I knew, when I went over to Amazon to refresh my memory on the tech specs on this one, that I was in for a bit of trouble when I noted that their asking prices for the Olevia 537H had been cut from around twelve hundred bucks to…around half that.

And if I were willing to buy one used, they’d knock another three hundred bucks off the price.

Let this be a lesson, folks–sometimes the deepest discounts are on the stuff they want to get rid of the fasted.

The Olevia 537H is a thirty seven inch 720p LCD television with a VGA Input, two S-video inputs, a coaxial input, an optical input, one HDMI input, two composite inputs and three component inputs.

I had a horrible time with this model–the picture was washed out like a bad laundry service and the audio was merely fair.  The controls, however, were plenty easy to handle.  I don’t know if I got a bad model or what, but this was just sad, really.  It was like watching a television in the last few minutes before it announces it has colon cancer and dies.

I really can’t recommend this, no matter how little they charge.

All right, folks…a little chicanery for you today.

I want you all to know, especially any lawyers out there, that I did NOT invent this process nor do I condone or appear to condone any activity that may even vaguely be construed as illegal, immoral or unethical in perpetuity throughout the universe.

There.  That oughta shut the lawyers up.  Anyway, I found out over on Lifehacker that there’s a way to download streaming video on Netflix.

Dubbed the Netflix Download Links Greasemonkey, which is downloadable online, it allows you to bypass the various DRMs and such that prevent you from watching Netflix streaming content on anything but Windows Media Player, or prevent you from watching Netflix streaming content when you’re not in your house or near a WiFi connection of any decent speed.

In all honesty, we need something like this.  You know how many Netflix users out there don’t have sufficient internet bandwidth to USE a service that Netflix offers freely with subscription?  Plenty, that’s how many.

If you could go somewhere with WiFi and download video off Netflix to watch later, that would be a fantastic service for people with lesser bandwidth.  But, once again, that might fuel PIRACY, and we can’t have that, so for now people will be unable to use a service they pay for just to prevent other people from making a quick buck.

Thanks a LOT, Netflix.

LG, folks…it’s rapidly climbing to the top of my list when it comes to good buys in television.  And today’s model of choice, the LG 42LH90, is a prime model at or at least near the heavily cluttered top of LG’s phenomenal food chain.

The LG 42LH90 is a forty two inch 1080p LCD television with LED backlighting, as well as a host of other accessories like an intelligent system for reacting to ambient light levels in the room and, in turn, generating the correct amount of light for the best viewing experience possible.  Plus, it also features four HDMI ports and SRS TruSurround technology.

It’s a fantastic television, let’s be thoroughly honest here.  It has a fantastic picture and equally fantastic sound, along with profoundly simple buttons for controls that anyone can find right out of the box.  I resent virtually any move to hide controls that doesn’t involve a sliding panel of some sort, so this sort of thing is definitely welcome.

But considering that they’re asking fully eighteen hundred dollars for one of these, depending on where you shop, it had better be good.  Thankfully, the LG 42LH90 does deliver in terms of quality, though on terms of value, I’m not so sure.

Oh man…normally I don’t have much a problem when it comes to recommending Sony, but this model definitely is the exception.  It proves, handily, that even the best barrel of apples on Earth can have a rotten one or two snuck in.

The Sony KDL46S5100 is a forty six inch 1080p LCD television in the Bravia line, and as such comes with Bravia Sync and Bravia Link capability.  Plus, it also offers three HDMI ports, two component inputs and a PC input.

Now, I don’t know where they get off calling this a 1080p.  When I saw the horrible picture, packed full of more artifacts than the entire Tomb Raider series, I truly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Oh, sure, the sound was actually really good, but the picture was just horrendous.  It was almost like it couldn’t keep up with the image it was processing, so it was slipping a bit in the hertz cycle or something.

I usually have an easy time recommending people take a look at a Sony, but not this time.  This is just incredibly inferior to most of Sony’s own lineup.  And considering they’re charging about twelve hundred bucks for this is just an insult.

If you’re looking for a new television to round out your home theater, then I often recommend looking at LG models as they do a really nice job for not a huge amount of money.  The LG 42LH30 will definitely give you a lot of extra television for not a lot of extra cash.

The LG 42LH30 is a forty two inch 1080p LCD television with three HDMI ports, a composite input, a component input, a PC input, an “invisible speaker system” and both Picture Wizard and Clear Voice II technology.

Frankly, whatever all they put in it, it works.  The picture is really impressive, the sound is crisp and clear, and the controls are an easy set of rocker switches for most every control.  I couldn’t even spot artifacts looking up close, and you’ll probably never be as close as I got even after you buy it.  And considering that these retail for eight hundred and fifty bucks (though you’ll probably be able to do a whole lot better now), you’re definitely in the prime position to make a great buying decision.  The LG 42LH30 is one of those.

And in what might well be the greatest slap in literally EVERYBODY’S face, about three months after the government forced everybody in the United States to buy a converter box or never see over the air television again, they’re already thinking about going back on the deal and taking back some of the digital TV spectrum to develop a new wireless broadband system.

Here’s the really unpleasant part–seems that all the folks out there who bought new antennas and new TVs and converter boxes and such so they could continue to, you know, actually watch TV may just wind up getting screwed over in the end.  If the government goes ahead and takes back the DTV spectrum, it’s entirely possible that some people will completely lose television.  They’ll be literally required by federal mandate to sign up for cable or satellite if they want any television signal at all.

Oh, you want proof of such an outrage?  Try this:

The Consumer Electronics Association weighed in with a study that found taking back the DTV spectrum would cost $12 billion in payments to broadcasters and another $9 million to “migrate all households that rely on over-the-air broadcasts to subscription services.” But it would also bring in $62 billion from new users. Bear in mind that the feds have just spent $2.15 billion to implement the DTV transition, which reached its climax on June 12, 2009.

Catch that?  “Migrate all households that rely on over-the-air broadcasts to subscription services”.  That means no more free TV.  Not that it was really that free to begin with once all the upgrading was done.

I don’t look for this to end well.

You may never have heard of a Haier television before.  It’s not quite as big a name as Sony or Samsung or Sharp.  But what it is, especially the HL42R, is a surprisingly good value for a company you’ve never heard of before.

The Haier HL42R is a forty two inch 1080p LCD television that comes with two HDMI inputs, two component inputs and a PC input.

So it doesn’t exactly come with a whole lot of bells and whistles, but what it DOES come with is a decent picture (there are a few artifacts when you get in close) and the sound is pretty good.  Plus the controls are very simple to operate.  But what this actually represents is something particularly exciting–a 1080p flatscreen television that weighs in at right around six hundred bucks, depending on where you shop.

Stop and wrap your head around that for a second–a nice, fairly big, fairly simple to use forty inch 1080p for six hundred bucks?  That’s no small accomplishment, and no shame at all.  In fact, for the value-minded, the Haier HL42R should be the answer to their prayers.

OmniMount, the global leader in A/V mounting Zand furniture solution, recently unveiled three new VideoBasics low profile flat panel TV mounts, the VFM, VFL and VFX. All three mounts has been engineered to minimize mounting profile, while meeting proper panel installation requirements.

All three TV mounts offers .75 inches mounting profile, making sure there is enough space for panel cooling and connectivity. The panel mounts features Lift n’ Lock™ for easy installation, locking bar for added safety and sliding lateral on-wall adjustment. For maximum compatibility and simplified wiring these TV mounts features universal rails, open architecture and an installation template.

Manufactured with the best quality standards, the VFM, VFL and VFX TV mounts are durable as well as functional with an innovative design. All the three sizes are designed to fit almost any medium to extra large flat panel. The VFM, VFL and VFX are priced $79.95, $99.95 and $119.95, respectively.

So once again, Sony steadfastly refuses to disappoint me, putting out a high quality television system that feels a lot bigger than it looks and generally provides value like no tomorrow with the Sony KDL46XBR9.

The Sony KDL46XBR9 television is a forty six inch 1080p LCD television with Bravia Link and Bravia Sync technology, a networked TV guide program, and a superabundance of ports, including four HDMI inputs, one HD component input, one HD combination input, and one PC input.

This one is a lot like an earlier model we covered here, the Sony KDL46Z5100, in that it too has a beautiful picture and very fine sound quality.  The interesting departure from that earlier Sony is that this one actually manages to FEEL like it has just as big a picture as the KDL46Z5100, but in a slightly smaller overall unit, giving you the feeling like you’re saving on space yet not needing to compromise on picture quality.

Ordinarily, this retails for about twenty six hundred bucks but Amazon’s actually knocking just over a grand off the price bringing this down to just over fifteen hundred.  And even though that’s a pretty big price tag, you’re still coming away with incredible value.

Normally, when I talk about Samsung hardware, I usually have a problem with something.  Well, I always have a problem with the controls, but I mean besides that.  This time around I have a problem with something other than the controls, and it’s actually pretty disturbing. Read on.

The Samsung LN40B530 is a forty inch 1080p LCD television with two ten watt speakers, SRS TruSurround, and three HDMI inputs), one Anynet+ input, and one PC input.

First, I actually don’t have a problem at all with the controls.  They’re side-mounted rocker controls, not those strange subcutaneous ones mounted on the front.  The sound is at least fair, which I generally don’t expect out of Samsung.  Generally, their sound is high quality.  But the biggest problem with this one is that the picture was oddly washed out, which is definitely not something I expect in a Samsung, and especially not in a Samsung 1080p.

And considering that this washed out wreck with merely fair sound costs nine hundred bucks, I can’t even look like recommending it.

If you’re looking for a smaller TV for, say, a bedroom or the basement or something similar, you may want to consider part of the new Vizio lineup of televisions, a nineteen inch and a twenty three inch television that both have a profile thickness of just under an inch.

Now here’s the interesting part–these two actually use LEDs as backlight for the front panel.  While only the  twenty three incher is 1080p, both feature 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratios, 5ms response times and 300 nits of brightness.  And both of them also offer two HDMI inputs, a PC input, SRS TruVolume so that when you go from the nature show to the used car ad you’re not blasted out of the room, and SRS TruSurround HD.

The phrase “tiny but mighty” comes to mind here, even if the prices of three hundred fifty and four hundred dollars respectively is a bit salty for such small units from Vizio.

Sometimes even a company like Sharp, who I rely on to put out lots of choice hardware, can let me down.  That’s okay in the long run–you can’t win ‘em all, plain and simple. And the Sharp LC40E67U is just proof of that old maxim.

The Sharp LC40E67U is a forty inch 1080p LCD that comes with four HDMI inputs, two component video inputs, a PC input and an RS-232 port.  Plus it comes with something called Vyper Drive game mode that improves game display.  Plus, it’s got an expected product life of sixty thousand hours.

Well, the one I was working with must have been pushing the end of that particular envelope because, while the sound was pretty sharp and clear, as I usually expect from Sharp, the picture on the model I was working with seemed surprisingly washed out, especially odd for a 1080p.  The controls, on the other hand, work just fine.

So maybe your mileage may vary on this one.  But what I experienced was a Sharp with decent sound, good controls and a picture that had seen better days.  Especially bad news considering they’re charging at least five hundred fifty bucks for it used.  There are much better Sharps out there, especially for the money.

You know, with the economy the way it’s been for the last several months now and everything, we’ve all considered some ways to make cutbacks.  And first on the chopping block is usually stuff like entertainment.

I’ve been a Dish Network subscriber at various levels for five years this September.  I’ve tried all the packages and sort of settled in where I like it.  Oh, sure, I wish I could have more of an a la carte setup instead of having to stick with the packages they offer, but on the whole, I’ve enjoyed it.

Well, today, I got my bill after a particularly tortuous package shift.  I got a three month trial of HBO and Showtime, and it’s been pretty good.  Not really worth an extra twenty two bucks a month, especially when my Netflix account will pour my choice of movies on me, and never repeat, for about the same amount of cash in a month.  It’s due to expire this weekend.

So what do I find in my bill?  That they’ve CHARGED me for next month.

Needless to say, I was hot.  I called them right up and said, hey, this is a load.  I’m not paying for a free trial.  They explain to me that, because they bill a month in advance, they had to charge the twenty two bucks but would credit it to me on the next month’s bill. If I DIDN’T pay the charge I didn’t owe, they would tack a LATE CHARGE onto the next month’s bill, because I didn’t pay the full amount of the bill, despite the fact I didn’t owe the money.

And I got hotter still.  They expected me to give them an interest-free loan for twenty two bucks for a month.  And if I refused to front them the dough, they were going to CHARGE ME MORE, because I didn’t pay a charge that I didn’t owe in the first place!

But, thanks to the valiant effort of operator DNP, a fella named Jeremy, the charge was taken off my bill completely, override codes were used, and forms were filled out.  Now I don’t owe near what I did.

That’s why I won’t leave Dish Network after all.  These guys are GOOD.

Sharp, especially the Sharp Aquos, has given me a lot of excellent televisions to discuss over the last few months, and the Sharp Aquos LC52E77U is another in a lengthening series of excellent pieces to mention.

What makes is so fantastic?  Well, first off, it’s got an incredible picture.  The sound quality is excellent for a standalone television unaugmented by a home theater kit, and the controls are easy to use right out of the box.

But it’s not just a great experience–it’s also plenty of sweet hardware backing the play.  It’s a fifty two inch 1080p LCD TV with five HDMI ports, two component ports, a PC input, and an expected lifetime of sixty thousand hours.

Sixty thousand hours.  That’s the equivalent of nearly SEVEN YEARS of nonstop operation.  Assume an eight hour day of watching TV every day and you up that expected runtime into two decades.  The sheer durability of this piece, along with its incredible technical profile, actually makes it worth the nineteen hundred bucks they want for it at retail.  Of course, as always, shop around–you can get a used one on Amazon for just over a grand.

All things considered, though, this is an excellent piece I’d easily recommend to anyone.

I know that I just took Sony to task a couple days ago for their less than quality KDL, but today I’m here to praise Sony for the high quality they’ve put out in the form of the Sony KDL46X5100.

The Sony KDL465100 is a forty six inch 1080p LCD television with an integrated TV guide package (not specifically released or endorsed by TV Guide, at least I don’t think there’s a connection), Bravia widgets and internet video packages, and a whole slew of ports including Get versatile HD connection options with four HDMI inputs, one HD combination input, and one PC input.

The sound and picture on this one are absolutely beautiful (frankly, “breathtaking” might be a better word for that incredible 1080p picture) and the controls are smooth and easy to operate.  Of course, this had better be a great setup for what they’re charging for it–this sucker retails for about twenty two hundred bucks, but as always, your mileage may vary.  In fact, Amazon took about a third off the price and knocked it down to seventeen hundred.

Still, if you’re not afraid of that monster price tag then you’ll do just fine with this positively amazing TV.

Samsung is a strange line of television–seems like for every problem I have, I find something interesting to counter it.  And this model is no different in its study of contrasts.  Today we’re talking about the Samsung LN4B5750, a television that shows that you generally can’t have everything.

The Samsung LN4B5750 is a forty six inch 1080P LCD television that comes with four HDMI ports, two component jacks, one PC input slot, and two composite video inputs; two ten watt bottom speakers and SRS TruSurround HD for that little extra burst of surround sound joy.

And the sound is, doubtlessly, the very best feature on this television.  It’s very clear and very precise.  But there’s a strange anomaly, at least with the one I saw, that left me unable to get a lot of enjoyment out of this television.  The picture is oddly compressed.  I’m not sure what the deal was or why I was watching a flattened, vaguely squashed picture, but man, it did NOT bode well.

Maybe with some tweaks the problem can be taken care of, but until those tweaks are made, if you do get the Samsung LN4B5750, I’d keep the receipt handy.

Frankly, I don’t take Sony to task very often. I don’t have much call to.  But with the release of the Sony KDL52XBR9, now I do.  I don’t like that I do, but I do nonetheless.

The Sony KDL52XBR9 is a fifty two inch 1080p LCD television with Bravia Link and Bravia Sync capability, as well as a host of ports and slots, including four HDMI inputs, one component input, one combination input, and a PC input.

It’s not that I have a problem with the slots and ports available–it’s that I have a problem with the fact that I only just covered a Samsung that was about the same price as this particular Sony model (the Sony KDL52XBR9 retails for thirty one hundred dollars depending on where you shop), and slightly larger, and yet the Samsung just literally BLEW the Sony out of the water on every available front.

If I can buy a bigger, better TV for the same price as a smaller inferior model then why on EARTH would I ever encourage anyone to buy the lesser model?  I can’t, not in any good conscience, and so I’m telling you you probably want to stay away from the Sony KDL52XBR9.

Sony has probably realized that selling cheaper TVs might be the way to go, particularly during these economic times. According to rumors Sony is going to launch a new but very cheap LCD TV line. The B series will include 32- and 40-inch models which should be a lot cheaper than the current S-series entry-level models. The 32-inch B series model is going to cost around $463 or even lower but nothing is certain yet. This wallet-friendly LCD TV line will be available at some point early next year although Sony hasn’t officially announced the B-series just yet.

via DigiTimes

This represents a great surprise for me, as well as an opportunity to actually say something nice, without qualification or reservation, about a Samsung set.  Believe me, I’m stunned too.

Today we’re talking about the best Samsung television I’ve found to talk about yet, the Samsung LN52B530.  The Samsung LN52B530 is a fifty two inch 1080p LCD television, with different visual modes including a game mode to cut down on blurring while playing games, a built in digital tuner, and a whole series of ports, including three HDMI inputs, a PC input, and something called an Anynet+ input, which frankly I have never seen before.

This is the part where, normally, I would complain about Samsung’s ridiculous subcutaneous control model, but not today.  See, they’ve FINALLY figured out that you can put controls for a TV on the SIDE of the TV, and make them into visible rocker switches.  Yes, the hard to find front panel controls are gone on this model, replaced with fairly standard rocker switches.  The picture and sound are also excellent, so there’s really not much bad to say about this television that I can find.

Well, maybe the price–eighteen hundred bucks retail IS pretty huge in terms of price–but considering the quality of this setup, it’s actually pretty fair.

So I got to try out a Samsung UN55B6000 and even I have to admit that I was stunned by this one.  It’s a truly impressive hunk of television.

First, it’s got some plain old awesome specs on it.  it’s a fifty five inch 1080p LED television that includes Infolink feeds off your broadband connection (so in a really, really limited way, this is almost a net capable television, which is by itself a thing of beauty), four HDMI slots, one component slot, two USB ports, one Ethernet jack (for that Infolink setup), one PC input (use it as a monitor OR a netsurfer!) , and one optical digital audio output.

But it’s not just the specs that make this a fantastic system–it also features excellent picture and sound.  There weren’t even any artifacts in the colors or movement from distances as close as a foot, or at least, none that I noticed.  Of course, the normal Samsung control scheme is still in play, which I’m never happy about, but frankly, I’m beginning to even warm to that just a bit.  i still prefer my clear buttons and rocker switches, but I can understand why someone might enjoy the hidden controls.

At any rate, this is an excellent overall setup, but be prepared to pay for the excellence.  This sucker costs a whopping thirty four hundred bucks, depending on where you shop.  But it really is a magnificent set.