Thread resurrection because my patience has been rewarded. Dropped by Best Box last night on an unrelated errand and noticed they had a 37" 1080p Dynex, the Best Box house brand, as an open-box item. They had it marked down to the same price as the 32" 1080p unit. It was okay but still slightly more than I had budgeted. On a lark I offered them what I'd budgeted, saying if they'd take it I'd write the check right there. The kid helping me paged the manager who, to his credit, tested the waters a little by saying, "If I accept are you going to follow through or just do the 'Let me think about it' thing?'" To let him know I was serious I pulled out my checkbook and pen and wrote 'Best Buy' in the Pay To line, then looked up at him.
They accepted.
Now I have a 37" 1080p set when I'd been budgeting based on numbers I was seeing for 32" 720p sets. Yay! Only problem is it comes nowhere near fitting into my entertainment center so I had to rig up a cantelevered base that stuck out just enough from the TV opening that the new unit would sit without fear of toppling. Amazingly enough it doesn't look nearly as hideous as the mind's-eye view makes it out to be.
Even better are the hookups. Most new sets come with one composite, one component, and three or four HDMI ports. I was grinching about that all the way home because most of my stuff is component or composite and I had five things strung into my old set. This TV? One component, one s-video, two composites, and three HDMI ports. Since I was able to eliminate the standalone digital tuner that made the number and style of hookups
exactly what I need. More yay!
Took me a bit and a couple passes with the THX optimizer to get the picture dialed in, but it actually works great. Unfortunately it also highlights the limitations of my standard-def DirecTV service. I fixed that by not wearing my glasses while watching. The fuzziness covers up the shortcomings in the pic.
DVDs run through the component port, however, are amazingly crisp. Even though the set only has a piddly 60Hz refresh rate it does a much better job than I expected. It's definitely not my parent's 240Hz LED-lit 55" Samsung (which is, in a word, stunning) but light-years better than my old set.
Brad
