I couldn't stand it anymore,got my 51S700 Hitachi

keithhr

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I couldn\'t stand it anymore,got my 51S700 Hitachi

My 8 year old Hitachi won't die, it's a 50 inch ultravision that works quite nicely but isn't HD. A stumbling block for me to consider purchasing a new set is what to do with my old one. I saw a similar post on another forum, a guy complaining about what to do with his old big set,saying he didn't want to put it on ebay, so the next post, some guy says, sell it on ebay. Right, a 240 lb set that would have to be crated and then shipped via freight.So I'm at a loss as to what I could do with this thing, maybe craigs list would be good, or maybe ebay and select pickup only, any suggestions would be appreciated, or what did you do with your old sets that still worked fine?
 

SockMan

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

You can try hooking it up to your computer (if it has s-video or composite out). That would be great for playing some types of PC games like first person shooters that don't require a lot of on-screen text.

Of course, if you don't play games on your PC, then hooking up your old TV to one wouldn't do you much good. Watching movies will probably be better on that HDTV. TVs have a low resolution, making them lousy for most PC applications. Imagine having a 50 inch monitor that displays at a max resolution of 640 * 480 and you have an idea what I'm talking about.

Since it still works, I would hesitate to just dispose of it. Maybe put an ad in your newspaper's classified section and sell it? It may be a low tech solution, but I think it's better than trying to sell it on eBay. It would be too bulky to sell or give away anywhere other than locally.
 

MichiganMan

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

Donating it to Goodwill, or the Salvation Army, possibly a school or homeless shelter, will give you a tax deduction most likely exceeding what you could sell it for. Most of these organizations are pretty generous when placing an estimated value of your donation on their reciepts, and you'd be doing a good deed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

MR Bulk

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

Hmmm, sell it in the paper. Good idea. We have a one-year old Sony 32" CRT Trinitron and a 5-year old Mitsubishi 27" and just bought a family-Christmas-present-to-ourselves Sony RP 53" HDTV 16:9 AR model (one a them Circuit City zero-interest, no-payments-till-2005 deals, couldn't resist) and have been mulling over what to do myself.

However Keith, we heard right after they delivered it that beginning next year home theater TV prices will be taking another drastic price drop, possibly because plasma and LCD units will start to come down as well.

Good thread!
 

PhotonWrangler

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

[ QUOTE ]
MichiganMan said:
Donating it to Goodwill, or the Salvation Army, possibly a school or homeless shelter, will give you a tax deduction most likely exceeding what you could sell it for. Most of these organizations are pretty generous when placing an estimated value of your donation on their reciepts, and you'd be doing a good deed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
That's a great suggestion! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/santa.gif
 

bwaites

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

How about a local High School athletic department?

Same tax break as the above, but you get to decide who gets it. Athletic departments are always watching film, trying to help their teams improve so a big screen is very useful.

Bill
 

Stainless

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

Keep the old set - use it for watching the 95 plus percent of programs which ARE NOT high defination.
 

Saaby

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

Do you do video editing? Hook it up to your computer and use it as a reference monitor when editing. That way as you edit you can see what your video will look like on HDTV (Your Computer monitor) and LDTV (The good ole' big screen).

Take an old computer, hook it to the big-screen, run fish-tank screen-saver. Tada! 50 inch aquarium that never needs feeding or cleaning /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

keithhr

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

nice suggestions all, especially the ones about prices coming down. I've been partial to Hitachi, with it garnering some of the best reviews, I like their 50v500 lcd model tu at $3000 + or - plus stand, at 16" in depth and a scintillating picture with ok blacks, I'm really looking forward to better dvd imaging and hdtv football etc.
 

BB

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

Sort of on topic...

Has anyone found/purchased any HDTV receivers for connection to standard (or HDTV Ready) TV's?

I probably won't pop for an integrated HDTV w/Digital receiver just yet--But our local PBS station is already supposed to be broadcasting up to 5 channels worth of various shows (and should get better basic pictures).

-Bill
 

PhotonWrangler

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Re: I\'d go HDTV, but what to do with old set?

[ QUOTE ]
BB said:
Has anyone found/purchased any HDTV receivers for connection to standard (or HDTV Ready) TV's?
(snip)


[/ QUOTE ]
I'm using an HD cable set-top box to drive a 20" computer monitor with a little conversion widget in between. I can also pull SD NTSC off the back of the box at either baseband composite or RF. The box acts as a receiver and offers component YPrPb outputs. It also has a DVI spigot, but I have nothing (at home) that has a DVI input.
 

keithhr

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I finally bought my HDTV Ultravision

I couldn't stand it anymore, I purchased a Hitachi Ultravision rear projection 51S700 integrated (with HDTV receiver) tuner. It's supposed to be delivered Sunday the 18th and they were supposed to call with a time on Saturday evening. They didn't call and now I'm rather irritated.I should be able to get most of the local HDTV stations because I'm in line of sight to the Sutro Tower in San Francisco. I got it for a good price and I can say that the sals people at Circuit City are morons. The salesmen(2) and video department manager all told me that they didn't have any HDTV sets with integrated tuner, couldn't get one, only could sell what was listed in their computer and the one I wanted wasn't in it. I called another store a bit further away and was told there were 30 of the sets that I wanted in their delivery warehouse for a cheaper price than they were offering it online for. I called the store manager back at the store I originally went to and told him(nicely) how effective and helpful his entire sales staff had been. He then proceeded to do some wonderful pricing cutting procedures to give me a show of good faith. He further reduced the set by a few hundred dollars so he could in effect give me a custom extended warranty at half pric. He also threw in a portable dvd player,soooooo, if they actually deliver it on Sunday I will be pleased.
 

PhotonWrangler

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Re: I finally bought my HDTV Ultravision

[ QUOTE ]
keithhr said:
He then proceeded to do some wonderful pricing cutting procedures to give me a show of good faith. He further reduced the set by a few hundred dollars so he could in effect give me a custom extended warranty at half pric. He also threw in a portable dvd player,soooooo, if they actually deliver it on Sunday I will be pleased.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice work by holding them accountable. Hopefully this will result in some additional training for their sales staff.

I have had the same experience with local sales staff in the big appliance chain stores. Most of the salespeople are pretty young, don't have a lot of experience in video, and haven't been given the training that they need to get them up to speed. On one recent visit, the sales guy had no idea what I was talking about when I asked whether a particular DVD player had an RF output. He knew that it was Progressive Scan because that's what it said on the box and on the sign, but that was about it.

If a store is going to sell this kind of stuff, they really owe it to their prospective customers to have knowledgable, well trained salespeople.
 

keithhr

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Re: I finally bought my HDTV Ultravision

I knew specific HD programming would be cool but what I didn't know was that all of my local stations are broadcasting in digital format and I'm even getting 1080I and my satellite is much improved as well. I can't wait till the set breaks in and I'm able to run some set up test dvd's on it. I wound up getting this Ultravision with integrated HD tuner with a 4 year cicuit city perfomance warranty with a free portable dvd player out the door for $2400. This set really looks good, better than in the store in fact, but then again it is a "light" projecting device,heh,heh,
 
R

rico128

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Re: I finally bought my HDTV Ultravision

Hi, all. I have seen the Hitachi 51S500 in a showroom, and it blew the competition away, imho. I have found it for a great price (under $2k), and have now seen the 51S700 for only $110 more. I live in a fairly hilly area and am not sure if local HDTVsignals will reach my home (approx. 30 miles from the stations' broadcasting sites). I will have sat. hdtv.

Does anyone know of a difference in picture quality from the 51S500 vs. 51S700?

Thanks in advance.
 

keithhr

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Re: I finally bought my HDTV Ultravision

just saw this post of yours, not much difference in pic quality, however Satellite is not offereing network channels in HD at this time, but most cable companies are. You can do a simple test to see what HDTV you can pick up. Buy an antenna,(my area is uhf only for HDTV) whatever is sppropriate for your area and try to see what over the air(OTA) channels you can pick up with a simple antenna. This will give you an idea of what you can pick up without having to subscribe to some kind of service for it.
 
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