We use these for our monitors at my job so we can use it with the computer for a monitor and the inputs for testing various electronics.
Picture is not bad, blacks not the greatest but general television and movies look great. Speakers are loud and have a decent amount of bass so that it doesnt sound tinny but it wont shake anything. The ones at my work are refurbs and they all seem to be scuffy. They do take a while to switch inputs and with the light being a weird dark purplish it is sometimes hard to see if they are on (they take awhile to turn on to). Most seem to have lasted since this summer with the ones that broke they broke within the first month.
I like them and I would recommend them for a spare monitor or a kitchen/dining room tv.
I have a 19 inch hdtv in my kitchen. At that size its not so much the resolution, as it is that I just like to have the full widescreen picture.
However, I learned from buying a westinghouse on here that a tv with a 90 day warranty is a no-no. My tv wasn’t that old and the screen would only display what looked like a scrambled analog feed or something, for all inputs. Googled and it was a common problem on multiple westinghouse lcd tvs, but since it only came with a 90 day warranty it was long past.
720p HD on a tv this size is definitely noticeable, especially compared to SD. This is a awesome desk/bedroom tv you can use as an extra monitor as well. A dorm room might be a little big for this depending on how many people you live with. 22" and up is becoming the standard in dorms.
Agreed. I use this to watch TV from my desk and from my bed which is right next to my desk. Its plenty loud for the size of the TV. Picture is good and the remote is nice, and you can get free HD channels from your cable company with the QAM tuner (not many though).
I’ve tried hooking it up to my PC with HDMI but it didn’t work great, though I am not good at that stuff. It also has VGA in with the headphone-like jack for audio input.
I got it at BJ’s wholesale club in February for $247 after tax.
I also wouldn’t go on these “horrible reviews” there are only 3 reviews on that site.
I dont see why it’d look like garbage. Assuming you’re running a native resolution for the monitor it ought to look just as good as any other LCD monitor, other than maybe the color rendering which just varies in quality from monitor to monitor.
A 19" Widescreen HD TV might(probably is) be OK for watching “HD” content in a bedroom or small room, but if you watch “SD” content on it, which will be ‘black barred’ on the sides, it will be like watching an old 15"(approx.) portable TV.
So if you’re going to watch mainly/mostly HD content on it, or if it’s going to be a desktop tv(roughly two feet away, give or take), then it would be fine.
If on the other hand, you’re planning on watching this in a living room or bedroom where the TV will be 10 feet away(approx.), then you might be a little disappointed(especially for SD content).
Not everything is HD, nor will it be. New content yes, but there’s still alot shown that is SD.
Many personal opinions on this one. Depends on your needs… Gaming? Kids (they’ll do less damage to the glass plasma screen)? Bright/dark room?
Overall, you tend to get the best pictures on plasma (which is all I own besides my computer monitor). Here’s a good cnet link that discusses the basic comparison.