I need a TV and am not a tv guy - suggestions?

[blainegarrett]

Hey, I want to by a badass tv for my new joint. Obviously I don't want to spend more than I need to, but there are some things I sorta want:
- Flat Panel or a tv I can mount to the wall
- Networked? I heard there are TVs you can play shit off of a server and they double as a picture frame.
- Similarly, it would be rad to be able to hook in USB or VGA or Digital Video (I'm a mac dork) and play movies and shit off my laptop.... especially for when the Nutflix Watch now client comes for mac.
- Preferably under a grand...
- Preferably powered by lightning and souls

Ok. Any of you dudes/dudettes who are way more into tv shit than I am got any recommendations?

[Abraham Smashington]

Corey needs to get up in this.

[patronsaintofcheeseburgers]

Look into the HP and/or Dell Tv's, I think they fall under most of the shit you are looking for.

[Abraham Smashington]

As far as I know the "picture frame" tv's are only Sharp Aquaos ones, and most tv's now have SD/Memory card readers (mine does and is 2 years old) that would kind of do the same thing.

[blainegarrett]

My buddy dave told me about this:
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

Holy fuck. And supposedly they are in talks with netflix to integrate the "watch now" stuff... and the interface is apache/html/css so a dork like me who does that for a living could totally customize it. My buddy said someone threw python onto it and did screen scrapes of IMDB to show the actors,etc when you selected a movie. Holy tits macgee.

[Abraham Smashington]

Hmmms...when something is too good to be true, it usually is....

But that does look kinda sweet. I really don't need anything likt that with my media center pc/360/ps3 but if that pans out and gets some decent reviews, I may have to look in to that.

[nerdious dorkus]

As far as I know the "picture frame" tv's are only Sharp Aquaos ones, and most tv's now have SD/Memory card readers (mine does and is 2 years old) that would kind of do the same thing.

i believe rob is right... but the aquos can run kind of high depending on how big you want your tv...

[blainegarrett]

Word. Yeah, obviously i need to look into shit more before doing anything, but I am in no hurry either.

I would love to have access to all the shit, but I hate having all the crap sitting there in an entertainment center and having some AV switcher gizmo. Suddently, your living room is full of cables and boxes and shit. If i could throw a server down in the basement and access it via a low power networked gizmo like that one, that would solve my problems I think. I don't play consoles anymore really so that aspect is a non-issue for me anywho... blasphemous, i know.

thanks for the suggestions guys. I think this gives me some fodder to work with.

[Abraham Smashington]

But also, the PS3 = the best blu-ray player out there. You'll want a blu-ray player when you get your 1080p tv. Also, sony is intalks with netflix in having their on demand service be on the PS3. Plus, built in wi-fi. Plus streaming shit from your computer. Just sayin....

[blainegarrett]

That is a good point. I will have to talk to my brother. He bought a plasma and got a free PS3. I'll see how much he enjoys it. It would be nice to have one remote vs. my old roommatees setup which involved a xbox 360 controller and 2 remotes just to do anything. I hate clutter and piles of devices. I'd really like to just hook a tv to the wall and GO. That would be fucking stellar.

But also, the PS3 = the best blu-ray player out there. You'll want a blu-ray player when you get your 1080p tv. Also, sony is intalks with netflix in having their on demand service be on the PS3. Plus, built in wi-fi. Plus streaming shit from your computer. Just sayin....

[Abraham Smashington]

Stay away from Plasma if you can. The screen retention (not burn in..yet) is a bitch (thank god it goes away slowly). But if you don't game, then it's not really an issue/.