Purchasing Home Theater System...Advice Wanted

[Verto]

I've been looking at several different televisions and DVD players/theater systems, and have selected what I hope is my final decision. Here is a brief summary of the two items.


Philips 500 W Home Theater System w/ 5 DVD Changer

Features

500 watts
5 disc progressive scan DVD player
Wide center speaker for increased sound quality
4 full range 2-way speakers
85 watt subwoofer
Sleek design

Price: 258.34 USD

Daewoo 27'' Flat Screen Television

A short list of features:

Component Input
Digital Comb Filter
Rear & Front A/V Input
Price: 285 USD

I'm hoping someone will have some first-hand experience with and knowledge of either of these two products, as I've never purchased either of these two companies' products before.

[Asher]

Daewoo? Are you suicidal?

[Verto]

Originally posted by Asher
Daewoo? Are you suicidal?

Is that all you can say? What is wrong with it?

[Asher]

Daewoos are notoriously crap.

It's the Lada of electronics...

[monolith94]

get Sony

[The Mad Monk]

Get a pass on the new TV, wait for HDTV to roll out.

[Asher]

And remember: Plasma screens' brightness drops in half over the first few years of ownership, stay away from those money-black-holes.

[Ned]

Verto, buy only an HDTV with a DVI input, and only a DVD player that has a DVI output. Both have to be HDCP compatible. Congress just approved a law that makes that mandatory in all future devices. If you buy anything else, you will quickly be SOL.

Here is a link to a site that gives you more on digital TV:

http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/index.php?

[Hurricane]

And make sure you buy a widescreen TV. With a normal 16:9 TV you will get some serious black stripes at the top and bottom when watching those DVD:s.

Also, home theater packages like the one you suggest usually have crap speakers. Make sure you can change them for better ones later on, when you can afford it.

[Brundlefly]

Home Theater system advice:

Onkyo DVD Player
Yamaha Receiver
Paradigm speakers

[rah]

Yes, widescreen format, HDTV capable.
Don't bother spending extra to get the HDTV tuner.
My cable company provides the HDTV tuner as part of our service. (the converter box handles it) It saved me quite a few dollars.

[MrFun]

Only a 27" television??

WUSS

[DanS]

Hmmm... $550 isn't much. But if that's your budget, then this seems like a good enough combo.

If you had an extra $350 or so, I would buy separates on sound. A receiver, speakers, subwoofer and DVD player, all separate.

Only after you upgrade your sound should you deal with a better TV. The price of higher end TVs has been plummeting the last couple of years and will likely continue this trend for several more. So it's better to wait, if your marginal dollar is very important to you. The price of higher end audio isn't going to go down much, if at all, so you could just as easily buy now as later.

[aaglo]

Hey, could you explain:

I thought that Widescreen ratio is 16:9 - the traditional being 4:3.

So is widescreen something else than 16:9 (perhaps 2.35:1?)

[DanS]

Widescreen can have any number of different ratios, but when describing a TV, everybody means a 16:9 ratio. Many movies are shot in variations of 2.35:1 ratio and will have black bars on the top and bottom when shown on a widescreen TV.