Anyone bought a new TV recently? Want one at least 45" with enough inputs. Haven't kept up with the market so could do with some guidance. I already have a Humax HD PVR which does I-player, etc. so that's not essential.
Forget the spec, go for the impressive brand name. 'Which' has an adequately dumbed down list, normally it's either Sony or Panasonic on top. The details are irrelevant, count the number of stars.
Focus on the complexity of the remote control (more buttons is best), and whether the specialist 'enthusiast' magazines rate the model highly. The spotty nose oik in chosen shop will gladly tell you that, while showing the five essential buttons to turn it on, jump up a channel, hit the volume, stretch the view widthways, and make all colours look like a cartoon.
Look also for the word Smart. It looks knowingly good even if ye don't have unlimited broadband - or the internet at all. Plasma screens burn and wear out ye know, so could be unreliable. Go LCD. Isn't LED actually LCD? Ah..
Choose somewhere giving a "real" five year Domestic & General guarantee and don't forget to pay extra for the Gold plated HDMI lead. Regarding leads, ask if it's safe to pull out the mains plug last thing at night, or how much the power consumption is on standby.
Look for logos. 'HD Ready' or 'Full HD' have both got HD in them so must be good. 'Freeview' yes, of course!
It has to be (according to fashion magazines) mounted high above the fireplace, so make sure to get the right bracket. Ask the retailer to deliver, read the destructions and set it up. Leave the empty cardboard box outside for week to show the neighbours you have upgraded.
Enjoy ;-)
On Tuesday 29 October 2013 18:25 Dave Plowman (News) wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Lots of HDMI and don;t worry anout anything else...
Laptops these days have DisplayPort (convertable to HDMI) or HDMI outputs.
PCs have HDMI or DVI (convertable to HDMI).
Samsung phones have MHL which is adaptable to HDMI.
Even cheap DVD players have HDMI.
I would aim for 3-5 of those as inputs and by default you'll get a couple of others too.
On Tuesday 29 October 2013 19:57 Adrian C wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Disagree - I have had Samsungs - 2 TVs (little and larges) and a monitor. 2 are 6 years old the other 4 years.
All are excellent.
Stating the obvious, but see if you can see a selection where you can actually gauge the usability as well as the picture quality. Somewhere like John Lewis is usually pretty good for that.
Reviews don't always have enough focus on the software side of things and some TVs can end up being somewhat annoying in daily use.
A handy, but hardly essential, feature to have is per-input picture and sound settings. Means I can have completely different picture quality settings when I use the TV as a PC/console monitor or Watching a Blu-ray for instance.
Lee
Adrian C wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:
Sorry to inject a serious comment into the humour, but it is of course not recommended to advertise the recent purchase of high-value electronics to potential miscreants.
Lee
Anyone bought a new TV recently? Want one at least 45" with enough inputs. Haven't kept up with the market so could do with some guidance. I already have a Humax HD PVR which does I-player, etc. so that's not essential.
Sony
John Lewis
5 year warranty
I'm not sure if that was meant to form another humorous part of your post or not, but if you buy a TV with "Freeview" and "Full HD" logos separately on it, your're likely to be disapointed that it doesn't actually receive HD programmes, what you need is a "Freeview HD" logo.
I have always had good results from Panasonics, but recently I have heard good reports from friends who bought Samsungs.
If you buy from John Lewis, see if Richer Sounds has it cheaper and get JL to match the price.
-- Richard
+1 foir samsung. At the price/perforance reliability end of things thatt Sony used to occupy.
Throw some colour 'broshers' out of the car window then invite the neighbours around for an unveiling party with televisual refreshments.
Owain
If you have seven grand to spend on a TV (and lets face it, who hasn't) then get that 55" Samsung OLED set. I saw one at John Lewis last week. Holy shit. Still had s**te speakers, mind.
Some time ago I visited a flat to fix the TV system. It emerged in conversation that the (very large) TV set was almost two years old. "I'll be glad when it its birthday comes. We'll be able to use the guest bedroom again." The boy who had delivered the set had told her that she must on no account dispose of the box, or the warranty would be made invalid. As a result the guest bedroom, which was very small, had been fully occupied by the box for almost two years.
Bill
I've installed many LG ones in recent years and been impressed with them. Very good picture (they're one of the big makers of LCD screens) and they've been very reliable (in as far as we've not gone back to replace any!)
Things of note:
1) Count the HDMI ports, don't assume they'll be loads. Recently (certainly on smaller sets) they've actually started throwing them away again and only providing two on some. This might just be a driver to try and get people to buy a higher spec (or bigger!) model. 2) Check how responsive the remote is. The software in some TVs gives the impression that the processor is running at a speed measured in kHz rather than MHz.
The small Sony in our bedroom is like this. Makes channel hopping very painful.
Just over 10MwH of electricity consumed... Yeowch.
These days Samsung or Panasonic are probably the best bet. Depending what you want and how much you are prepared to pay you can get ones that will do FreeviewHD and/or FreesatHD internally.
47" is about the size where remaindered ones in the likes of Richer Sounds can be worthwhile. Expect to need to buy an optical DAC as none of the new generation of LED backlit LCD seem to have audio line out.Active 3D is a worthless gimmick and so few programmes are broadcast in it that the facility is not worth the extra cost. Hawkeye on Wimbledon was fun in full 3D but the flicker in peripheral vision was unbearable. YMMV
Passive 3D is at least watchable during the hours of daylight but again content is lacking. You quickly get bored of it.
Try and watch something with difficult motion content on any that you are considering. Water skiing in bright sunlight with a dark background is a very good worst case scenario (watch the spray). Those smooth fast linear pans and talking heads they use in demos are the best case.
About 4 weeks ago I bought a Panny 50" from Richer Sounds (also available from John Lewis), so 5-year warranty included. It's the TX-L50ET60B and not in the shops, just on line. There's a lengthy forum on the series here:
(I think that'll do it - site's down atm).
It was the biggest that I could fit in. Now I've got it set up I'm very pleased with it. The running power is impressive - about 34W on 2D, around
15W or so less than the 37" Sammy.I have a list of my settings - the standard ones are eye-burning!
Don't tell me, let me guess. They also had old lampshades with yellowing cellophane still on, and the 15 year old hall carpet had a pimply plastic strip to protect it, that only got removed for the Hoover.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.