OT - Choosing a LCD TV

[John]

I understand that there are only a handful of manufacturers of LCD panels and there are probably some "processors" that are better than others. I don't want to make a purchase decision based on the name on the TV as I don't believe it tells a full story as a lot a re-branding and badge engineering goes on.

If I am shopping for a 37" TV then what should I be objectively looking for (and avoiding to be a little bit future proof)? I guess LED illumination and a good contrast ratio are good for starters - but any technology that offers a real advantage that I may find in looking at the specs?

Anyone geeky enough to table some ideas?

(I am old enough to remember the days of a British TV industry - when many makers would all use the same chassis design and tube)

[Tim Watts]

Samsung are good IME (2 TVs and a monitor). At least on of those (40-mumble inch) shares the panel with a Sony Bravia - which are exceedingly good panels - bright, good viewing angle.

The small Samsung TV is good, except the below-axis viewing is poor - eg it's on a table and you're on the floor.

The monitor is excellent.

All of this is inherently out of date - but Samsung will give you a good starting point IME, but I would locate a model you like the look of and then research the exact model number on the TV forums - it's the only way to be sure.

[Jonathan]

I asked the salesman which models had fewest returns for warranty reasons and he said Sony and Panasonic. (So I actually ended up buying one of each, on sepataret occasions.)

Jonathah

[John]

I believe that Samsung are manufacturers of LCD panels

[Andy Burns]

Another vote for Samsung good picture quality on freeview and via HDMI.

I have one of the ultra thin frame models (actual model is long out of production), not bothered about the thickness of the TV as it's not mounted on a wall, but the width of my 42" is actually less than the width of their normal 40" due to not having acres of plastic round the panel.

But I expect Panny and Sony are just as good too ... I essentially waited for the first 1920x1080 24fps set that got good reviews.

[dennis]

What are you watching?

If its a skyHD box then most of the electronics are bypassed when using an HDMI cable. You can even use a monitor and have no "TV" at all.

Then there is Freesat which can be inbuilt or like Sky an external box.

And lets not forget FreeviewHD and Freeview.

I think its safe to forget analogue TV in a lot of areas.

Do you need/want 3D?

I have a series 6 Samsung and that is pretty good IMO.

[Vass]

dont get blinkered by just visual performance, a noisy rattly speaker will soon annoy check the Sound Quality.

[Richard Russell]

I would second that (our 37" set isn't the latest model, however). 'Processing' is every bit as important as the panel itself, if not more so, and Panasonic seem to have the edge when it comes to scaling technology (not relevant when feeding a 1080p picture into a full-HD panel, of course, but very much so when upscaling SD). Over the years they've consistently got good ratings from Which?

Richard.

[John]

Good tip - thanks.

[John]

Virgin Cable (only about £1 as I have their Broadband and Telephone)

[Dave Liquorice]

Very good tip, recently bought a 42" Panasonic Plasma, the sound is OK and even but very lacking in anything below about 150Hz. I thought my ears were playing up when I first switched it on. The lack of bottom end is not overly surprising when you find that the speakers are just 120 x 35mm (4.75 x 1.3").

[Dave Liquorice]

Built in Freesat or Freeview. Analogue will be history in 2 years... Might be worth getting HD as well. SD on freesat is acceptable, I've yet to see any SD Freeview that I consider watchable, it's normally crawling with artifacts. Main stream channels on both not the minority ones.

At least you realise that the "LED" sets currently on the market are just LED backlights for an LCD panel and thus still suffer the problems of LCD. Laggy response and poor contrast ratio, the LED backlight does help the latter though.

Go for a native panel resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, I think the marketing sticker "Full HD 1080p" ensures this but check.... Avoid anything with the "HD Ready" sticker.

[Man at B&Q]

Avoid anything branded "Cello" even if they are sold in John Lewis. The picture's OK but the UI is crap and slow.

MBQ

[Andy Burns]

pixels, I think the

Be aware that even with a HD-Ready or Full-HD sticker this only means it can display HD from an external source, not that it can receive HD from aerial or dish using the inbuilt tuner, if you want that then you need a FreeviewHD or FreesatHD sticker.

[stuart noble]

Worth checking the web for "refurbished" models, often with a 6 month warranty. Generally it means there's a new model out, the manufacturer needs to shift stocks of the previous one, but they can't be seen to be cutting prices. A friend and I got a couple of Panasonics that way, and they both looked brand new to me. No problems 18 months down the line

[Tinkerer]

Have you succeeded using it as a monitor? I tried to feed iPlayer from my laptop to the 37" Panasonic and one quarter of the laptop screen fills the TV picture, the other three quarters being invisible. Laptop resolution is

1440 x 900. It works fine when I feed it to our 20" Toshiba though (Toshiba resolution is 1366 x 768).

I record the Freesat signal from AV1 Scart on the TV into a scart connection on the PVR - works fine. You cannot record via the HDMI port so, although you can record the HD channels, the result is Standard Definition.

[pete]

Personally, I wouldn't get too hung up on the tech-specs. Just so long as the set will display 1080p, the features and your perception of visual and sound quality are far more important. Putting aside all the hype about 3D, the number of HDMI connections seems to be a differentiator that is worth taking notice of, as is the ability to connect a set to the internet - or HDCP thingies.

In an ideal world you should be able to test a selection of sets against the sort of content you'll be watching most: be that DVD/Blu-ray, games or plain old off-the-air telly. in practice a lot of shops that I've been to either only have canned demos, or are so egregiously set up that they actively discourage you from buying their wares.

Finally, I'd say only pay attention to reviews from people who have actually bought a particular set, themselves. Though it's fair to say that the widely known "good" brands are a good place to start.

[PeterC]

After some advice and help from this group, I bought a Samsung UE37C6530U TV and the sound isn't at all bad (I use 'Music' most of the time and have tuned 'Standard' for the 'heavier' stuff. The picture is good on both FTA sat. on an old Fortec box and the built-in Freeview HD tuner on an old (30+) C/D aerial with poor cable (from Oxford, about 43km away). Got it from JL, 5-year warranty and £110 cashback.

I hope this works:

manual is available via the Support tab on the left.

[Alan]

In message , John wrote

Always go into a shop and look at the viewing angle. Some panels only give good results when you are in front of them. Go off axis and the colours/contrast fade into something not worth watching.

Consider if most of your viewing will be from a HD or SD source. Shops will demonstrate TV with HD or a Bluray source and hence will not show problems with how the TV deals with low bit rate SD broadcasts.

None of the sets in a shop will be set-up for normal home viewing.

Just because one set in a range from a manufacturer is recommended by someone don't assume that all the other sets in the range have the same technology (panels or electronics).

BTW, I'm very happy with my 40" Samsung LCD (traditionally back lit)

[Alan]

Nothing thin will have good 'internal' speakers - use an AV amp with external speakers