...of upgrading my setup that I have in my room. Right now it's not much of anything except for the 360 and the Wii.

When I get paid this Friday I am buying a TV stand at Target for $40, $36 actually with my discount. At first I was expecting to spend at least $75 on one but I forgot we had some cheaper ones there. It's still nice and will get the job done. That's step one.

Next would be getting a home theater system. I was expecting to spend about $175-$225 on a 5.1 system. It took a while to find one I liked, mainly since all the kinds in that price range didn't have the right amount of inputs. I need at least three (360, Wii, TV), but would like room to expand. Finally found a nice Sony one for $200 that has gotten good reviews. I figure to get $100 for my birthday coming up, and I will put $50 away from this coming paycheck at Target so I should have the new system on the 22nd.

Now the hard part, picking out an HDTV. It's so freakin' difficult finding one these days, it's crazy. I have going insane trying to find an even balance between size and price, and still finding with the correct inputs and such. I have found three or four that I have grown rather fond of, and all come in around my price range.

First up is this 26" Vizio that is carried only at Wa-Mart. It's $450, and has all the inputs I need. Vizio isn't a bigger company, but I know they make some great TV's. Only thing is there is no audio outputs of any kind. Now it's not necessary that I listen to TV on the new system, but it really would be nice. Chances are this is not the choice.

Next up would be this 32" Emerson TV that is only $500. Has just the right inputs and outputs I need, plus the price is great. The only problem is I can't find any information about this TV online. No reviews, nothing. So either it's new, or it's just a crappy set. I did some research on some of Emerson's other products, and they seem to be decent. Anyone know more about them?

Someone on another board mentioned they got a good deal on a TV on Newegg. I did some searching and feel in love with this 27" Olevia that is only $400 after shipping. It's got all sorts of inputs, the audio outputs, and has gotten good reviews. This is probably the leader for me right now...

Well I do plan on getting a second job here within the next week, and whatever money I make from that is going straight towards the new HDTV so I could have it as early as mid-July sometime.


Any suggestions as to what TV's to browse (keep in mind price is a factor)? Random comments?

Just a couple thoughts on the vizio since i have the L32 (older model). First off, its made in the USA so if your going to go cheapo, keep more of the work here instead of china/korea/wherever. They also have a pretty decent warrenty.

 No audio out is a problem, but sometimes you can run the TV signal through the 5.1 system before it gets to the TV (though i don't know about the  sound system you're talking about)

The menu is a pain to use, since its dead center of the screen (not sure on the newer models) and so its hard to adjust the picture. Obviously, once its set you probably won't use it again. Overall i'm very happy with the image quality. The only downside is that 480p component  from the wii doesn't look right. Like the colors are off and its pixilated. (looks great on my parents sony) However, my DVD player on progressive doesn't have the same problem. 720p and 1080i signals from antenna and my computer look good, so it seems only the wii has a problem.

If for some reason you got an extra $200, the 32" do come with audio out. 

 One random thought about the Olivia, its a refurb, which i typically don't like to buy, but its cheaper so you can't beat that.

Yeah I'd like to stay away from a refurb, but it's just a great deal. I looked through all the reviews for all the different kinds of Olevia refurbs that Newegg has and found maybe two people got faulty TV's. I like that ratio.

Ok, I have a question.

Which is the best of the three - VGA, Component, or S-Video?

From what I read randomly online, it's either VGA or Component but for every person that says it's VGA there is another that says it's Component. Is it even that much of a difference?

S-video is out of the question.

the VGA typically maxes out at either 1366x768 or 1400x1050 (or whatever the size is) so for a tv that is native 1366x768 like the vizio it works fine. For a tv like my parents 1080p sony, it won't upscale for you, while the component will, so your stuck with black bars somewhere.

In terms of better signal quality, i don't know, but i'm leaning towards Component.

Whatever you do DONT GET THE EMERSON! Every single product I have bought from them(which totals to 5), I have had to exhange at least once. The VCR I bought only lasted three months. The CRT tv i bought lasted 7 months.

EMERSON SUCKS HARDCORE!

I always thought it was component, personally, but I just heard so many different things I thought I would check on here.

And thanks for that comment about Emerson. A couple of people I work with also said they had bad experiences with them.