Best Time to Buy: HDTVs for the Big Game

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By Aaron Crowe, dealnews writer

The Green Bay Packers are favored to win the Super Bowl over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Feb. 6, providing just enough time, if you act fast, to get a new TV installed for your Super Bowl party.

While right before the Super Bowl might not be the cheapest time to buy a huge TV, according to our price trend data, it's such a popular time to buy that you can still find lots of great deals out there. Our best tip to you is to make sure you give yourself enough time to get your TV delivered and installed if you are buying online. Most retailers will ship out on the day of order or within a few days, giving you a little more than a week for it to be delivered if you order soon.

You may also want to research which type of TV you want — plasma, LED LCD, DLP, 3D — to get the best view of the game. While plasma TVs aren't as thin as LCDs, they're said to handle moving objects — such as a football — more smoothly than other technologies. Bulky DLPs have gone out of fashion, for the most part, except for really big models. And you can find out about watching the Super Bowl in 3D in our video.

We discussed a few TVs to look at in last week's column on man cave items to buy for a Super Bowl party, but we wanted to expand the TV hunt this week to find even more deals:

Small (which is now considered 42") Plasma: The Samsung 42.3" 720p Widescreen Plasma HD Television, model no. PN42C450, is $479.69 — a price provided at the final stage of checkout at Amazon.com, which is selling this TV for Paul's TV. It's the lowest price we could find by $16. Shipping is free, although you may want to pay for a faster method than the standard shipping Amazon offers.

LCD: Dropped from a list price of $1,079, this factory-refurbished Vizio Razor LED 42" 120Hz 1080p Widescreen LED-Backlit LCD HD Television, model no. M420NV, is $549.99 with coupon code "LTW16870" when buying from CircuitCity.com. It has free shipping and is $141 less than the lowest total price we could find for a new one. A 90-day Vizio warranty is included.

Medium (that's now in the 50" range) Plasma: "Medium" is in the eye of the beholder, and for big-screen TVs for a Super Bowl party, this Samsung 50" 600 Hz 720p Widescreen Plasma HD Television, model no. PN50C450, is considered medium size. Coupon code "GZS17554" drops the $649.99 price to $549.99, and it includes free shipping. (Sorry, you didn't act fast enough! The sale prices for that one and this other model are now nearly $100 more).

LCD: For $999.98 from Best Buy, the Insignia 55" 120Hz 1080p LED-Backlit Widescreen LCD HD Television, model no. NS-BRDVD4, is a deal for in-store pickup. Shipping adds $75.99, which still makes it $25 less than what we found it for about three weeks ago for the TV alone. This TV comes with the Insignia Blu-Ray Disc Player. The total price also is the lowest price we've seen for any 55" LED-Backlit HDTV by $49.

Huge (now starting at 65") Plasma: If you have a room large enough to hold one of these, meaning you can sit back far enough to take the image of the Steeler defenders in without getting a headache, then these may be the TVs you want. US Appliance is selling the Panasonic VIERA 65" 1080p Widescreen Plasma HD Television, model no. TC-P65S2, for $1,787 with free shipping. That's $12 less than what we saw a few days ago from Adorama via Buy.com, which was the best total price we could find by $101.

Projection TV: We couldn't find any LCD TVs larger than 55", so if heft is what you want, Dell Home is selling the Mitsubishi 73" 120Hz 1080p 3D-Ready DLP Rear-Projection HD Television, model no. WD-73C10, for $1,099.99 with free shipping. It matches Dell's Black Friday mention as the lowest total price we've seen for this TV.


Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked as a reporter and an editor for newspapers and websites. Follow him on Twitter — @AaronCrowe.
DealNews may be compensated by companies mentioned in this article. Please note that, although prices sometimes fluctuate or expire unexpectedly, all products and deals mentioned in this feature were available at the lowest total price we could find at the time of publication (unless otherwise specified).

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