Hope you guys can help a confused old guy--I just can't keep up any more!

I'm looking to buy an LCD TV that I can mount on the wall, and the only reason I'm even considering a modern set is that it won't take any floor space.

Everything seems to be HDTV nowadays, which holds zero interest for me. I have regular old cable, analog not digital, will probably never have anything better unless absolutely forced to. I don't really watch much TV, and only the occasional DVD.

So what should I be looking for? I've heard varying reports that an HDTV hooked to analog cable looks like crap. The only non-HD sets I've seen lately have been smaller sizes (I'm looking for a 25-incher or so). Do I need a digital tuner? ATSC? NTSC?

As you can tell, I'm not looking for anything fancy and don't want to invest thousands of clams in something I'm not going to use very much.

Geez, I like the old days much better when all you had to do was decide to get another B/W or finally give in and go color...:D

veg

most brands when they fail you are sh*t out of luck as far as replacement parts. which brands would i consider. hitachi sony samsung sharp is a good one there are parts avalible for these and i am sure for other brands as well. but some are designed for a very limited life. you get what you pay for now days. i have a olivia 30" lcd that was given to me because of a bad inverter it is part of the lcd panel so olevia says. i took it apart and fixed it using it for a computer monitor now. it was a $1699.00 set new and it is built like a tank. why they made the inverter a part of the panel is stupid. but there is a place that sells them now for $179.00 lcdtvparts.com i would however buy an extended warranty with any new lcd or plasma. dlp that is a joke $200.00 and up blubs color wheels that spin at 7200 rpm. they are going to break i am seeing a lot of failing dlp,s. very few lcd,s in for repair. steve

Veg-o-matic-

The best thing to do is probably go and look at some LCD TVs at local stores. The "bad news", but maybe good for what you want to see, is that most of the stores do not know how to switch and connect their TVs, so you will see more plain analog/non-hi-def signals on the LCDs in the stores anyway, and you can judge for yourself how they look. As rcaman said, Sony, Sharp, and Samsung are the better brands for LCD TVs (and they cost more than "no-name" brands, too). Look for a recent Consumer Reports magazine article on LCD TVs-they may have ideal advice for someone like you who is not interested in being a fanatic about HDTV but just wants something that looks good with the basics. If you are used to a 25" TV now, you should get a 27" or 32" LCD TV, depending on your space and budget. (All LCDs except a few smaller ones are "wide screen" now.)

Regarding all the buzz words and acronyms:

ATSC is the new "digital TV" for signals from an antenna, over-the-air, free TV. You should get a TV with this built-in, and at this point almost all TVs do have it, even the standard CRT TVs.

NTSC is the soon-to-go-away analog TV from antennas we have been watching since 1946. Most or all TVs still have this, too, but you will not need it after spring 2009.

QAM is the digital version of an analog "Cable-ready" TV, as most TVs have been since the 1980's. If you plan to keep using cable TV, and especially if you have the cheapest, basic cable service, QAM is definitely a good feature to have. All cable-TV systems will eventually be all-digital, and having QAM on your TV means you can still get your cable channels without paying for a cable box when they change to digital.

Personally, I would ride the analog train until the wheels fall off. But if you must have a hang-on-wall set, at least wait till after Christmas when stores will be begging you to take that crap, at a loss!

For what it's worth, I've never owned a Samsung product that worked properly.

The main problem with NTSC on a HD TV is that the circuit that upscales it to fit the HD screen often introduces nasty artifacts. Some of them make every little bit of noise in the signal very noticeable. On the other hand, some go too far with digital noise reduction and make everything look like a cartoon. I have seen HD sets that do a good job with NTSC. You will just have to look at them and don't be afraid to adjust things in the menus. Some of the digital processing can be turned on and off.

My favorite modern brand right now is probably Panasonic. They are the only company that I've never caught selling rebranded third rate electronics.

Coby makes a few "42" LCD sets i'll get one when i go off to a real college with a dorm! Or just keep my symphonic Ztru-flat CRT TV.

Personally, I would ride the analog train until the wheels fall off.

That's exactly what I intend to do, when digital takes over for analog in less than 18 months from now. I have two analog TVs (RCA CTC-185 and Zenith SMS1917SG, almost eight and twelve years old, respectively) that are still working very well; it would be a shame, IMHO, to throw these sets out just because of changes in the technical standards for TV broadcasting. I have Time-Warner digital cable (have had for about three years or so now), so I am ready for the day when analog goes dark. I upgraded to digital cable when the first warnings came out that "your analog TV will go dark in 2009", but as it turns out, I could have kept my analog cable until the standards actually changed, as my cable company assures me that when the analog signals do disappear, the cable system itself will still be carrying NTSC signals usable with analog sets. I read, I think it was here in AK on one of the TV forums, that cable systems, and TV stations themselves for that matter, will not be forced to transmit in HD; the FCC is only requiring stations to carry a digital signal along with the analog one for the time being. On cable it won't make any difference because, again as I read in one of AK's forums, cable systems are not and will not be required to carry digital signals; in fact, when the analog stations go off the air, the broadcast channels will still be carried using the NTSC standard--in other words, cable systems are not bound by the same regulations as TV stations, so if your cable system decides it will carry all of the local broadcast channels in NTSC, it may do so. I imagine this option will have to be available for some time after the analog signals go dark, as there will be literally millions of analog sets in use 18 months from now; contrary to what has been said about the subject, people are not going to throw out their perfectly good analog TVs by the hundreds in early February 2009, unless the sets are defective or going bad anyway.

BTW, what can I expect to see on my analog TVs when the analog signals here go off the air, being replaced by digital? Will my picture look as if it is being presented in letterbox format or will cable companies have the technology to downconvert the picture to 4:3 aspect ratio? The issue does not necessarily bother me; I'm just curious to know what to expect a year and a half or so from now.

It is my understanding that only the signals broadcast over the air are affected(This makes sense, the money to be made is in selling the analog TV spectrum for other uses). In fact, I have heard that the cable and satellite companies are set to begin an ad campain to re-assure their customers that their TVs will not become obsolete in 2009.

I have and HDTV converter and also have seen the effects of HDTV on my analog broadcast channels here already. If HDTV is being broadcast, black bars appear at the bottom and top of the picture. Otherwise, it is just as always, with the picture filling the entire screen.

I have my HD converter set the same. If the picture is HD and the new aspect ratio, I get a picture with two bars above and below on an analog TV. If the picture is the old aspect ratio(many commercials seem to be this way), I also get small bars on both sides. I could set it for full screen, but have not done so yet.