Cheap LCD TV reviews /recommendations wanted

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

The old faithful CRT Grundig has finally turned up its toes big-style, its demise probably hastened by running for two full (non-consecutive) days on spiky inverter power when the local power company was replacing lines in the area. Bit of a bugger, I was hoping to keep it going for another year or two yet until the Irish broadcaster RTE settles on a final standard for HD transmissions and then buy a telly that will definitely suit. I was this close >'< to pulling the trigger on nice Philips set that seemingly had all I needed, but reluctance to splash out a fair few quid on a set that might not be totally future-proof stayed my hand.

Anyway... what I'm looking for now is a cheapy LCD 32" with analogue tuner and perhaps DVB-T MPEG-4 tuning capability. DSOn is set for 2012 and final analogue switch-off is probably a semi-decade after that, so plenty of time yet.

I've been checking out ebuyer and they deliver to Ireland - has anyone tried their own-brand pikey sets, Foehn & Hirsch? Is the picture quality on any of the cheapy sets anything to write home about? Any other cheap and cheerful recommendations?

[Adrian C]

Do you have freecycle over there?

[Duncan Di Saudelli]

Several years ago now (7 or 8), I decided to buy a very nice, top-of-the-range Sony 32" trinitron CRT. It was a KV32FX75 or similar number - it cost about 1200 quid.

After about 4 years I decided to get a plasma telly and shopped around for months. I finally to a gamble on an eBuyer unbranded SD 42" plasma for about

600 quid. It outshone my Sony many times over and, when I now see the my old Sony at someone else's house to whom I donated it, I can't understand why they put up with such a rubbish picture.

My unbranded telly is still fault free after about 4-5years and the picture quality easily matches SD quality of other people's plasma/LCD scrrens (Toshiba being one brand, Sony being another).

bear in mind that source material has a major effect e.g. some low datarate channels on Sky look rubbish on my plasma compared with BBC1 on freeview - just for example.

So I would say that unbranded/unknown names are worht a go.

[John]

Generalisations can be risky. Unbranded - can imply a whole range of sources - at different times.

[Fredxx]

That is my experience. The only penalty seems to be sound quality which is better on other branded models. But youend up paying an awful lot for a couple of decent speakers.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian C saying something like:

There is, but undergoing changes. The local groups are very quiet in case and Dublin's too far off.

[Duncan Di Saudelli]

Fair point; perhaps I should qualify my comments by saying that "worth a go" means "don't discount in favour of recognised names". Unbranded is worth looking at and listening to and comparing results with well known brands; you may find that "£ for £" the unbranded ones are better value for money, or just better full stop.

DDS

[Stuart Noble]

Keep an eye on "refurbished" stuff. IME it's nearly always brand new, with a 12 month warranty. I've a feeling manufacturers like to shift stocks of the previous model and label them as refurbished so as not to upset retailers who paid the full price. Tesco have a dedicated EBay outlet.

[js.b1]

There are few parts in a LCD TV...

- Branded - you can get Backlight, Invertor & PSU parts.

- Unbranded - you might or you might not, comes down to the importer carrying parts.

Thus failure in branded or unbranded can be terminal :-)

1 - Do you need 32", or would a branded 26" be better?

2 - Have you checked the supermarkets?

3 - Have you checked Richer Sounds etc?

Richer Sounds often do cheap 5yr warranty which solves a lot of problems. Supermarkets often get end of life, I picked up a Panasonic 26" for =A3285 which was the IPS panel (not the crappy TN panel of that year) and bought a 5yr warranty myself separately for =A389 basically re hassle as much as anything.

When you get it, first thing to do...

- Turn Sharpness DOWN - that removes the jaggies

- Check if a cheap warranty available - Richer Sounds can be good

Check carefully what you are buying re panel.

- TN - cheap panel, 6-bit colour

- IPS - better panel, 8-bit colour

Check carefully what you are buying re motion blur.

- Some chipsets create a judder-judder-judder

- On bad TV it is noticeable all the time - at area being viewed

- On good TV it is only noticeable off area being viewed

- On best TV it is not noticeable at all - Pana IPS & most Sony

If you can downsize to 26" you may well get a better TV - I should add sound quality is better on branded TVs.

One "light" is some are switching to LED backlights. That may mean non- LED (CCFL bulb) may be being discounted.

Look around at the Samsung 26", their picture quality is often as good as Panasonic & Sony but cheaper - the sound is often crap. For example cheap Samsung & Generic have 3W+3W speakers which are bad and just get worse as you turn up the volume to usable levels (rasping, booming, vibrating, like a 1981 mono tape recorder playing music).

Confused by the various models re "what is crap and what is not"? Go to

and type in the model number, then read the review. Check carefully through the reviews as many reviewers are thick and can't understand the technological differences - occasionally someone shows up the real "caveat" which may be "dreadful sound, lousy TN panel with washed out colours, unacceptable motion blur".

Amazon are good in that they will take stuff back and are prompt on delivery.

What you do not want is a dog of a picture & reliability - a cheap TV can quickly become twice as expensive if you have to go and replace the thing soon after. A good CRT (Panasonic Tau or Sony Trinitron) still runs around all but a Plasma, but Plasma will hit you with higher electricity consumption and suffer high-ticket high-repair cost.

[peter]

Rubbish sound on super telly. Just bought a 26" Samsung ex-display from Comet - love the picture but sound terrible. Used to run 14" CRT into stereo amp via Freeview box but new all-dancing model has no analogue sound outputs! Easy fix was =A35 1/8" jack to phono lead from Maplins, plugged into headphones output on TV. Much better

[Andy Champ]

Suggest you look at a panel and separate STB. Then when the new standard settles you can throw away the STB and buy an up-to-date one for ?30. I would have said £30 but it makes no odds these days...

Andy

[Stuart Noble]

I got myself a cheap ASDA surround sound system . All the small speakers are behind the tv in a line (behind sound?) but at least I get a remote, and the sound is miles better. Tv is Panasonic TX-26LXD8 £255 delivered. Very pleased with it so far.

[js.b1]

Yes, that's what I found when looking.

Amusing comparison, 14" Ferguson "goldfish bowl with grey no black" sounded better than the Samsung without tinny or vibrating boomcase.

I would have gone with the Samsung (picture) were it not for the need to fix the sound (hifi), until I found the older model Panasonic (it was last years =A3475 from JL with IPS, the later 26" was TN, the current 26" is back to IPS).

Check carefully on the Sony, they do various U V S T models which can vary substantially - some have poor backlight, others poor motion blur requiring a (very) long warmup. Amazon is really handy, but you have to read every review to build a true picture. AVforums is another place to double check, but shortlist via Amazon is a good first start (no commercials posing as reviewers).

[robgraham]

Andy - I'm missing a bit on some of the acronyms being used here - you obviously know what STB is, and your idea is interesting, but how do you by a 'panel, which I take it is justt the screen I see TN a lot - any idea what that is?

Rob

[John]

Andy - I'm missing a bit on some of the acronyms being used here - you obviously know what STB is, and your idea is interesting, but how do you by a 'panel, which I take it is justt the screen I see TN a lot - any idea what that is?

Rob

Check carefully what you are buying re panel.

- TN - cheap panel, 6-bit colour

- IPS - better panel, 8-bit colour

Is it easy to know what it is that is fitted?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Champ saying something like:

Not as simple as it seems. Richer Sounds have a Hitachi 32" 1080p panel only for ¤319. I was seriously tempted for the above reason, but this panel has only one VGA and one HDMI. I could get 1. scart to VGA converter lead 2. a remote-switchable multi scart box and set the recorder via that (the analogue tuner is in the recorder), and the skybox could be switched in for normal viewing. Problem is then, trying to record one analogue while watching another analogue channel. I have an old broken VCR with a perfectly good analogue tuner in, but it would be verging on the ridiculous, incorporating that. Another problem is it's 'in-store only', and pickup would be 100 miles away. It starts to add up again anyway, and there's no point in that if it gets to near ¤400 - I'd be as well shelling out for the Philips (¤480 delivered), load of extra hassle to save 80 quid.

[John]

What do people consider to be the min spec for a LCD eg - Contrast Ratio, etc.

[Tim W]

John wibbled on Saturday 19 December 2009 09:47

When I evaluate LCD TVs, I'm looking for long life and good picture performance. Most TVs have adequate but not great sound, but that can be easily solved with an amp.

Next I'm looking at at who makes the panel. Some Samsungs (the one I have) contain Sony panels (mine is a Bravia panel). This is good. Panels vary considerably.

Next I'm looking for the main make. I trust Samsung, Sony and Hitachi. Many others are good. Personally, I stay away from low end names. Decent manufacturers are more like to design or use decent decoders - this makes a big difference with DTV.

Lastly I'm interested in what connectors are on the back. This is secondary to the above for me.

If I'm after a smaller cheap TV, I'd rather look at the stock clearences and ex demos for a TV meeting the above, possibly a few inches smaller than ideal, rather than go for a larger no name thing with poor DTV decoding and a bad panel. Better a small clear picture than a large hazy one IMHO

[The Natural Philosopher]

Frankly the only thing that irritates the shit out of me is a set that can't keep up with decompressing a complex digital signal, and goes jerky or smears the background into unmentionable fractal fluff on anything more complex than a newscasters face against a blank background.

I'd say the LCD'S are adequate for the most part: what drives them is not.

[John]

How would a punter know who makes the panel?