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Review : Polaroid FLM-1911: 19" HD-Ready Widescreen LCD TV
On Saturday I did a very dangerous thing. I took the money that I saved from my Stranger articles and my birthday and went shopping. I have been growing ever frustrated with my 15-inch LCD TV. About 90% of all the DVD movies that I watched on it are widescreen formatted and there is a significant amount of wasted space and it crams the image down in order to fit. Since I was hooking up my Xbox 360 via VGA cables I had some problem with certain games not displaying with the correct aspect ratio most notably Gears of War, Lego StarWars II, and just about all the Xbox 1 games on the 360. I have worked pretty hard on the elections this year and I felt like rewarding myself for all the countless hours of hard work. I considered it a late birthday/election day present to me. So after visiting a couple stores I found a LCD TV that was pretty damn tempting.
I was really impressed by the Polaroid FLM-1911: 19" HD-Ready Widescreen LCD TV that was going for $320. My girlfriend Kymberly was in favor of this because she was going to get to use my 15-inch TV for her craft room. This sucker has a huge widescreen that has bright crisp fluid images and supports 1080i/720p/480p/480i resolutions and progressive scan. It sports a native resolution of 1440 x 900, an aspect ratio of 16:10, a contrast ratio of 500:1, and a really wide viewing angle of 130 x 150. I was blown away at how the image looked great from just about any angle in the room. My old LCD TV is a mean bitch demanding that you put your head in a rather narrow place and hope that any existing light in the room does not screw up the dark parts of the image. This TV has a plethora of input sources with VGA, S-Video, Component cables and four audio input. I think the size of the screen is just about perfect. It is nice and big but I don't need to get new furniture to accommodate it.
On my previous set up I had my stereo DVD Micro Theater base behind my old TV but on a higher shelf on my coffee table of gaming goodness. Since this TV is so much bigger I had to take a small wooden chest that is about the same size of the unit and had to jack it up about eight inches. I can now zap the unit with the remote control without the TV getting in a way. This is the first time that I have had such a problem of a TV being too big and it is a pretty damn good problem to have.
One of my only complaints is that there is no way to changes the aspect ratio modes without using the remote control. "Aspect" is a button that one will use on a frequent basis for switching from normal 4:3 aspect ratio from my PS2, Xbox 1, Generation NEX, TV shows on DVD and wide screen video from the Xbox 360 and widescreen DVD movies.
Once I set up the DVD player in my stereo to progressive scan and widescreen settings DVD movies went from good to freaking awesome. There is sooo much more screen real-estate for widescreen content on this sucker. This really delivers a totally cinematic experience. 3D games look awesome as do 2D games. River City Ransom looked great on my Generation NEX on it and Street Fighter III was a blast. I just have to hit the Aspect button on the remote to bring up black letter bars on the side of the screen so it does not stretch the 4:3 image.
I had to get a new video switch box that supports Component cables for switching between progressive scan DVDs, Xbox 360 and soon a Nintendo Wii. It took a while but I had to redo the gigantic octopus like mess of wires between all the components of my set-up.
Now the weird thing about buying a TV from Polaroid is that most people think of film cameras. Well it ends up that the Polaroid corporation has fallen on some tough times since folks are not buying old fashion film camera like they used to and they are licensing their brand name to Singapore based Flextronics company. So while my new TV sports the Polaroid logo it is in all truth a Flextronics TV but since not many in the U.S. of A. have ever heard of Flextronics they slapped on a more friendly brand name on what is already a pretty damn good TV.
Update: In the future should I ever want to get a Mac Mini this LCD TV would kick much ass as a display via the now unused VGA port. My Xbox 360 is using the component cables the way that God intended.
I love cranking up the stereo and sitting down with a nice hot bag of microwave popcorn and enjoying what ever movie I freaking want. This is a TV that is so good that I see it diminishing the amount of movies that I see in a film theater. This is a really good TV with a lot of features at a pretty decent price. I am really glad I made the investment for the upgrade and it really enhances my enjoyment of my 360 and movies.
Jake at November 13, 2006 
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Comments
Oh noes! No 1080p? You can't get true HD without that according to Sony!
/sarcasm off
Nice, I wish I had a lcd.
Posted by: Zach at November 14, 2006 4:00 AM
That's a very good price for you got. How do you plan on hooking up the Wii?
Posted by: Shawn L at November 14, 2006 5:20 AM
I was actually surprised at how good this TV was for the price. I plan on staying away from Blu-ray and HD-DVD movies for a while since I can’t do all the flexible wonderful things with them that I can do with the DVD format. If I do get one I’ll probably get a HD-DVD player for my 360.
This TV does not have HDMI and I don’t really care because component from my Xbox 360 and DVD system look great. I plan on hooking up my Wii via Component cables but I just checked and Gamestop is not going to get them until 12/15! That is going to suck if I can’t get a component cable when I get my Wii this Sunday.
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.8bitjoystick.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 14, 2006 9:18 AM
You don't need to have HDMI for 1080p unless the box requires it like the ps3. Just clearing that up.
Also I heard that Nintendo was only going to sell the component cables online and not in store due to the very poor sales for the Gamecube.
About staying away from Blu-ray and HD DVD, im right there with you.
Posted by: Zach at November 14, 2006 11:24 AM
so wait wait wait, u need to get something extra to play ur 360 , or could you just TAKE THE SON OF A BITCH OU THA BOX N HOOK UP THA 360 TO 720 FORMAT, OR WHAT , FEED ME
Posted by: jj at December 2, 2006 7:27 PM
Well the 400$ Xbox 360 pack has component cables included. That can display HD on most HDTV system. Screw 720p man 1080i is where it is at.
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf at December 4, 2006 9:28 AM
been thinking about gettng this TV, just worried about ghosting and the 16:10 ratio,
have you had any problems with any 360 games on this TV?
Posted by: gerrard at October 28, 2007 10:31 AM
