Westinghouse 42" 1080P TV at Costco BM $699

Westinghouse 42" 1080p with 4 HDMI for $699 in store at Costco. I saw them (and bought one) at the Agoura Hills, Ca Costco. I was debating between this and the 50" Vizio 1080i Plasma for $999 but decided to save the $300 and go with the Westy. These were moving fast when I saw them, hurry on down and pick a couple up.

Hard to find any reviews on this particular model. However, it is very tempting especially if the Costco two year warranty applies to this.

I've heard some bad things about Westinghouse LCD HDTVs and their products being "not as good as in the past" in general. OP, could you please describe some of your initial views about this TV? TIA

haloseven said: anyone have an item number for this TV?

thanks!

I think it might be TX-47F430S, not 100% though

country wide?

2000:1 Contrast Ratio...... I'll Pass

Chill out guys, I didn't tell you not to buy it. I'm just expresing my personal opinion. Just got a Panny 42 Plasma 720P and been very pleased with the resolution.

dude my lvm42 rocks. wow probably 2.5 years old now and still kicks butt every day. best purchase ever before you have a kid you'll be watchign alot of tv (while the kid sleeps) for the first 6 months

I went back after work and picked this up along with a Peerless wall mount. My wife had approved me to spend $1k or so on the tv so I was debating hard over this and the 50" plasmas. I decided on this even though it looked tiny in the store compared to the larger sets. When I mounted it on my wall in my bedroom it looked HUGE. This thing now dominates my bedroom. I need to find a way to integrate it better into the room

The tv setup super easy and looks incredible. All that I have plugged in to it right now is cable straight out of the wall. The TV scanned the channels and picked up about 80 SD channels and about 40 or so CLEAR QAM HD channels. Channels that were related like the local networks it placed next to each other so when I go to channel 2 I see ABC but if I hit channel up it goes to 2.1 which is ABC HD, channel up again takes it to channel 3. Very cool, makes navigating the channels much easier. My wife is asking why we are paying for a cable box when this thing is so easy to use.

Extremely happy with this set, this is my second Westinghouse LCD, the first I bought sixteen months ago and is a 47" monitor. Having the tuners built into the set is a nice addition.

The price on this is incredible, I paid about $1600 for my 47", paying $700 for a 42" feels great.

Not sure about this monitor, but I just picked up the TX version of the 42" at bestbuy for the 850-10% off posted here.
Researching AFTER I bought it (FW mentality? ) it seems the technical support is clueless/not good, and a couple people have had to actually use their BB extended warranties. I guess this would be a non issue for Costco?
Also I find it hilarious the firmwares posted on avs forum for the TV flash just fine, but the "official" Westinghouse firmware (supposedly based on the model and serial number) doesn't work at all.

lzpoof said: xomp said: Not sure about this monitor, but I just picked up the TX version of the 42" at bestbuy for the 850-10% off posted here.
Researching AFTER I bought it (FW mentality? ) it seems the technical support is clueless/not good, and a couple people have had to actually use their BB extended warranties. I guess this would be a non issue for Costco?
Also I find it hilarious the firmwares posted on avs forum for the TV flash just fine, but the "official" Westinghouse firmware (supposedly based on the model and serial number) doesn't work at all.

westinghouse has been known to change boards in the TVs mid-product year or re-use boards from other TV's. For instance, the 37" 1080p I bought last year from Costco was detected by my PC as some 42" model instead while some people's showed up as the correct model. That would explain some firmware not workign on some TV's.

gotta love that quality

This is YMMV. The Costco in Louisville didn't have a single Westinghouse model on the floor at all.

pdiggity said: lzpoof said: ebet said: 2000:1 Contrast Ratio...... I'll Pass


well, first off you do't even know if that's native or dynamic. If it were native then it would be a very good number. It's a little confusing there cause some previous westinghouse models had 1000:1 native ratio and the TX series had 1000:1 native/4000:1 dynamic. I'd guess it's dynamic but then why wouldn't westinghouse just artifically boost the dynamic numbers like they (and all the other companies) did on their other models?

To say 'I'll pass' without even clarifying that is really ignorant.

And as far as the number, compared to the budget line TV's you really won't notice much difference. Heck I turn my dynamic either low or off on my samsung A630 and I would if I had a budget one too..... I hate the screen constantly brightening and dimming. So if 2 budget TV's both had 1000:1 native contrast but one had a huge dynamic contrast I'd probably never see the difference anyway nor would a majority of buyers.

ALSO, please show me another 42" 1920X1080 PC monitor for $700 ? I'm sure there's going to be a lot of buyers that want it specifically for computer usage even a 1000:1 native contrast would beat most PC monitors.

I'd agree - It's going to take a while to bring up the native contrast on LCD's , the technology is almost there but not quite affordable yet. Dynamic contrast really does help from what I've seen - I have a 22" LCD with 1000:1 native, but 4000:1 dynamic, and it's an impressive improvement especially in games. For most people lower contrast ratios aren't an issue with a computer monitor, but more so with a TV that used mainly for TV and movies -- 42" on your office's computer desk is a bit ridiculous I think , but maybe for a nice HTPC setup. Good price though.

You're missing the point. You can spend far more than this on a lot smaller "computer" monitor. Give me this for this price or (maybe) a Samsung 26" "computer" monitor for a little less...I'd take this.

One last thing, while you may think it is too big, plenty of others do not. You opinion on what is too big/small is not relevant to the topic. Personally, if I was still in my gaming hayday, I'd love to be playing some TF2 on a 42" monitor mounted on my wall.

Great price...wifey would kill me if I came home with another TV/monitor though...

TonyWKoo said: Unavailable in Danville, CA. She said that they're not available in San Francisco Bay Area yet.
Same thing in Kansas City/Johnson County.

Said they would be on shelves by Thursday, with at least 20 per store in the area.

So if it's $699 now... how much will these be in another 3 months for Black Friday?

Not available in the Orlando/University Blvd. store. At least they're not on the floor.

They have plenty at the Santa Clarita store north of Los Angeles. I picked one up this evening. Unfortunately I don't have any HD source material yet. I will order an HD DirecTV tuner tomorrow. This is my first HD and first LCD. I'm leaning on the Costco return policy. If this set just does not look that good with HD signals, I will return it.

I got a 42" Westinghouse 1080P LCD a couple of years ago (probably the model prior to this). PQ looked decent and it worked fine as a computer monitor. After about 10 months it developed a dark "splotch" on the right side of the screen. It was quite large, maybe the size of a misshapen basketball. It wasn't always noticable when watching TV but when used as a monitor it looked terrible. I called to get it repaired and Westinghouse sent a repairman out to look at it. He ordered a part and I waited. And waited. And waited. After 4 months of waiting I took it back to Bestbuy and returned it for a Sony.

Westinghouse warranty service is pretty bad, or at least it was for me.

Best Buy has the next model up, the TX-42F430S for $849. Provided they honor the 12% Reward Zone coupon valid from 8/29 through 9/1, that brings the price to $747.12.

The only differences are:
1000:1 Contrast ratio (vs 2000:1 for Costco unit)
Advanced Calibration Menu (whatever that is)
75% NTSC Color Gamut (vs. 72% NTSC for Costco unit)
8 ms response time (vs. 6.5 ms (gray to gray) for Costco unit)
4 HDMI connectors (vs 2 on Costco unit)
The dimensions of the Best Buy unit are slightly larger, and it's carton weight is 79.1 lbs, vs. 78.0 lbs for the Costco unit.

So, to the TV gurus out there, my question is this: are the differences above worth $47.13?

There have been a lot of reports of a huge glut in the flat panel supply. I know you can always wait for a better deal, but I'm guessing you'll see a name brand 42" plasma/lcd by black friday. I want to stress I understand you can always wait for a cheaper price, but the 42" have been stuck in the $800-$1200 price range for a while now. A drop to $699 would be significant in my opinion, especially if it is a name brand 1080p 42". Again this is just a theory, but with the large glut reported and the slow down in the economy I think those are two indications for some decent price drops in the near future.

Cheap, great find!

bucd said: abad3001 said: What would be a better buy, this or the PANASONIC TH-42PX80U 42" 720P PLASMA HDTV FRY's has on sale for $699 today. I know that one is 1080P and one is 720P and that one is a plasma other is LCD, but really it comes down to brand name or generic.

I would go for the Panny.
-D

Today, Costco had 42" Panasonic at $699, and the Westinghouse nearby at same price. Picture on the Westinghouse was much better, blacks are much better and the clarity...

Will pick up a Westy next week.

gychang