Initial setup.
I spent a day setting up an old computer of mine just to test a few theories on my old TV. Once i was happy with the results of my experiments it was time to start purchasing the toys needed to create what I wanted.
Step1:
lubby needed a TV that would actually support all of this. Ok most of you in the world probably already have 2-5 HD ready TVs of various types and sizes, but lubby has never been a big TV enthusiest so he was still rocking an old standard definition TV from years ago. Hell I only owned 2 TVs and one of them was still the TV me and my wife was given when we got married.
So lubby got online and started doing his homework. I figured if i wanted to see this goal come to completion within a reasonable time frame I would have to be careful of the ammount of money I spent on a TV. So I measured my current entertainment center for size and found that the largest size I could fit into my current entertainment center, wich by the way looks amazing in my living room all wood and glass doors and things of that nature, and I did not want a simple black/glass stand cause they look too sterile IMO. Ultimately I decided that 42" was going to be my limit and that 40" would be acceptable if i had to suffer going down a bit for price. Being strapped for cash for this whole project I decided to start at the bottom of price and work my way up. I started my search as I always do on newegg.com and then compared to local stores in my area to find where I could get the best price for what I needed. Literally about 5 hours of reading reviews and comparing options I landed on what seemed too good to be true. I found a TV that was well cheaper then my expectations and had plenty of inputs for my project. For 500$ I found a 42" TV with excelent reviews everywhere I personally looked. Please do not go around trying to find bad reviews for this TV, and if you do don't tell me
So this is the TV I will be rocking. http://us.sanyo.com/LCD-Televisions/42-Diagonal-LCD-Full-HDTV-1080p-DP42841
Sanyo is not a brand that I have used in the past, typicaly I would have wanted to stick with Samsung, but again money was a huge factor in this move. The only thing it did not have was optical audio out, wich i hope does not cause me much trouble in the future. It did however have coax audio out, so 5.1 and all that jazz is not excluded from the deal by any means.
My first impressions of this TV once I got it home was complete amazement. It even prompted me to choke up the extra cash every month for HD subscription from my TV provider. The viewing angle is amazing, I can literally not find an angle other then behind the unit wich causes more then a very minor and almost impercievable difference in picture quality. I also read many reviews about TVs of this size and price range stating the speakers would be totally unacceptable. This TV however is perfectly acceptable with just its built in speakers. Granted thier is no heart stopping bass, it does not sound any worse then a factory installed car stereo. The reviews i read stated as much, and again was a major reason for choosing this particular TV, as I will not soon be ready to invest in a 5.1 stereo system for use with this TV.
I also purchased 2yr extended warranty so that basically anything goes wrong within 3yr total time im covered for a max of like 70$ repair. Some of the reviews I read of this product had it going splat between 1 and 2 years, so I figured I should cover myself against this.
I also bought 2 HDMI cables and 1 DVI->HDMI converter for my computer... no way imma not hook that baby up HD.
All in all I was happy with the purchase.
