Super Sets Not Super Prices For Superbowl TVs

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT, TELEVISION on 02-02-10    No Comments


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No matter who takes down this year’s NFL championship, it’s clear that one thing that wont get taken down is TV prices. A warming economy and profit starved makers aren’t about to give way on prices now that they suffered through the great recession. Though HDTVs are not getting more expensive, as some had feared with concerns about inflation, they have not gotten exactly cheap. I have been doing my annual early-year price survey.  And it just does not seem like TV prices are doing anything other than holding steady.

The good news is, there are plenty of good sets out there for the money. Here are my picks.

The Vizio VF551XVT 55” TruLED™ The VF551 has been my pick for a value set in 55 inches since mid summer last year. And Costco is flinging this unit for about $1,700 since then. That’s pretty much been the bar. Though Vizios can be roman candle bright, and might give up a tiny bit of quality on the high end in terms of image quality, there is no denying the clarity, value, and ease of use. Kick in say $500 for a decent surround system and you have one heck of a game day experience ahead.

The Panasonic Viera TC-L42U12 42 inch LCD-TV. Though I am bigger fan of Panasonic’s Viera line of plasma TV, if you are going for a smaller TV, say down near 40 inches, it is tough to beat this Viera LCD. The unit offers solid mid-line value with 1080P resolution, a clear screen image, and lots of connectors. Don’t be put off by the supposedly slow 60Hz refresh rate. Most sports footage is up and down converted so harshly that the screen speed is not critical, particularly for smaller units. And there’s no beating the price. You can get this one from Best Buy for less than $700. And you can probably set it up yourself. Not a bad way to go.

The Philips 32 Inch 120hz with Pixel Plus. Say what!? A 32 incher for the Superbowl? What are you stoned Blum? Well actually 32 inches is major effin big if you are watching the game from your desk. And that’s the market Philips is aiming for here: desktop media types who want a decent quality TV for the big game. And the unit features decent resolution, refresh rates and nice circuitry that improve picture quality. And for $550 you get a monster desktop TV that does reasonably well as a monitor. Comes with its own handy TV tuner if you need to go broadcast for the game. This is a sleeper pick for the new media set.

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