the Insignia NS-L42X-10A HDTVs

Insignia NS-L42X-10A

Not everyone has the need—or the budget—for the latest and greatest in television technology. Features such as LED backlighting, 240Hz refresh rates, and Web connectivity are all the rage right now, but as is usually the case with new tech, you’ll pay a premium for it. Enter the Insignia NS-L42X-10A, one in a series of four low-cost 1080p 120Hz HDTVs offered exclusively by Best Buy. Priced at $749.99, this 42-inch LCD model may not offer much in the way of features or aesthetics, and its picture quality is less than perfect, but if you’re looking for a cheap, no-frills flat-screen TV for, say, the basement, or a playroom, it’ll fit the bill.

Design and Appearance
The 42-inch panel is housed in a plain-looking black cabinet. The display is bordered by a relatively wide glossy black bezel on three sides, and an extra-wide lower bezel which curves upwards at the bottom. I’m not a fan of the design: it looks a bit flimsy and lacks the clean lines found on much-pricier models such as the LG 42SL80 and the Toshiba Regza 46SV670U. The matching stand is fairly stable and does a good job of supporting the 37-pound screen, and it swivels so you can position the display for optimal viewing. The two 12-watt speakers provide plenty of volume, and the SRS TruSurround feature does a fairly good job of simulating a multi-channel audio experience, but you’ll need a subwoofer if you want pumping bass, since you won’t find any here.

Recessed into the right side of the cabinet are buttons for powering up the set, changing channels, selecting an input source, raising and lowering the volume, and accessing the on-screen menu system. On the left are two of the five HDMI ports, VGA (PC) and S-Video inputs, a PC audio input, composite audio and video ports, and a headphone jack. Around back are three additional HDMI ports, two sets of component audio and video inputs, a digital (SPDIF) output, one set of analog stereo audio outputs, a secondary S-Video input, and a secondary set of composite A/V inputs. While it’s nice to have five HDMI ports, you won’t find a card reader, Ethernet, or USB ports—features which can be found on many of today’s midrange models such as the Sharp Aquos LC-40LE700UN and the Toshiba 46SV670U.

The 52-button remote is tapered in the middle and fits comfortably in your hand, but it’s a bit on the small side and the buttons feel slightly crowded. The four-way rocker is very responsive, however, making it easy to zip through the on-screen menus. The uncomplicated menu structure is broken into four basic submenus; Picture, Audio, Channels, and Settings. The Picture section is where you can tweak brightness, contrast, sharpness, color, and tint levels. In the Advanced video menu you can adjust backlighting and color temperature settings and enable/disable noise reduction and dynamic contrast ratio functionality. Here you can also choose one of three Digital Clear Motion levels (DCM), which uses 120Hz technology to help reduce motion blur, or you can disable the feature altogether. There’s also a switch that enables a light sensor, which adjusts the screen’s brightness according to the ambient lighting environment. I suggest leaving this feature off; in my tests, the luminance level, which changed often, was very distracting.

The Audio menu provides settings for bass, treble, balance, and SRS TruSurround as well as a dynamic volume setting that compensates for sudden changes in sound level during broadcasts. The Channels menu lets you hide channels and create a favorites list, and the Settings menu is where you can set up parental controls and assign a parental-control password.

Image Quality and Performance
After a darkroom calibration using the DisplayMate for Windows Multimedia Edition diagnostic software, the NS-L42X-10A turned in a contrast ratio of 3207:1, which is quite good for an HDTV that uses CCFL backlighting. It takes more than a high contrast ratio to deliver a high quality picture, though. Greens and blues were saturated, resulting in uneven skin tones and tinting in certain shades of gray. The high contrast ratio helped deliver deep blacks, but I noticed significant motion artifacts in the form of background noise while watching scenes from The Matrix in standard definition. There was a fair amount of image smearing as well. Not surprisingly, the panel was unable to pass the HD HQV Jaggies benchmark, which tests de-interlacing performance.

The set fared better with 1080p HD content. Mission: Impossible 2 on Blu-ray was sharp, but once again I observed subtle smearing and some judder, particularly during the opening rock climbing scene where the camera is continually panning. Enabling the DCM feature helped reduce the judder effect, but the resulting picture looked too sharp and overly noisy. In my tests, viewing angles were fine up to around 165 degrees off center; after that, colors began to fade.

The NS-L42X-10A draws an average of 220 watts, which means it’ll cost around $3.60 a month to run (based on five hours of daily use using the 2008 national average cost of $0.1135 per kWh). While not as energy efficient as some of the newer LED-backlit HDTVs like the 40-inch Sharp LC-40LE700UN, which draws only 120 watts, it’s far from a power hog. Whereas most HDTVs come with a one-year warranty, Insignia provides a two-year plan at no extra cost.

Overall, the big draw of the Insignia NS-L42X-10A is its rock-bottom $750 price. Even in these days of freefalling HDTV prices, it’s tough to find a 1080p 42-inch set for less, let alone one with a two-year warranty. It’s certainly not the sexiest-looking model you’ll find, and its performance is pretty much what you’d expect from a low-cost HDTV, but despite these shortcomings, its low price, two-year warranty, and plethora of HDMI ports help to redeem the NS-L42X-10A . That said, if you have a few extra bucks to spend, the 40-inch Sharp Aquos LC-40LE700UN offers better performance and a more robust feature set, and can be had for around $950 online.

Selling,Buying, and Twittering All the Way

Once upon a time, people mailed their holiday wishes to the North Pole and hoped for a reply on Christmas Day. Nowadays they are sending their wishes into cyberspace and are apt to get a reply in minutes.America’s first Twitter Christmas got under way in earnest on Friday. Across the land, retailers and their customers used the social networking site to talk to one another about bargains, problems, purchases and shopping strategies.

After buying a new navigation system at 6 a.m. on the most frenzied shopping day of the year, Laura S. Kern of Los Angeles could not figure out why it was not giving her traffic updates. She sent a message to Best Buy’s Twitter account and within five minutes not one, but two Best Buy employees responded with fix-it advice.In Bloomington, Minn., Mall of America used its Twitter page to tell consumers two of its parking areas were at capacity and that their best bet was to park near Ikea.Twitter permits public communication via short, to-the-point messages. Many people use it to send mundane updates to their friends, but increasingly, the nation’s retailers see it as a business tool.It gives customers a practical way to cajole a retailer, complain about something or ask questions.

A Twitter post can in theory be seen by millions, and thus packs more punch than an e-mail message or a phone call to a store. The big retailers are all scrambling this Christmas to come up with Twitter plans. They are designating tech-savvy employees to respond to the posts, sometimes by providing up-to-minute inventory information from a sales floor, for example, or by offering help with some balky gadget.“It’s one of the greatest emerging communication channels out there,” said Greg Ahearn, senior vice president of marketing and e-commerce for Toys “R” Us. “This is a way people can stay connected with the brand in a way they’ve never been able to before.”So far this shopping weekend, special deals have been posted on Twitter from stores as varied as Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Toys “R“ Us, Staples, Gap, Bloomingdale’s, and Barneys. (Links to the retailing Twitter accounts mentioned in this article can be found in the Web version of the story on NYTimes.com.)

For the uninitiated, Twitter.com is a Web site where each member has a password-protected page. It has a blank box for typing in a message of 140 characters or fewer, an act known as tweeting.

To see a retailer’s messages, Twitter users “follow” the retailer, which means that the chain’s posts show up on their Twitter home page when they log in. And the system allows users to send messages in the other direction, so that a retailer’s employees will see them.

“I think in this economy you need to leverage every asset that you have,” said James Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, who sends messages under the Twitter name, or handle, DisneyStorePrez.

On Friday morning, as consumers flooded Disney Stores around the country, Mr. Fielding messaged: “We have amazing ONE DAY ONLY deals previewing on our Facebook page — become a fan today and find out more!”

Retailers hope that if they send Twitter messages, consumers will come. About 47 percent of retailers said they would increase their use of social media this holiday season, according to a study by Shop.org, part of the National Retail Federation, an industry group. And more than half of retailers said they added or improved their Facebook and Twitter pages. There are advantages for consumers too, like discounts. For instance, those who decided to follow Gap Outlet received an offer for 15 percent off purchases of $75 or more.

As shoppers jammed the aisles on Friday at a Best Buy store in Arlington Heights, Ill., an employee, Jerry DeFrancisco, went up to a computer kiosk and used his Twitter account to tell customers about Best Buy’s home theater deals. Then he resumed his in-store duties, helping a customer decipher a sales circular.

A few months ago, Best Buy began piloting a Twelpforce — a Twitter-inspired play on “help force” — of some 2,500 employees that answer consumers’ questions in real time.

“It’s 24-hour access to our employees,” said Brad Smith, director of interactive marketing and emerging media for Best Buy. The Twelpforce had fielded about 25,000 questions even before gearing up for Thanksgiving weekend.

Ms. Kern in Los Angeles used the service on Friday. After she could not get her new navigation system to work, she tried Best Buy’s telephone support line, only to receive a warning that her wait would be an hour. So she posted on Twitter instead, and within minutes, Best Buy employees were sending her useful links and details about her gadget. “It’s amazing,” she said later in the day. (Her interaction with the employees ultimately helped her realize she would need to go back to the store for help.)

Many retailers will be posting to their Twitter pages throughout the weekend and the entire holiday season. Some chains have an official Twitter account. Others have many, like one for each store, or one for each employee who wants to post messages. There are Twitter pages for designers, like Nicole Miller and Diane von Furstenberg.

Retailers also use Facebook to interact with their customers. But Facebook, with its photo albums and various applications, does not have the same no-frills immediacy as Twitter — which is why Twitter is ideal for instantaneously announcing sales.In addition to bargains, stores are also using Facebook and Twitter to promote contests and games that they hope will keep consumers engaged and coming back. Best Buy has an interactive Secret Santa application on its Facebook page. Gap is using Twitter to inform New York City residents and visitors where its “Gap Cheer” bus (filled with dancers and drummers) will be parked and giving away sweaters and jeans.

Of course, sometimes retailers simply use their Twitter posts to capture the spirit of the season. At 3:30 Thursday morning, an employee posted seven words on the Macy’s Twitter page, about a marching band that was practicing hours before the chain’s Thanksgiving day parade.It said: “Is he really running with a tuba?”