After months of research i had to buy my new yesterday. when i say had i mean literally, my brother got fired from best buy and we figured we can still use his employee discount for the remainder of the day and it worked. i got the sony kdf-55xs955. its sonys 2nd to top of the line model. it looks soo nice.
god it is such a relief to finally buy something. buying a tv requires hours of research. i also work on electronics and knew i didnt want a dlp from the jump. around our shop we call those job security. but after all these years im still loyal to sony. now im faced with a new problem, i need something to put it on. as much as i want the stock stand for it, it wont hold my center channel, its huge. well now my home theatre is almost complete all i need is my subwoofer, which i am going to hold off on for a while, theres too much bass as is. i got some crap i got to sell now too my front projector and a 25" edtv. if anyones interested let me know.

 

why did ur bro get fired?

 

Why didn't you want the DLP? No light control in your room?

 

yea those dlps are nuts, my buddy copped one the day they came out, he got the 62 if im not mistaken, ****** tv was actually crazy. samsung>sony imo

btw: for any dvd xbox/ps2's get monster component wires, and only monsters, it makes all the difference in the world. playin xbox in HDTV with monster cables is quite an experience, speically with a killer surround system[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

Congrats on the new purchase. I got an HDTV a few months ago at a reasonable price and am not hooked on it. A lot of you helped me with advices back then and thanks to you, I'm now able to enjoy it with my Dolby Digital 5.1 to its fullest extent. The show could be about watching paint dry and I'm still amazed at the quality of the picture!!

 

i stayed away from dlp because my research sent me away. i was all about it in the beginning but then i went to a pretty big tv repair shop near me (do the warranty work for best buy and circuit city) and those guys said they call DLP job security not that they said a ton about lcd projection but to them it was the lesser of two evils. plus ive always liked sony over mitsubishi. dlp is also limited cause you can only get those mirrors so flat. but i dont think you can go wrong no matter what you buy these days some do some things better than others but i never saw anything that did this a thousand times better than this. there are only the smallest differences.
i just got my brother a job with me and he was working at bb part time. i only wanted him there for the discount. he came in one day from bb to here and realized he still had the store key in his pocket and asked me to drop it off, which i felt suspect about anyway, but i did and he got fired for giving me the key for all of 10 minutes. whatever though bb got what they deserved.

this was the fianl piece to my home theatre. 7.1 surround all big infinty beta's (center channel is 2ft by 1 ft by 1ft). insane high power reciever and now the big tv. it definately beats hearing people talking in a movie theatre.

 

i def need one of those, gotta stop spending money on beer

 

about the cabling, i think some of it is a rip off. think about it, i could be wrong but any digital connection uses impulse of 0's and 1's so those dont have to be insane quality unless you need a long cable (attenuation). i did buy all monster stuff which is about a 800 dollar investment on just cable but then i was installing thing when i re-did my living room for the tv and realized this is a optical cable, its light, how can it be made better or worst by cable. then i thought anything digital shouldn't be heavily affected by cable. but analog use amplitude and frequency manipulation so i can see the point there.

update: i have watched more dicovery channel then ever now, im hooked. i think im gonna have the isf techs come out and do a calibration. curiosity has me hooked , how can it get better.

 

very nice choice on the the 55xs955. i work in a high end custom home theatre installation company and we sell that model. i'd say that its among the top 5 we sell. but as far as top of the line...there is absolutly no contest (from any brand/ any technology) to the sony qualia with their sxrd's or projectors. it is stunning, and you honestly will not believe how crystal clear this looks. this new technology is the way hd is meant to be viewed. if i had 13,000 to blow, and managed to get on the wait list for these things (already into next year), their 70 inch sxrd would be mine in a heart beat.

about the optical cables, there are MAJOR differences in cable type and manufacturers. Monster has a decent quality cable when it comes to signal loss and clarity. as far as digital signals, yes it is 0's and 1's but the signal being sent down the line is trying to "leak out" of the line through the insulation, as well as signals trying to get in through the jacket. and with opticals the size of the center conductor and the thickness of the conductor have an affect on how much signal loss you get and "noise".

so it might sound like bs when salesmen try to sell you expesive cables, but there are reasons behind why they are expensive (quality, what they are made from, size of conductors/insulation, jackets, sheilding - dual/foil/braided) and they make a world of difference. having a quality home theatre is IMPOSSIBLE to do it cheap. you get what you pay for, there is no way around it. any time you can pay more for a technology you usualy see a linear increase in quality.

just fyi...

 

yeah i wish i had qualia money that would have been my first choice. but i did get the moster cables and thanks for all the good info. also do you know anything about the isf calibrations? you think its worth it? and also i realized i need to upgrade my dvd player im thinking about that one sony has out that upgrades the signal to 720p and the hdmi output. or should i wait for hd dvd's to come out ( but then again i have no idea when it will be out.)
where are you located? if your local i'd really appreciate getting some of your input on things. i am really self councious when it come to my home theatre and i need the seal of approval from as many people as possible.