OT: which 26" telly to buy?

[John Stumbles]

Correct answer of course is "none" coz the pictures are better on the radi^H^H^Hwireless, but what's the *next* best to get?

Theres a Logik (who they?) L26DIGB10 for £200

has VGA, and claims to have a double tuner (why?)

800:1 contrast 100W power consumption (doesn't say what it uses on standby)

SAMSUNG LE26B350 £200 at Richer Sounds

't say anything about contrast ratio Computer "can be plugged in" (does that mean VGA? or only HDMI?)

LG 26LD350 £240

TX-L26X20B for £230 at Richer Sounds, allegedly £250 $ja=tsid:8360|cc:|prd:TX-L26X20B|cat:_LCD_TVsClaims it can vary brightness to suit the ambient light level. Claims a 50,000:1 contrast ratio! Takes an SD card and plays stills and videos (presumably some limited range of codecs) No VGA port :-( Though Richer Sounds' site says 'yes' to 'can a computer be plugged in' - though they don't say what that means (e.g. via HDMI port only).

53Watts running/0.4W standby

Looks like the Panny is the beast to go for - ?

[Skipweasel]

Dunno, but our Evesham developed a vertical stripe near one edge[1] shortly after the guarantee ran out. Though Evesham have gone bust anyway.

[1] Close enough that a miser like me won't yet replace it.

[Skipweasel]

And another thing - why are they all shiny black? Go into most retailers and there's a great sea of glass black, with the occasional pink one for the girlies.

Far too dark and oppresive for our room. I resprayed ours a rather natty two-tone with silver and metallic grey. Looks a lot less obvious in the room now. Perhaps that's what people want - a telly that shouts "LOOK AT ME. I'm VAST!"

[Terry Fields]

Having recently been through the process of choosing a new TV, I suggest you have a study of the reviews of your candidate TVs on the Amazon website.

Don't forget to check up on the sound quality, after all you listen to the TV as well as watching it.

Comments and my offspring's experience suggest that the sound on some Panasonics can leave something to be desired - as a result some people add a simple audio system fed via the HDMI sockets.

Choosing a TV these days is a bit fraught.

TF

[Dave Starling]

The quest to get ever thinner boxes has meant the built-in speakers also get smaller. I have a 22inch Sharp LED tv in the kitchen and the sound can only be described as worse than a tinny transistor radio of the 80's. The picture of course is excellent. It does have one HDMI socket though and if there was an easy way to provide an external speaker system that switched on only when the tv was on, I would buy it.

To the OP, I think the power consumption is better on the LED's rather than the LCD's, but you may get a better deal on the latter as it seems most retailers are heavily discounting them. Try and get a 5 year warranty because if the tv goes t**s up after a couple of years you may as well bin it.

Dave.

[John]

The quest to get ever thinner boxes has meant the built-in speakers also get smaller. I have a 22inch Sharp LED tv in the kitchen and the sound can only be described as worse than a tinny transistor radio of the 80's. The picture of course is excellent. It does have one HDMI socket though and if there was an easy way to provide an external speaker system that switched on only when the tv was on, I would buy it.

To the OP, I think the power consumption is better on the LED's rather than the LCD's, but you may get a better deal on the latter as it seems most retailers are heavily discounting them. Try and get a 5 year warranty because if the tv goes t**s up after a couple of years you may as well bin it.

Dave.

LEDs are LCD. It is just that the illumination behind the LCD panel is an LED array rather than a discharge type tube arrangement. (Power will be low as well)

Unfortunately manufacturers are hoping that people will 'upgrade' in the expectation that LED is radically different. There is no such thing as a domestic "LED" TV - only LED Backlight LCD TV.

[Skipweasel]

Yet. They're coming, but not here yet.

[Adrian C]

You've got more than enough model number details to go fishing around for the instruction manuals for the items in question. Especially if you are trying to find specific features like VGA ports.

Viewing angle maybe an important consideration for you. Some cheaper sets (well, the 'no names') might not be too good at this as they use old panels, and if it's for somewhere that you are in a variable position (kitchen) rather than sat in the sofa, these sets won't work for you.

[Tim Downie]

[e-mail]=20

So now when you watch TV you're constantly distracted by a screen = surround that demands attention?

Give me black over grey, silver, pink or any other colour any day.

Tim

[Skipweasel]

that demands attention?

I find a dense black rectangle round the screen very obtrusive. And since the telly's off more than it's on, downright ugly the rest of the time.

[pete]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ...

There's a thing called a "Lime" plug that you can get (sometimes for free, I've ordered one for my old mum) that learns your TVs remote control power on/off code. Then when you turn your TV on or off, the Lime thingy switches on everything that's connected to its mains outlet. It's designed as a power saver, but is crippled by only having one single mains outlet. You'd have to supply your own 2 or 4 way extension to simultaneously switch on external speakers as well as your TV.

[Mike Clarke]

or £250

$ja=tsid:8360|cc:|prd:TX-L26X20B|cat:_LCD_TVs> Claims it can vary brightness to suit the ambient light level.

That sounds very similar to the TX-L26X10B which I bought a year ago - except that it cost me £360 then :-( . If the TX-L26X20B is anything like as good then I'd say go for it, especially at today's prices. John Lewis are advertising it £249.95 with a 5 year guarantee - when they get it back in stock.

Mine adjusts the brightness to suit the ambient light level. I had my doubts at first because I didn't see any noticeable change when I covered the photocell but then I realised that it only changes gradually with a change in light level, which is probably a good thing otherwise it would flicker every time a shadow passed over it. I think they regard it mainly as an eco feature to reduce power consumption when full brightness isn't needed and it's referred to as 'eco mode' in the setup menu.

Don't rely on retailer's sites for specifications. The Panasonic site quotes the TX-L26X20B as 20,000:1 contrast, 15-pin VGA input from PC's,

3 HDMI inputs. Download the full user manual from the Panasonic site, it'll tell you much more than any sales blurb will.

The sound quality on my TX-L26X10B is pretty good as TV sound goes. I also have it hooked into the AUX input of my HiFi system. The sound from the TV speakers obviously isn't as good as via the HiFi but the difference isn't all that great and we normally just use the internal speakers.

[<me9]

Wrong (well partly)

You can get a 14" (o)led TV from one of the far east manufacturers. However it costs something like £2500 Scaling that up to a 42" screen would need a mortgage.

FWSE... They have come down in price, but not up in size:

[Terry Fields]

I'm fairly sure the offspring's audio setup goes this, inasmuch as it comes out of 'standby' automatically.

They are due round tomorrow evening so I'll ask about the details.

TF

[Tim Streater]

Not in my case it wouldn't. I've got a pair of these:

Had them since 1974. Fed through Quad kit, nothing compares.

[John]

I knew that - which is why I used the word "domestic" to imply commonly available - in the context of the OPs posting. LED TV is not commonly available - TVs labelled as such are LCD with LED backlighting.

[John Stumbles]

One of those trailing blocks with a master and several slave sockets, which powers up the slaves when the master draws power, might do the trick. (More commonly used for PCs + peripherals which would have much the same characteristic of the PC drawing minute amount of power when 'off'.)

[John Stumbles]

Are you joking? Are your seriously suggesting that one has more than a snowball's chance in hell of getting useful information out of manufacturers' websites after the pointy-haired marketing types have been at them? :-(

I went looking for a Potterton manual I didn't have in my collection a couple of days ago. Even on the 'installer' and 'merchant' parts of their site there was nothing but consumer glossies and patronising weenie brainless-consumer-oriented stuff (like Why You Should Choose A Gas Safe Registered Installer).

Even some top names had surprisingly narrow viewing angles. Though that might not be an issue in my proposed location in the corner of a room where you wouldn't get more than 45 degrees off axis from it.

[John Stumbles]

Yes, those would probably sound a little better than the built-in ones ;-)

[Steve Firth]

An iMac. Great TV and it does other stuff too. Also the screen is way better than any TV on the market.