Quote Originally Posted by SuperChuck View Post
Best thing you can do looking at TVs is LOOK at TVs. When I look at TVs, I spend hours just wandering around Best Buys and Circuit Cities staring at TVs. Stare up close, stare far away. Try to forget your brand loyalties.

It also helps to think about what you really want. When I bought my current tube TV everyone wanted to know why I didn't get a "big screen". Because I wanted a flat screen and a wide viewing angle. At the time, that meant sacrificing size for image quality.

Harv mentioned it, I've mentioned it before as well, get the Avia Guide to Home Theater Setup. It's $40 on Amazon or you can get it for around $30 on eBay. If you have a surround system, you're gonna need a sound pressure meter from radio shack (slurge and get the digital one).

I tune my TV and surround every 6 months or so. The first time you do it, you will be completely blown away.

Televisions are factory tuned to look good in a brightly lit store. If they were tuned for your dimly lit living room, they would look too dim in the store and you wouldn't buy them.

And surround sound needs to be balanced in order to operate properly. Part of the power of surround sound is the ability to transfer a sound from one speaker to another cleanly. In order to accomplish this, the sound output of the speakers must be equal. If you listen to Saving Private Ryan on an unbalanced system, you hear noise all around you. If you listen on a balanced system, you can actually hear bullets whizzing past your head.

The DVD has a whole porttion devoted to speaker placement and stuff like that, too.

And the most important part: ask people. If I didn't check in here, I wouldn't have George yelling at me to get an extended warranty and it never would have crossed my mind. :)
Its a little early for me to think about dropping serious cash on a tv, but I know it will happen soon. I've also had friends who have worked at Bestbuy spout off their knowledge to me and it has peaked my interest. One of these days...