My parents decided to buy an LCD TV, in the 27"-32" range. They asked me for help, and I don't really know what recommend. Does anybody have any experience or recommendation?
I personally found all TVs I saw blurry and little defined. They all have 1280x768 (or similar) resolutions, wich is very little on a 27" screen, at least to me, even though you're not supposed to use them as close to your eyes as a monitor would typically be. However, that's what's in the market. So, what would you chose?

Sharp Aquos. Sharp have always made some of the best LCDs of any size. They're also the current market/quality leader in LCD TV.

Bruno

We have discussed in other threads here that these resolutions are in fact very high for TVs (given that non-HD TV is roughly 640x480). It isn't the lack of pixels on these screens that causes the blurriness and lack of definition.

It's been over a year since I paid careful attention to LCD TV sets, but I can state that not all TVs within the same brand perform the same. You really need to go look at them in person, side-by-side, and you often have to dork with the brightness and contrast to undo the mess created by the previous store patrons.

That said, the Sharp Aquos 45" is amazing. In smaller sizes, Panasonic also makes a number of good LCD panels. When I was doing side-by-side comparisons, I liked the Panasonic panels better than the Sharp ones in terms of black levels and color saturation. Today, of course, it's a different generation of products, so I hesitate to make any categorical statements.

If you're not persnickety for the ultimate in image quality, another relevant feature to look for is a built-in ATSC tuner (as opposed to earlier panels which are "HD-ready"). In theory, you can plug such a panel directly into an antenna and have HD right away. Likewise, a feature that I haven't seen but would be looking for is digital audio output. Flat panel TVs have, if you're lucky, barely acceptable speakers. If you had digital out, then you could connect the TV to your favorite home theater receiver. Or, for a more compact setup (e.g., in the bedroom), you could get something funky like Yamaha's YSP-1 speaker array.

Finally, pay attention to the quality of the user interface, the remote control, and all that. Once you've been spoiled by a TiVo, it's amazing how awful most of these new TVs are.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I believe my parents will eventually get a Sharp lc-26ga4e . It is in their price range, and they had the chance to look at it and liked it. No need to say, you were very useful

Back on more interesting topics:

Quote:
given that non-HD TV is roughly 640x480

Oh! Right. At this regard, I saw Sharp made a new product line, the P50 series, which is supposed to be optimized for the PAL standard. As a matter of fact, it has an even lower resolution. So this definitely confirms the problem is not in the nr. of pixels.

Quote:
That said, the Sharp Aquos 45" is amazing.

Well, I'm glad to hear that, since I bought one yesterday. It is just about the only TV that does the full 1080p. I would have preferred plasma, but only one appears to do 1080p, and it is 71 inches, which is a bit large for the living room. It was supposed to be delivered today, but Circuit City screwed up (surprise).

Now I have to figure out how to get MythTV to do HD. That should be fun.

As I recall, there are three variants of the Aquos 45": two with integrated electronics and one with an outboard "AVC" box. You can only do 1080p if you have the AVC variant and you connect your 1080p source directly to the panel, bypassing the AVC. Otherwise, the AVC's inputs (and, as I recall, the integrated versions as well) only support 720p or 1080i.

Yeah, I read that, and got the correct version (the Sharp LC-45GX6U). I understand it is still a bit of a hack. I am still a little confused if I can hook it up to a computer and get that resolution or not though. I should get it tomorrow, I can't wait. Here's hoping for no (obvious) dead pixels.