$799 42" Plasma HDTV 2 Day Special

[RandyMidd]

I found Office Depot was running a special..."save $700" on a Haier brand Plasma TV...I knew the price sounded good but not familiar with the product... I usually research things before I buy especially big ticket items but the stores where selling out quick so I had to decide...I bought one but haven't opened the box yet so I suppose I could return it.

Does anyone have any comments about the specs, brand or model? Thanks for the input!!!

FWIW the in-store price was $1,299 and $500 off from mail in rebates.

The specs are...

Features:

* 180MHz, 32-bit, MIPS processors to handle the most demanding system and application software.
* HD-level MPEG2 video decoding engine.
* Up to twelve-bit display control to support the most sophisticated flat-panel displays.
* Ten-bit, dual-channel scaler to ensure crisp images regardless of the display resolution.
* Ten-bit, dual-channel color processor with blue-stretch, green-stretch, skin-color correction and white-balance control to offer vivid, bright colors previously available only in the most sophisticated internally-developed designs of consumer electronics OEMs.
* Advanced, content-adaptive 3D noise reduction to dramatically reduce the popping and crackling that is especially prevalent on today's LCD TVs.
* Enhanced horizontal and vertical sharpness controls that set a new level in sharpness for advanced TVs.
* Full-screen, 16-bit, bit-mapped OSD powered by a high-performance 2D-graphics accelerator to enable beautiful, intuitive, windows-based user interfaces that enhance the functionality of advanced TVs.

Specifications

* 42" Plasma Television
* Integrated ATSC/NTSC Tuner
* Pixel Burn Safeguard
* Resolution: 1024x768
* Brightness: 1200 cd/m2
* Contrast Ratio: 10000:1
* Viewing Angle: 160°
* MTS/SAP
* Multi-viewing window: PIP/PBP
* HDMI & Digital Audio Output
* AV/SV/Component & PC input
* Front AV & S-video jacks
* ATSC PBS PIP WXGA HDMI
* PIP WXGA 3D Comb
* Filter ATSC 5.1/3.1 USB Card HDMI Reader
* Video Enhancement Technology
* stand Wide view angle
* VGA Spin
* Stand view angle 120o
* Unit Dimensions (WxDxH):
* 41-1/2" x 3-3/8" x 25-3/4"
* Shipping Dimensions (WxDxH):
* 49-3/4" x 13-3/8" x 33-1/2"
* Net Weight: 75 lbs.
* Shipping Weight: 88.1 lbs.

[aud19]

Never heard of them....at that price though hopefully it has decent performance and you can get a good amount of use out of it :T

[RandyMidd]

Thanks Jason,

From Wikipedia:

They are now the third largest white goods (major appliances) manufacturer in the world. Haier Group reported sales of over $9 billion across all divisions in 2004.


Founded in 1987 by Mr. Rumin Zhang, who is famous for having destroyed the first whole batch of refrigerators that came off his assembly line, unhappy with their quality.


They must be big overseas...

[Ovation]

They sell a lot of refrigerators in Canada, but while I've seen their TVs (HD and SD) in stores, I don't know anyone who owns one.

But get yourself at least an Avia or DVE disc and tweak your new TV and enjoy. :T

[RandyMidd]

I hooked it up last night and like it so far...

Nothing cheezy looking about the set or the stand...
Remote could be better, for example it's not backlit, but buttons are all soft and shaped/contoured, pretty plain, it may be programmed to control other devices if you like.

Just watching regular cable now so can't see what the set can do BUT when the commercial came on for Hitachi Plasma Televisions...WOW...you could tell the Hitachi people went out of their way to make a striking impression with that commercial.

Sound is good...has a seven band graphic EQ with a few presets or you can custom set it to taste.

There just isn't much info out there on the Haier brand here in the US...I'm sure many people find comfort in consensus validation (I do to some extent) so purchasing this brand may make you feel like a guinea pig or a pioneer depending on your viewpoint.

There are some user reports on an older model here wherein someone comments...
"I have a 2006 Samsung 47" LCD Projection TV sitting right next to it that I have been watching for 8 months or so...and there is no comparison. The Samsung is great for a projection TV, but the Haeir just blows it away."

Then again one shouldn't consider these sort of reports as absolute fact. Don't flame me if you have a Samsung projection TV - not looking to pick a fight.