New TV & DVD suggestions?
 

Recently I bought a Gamecube and some great games to play on. Unfortunately, it looks like crap on my old 13" TV/VCR using the composite inputs. At least compared to some of my friends' setup, who have newer TV's.

So I decided I should get a new TV, and if I'm going to do that, might as well get a DVD player too. I'm not real big on TV shows (I only have basic cable for $15/mo, and usually just watch Law & Order and other USA Network shows), but I enjoy video games and DVD's (which I currently play on my computer).

However, I have a fairly limited budget (looking to spend roughly $250-400 total for both items), so I'm looking primarily at 27" TV's. I'm not terribly convinced that flatscreen TV's are worth the premium they cost. Any opinions here?

So anyway, I looked at a bunch of customer reviews of the cheaper (<$100) DVD players. Seems a pretty common problem is they wear out pretty quick. One of my friends said he's had an Apex he got for $90 and it's worked fine for him for more than a year. I'm curious if this brand has a consistent reputation for making DVD players that work. I'm only interested in a DVD player... I really don't care that much for MP3, JPEG, DVD-R, or VCD functionality. But I do want the progressive scan feature that seems to make DVD's even nicer. Walmart has this Apex for $50 and it seems like a reasonable choice.

I also looked at several TV's, and I *think* the best choice for me would be one of these (all of these from Walmart - I might buy them from Circuit City instead since I can pick them up locally after ordering online, if they're not too much more expensive):

* RCA 27" Flat-Screen TV 27F530T for $298
* Emerson 27" Flat-Screen TV EWF2703 for $218
* Sanyo 27-inch Flat-Screen TV DS27930 for $277
* Norcent 27-inch Flat-Screen TV TV2703 for $218

Most of these have both S-Video and component inputs, which I think allow DVD players to do progressive scan playback. I was going to hook up my Gamecube to the component input and the DVD player to the S-Video input.

Thanks for any feedback/information!

Toshiba has a DVD player in the $100 price range that's pretty nice. A lot better than that Apex crap.

Unfortunately, all the TV's you listed are pretty much junk - especially the RCA. stay away from RCA, they suck!

If I were buying an NTSC TV today I'd be looking at the most inexpensive Toshiba or Mitsubishi I could get my hands on, because spending a bundle for NTSC is a waste of money with the HDTV changeover already taking place. What I'd REALLY do is save more money and buy an HDTV so that I'd be compatible with everything once the changeover is complete.

IMHO I'd go smaller screen with a better tube like SONY (i have a trinitron from 1968 that still gives great picture)

unless you know you'll be upgrading your TV again in the next 3-5 years, then I'd go with just about any of the choices you've made.

Where ever you are buying from, ask to hook up a playstation either bring your own or borrow one from another department since that's your biggest concern. Bring one of the games you've played for hours and check out how it looks on each of the screens.

Heh, I started out in a very similar situation. I had one of the smallest Wega tube TVs from when they were first released. I was tired of playing my XBox on a small screen and with composite video input. My shopping started out similar to yours, I wanted a relatively big screen with high quality inputs for not a lot of money.

Well after weighing a lot of options, I somehow managed to find myself investing in the Sony 34" Widescreen, HDTV-ready, Flat-Tube TV. Now my TV watching, XBox playing and DVD watching experience is friggin bad ass, and I'm completely happy that I dumped the amount of cash into that TV as I did.

So if you want real high-quality and don't want to waste your money, I say wait, or save, save, save and buy a good TV

From the choices given, I would go with the RCA. I wouldn't get too concerned with having a flat screen set, either. The signals you are going to be sending to it won't look much better on a flat screen set. Also, don't bother with a "progressive scan" DVD player. A true progressive scan player will set you back at least $399. You need at least an enhanced defintion TV to make use of the progressively scanned image too.

You can get into a nice JVC 27" non flat set for about $299, and slap a JVC DVD player on it for probably $99 or so.

Just a thought - does your computer video card have any video output? If so, you may wnt to send the DVD signal to your tv from your computer. This may look great or like crap, i really don't know. But if it does work good, the money you save by not getting a DVD player can be added to your tv fund.

RCA is utter crap. Ever single RCA television I've ever owned as either shitted out on me, or started to distort (3 months after buying it).

I recommend a 27" JVC. non-flat screen, just regular. definitely will get the job done. has inputs and outputs out the wazoo, so the scalability is definitely there. my JVC is 3 years old now and it hasn't performed anything under my expectations so far.