you can compare the same picture on different TVs.

And PLEASE note: take all advice you get with a grain of salt…one person’s bad experience with a particular brand or model of TV could just be that they got a “lemon.”  When reading user reviews (or any reviews) -look for consistent complaints about certain features or performance — those kinds of comments are valuable. (Comments like “the menus are hard to figure out,” “the remote is confusing,” “the screen has too many reflections,”  are helpful in making your decision.)

About Consumer Reports - Consumer Reports can be valuable for repair history and comparison of features.  However, often I find that what these groups say that I “don’t need” are features that I think are pretty cool.  These reports also miss some of the less obvious but simplifying features.  

SO I’VE DONE SOME RESEARCH on my home theater TV, let’s see…

What I’m finding

Picture Quality- Oddly, I have to look at my own advice in 2009″>Home Theater Magazine .

Pioneer  - The most beautiful of the bunch.   Shane Buettner, Editor of Home Theater Magazine , said to me – “Buy as many Kuros (Pioneer) on closeout as you can afford!” –   I had a 60 inch Pioneer in my house for several reviews and it had the most beautiful picture for a decent price that is possible.  Problem: It doesn’t have the newest, coolest internet features (though it CAN show photos and videos from my home computers).  

Panasonic Plasmas came up a couple of times–

Gary Reber, editor of Widescreen Review likes the high end Panasonics.  Unfortunately, the best of the Panasonics are $10,000.  Still, the new Panasonics for us mere mortals are supposed to have better blacks plus they have all of those fun networking capabilities like Amazon online movies and yahoo.  

Cool Features

I like a Networked TV– one where I can see my photos and videos that’s on my computer and one that gets cool online services.

Sony  gets some of the coolest online services on their Bravia Internet Link and Samsung has one of the best menus to get your pictures and videos and works really well with a Mac (with Mac software called “Twonky Vision”).

Samsung –Lots of online reviews talk about Samsung.  Particularly the new LED (instead of LCD) model.  Saves energy.  Picture quality didn’t match the Pioneer–  Dark scenes were hard to make out, all muddy -couldn’t see details in the blacks .  Was it the way it was set up in the store (not optimized)?  Still, the LED Samsung has 2 out of 3 features of the future per tech analyst Rob Enderle

Panasonic is coming out with a model where you don’t have to run wires up the wall to it.  It receives the picture and sound wirelessly from a box that connects to your home theater components (like your AV receiver, Blu-ray player, etc.)

I went into the local Best Buy to compare picture quality. They didn’t have all of the new TVs yet, (and of course the best deals are on the existing models). It was hard to tell which had a better picture when I wasn’t watching the same Blu-ray movie or even the same kind of source (Blu-ray vs. satellite TV).  I’ll have to return with my movie or go to a smaller store that can hook up the same blu-ray player to different TVs.

All in all…

No conclusion yet – am considering using the 25″ computer monitor as my great room TV.  

I do really like the Samsung that I had in my bedroom before,..just not sure if I want that as the home theater room TV. As you can see from my participation in the face off in Home Theater magazine, the picture fades when viewed from the side…and people may not be sitting straight on in the home theater room so those people wouldn’t get as good a picture.

Plus, do I need the Networked TV?  I have an Apple TV connected and a Tivo HD series 3.  The apple TV gets my pics and most of my videos.  I have that covered (I’ll explain it in another blog)

Next step…Matching my research to my needs.