Well, Sony tends to get some of the best reviews on TVs pretty consistently. They tend to be a little more pricey, but if you're looking for a TV that has the potential to last as long as your last one they may be a good bet.
If you're like me, though, you'll want to go cheaper. I'm actually very happy with the Dynex 27" LCD HDTV I got at Best Buy for under $300. It looks like you can get a 22" one for exactly the same price ($279.99), though you might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere. It is light, feels very sturdy, and has one of every input you'd want to use. Nothing super-fancy, but it works, and looks fantastic with over-the-air HD signals, my Netflix box on HD, and my computer through the PC input.
ETA: Looks like Dynex is a Best Buy house brand, so unless you find it used that might be your price. If you can fit the 26" one, I'd go with that - it's significantly more screen real estate for the same price. The footprint on it is tiny, so unless it's trying to fit in a cabinet and there's not enough width, it may work.
Samsung was beating Sony in the reviews game the last time I checked. For lower cost brands, look at LG and Vizio.
ION, I hate Cablevision. I'm paying them almost $150/month right now for fucking DIAL-UP INTERNET SPEEDS and half my HD channels missing.
I have a 37 inch LG that is really nice. I don't what their pricing on smaller sizes is. Probably middle of the pack.
I just went through the process of buying a new TV in February, and read reviews and Consumer Reports and did a lot of price comparison online. I ended up with this Vizio [link] as the best combination of price, inputs and picture quality. It has a computer input, so I've also been using it to watch shows online. It has a great picture with an HD antenna. Samsung pretty universally got the best reviews.
Thanks. Now I just have to convince my intermittently cheapskate husband to stay away from pawnshops. It'd either be hot or gotten rid of for a reason.
Dude! I like pawnshops. Of course, I don't mind dumpster-diving or picking stuff up off the side of the road, either. It creeps Greg right out. ...must look up pawnshops in the area.
My mom used to get all her TVs through garage sales. She seems to want to have one in every room... still does, but she's down to a three-room setup now.
(That would be 3 in the three bedrooms, one in the LR, one in the kitchen and one on the 3-season porch, back when she still had the house.)
I've gone dumpster diving myself, but for a TV I want something with a little more support.
I'm finally going to replace my ancient 802.11b router with something faster. (It won't solve my current connectivity issues, but what the hell.)
Since I'm only getting 15mbps (tops) from my cable company, does it make any sense at all to pay for 802.11n speeds, or should I save the $20 and stick with -g?
You know that Cablevision will be offering 100Mbps soon?
In any event, 802.11n might still make sense, because the 5GHz band is a lot less crowded than 2GHz. The split-band option available in new Apple routers (and some other manufacturers) is especially nice.
