Doesn't it? Or does it make more sense than anything has ever been sensed before?

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Sony would like to beg to differ.

I bought a Vizio 5 years ago (a 46", refurbished, on NewEgg), and it's still amazing. One thing I love about it is that the speakers are detachable, which is kind of hard to find now (though most units have them built in discretely and can be turned off...)

PS - you did this all fucked up and backwards. A Blu-Ray player has given you the HD bug? lol

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Phil, what screen size are you looking for and what do you plan to watch the most? Will you have sunlight near or on the screen? I have a 52, 40, and 37 inch...all Sony LCDs. I haven't had one problem with any of them. Samsung probably makes a better LCD though, but I'm happy with what I bought. Vizio and LG are probably safe choices also as others mentioned.

Sound could be better but I don't care much about that. Sound systems are the way to go, as others have said, if that matters to you. If sunlight will reflect off the screen plasmas will be hard to watch. If you plan on watching sports (I assume hockey at least) get as high a refresh rate as your budget allows. Once you narrow your options do as much research on them as possible...reviews, troubleshooting, etc. Then shop around online under every rock, but I'm sure you know to do all of that stuff.

I'm looking for between 32 and 40 inches, I'll mostly be watching shit on my DVR, movies, and sports, and my TV never suffers from glare (because I FUCKING HATE GLARE and meticulously plan where my televisions go because of this).

As you said, sound systems are the way to go. I've had numerous 5.1 systems in my time, because I watch so many movies and now we've got a blu-ray player, so that's not an issue.

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mechaphil

I'm still a diehard plasma fan. But you're not going to likely find a plasma in that size range. I believe Panasonic makes 42" models, but no smaller. Plasmas still have the best black levels, truest colors, and best motion response.

Panasonic makes some awesome plasmas. Their pro series is spectacular. Can't say that much about their consumer line though - the upper models are pretty good, but the cheaper ones look awful. They really used to be respectable all around, but their consumer lines are slipping.

Samsung makes LCD's and plasmas that are good. I'm always impressed with Samsung TV's. They definitely have the best picture quality of LCD TV's around.

LG isn't bad either. They make the panels for a lot of other brands (a lot of which suck, but the LG's themselves are usually quality). I'm not a fan at all of Sony. Their picture quality isn't anything spectacular, and they're always more expensive than comparable brands.

I'm not particularly a fan of Vizio. Their older TV's were awful. I will say that they have gotten better, at least picture wise. Not sure what they still do, but they used to use b-stock and surplus from other manufacturers to make their TV's, and thus had no consistency. Used to have an abominable failure rate too.

Stay away from the cheap and Chinese brands - Emerson, Sylvania, RCA (no longer the RCA it used to be), Westinghouse, Zenith, etc. Also Mitsubishi sucks outside of DLP's. And I wouldn't get a store brand either.

I would start then looking at 37 or 40 inch Sony and Samsung LCDs, as you'll get a little more options the bigger the screen gets. IMO, refresh rate is more important than 720 or 1080, etc. FWIW, I think 720 is fine if you have a quality TV to begin with. 1080 is so common now though that it won't boost the price much. Look for at least a 120 hz refresh rate and you'll still probably have a dozen to choose from between just Sony and Samsung. Get a year or more old model and save, or even a refurbished if you trust the vendor. You shouldn't have to pay more than $500 or so depending on how savy a shopper you are.