Sceptre 37" LCD HDTV. Any Common!!!

I went in to Costco yesterday to checkout the Vizio's. I had the Costco coupon on hand and I gave the item number from the coupon for the 42" sceptre tv to a person there and he plugged it into a handheld device and he gave me a price of $2699.00 (before the coupon). Not sure if he gave me the correct price since he did not let me see the screen.

I have narrowed my descision to the sceptre 37" or the Vizio? Any recomendations?

 

I recently read that picture quality on plasma screens is negatively affected by elevation, especially if you are at 4,000 feet or higher. So I went with the LCD. As I mentioned above, my early version Sceptre 37" gives me an excellent picture with HD satellite or with a higher-end upconverting DVD player like a Denon. But because the sound quality was bad I took the Sceptre speakers off and replaced them with good quality powered PC speakers. I am quite happy with the system now.

 

indiprod, What make and model speakers did you use? If you don't mind saying.

bjkimb

 

I'm having good luck with Bose PC speakers I happened to have already. I forget the name but I think they only make one model. They do not have a subwoofer. Newer PC speakers with subwoofers might also work and be cheaper. You might find something with good user reviews on CNET.

 

kchaco,
I am so close to picking up the Visio 37". The only problem I have with that is at Sam's, they had the thing right next to a Sony Bravia. There is a major quality difference. The Sony is lifelike but the Visio has a dark tint that I could not tune to equal the Sony. The comprable Sony (40") with the 2 tuners and 1 HDMI is almost $2000 more than the Visio. The Visio looks great as long as you don't have to compare it with anything. This is making want to wait for the 42" Sceptre.

 

Hey runnerbob,

I agree somewhat. However the 42" is going to be out my budget i think. The price that Costco gave me for the 42" sceptre..puts it around 2,100 to 2,200 after the coupon. I am really in bind. Not sure which way to go now.

Sceptre is a good product. Vizio is also a good product. I just added another brand to the mix. With your reply...I remembered that the Sony 32" is also in the costco coupon book with a $200.00 off coupon and it looks good.

I may just get the 37" sceptre.

Heck! I do not know anymore.

 

kchaco,
Thay Sony you saw does not have an ATSC tuner built in. You have to have one of those. If you want real high def, you got to get it OTA.
Perhaps the Visio I saw had a problem, many of them have defects out of the box, I hear. Remember the Sceptre 37" LCD HDTV which has ATSC built in and supports 1080p (1920x1080) can be yours for 1599 from Costco. The only problem I have with Sceptre is the mixed reviews I've seen, plus they don't have them on display anywhere.

 

what can anybody tell me about this TV vs sceptre...the wifey proposed this one today....

Its the Panasonic PT-52LCX65 52-Inch Rear Projection Television
w/Built In ATSC/QAM/NTSC Tuners.

Sear $1999 after rebate - however you can get for $1287 after rebates from Fotoconnection.

I can just print their web page and sears will match! this is my other option.

 

DO NOT DEAL WITH FOTOCONNECTION. Their lowball pricing is a scam, and you will end up paying an arm and leg in added frustration and grief over dealing with them. Read the buyer reviews at ResellerRatings: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller3471.html

On the other hand, if you can get Sears to match their lowball price, that's another story entirely. Although I have a feeling you might have a difficult time doing this. But if you succeed, let us know!

 

I ordered the X37SV-Naga LCD/TV from Costco before Xmas. It arrived in about 4-5 days.

The "manual" is actually a pamphlet. It's a joke. Little, if any usable info. in it.

Good news:

It came with a short, cheap HDMI cable. All pixels working. Great HD picture on HD channels. I'm currently using a Motorola HD Commiecast cable box.

Bad news:

NO support. If you have a problem, just take it back to a Costco store for immed. cash back, or pack it back up and Costco will have UPS pick it up, but the refund will take a while with that return method.

So So News:

Has ONE input for everything except I could not get any of my digital cameras [Konica Minolta A2 and X1] or digital wallet [Epson Photo Fine P-2000] to work on any inputs and I don't yet know why. They work on everything else.

The remote is pedestrian however functional, but there are NO universal codes for this remote and they make a point of it in the "excuse of a" manual. NOTE: the equivalent Westinghouse unit might list the code. Anyone?

Maybe News:

The following is an email I sent last night to SCEPTRE, hoping for a positive response. It highlights [or lowlights] some of my concerns with the set. I will send along their response when I receive one.

______________________________________________________________________

[bold]Great HD picture on HD channels with the source input HDCP not withstanding the exceptions noted below.

Questions about X37SV-Naga LCD/TV prior to re-order or rather, if to re-order:

Is turquoise colored video noise, most notable within the outlines of men's dark suits and green plant foliage, an indication of a defective video card in the unit, or some other problem with the set?

No matter how the set is adjusted a true red is elusive. It seems as though there is no way to white balance. Nothing closer than differing hues of orange or magenta, anything but RED. Is there a solution for this?

There is very little information on this set, including the pamphlet shipped with the unit. I would appreciate knowing what DVD player Sceptre is recommending as the 1st choice for the X37SV. I'm currently using a Pioneer ELITE DV-45A, but knowing how the X37SV handles the signaling would be helpful on selection of video components. How does 480p or "i" from the DVD [or analog TV broadcasts] get converted, up scaled or whatever with Sceptre's video processing. What is being sent to the rest of the pixels on the X37SV-Naga display? What is the set doing [it doesn't appear to be doing anything] vs. what some of the DVD players attempt to do to get a better looking picture from a 480 source? What DVD player processing would be enhancing vs. conflicting with this set?

It seems that the only changeable picture parameter for HDCP is "lamp" level. I'm I correct? If so, how will my A/V tech be able to set up the display to any color [and other] standards, as he/she will be doing on my other large monitor?

I will be returning the set and re-ordering another if favorable responses are returned from you regarding issues 1 & 2.

I hope to share my positive X37SV-Naga experiences with my fellow HD enthusiasts as there is a large vacuum for info. regarding this set and the 42".[/bold]

Best regards.........bla bla....

____________________________________________________________________

As I had mentioned, the picture is great for the price point of this set, but the orange vs. red issue is a deal killer if that is NOT an anomaly, or it can't be corrected with some adjustment I'm not aware of when using HDCP sources.

The video noise MUST be a video card defect, because if it isn't I'm sure someone other than myself would have noticed by now. I hope!!

I know, I know, it sounds like a lot of problems, but I'm going to give them shot at responding and hopefully, ordering another set.

All for now,

Marcel

 

the new 42" Sceptre is now listed on their website:
http://www.sceptre.com/Products/LCD/x-index_TV.htm

 

Thanks cyburzaki for the 42" link! Now let the comparisons begin!!

kchaco, who provided you the Costo price for the 42" Sceptre??

I've been lurking for quite some time and think this might be my time to strike!

Thanks to all for the insightful opinions/comments.

 

Marcel, the Sceptre's MENU button brings up several picture settings and a number of them control how it shows red. You might want to try my settings. Under VIDEO I set TINT to 0. Under ADVANCED, I turned off VIVID COLOR and turned off SKIN TONE and set GREEN to Middle and BLUE to High, and set GAMMA to 0. Then under SYSTEM, I set LAMP to 0. With those settings I find a very good color balance. The rest of the controls (BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST, COLOR) I tweak according to the video source. HD signal from the satellite gives the best color with a BRIGHTNESS setting of 16 and a COLOR setting of 28. I arrived at those using the AVIA DVD, which I have found really useful for setting up a monitor.

I have had the best luck with a DVD player that upconverts DVD to 1080i, and so far the best picture comes from a Denon DVD-2910 which I found on eBay.

The single HDMI I solved with an inexpensive manual HDMI switch.

 

thanks for the link. I hope this one has all the problems with computer input worked out (I hear the version2 of the 37" had problems showing other lower resolutions from video cards). This would make an awesome monitor/tv for my MythTV box.

 

cyburzaki

If I do not go the Naga route I may go to Sears. 5 years ago Sears matched the web price in my 53" hitachi . Im hoping they will this time.

Costco stores have a 52" Panasonic w/stand very similar model to the sears model PT52LCX65. The Costco Panasonic W/stand is $2199 and with a $300 mail in rebate. The model number is PT-52LCX15-B

The measurements are slightly different according to the Panasonic Web site.
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wc...ategory=LCD Projection TVs&items=95540|93384|

I will be making a descision soon. Just waiting for the war department (wife) to come on board.

rkrewson
The person that gave me the price on the 42 Sceptre worked the TVs section in local Costco store. If I remember corretly, he did say it was going to be $2499, but I cant remember for sure. It might have been $2699, I ll stop by again this weekend and inquire agian.

 

If the 42" Sceptre is $2,699, then I will buy the 37" Sceptre. It will save me a $1,000. Meanwhile, their specs are the same.

 

The Sceptre 42" may be $2699 but the $500 off coupon = $2100 for 42" 1080p. It may be worth the wait.

I, myself I am not sure which way I am going yet.

Panasonic 52" LCD R Proj
Sceptre 37" or 42"

I may have you guys make my mnd up for me =-)

 

Myself, I don't like Projection TV or DLP TV. I dont know why. I really appreciate if someone can give reasons.

For some reasons, I only like the Plasma and LCD TV. Therefore, I suggest you buy the 42" Sceptre if you can afford it. Otherwise, you should get the 37" Sceptre.

 

About 3 weeks ago I made the choice to finally buy a HDTV. Being that I work for a videogame company full of over 200 tech, nerds I decided to send out an email asking people what where their choices on HDTV’s. After an information overload I narrowed my choices down and started doing my own research. I stumbled upon the Sceptre 37" LCD and began looking for info on it. I found this forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=573173&page=1&pp=30

…as of now there are 56 pages of comments on it that go from rumors of the TV’s existance to the current Version 2 release. Version 2 had several bugs that discouraged a lot buyers from getting it..namely tearing and juddering of the image. The last few pages however state that Sceptre has come up with a firmware update to fix these bugs and some others I didn’t mention. If such is the case then I’m sold on this TV. If not, buyer beware, and hope the 42” doesn’t have the same issues.

My only issue now is either get this or wait for the new SED technology to come out. ( talk of 100,000 to 1 contrast ratio’s, 1080p resolutions, 1mm refresh rates. Google it if you want to know more.)

But since we are on the topic of the Sceptre LCD I’ll just stick to that.

....so…price…Well there are certainly no math majors on this thread

The cheapest way to buy the Sceptre 37" at this point is through Costco at $1499 after rebates. The catch is the current rebates are only good through purchases before Jan 31st. Afterwards there are no guarantees what the price will be.

The cheapest and only known way at this point to eventually get the Sceptre 42" is also at Costco for $2699. If you buy it in early March though you get $500 off.

$2699 - $500 = $2199

So if we compare deals (both temporary mind you)

37" - $1499
42" - $2199

....a $700 difference in price for a 5" difference in size (since other specs are almost identical)

I suggest you go to Best Buy or any other store that has LCD TVs in both 37” and 42” on display and determine if it’s worth $700 or not for size alone.

Also if there is any confusion on what is better between a LCD or DLP just try once again sitting in front of both at Best Buy. LCD’s with the same resolution and size will (in my opinion) always look better. DLP’s can come in bigger sizes and are cheaper than LCD’s….It basically comes down to what you are looking for picture quality? Size? Cost?... Do research, make a choice, watch HDTV

 

I've been following this thread the last couple of days and there are a lot of excited people about this Sceptre Monitor. However, nobody has mentioned what the native resolution of the flat panel they are using. Someone that I work with doubts it is a true 1920x1080 LCD panel (native resolution).

He thinks it is a 1280x900 and can ACCEPT signals up to 1920x1080 which it then downsamples to 1280x900.

Can anyone confirm this?

--Vic