OT - Choosing a LCD TV

In article , John scribeth thus

The newer Sony Bravaia's are worth looking at the following is excellent IMHO having just bought one!. Has built in iplayer and youtube etc as well as a built in freeview standard and hi def tuner....

Pix given a good source is as good as when they transmit and using blu ray .. superb..

Sound like most panel TV's, is not up to much but external amp and speakers see to that:)

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Reply to
tony sayer
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Sony & Panasonic give good sound quality, Samsung variable. By that I mean acceptable, realise the low end is impeded by the TV structure. Samsung on some models is laughable, but that is because they are 2x 3W whereas the others for a little bit more give 2x 10W (the difference is the Samsung starts rattling or booming before you get to an acceptable sound level, they aim small ones at bedrooms).

Sony, Panasonic & Samsung can have similar picture. What I really mean is they may all use PVA or IPS panels, rather than TN. The problem with TN panels is 6-bit colour, poor viewing angle, low contrast despite drivel 20,000:1 ratio, and pretty miserable performance with black/night scenes re films.

Warranty is important, but beware cost. An LCD panel has a few parts: PSU, Inverter, Decoder, Backlight & Panel. If the panel fails (and they do) that is the most expensive part and the TV is scrap. LCD will not last as long as CRT, and PSUs in particular are likely to be a weak point (LG & Samsung perhaps particularly from experience with their monitors included rebranded). A free 3yr or 5yr warranty is worth having, but paying =A3150 for it is not. I would not accept a 1yr warranty on a =A3300-400 TV, I would want a minimum of 2yr and would pay =A330 for an extension to 2yr but not more than =A350 for an extension to 3yr. Some TVs come with 3yr warranty, others can be had cheaply with a longer warranty (check Richer Sounds for their offers).

Beware the codes. One TV such as 6000U may have a TN panel, a 6000V may have PVA panel, a 6000T may have IPS panel - and the price rises accordingly. So always check what is *inside* the TV where different panels are available (Sony).

Read the reviews broadly. Amazon & Argos are handy - but always start with the worst reviews because they tend to be written by someone with a clue, such as "the sound sucks from 3W speakers" or "this model is now a TN panel which is pitch black for dark films and has horrible spotlighting in the corners re backlight" or "the thing takes 30min to give a decent picture and then it suffers from motion blur" (this is what the better chipsets avoid re jaggies and judder).

When you get it, go into the menu and turn down "sharpness" and similar filters - they will give everything a sharp halo edge when you want a soft image to hide the "sized like lego pixels". Remember a

26-40" TV is still a very low resolution panel compared to what a monitor would have, so too huge in a tiny room can work out badly.

A 26" TV is fine re size for someone not bothered about TV (me!), however for films 32" is actually a lot better even in a small living room. Going to 40" requires a fair viewing distance, LCD is still not quite CRT.

For anyone planning on being "modern", the number of HDMI ports matters (2+), plus Freeview-HD unless you want another box to fiddle with. Check on last years model and shop around, bargains can be had but there are a lot of people looking so things go quickly. Always check what spec you are actually buying. Amazon UK can be useful on pricing, because they tend to walk prices down for a time - wait too long and they "return back up and begin again". There is usually one good offer on there which is difficult to beat, the downside is their warranty is costly - always check John Lewis, then check around because other places do undercut enough to make the warranty less critical or offer a 2yr/3yr at minimal cost (=A325-30).

Reply to
js.b1

I would look for 1080p, 'Freeview HD' and consider what could be done with any Ethernet or Wifi support, i.e. Upnp, DLNA iPlayer.

Reply to
Michael Chare

"PVA or IPS or TN panels."

Just the sort of stuff I think I need - but what are the differences?

Reply to
John

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Reply to
Andy Burns

John wrote, on 30/11/2010 20:33:

You might find the following site useful as well:-

They go into some detail about the measured picture quality and performance, and other issues such as sound quality and viewing angles. I chose a Sony EX503 which uses a CCF backlight because a number of different reviews raised question marks over the backlight consistency generally for LED TVs. As others have mentioned in this thread, sound quality is also allegedly poor on the ultra-thin LED TVs.

I did find that viewing different sets in the shops did not help at all; firstly because of the lighting type and levels in the showrooms not to mention sound levels, and also because the sets were usually adjusted for vivid colours to make an impact. The outcome was that the demonstrations came nowhere near to reflecting the circumstances of my use in my living room of an evening.

YMMV, of course.

Reply to
Dave N

First thing to confirm is if a 37" TV is the correct size.

See .

I have a 42" Panasonic plasma which I think is very good. However when I commented that there was not much difference between SD and HD on Freesat after some ill informed comments about eyesight I was pointed to the above chart.

Sitting about 11 feet away from the TV (sofa on one side of room, TV on opposite chimney breast) I am in the "starts to notice the benefits of

720p'' area and not far from the "everything looks the same" area.

So unless you are fairly close to your 37" TV you may not see a lot of difference between SD and HD broadcasts, especially if your TV upscales SD to HD.

One good thing about the Panasonic is the SD slot - makes it very easy to view photos from digital cameras. I happen to have a Panasonic HD camcorder and I can take the SD card out, slot it into the TV and then play the footage straight away. So also consider what other digital devices you have and what support there is in the TV.

HTH

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

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That chart doesn't really take into account the artifacts on SD broadcast. I can tell the difference between Freesat SD and Freesat HD at 12' no trouble. It's not so easy to tell the difference between DVD and broadcast HD, DVD and Blu-Ray at 12' though.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

The "hispeed" (or whatever they call it, think it needs at least

2MBps to work) iPlayer option on our Panny's is OK for catch up but that's about all. I'd not call it "excellent" by a long chalk.
Reply to
Dave Liquorice

More likely returns, either due to faults or the "no quibble" 16 or what ever return policy of some retailers or under the DSRs. They go back to a factory the (expensive) electronics stripped out tested, put back into new (cheap) casings, packageing and manuals and sold on.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

That's another good tip download the manual of possible sets before purchase. Find out what it can really do, rather than what marketing want to tell you about. Quite often there is some little feature that is quite neat or handy but isn't mentioned in the marketing puff.

Reading the manual isn't quite the same as playing with the user interface of a real set but gives you and idea.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

That's what I thought but, having bought loads of "refurbished" electronic gear over the years, these offers always seem to coincide with a new model being launched. A recent example was the Wacom Bamboo. Why on earth would I need a touch screen graphics tablet? Seems to be technology for the sake of it, so I'm happy to pick up the previous version for a song.

Reply to
stuart noble

Tho sometimes it can be quite good for what it is ...

Reply to
tony sayer

In article , Dave N scribeth thus

Well we originally went to Richer sounds but the nitwit there insisted that the poor pix were due to "too many tellies running off the same aerial" and he wouldn't have it any other way.. Tried to put him straight but he wasn't having it .. so they lost a sale..

Went to John Lewis a similar aged boy obviously better trained, knew a whole lot more re TV and hence we ended up buying from there, at least he could demonstrate a few things on the set from differing sources..

Overall I can't really fault the Sony LCD it really is black where black should go and gives a very good account of Freeview but off satellite a Dreambox, used on several sats, pix are that bit better. The channels from Germany are about the best quality wise, and show what SD digital TV can be like:)

Compare to a CRT?, well the CRT set died a while ago and so no can do but it seems that the colour rendering isn't "quite" the same, perhaps thats just analogue -v- digital ;!.. But overall rather impressed on most all programmes but then again its as good as what they send out!..

Looking to see what HD on Freeview will be like next March as it has an inbuilt HD tuner...

and the sound .. as good as a thin plastic case can go, still thats an external amp and speakers for that:)..

Reply to
tony sayer

We have one of those Nintendo WIIs which connects happily to my wifi router. You can download a free app from the wii shop which is for iPlayer. Works well and avoids the need for an ethernet connection to the tele.

Reply to
Tinkerer

While iPlayer works on the wii, the video quality is awful. I don't use it as I have iPlayer on other devices that can play HD material.

Reply to
dennis

Agree about the quality, probably akin to VHS (not Betamax which was, in my opinion, superior to VHS) but as we only want it for the occasional catch up it is convenient and adequate.

Reply to
Tinkerer

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