I have a 16 year old tv. I want to get a LCD HDTV. A few questions. What is the difference between LCD and LCD/LED HDTV. I am looking at 50/55" TV's. What are the best. I am looking at Sharp, LG, Vizio and Samsung. Which should I look at mostly? Where should I look...Amazon, Newegg, etc. Next, what do I need to get with it? HDMI cable, how many USB or whatever they are called should it have and what else. I want to add a DV-R, DVD player, MAYBE a VCR and Streaming (netflix). I am currently using a 1.1 USB but I want to upgrade to a 2.0.
I don't know what else to ask. Perhaps y'all can just tell me what I have to do. Oh and since they do not set it up, how hard is it to set up the TV and remote and streaming. What do I need to stream.And how do I make it wireless. I am an electrician and can wire your house but electronics I have no idea.
Basically, what do I need. Which is a good tv. Is Vizio a good TV.

Also, this isn't tv related but I am on a Windows Vista. How do I upgrade to 2.0USB. Is it an internal card and is it difficult to install and then do I have to get all cables for 2.0? I'm totally lost. Dell has a 5 port card that needs to be installed. I also have USB group item (I am not sure what it is called) where you install items onto it. Do I need to change it and buy a 2.0 group item.

I hope you all understand what it is I am asking and can help me. Oh and should I wait for Cyber Monday to get the tv or is the price pretty much the same all year.

Please email me any answers....ilive4harleys@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your help.

IL4H

LCD is the part of the display that actually makes the picture out of thousands ( or millions) of tiny pixels. LED is the more recent technology used to illuminate the LCD screen so that you can see the picture. The older technology was CCFL which uses more energy and is hotter and heavier.

As much as I hate to say this, I think you should go into a retail store and look around at what's available. You can get Netflix streaming built into TVs fairly easily now. Do not buy an HDMI cable from a retail store, the price is marked up astronomically. You can get cheap HDMI cables from Amazon for around $3 that work just as well as the $50 cables from Best Buy.

I would be very surprised if you have a computer that came with Windows Vista yet only supports USB 1.0, USB 2.0 has been in use since around 2000.

I have a 16 year old tv. I want to get a LCD HDTV. A few questions. What is the difference between LCD and LCD/LED HDTV. I am looking at 50/55" TV's. What are the best. I am looking at Sharp, LG, Vizio and Samsung. Which should I look at mostly? Where should I look...Amazon, Newegg, etc. Next, what do I need to get with it? HDMI cable, how many USB or whatever they are called should it have and what else. I want to add a DV-R, DVD player, MAYBE a VCR and Streaming (netflix). I am currently using a 1.1 USB but I want to upgrade to a 2.0.
I don't know what else to ask. Perhaps y'all can just tell me what I have to do. Oh and since they do not set it up, how hard is it to set up the TV and remote and streaming. What do I need to stream.And how do I make it wireless. I am an electrician and can wire your house but electronics I have no idea.
Basically, what do I need. Which is a good tv. Is Vizio a good TV.

Also, this isn't tv related but I am on a Windows Vista. How do I upgrade to 2.0USB. Is it an internal card and is it difficult to install and then do I have to get all cables for 2.0? I'm totally lost. Dell has a 5 port card that needs to be installed. I also have USB group item (I am not sure what it is called) where you install items onto it. Do I need to change it and buy a 2.0 group item.

I hope you all understand what it is I am asking and can help me. Oh and should I wait for Cyber Monday to get the tv or is the price pretty much the same all year.

Please email me any answers....ilive4harleys@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your help.

IL4H

With TVs, you'll get a lot of different opinions based on a lot of different setups and desires. I can only chime in with my own thoughts but please read for what everyone has to say before making any decisions.

What is the difference between LCD and LCD/LED HDTV.

And LED TV is basically an LCD TV with LEDs that are used for the backlight as opposed to a series of fluorescent lamps. The use of LED technology helps for a might brighter and more detailed image when produced and supplied to the screen. I'm sure several others can get into technical details but that's not what I try to do. I keep it to lamen terms.

What are the best. I am looking at Sharp, LG, Vizio and Samsung. Which should I look at mostly?

Truthfully that is all up to you based on price, color, crispness of picture, specifications such as static and dynamic contrast ratio, refresh rate, number of media connections, supported connections, and supported resolutions. I prefer LGs personally. I love the screen image quality and sharpness of picture of LGs compared to just about all.

Where should I look...Amazon, Newegg, etc.

Amazon, Newegg, Tigerdirect, Best Buy, just wherever has the model of TV you decide on at the best price for you.

HDMI cable, how many USB or whatever they are called should it have and what else. I want to add a DV-R, DVD player, MAYBE a VCR and Streaming (netflix).

I'm not totally sure what this means. But it might go back to finding that TV that has as many media connections as you want that the TV supports for a lot of what you want to do. A lot of TVs are internet capable so they have apps like Netflix or Amazon Video built in so you do not need a secondary device like a Blu-ray player or PS3 to deliver the same application.

Perhaps y'all can just tell me what I have to do. Oh and since they do not set it up, how hard is it to set up the TV and remote and streaming. What do I need to stream.And how do I make it wireless. I am an electrician and can wire your house but electronics I have no idea.
Basically, what do I need. Which is a good tv. Is Vizio a good TV.

If you're wall mounting it, that may be more than we can describe here without some form of confusion but if you're just using the TV stand and putting it in an entertainment center or on some sort of pedestal TV stand then it is not that different. Also they are so much thinner and lighter than CRT TVs that they are easier to put together and get situated.

Some TVs are plainly labeled as internet capable or internet ready so they can connect to your internet connection and then are loaded or can be loaded with apps like Netflix so you do not need another device like a PS3 or XBox 360 to do the same thing.

I'm not a big fan of Vizio. I've heard that they burn out quickly, really test your warranty, have to be replaced several times, and just have gone downhill in recent years but is the poor man's (if one can say that) LCD TV. I prefer LG or Samgung over any others though again everyone will differ on this.

Also, this isn't tv related but I am on a Windows Vista. How do I upgrade to 2.0USB. Is it an internal card and is it difficult to install and then do I have to get all cables for 2.0? I'm totally lost. Dell has a 5 port card that needs to be installed. I also have USB group item (I am not sure what it is called) where you install items onto it. Do I need to change it and buy a 2.0 group item.

Either you buy an internal PCI or PCI-Express USB extension card or you upgrade your motherboard that already has USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports. This is a hardware specification so there is no software upgrade to it and you cannot change anything within the hardware to make it 2.0 compliant. USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 is backward compatible with its previous versions but USB 1.1 is not forward compatible.

You have a USB hub but if it is 2.0 compliant then USB 2.0 devices will run at the 2.0 specs to the hub, but will be 1.1 specs from the hub to those USB ports in the computer as those ports are the lower supported specification and the hardware operates at the lowest supported specification.

Really should go look at the TVs in a retail store. Take note of the brands/features/picture quality you like and then do you shopping / price comparisons on the interweb.

Sounds like you need some basic info on HDTVs. Here are a few articles to get that. Note that a few are older and some info has changed. For instance Plasma TV burning problem is largely fixed and not much of a concern anymore. The efficiencyof Plasma has also improved a lot.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344237,00.asp#fbid=Bqnr54Tq43t
http://reviews.cnet.com/tv-buying-guide/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/ou/dont-buy-an-hdtv-without-reading-this-first/458

USB on the TV, What are you thinking you need it for? Are you wanting a TV with Netflix or do you want a 3rd party box that will have more features for not much more money? Do you have a wired or wireless network?

What model of Dell computer do you have? If you are able to run Windows Vista I would say that 99.8% chance you already have USB 2.0. USB2 went main stream between 2000 and 2002. Did you possibly mean USB3?

If you are new to it, go to the store & look at one in person.

Don't forget plasmas :-)

the ceo of vizio said they are unfixable,so after 2 years you get door stop you should see lots sales at black friday week

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20077829-1/led-based-lcd-tvs-explained-compared/

Look for something with an in-home parts & labor warranty of at least 1 year. Reliability tends to be good, except for Westinghouse and Polaroid brands. The most reliable are probably Sanyo, Panasonic, Sharp, and Funai, the latter sold under many cheap brands, including Magnavox, Philips, and Emerson. AVSforum.com is a good place for information.

Be sure to secure the TV well so it can't fall on a child, and don't trust minimally priced TV mounting kits to be safe. Kits rated for plasma sets should be best because plasmas are heavy, compared to LCDs.

Consumer Reports rates TVs annually, most recently Mar. 2011, with a summary in the current Nov. issue.

Thank you all for your advice. I will go to Best Buy and PC Richards and take notes. As an electrcian, I can wire your house and help with problems but when it comes to tv's or computers, I am lost.

Thank you all again. I will post what I end up with when I get it.

Sincerely I am much obliged.


IL4H

also look at the line of TV's, not the brand so much - for example most of sharp's TV's are budget oriented, but their aquos line is much better - the same goes for each company, and the picture quality from these looks more or less the same from year to year - the things that change year to year are the adapters/interfaces, which honestly I don't think that you will have issues with - like others have said, you most likely have usb 2.0, unless whenever you plug in your USB drive you get a message saying "This device can perform faster if you insert it in a usb 2.0 slot" - also, that is for computers, I can't imagine any TV's that have USB (not really needed on a TV, but w/e) and yet don't have usb 2.0 (like others said, it's been in mainstream use since like 2000, and has been replaced by 3.0 in some places)

also +1 on the HDMI cables - buy them for cheap off meritline/amazon in advance, if your planning on mounting it to a wall, invest in those 90º cables so that they won't get squished between the TV and the wall, and don't let a best buy sales person talk you into buying this (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/AudioQuest+-+Diamond+3.3%27+High-Speed+HDMI+Cable+-+Dark+Gray/Black/2383276.p?id=1218324437192&skuId=2383276)

also, there is likely to be a huge black friday TV thread, where all the good deals will be discussed - look for that thread in about a month, since then we can talk specific TV's and offer much better advice

I've been pretty happy with my Sanyo DP52440, which I got at Wal-Mark. It's pretty basic in terms of features, but the picture quality is excellent. In fact, it was the least expensive 50"+ set that scored excellent in both HD and SD picture quality from Consumer Reports. There's no NetFlix, but there's lots of DVD/Blu-ray players that can do that, even PS3 or 360 can as well. Wal-Mark occasionally drops the price to $900, which is when I got mine and the warranty upgrade is only $88 for three years. Perhaps the best part about buying from Wal-Mark is the 90 no questions asked return policy should you get a lemon.