Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Just joined the HDTV club.

I just had to share.

I finally joined the HDTV club. After literally years of comparison shopping and browsing, I finally bought one. A Samsung LED DLP 61" (HL61A750) from Amazon. Price, performance, and features finally got to a point where I was content to do the deed. I've liked the price/performance of DLP's, but had been leery of having to change the bulb every couple of years. This one uses an LED light source that supposedly lasts 20,000 hours. By my calculations, that should last 20+ years for us.

Free shipping and no sales tax, and the delivery guys did all of the work of hauling it in the house and putting it on its stand. Can't complain with that.

I've never purchased something as expensive and large from Amazon before, but I can say that the experience was great. The delivery company & guys were top notch. They called to confirm the delivery, and arrived when they said they would. Quick delivery too, as it only took 4 business days to arrive from the time I placed the order, and I live in the middle of nowhere.

Quite an upgrade from our 36" flat-panel SD CRT! Even SD programming (via Dish Network) looks pretty good - better than expected. And HD content, holy s***! We can pull in the local ABC & Fox HD channels via OTA. We've spent hours looking at HD content at the big-box stores, but wow, does it look good when it's in your own living room. We're not big basketball fans, but we watched part of the NBA Finals last night just 'cuz it was in HD. Incredible stuff. The detail is stunning. My DVD player can do 480p, and even that looks pretty fantastic. Can't wait for the budget to recover so I can get an upscaling DVD player. I'm sure a blue-ray player is in the cards too. Ahh, another round of upgradeitis.

The Dish Network guy (or gal) is coming out today to upgrade our dish & DVR, so we'll be all set except for the elusive NBC & CBS HD signals. Gotta work on my antenna. I grew up with cable, and so it seems very bizzare to me to have to go back to the anteanna-aiming days for HD.

Speaking of antennas. Is there anyone here that lives 40+ miles away from a tower that has any good antenna/amplifier advice? The NBC feed is about 50 miles away, and the CBS feed is about 70 miles away. I know, that's a long way away. NBC is questionable, CBS might be impossible. Signal calculations by TVFool.com put NBC at -106db and CBS at -112db. Ouch.

I picked up a Terk HDTVa antenna. It's pulling in the 30-mile-away ABC & FOX HD feeds really well. At night, when the planets are aligned, it once picked up the NBC HD feed, but it only lasted for a few seconds. I've got an AntennasDirect DB4 on it's way that should be delivered today. I'm going to tinker with it this weekend in hopes that I can maybe snag the NBC signal with some reliability. I don't hold much hope for the CBS station.
It's going to be a short weekend.

Is Amazon generally recommended for TV's and stuff? We will be moving to the states in 2-3 months, and are going to buy a flat screen, I have no clue where to start looking as I am from Canada.

For general 'stuff', yes, I use Amazon a lot. Books, CD's, general electronic doo-dads, yeah, I like Amazon. Very often I'll browse what I want at Best Buy or Circuit City, but then go buy it online from Amazon. The HDTVa antenna I bought was $70 at Best Buy. Amazon had it for $30 with $8 shipping. For computer-specific things, I'm a big fan of NewEgg.com.

The only thing to watch for with Amazon is that for some products, Amazon acts as a portal for other companies. So sometimes you can find what you want on Amazon.com, but it will be sold and shipped by some other company. It says it near the 'Add to Cart' button. I have *never* had a problem with stuff sold and shipped directly from Amazon. I have a few problems with stuff from other companies. Lost orders, incorrect products, slow shipping, etc.

The return & low-price guarantee policies are different (or non-existent) when dealing with one of these other companies. So my advice is to always buy stuff that's sold & shipped by Amazon directly.

Like I said though, this was my first experience buying something big & heavy from them. It worked out well. Of course, delivery was smooth and the TV wasn't damaged in any way. I don't know what I would have had to go through with Amazon had the TV not worked. I'm sure they would have taken care of it, but it probably would have involved more effort than if I had bought it at a local electronics store.

That's excellent, Peter! Congratulations. Enjoy yourself (I know you will).

Please keep me updated on the DB4. I'm ~35 miles from everything, so I get them from D*TV right now. But I can't get PBS HD.

Did you read Nick's thread about Dish? Good luck with that...

I've had good luck with "sold by Amazon", too.

Robb, make sure you check Costco, also.

Usually when I buy through Amazon, like Peter I go through directly through Amazon and have never had a problem.
They will come up with specials on electronics every so often that can rarely be beat by anyone else.

Thanks!

Yes, I'll let you know about the DB4. I've read many good things about it. I hope it works.

I've read through (and commented in) Nick's thread. I've got my fingers crossed that my experience will be better. The previous Dish Network installer, 2-ish years ago, was really great. Nice, punctual, and professional. I'm hoping that it's the same guy or at least someone of the same nature.

Congrats Peter. I did a lot of reading a year ago about OTA HD. There is actually a resurgance in OTA because lots of people can pull in HD signals.

I believe there are antennas that can pull in signals from as far as 70 miles. Things that will affect your range are trees and depressions. I live in an OTA HD black hole. I am in a low spot about 80 miles from the closest antenna. If I were to move 20 miles east, south or southwest, I could pick up 3 or 4 HD stations.

Good luck.

Just keep the Dish installers on their toes, and if you know better, tell them and get it right the first time. Don't let them ignore what you want and you should be fine.

I'll be sure to check out Costco as well. I will probably be looking at Samsung exclusively.

Channel Master 4228 is a great OTA (outdoor) antenna. I have it on my chimney and I can pick up most OTA channels on my HD Tivo.