My dad is looking for a 47" ish HDTV. Im not very familiar with TV's at all. What should he look for; Brands? Plasma? LCD? 1080P?

I love my LG more than any other I own/have seen. <BR> <BR>I picked up a 50" (720p) for only $800 like a year ago... so I imagine now its much cheaper.

Helped me.. <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/749893.html?1265296974" target="_blank">http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/4387/749893.html?1265296974</a>

We just got a Samsung 46" LCD and it looks awesome with our DirecTV signal. Bought it at best buy with an extended warranty for four years of confidence. <BR> <BR>My parents have a Panasonic plasma that they bought at Best Buy with a warranty which is a good thing because they have had nothing but problems with it. It has a good picture too, but they have had it fixed no less than four times in less than two years, but best buy just keeps coming out and fixing it.

^^^ <BR>The dude at Best Buy told me Directv has the best HD in my area. He said it's coming in at 240hz. I think most plasmas are 600hz. He also told me not to skimp on the HDMI cable.

A cable's a cable, best buy tells you to buy 60$ per 4 foot of HDMI cable because their markup on those products is unbelievable.

You sure about that Dan? Different things I have read say some cables only support up to 60 hz.

Brandon, the first clue the BB guy is lying to you is that the HD signal does not come in at 240hz...that's the processing speed of your TV. <BR> <BR>I'm with dan. My 3$ HDMI cables work just as good as the 60$ ones.

I am sure it is still a controversial topic, but I do not understand how wire can be different from other wire. As long as the metal is pure and does not have any disconnects, the wire serves its purpose of just being a median for information to travel across. Some people cite the fact that monster cables are super coated and protected from outside waves and interference, but I personally don't know and I highly doubt that there is much in the average household that would interfere with the information traveling across an HDMI cable

Buying audio/video cables at a brick and mortar store is the biggest consumer rip-off since the pet rock. <BR> <BR>High-speed HDMI Category 2 1.3a rated cable will give you the exact same performance as the Firewire or Monster rip-offs at Best Buy. That $100+ cable at Best Buy is less than $6 here: <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&amp;cp_id=10240&amp;cs_id=102 4008&amp;p_id=4956&amp;seq=1&amp;format=2" target="_blank">http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&amp;cp_id=10240&amp;cs_id=102 4008&amp;p_id=4956&amp;seq=1&amp;format=2</a> <BR> <BR>You have to get 4' or longer for Cat2 rated cable. <BR> <BR>DON'T EVER buy an HDMI cable from Best Buy again! <BR> <BR>If I recall correctly, there are currently four types of HDMI cables on the market today. All are backward-compatible. The high-speed cat 2 (1.3a) cable can transmit a 1080p signal for at least 7.5 meters (25 feet). <BR> <BR>Here is the definitive source for everything HDMI: http://www.hdmi.org/index.aspx <BR> <BR>(Message edited by swass on February 16, 2010)

I should have started a thread on this before purchasing! Thanks for the heads up guys. I guess a sucker is born every minute...<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/uhoh.gif" border=0>

Looked through my favorites and dug up what appears to be a fairly legitimate and well explained (and easy to understand) answer about HDMI cables. I am sure there is some other link about how the brand does matter, but the way this article is written seems to be pretty neutral, as seen by the length explanation of the manufacturing process. <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/hdmi-cables.htm" target="_blank">http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/hdmi-cables.htm</a>