What video game are you playing?

marakh wrote:I suggest waiting for boxing days if you guys want to buy games.
THere are tons of great deals.

Kinda hard marking it "From Santa" when you shop on Boxing Day.

Oh, and, by the way, lots of deals around that are as good as Boxing Day that are happening in the weeks leading up to it. For example, Dell.ca recently had their 11 days of deals. The last deal (today) has a 32" 1080p set for $550 -- that's $250 off the regular price (and Dell's regular prices are pretty good to begin with). 31% off on a *non-obsolete* TV is about as good as you will see. I bought my Harmony 880 just just before Christmas a couple of years ago (also during Dell.ca's days of deals) for $99. Two years later it is still selling for $130 on sale at Costco (and more at other places). As far as I know it never got to the $100 price point in any Boxing Day sale (except for, perhaps, a refurb unit).

MMh, I think you can easily find a samsung 32" 1080p at that price... without the fear of shipping from dell.ca.

For $1000 nowadays, you can get a 40" 1080p, 1 year old series.
Best TV deals are always on Boxing days, especially those that have 10 per store.

ANyways, the bible for Holiday season:
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/

Marakh, yes, you can find a 1080p Samsung at BB for $700, but there are significant differences. The Philips set (Dell.ca) is a 120Hz machine, which lets you see native 24fps for blu-ray movies. The Samsung is 60Hz which means 2:3 pulldown and the accompanying motion artifacts. Granted, it's only a 32" TV so you're not likely to be watching a lot of movies on it. That's the biggest reason I didn't jump at it -- I'm looking for a bedroom set to plug in the Wii and watch some TV; the PS3 is replacing the Wii on the main TV. But if there was a 720p set at 31% off I probably would have jumped at it.

The prices you are quoting for the 40" will likely get you something like an Insignia or Dynex, or it will be a 60Hz TV. Plus I wasn't talking about $1000 but about $550 -- that's a significant difference.

My TV I got at BestBuy when they mistakingly advertised a Toshiba 40" 1080p LCD for $599. They fought about how it was an error and they retracted it but I fought and they gave it to me for $799, $100 cheaper than the regular price of $899. Not a huge savings, but I was somewhat happy. They threw in a screen cleaning kit.

You can get 40" full-HD TV's for about $800 now.

Full-HD used to mean 1080p, but if I was buying a 40" TV now I'd want it to be 120Hz as well so that it could play 24 fps. Then I'd want it to have at least 4 HDMI inputs (3 on the back and one on the front/side). Things are getting more complicated. And more expensive.

Apart from the bedroom TV, my next one will be to replace the main one in the family room -- the wife doesn't want a big rear-projection unit dominating the main-floor; it will have to go in the basement and she wants a smaller one above the fireplace. So I'm thinking 42", perhaps a bit bigger, and definitely 120Hz 1080p. That, plus the installation (to run/hide cables) will run me a lot more than $800, I'm afraid. And if I go for a bracket to hang it on a wall (tilt/swivel) then add another $250-500.

And, you know what, it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than before. Think about it. 16 years ago I bought a 32" CRT for something like $1300. In today's dollars that would be around $1650 (1.5% annual inflation). Since my salary had grown much more than cost of living, it's even more in *my* dollars. 25 years ago I spent $1200 on a 28" TV and $1150 on a high-fi VCR. I don't even want to think how much that would be in today's dollars, but it certainly would be more than the $300 I'm paying for my blu-ray player (PS3). Still, I grumble, complain and suffer buyer's remorse.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926HDS0010124622&catid=24558&PCName=tv_1000_1999&logon=&langid=EN

1099$, 4HDMI inputs, 120HZ, 24p movies, just what Doctor Wprager ordered. You would get that at less than 1000 on boxing day

EDIT: It's 998$ already:

http://www.visions.ca/catalogue/category/Details.aspx?categoryId=14&productId=4412&gclid=CPyw2Imc0Z4CFQk75QodDA0Epw

EDIT2: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=BDL10004104&CMP=BAC-FS_hbad_t1_s1-EN#

OMG, I don't know if I can resist this

Wow, that 2nd Sharp is quite a discount. See, I doubt you'll see anything better than this (in this particular case that's a 33.33% discount; the Dell deal was 31%) on Boxing Day. Certainly not in that price range -- they might have 50% or more on DVDs and other smaller stuff, but the margin on those is bigger to begin with.

But the first one you listed definitely beats the Samsung. But the Philips has 2 ms response time versus 4 for the Sharp. Then, again, 32" vs. 40" is two entirely different segments. I definitely would not need 24 fps or even 1080p for the 32" set because it would go upstairs in the bedroom. While I wouldn't call the 40" a "Home Theatre" set it could definitely be the main set in a family room. I'm thinking 42" or maybe slightly bigger for over-the-fireplace in our place. If only that Sharp was 2" bigger

By the way, I was in Barrhaven today dropping the kids off and did some shopping. Tried to gran the last copy of NHL 10 for $39.83 but it rang through at the old $69.83 price. After waiting about a half hour to talk to a supervisor, who then had to go to a manager who looked it up on-line, it appears that this was a special that was over yesterday. It was not in the flyer, and it was not the same in all stores, however it appears to be a sort of a rotating sale:

Right now, in Barrhaven, NHL 10 for the XBox is $39.83. In Kanata, NHL 10 for the PS3 is $39.83. Maybe I can still pick it up for $40 at the Kanata location.
So if anyone is looking to get NHL 10 check out for rotating sales in different local stores. And definitely get FS to price match it to get another $3 off.

Actually, the Kanata WalMart has both the PS3 and XBox versions of NHL 10 for $39.83.

FS dropped theirs by $20 to $49.99, so if you price-match it will only get you an extra $1.

There is going to be a monster sale somewhere on a TV this boxing day...like balls to the walls nuts...the kind of deal that starts riots. I can just feel it. TVs have been slowly getting cheaper for HD units and it just seems like there's going to be a bundle somewhere...sony TV + PS3 for like 500 or something ridiculous.

They want to start moving titles on blu-ray, both new ones and catalogue titles. In my case, I've already got the HDTV, so it was a matter of getting the player. If someone doesn't have either the player or the TV, that's a huge jump. So, yeah, if they want to move more titles they just might have to lost money on the hardware.

There's only one catalog title that I already have that I'm thinking of getting on blu-ray, and that's The Fifth Element. Of course if older titles were selling for $5-8 like they are on DVD, then I'd probably be inclined to "upgrade" a few more.

wprager wrote:They want to start moving titles on blu-ray, both new ones and catalogue titles. In my case, I've already got the HDTV, so it was a matter of getting the player. If someone doesn't have either the player or the TV, that's a huge jump. So, yeah, if they want to move more titles they just might have to lost money on the hardware.

There's only one catalog title that I already have that I'm thinking of getting on blu-ray, and that's The Fifth Element. Of course if older titles were selling for $5-8 like they are on DVD, then I'd probably be inclined to "upgrade" a few more.

Some are just too good on blu-ray compared to standard dvd...like Planet Earth for instance.

War movies are the best blu-ray movies IMO. The sound of the bullets are pretty impressive.

marakh wrote:War movies are the best blu-ray movies IMO. The sound of the bullets are pretty impressive.

Heat on blu-ray. I don't own a blu-ray player, but I would buy one just for that movie alone.

I have about 50 blu-ray movies now, the best ones are definitely Band of Brothers, Generation Kill, Planet earth, Lost and Braveheart. A lot of war movies and TV series.
Live concerts are definitely great too, John Mayer, Led Zepp and Hendrix sound great in HD.

marakh wrote:War movies are the best blu-ray movies IMO. The sound of the bullets are pretty impressive.

I know I'll probably lose some rep points for saying this, but my "audio system" consists of the speakers on my TV. One day ...