Television advice

[Shellywoozle]

OK I am gonna come into the teccy world, I have caved into the temptation.

After Xmas I am going to kit my lounge out with HD 36"/42" TV and surround sound and get a gaming console. Redecorate and generally spend alot of dosh (which I aint got but plastic works wonders)

So any constructive suggestions to what TV I should get, I have no idea what anything means all I know is what HD stands for LOL.

I have a newish Sony surround sound, think I may keep this tho.

What makes are good, has anyone got any models they had bad experinces with. Price is not really an issue as after Xmas there will be offers, I dont want to pay mega bucks but dont want no cheap s**t.

Fankoo technical homies :smt024

[haggis]

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=television&type=television&subtype=tftlcd&model_cd=LE40A656A1FXXU

I was all set for buying a Samsung LE40A656, a 40"LCD, in the January sales, but now have changed plans. It's been getting great reviews, and we went to see it in Dixons last month. Very nice TV, does everything well, all the connections and spec you could ask for, and already dropped loads off the RRP of £1300. Was on Amazon for £730 delivered and it's only been out since June i think.

Just checked latest prices.... Dixons online offer now @£693 with offer codes FIVETV & DELTV for 5% off and free p+p.


As i said plans for me changed though, as my mate just yesterday offered me his 10mth old Toshiba 37" for next to nothing so installed it last night. Luvly tv too. :cool:

[Shellywoozle]

That looks nice and what a bargain ;) mmmmm maybe buying before Xmas, I am no good at waiting lol

[kwak zzr]

i just ordered cuz a 32" samsung like mine from ebuyer, only £350 + £14 delivery.

[Shellywoozle]

i just ordered cuz a 32" samsung like mine from ebuyer, only £350 + £14 delivery.

which one is yours? forgot about ebuyer. Altho I want to stay off the net for reasons of people keep pinching my card details and spending my money. Keeps happening so I've had enough rather go into a shop.

[kwak zzr]

37" jobbie - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145386

[Raf]

Go for full HD 1080p, especially with a big telly. Go round the shops and see them working. One thing that HD tellys do is show how poor the standard freeview stuff actually is. It might be worth going for a freesat HD or the Sky HD package if you want such a telly. Blue ray players are also quite good at showing how good or bad a telly actually is.

Think about how far away you are going to sit from your telly, sometimes bigger doesn't exactly mean better. That Samsung does look interesting, but at work we found that the bezel on the 32", not the 40", hides some pixels.

If you are looking at a telly Samsung series 5 or 6, Sony W series are generally quite good. I forget which panasonic is meant to be any good, I'd have to look it up.

[Mr Speirs]

I got a Sony Bravia 40 incher for £599 last January from Sainsburys as they had some pretty good deals.

Has your Surround System got HDMI inputs? If so you should also get a PS3 an HDMI the whole lot up.

[kwak zzr]

thats what i just got a ps3 for lol :) sainsburys had 40" sony tv's in last week.

[kwak zzr]

saying that my neice had a 50" sony and on freeview the piccy look rank, new house aswell so you are sitting 3ft from the screen.

[Mr Speirs]

Awesome ain't it??

Go on to YouTube and type in 'eighth day' Its one of the first games that is going to come out to start testing the PS3's capabilities.

Also Prototype is another one.

Love my PS3.

[kwak zzr]

christmas when i get mine :) sorry my son gets his :) we can go online :) i got - big little planet, GT5, call of duty 3, superbike 08 and sonic.

[muffles]

Go for full HD 1080p, especially with a big telly. Go round the shops and see them working. One thing that HD tellys do is show how poor the standard freeview stuff actually is. It might be worth going for a freesat HD or the Sky HD package if you want such a telly. Blue ray players are also quite good at showing how good or bad a telly actually is.

Think about how far away you are going to sit from your telly, sometimes bigger doesn't exactly mean better. That Samsung does look interesting, but at work we found that the bezel on the 32", not the 40", hides some pixels.

If you are looking at a telly Samsung series 5 or 6, Sony W series are generally quite good. I forget which panasonic is meant to be any good, I'd have to look it up.

I was actually gonna say don't bother paying extra for full HD - just get HD ready. It's basically 2 different resolutions - HD ready is a much better resolution than standard TV, and full HD is again a better resolution. So normal TV < HD ready < full HD.

The reason I say not to go for it is that AFAIK no-one broadcasts in it yet (I'm sure there's some media out there, but I guess it's not common yet).

If you add that to the fact that most people will agree, the jump from normal TV to HD ready is mindblowing, but comparatively the jump from HD ready to full HD is a lot smaller, it's not at the moment worth it to pay a few hundred more for a full HD when that few hundred equates to a good 40-50% extra on top of the price.

However I WOULD agree about the distance - again most people will agree (well, those in the know, a lot of people will buy a big TV and not want to sound like they didn't need it ;)) but you need to buy the TV according to how far you will be, otherwise you don't get the proper effect from the picture (I assume it'll appear pixellated, etc).

[kwak zzr]

i thought my 32" was the right size for the room but if buying again id go 37"

[Bluepete]

www.avforums.com (http://www.avforums.com)

Loads of usefull advice.

Then again, a few copies of What Hi-Fi Sound and vision, or Home Cinema World from WH Smith will give you some usefull info from people who know what they are talking about. January sales will be a great time to buy! All that stock not shifting 'cos of the "credit wotsit"

Pete

[Raf]

I was actually gonna say don't bother paying extra for full HD - just get HD ready. It's basically 2 different resolutions - HD ready is a much better resolution than standard TV, and full HD is again a better resolution. So normal TV < HD ready < full HD.

I disagree. I'd say going full 1080p would be worth it for a television of the correct size. At 32" it is very much useless unless you are going to be relatively close to your telly. At 37" it is very much debatable. Finally at 40" and above I think it would be silly not to go for a true 1080p television. Therefore you need to figure out what telly would make sense in your living room before choosing a resolution for it. Figure out what the maximum reasonable size telly would be and go from there. But since Ms. Wozzle said she wanted something like 36"/42" I'd say 1080p would be worth it.


The reason I say not to go for it is that AFAIK no-one broadcasts in it yet (I'm sure there's some media out there, but I guess it's not common yet).

I believe that BBC HD is transmitted in 1080i over Freesat HD. If I remember correctly most of sky is transmitted at 720p. Also, most blueray disks out there now a days is 1080p at 24 frames per second. And they do look rather nice on the CORRECT (and this is very important) size telly.


If you add that to the fact that most people will agree, the jump from normal TV to HD ready is mindblowing, but comparatively the jump from HD ready to full HD is a lot smaller, it's not at the moment worth it to pay a few hundred more for a full HD when that few hundred equates to a good 40-50% extra on top of the price.

I wonder how much of that was due to the change from interlaced to progressive. It does make a big difference, especially in movies.

Also, for such big televisions consider some plasma models as well as LCD. I remember coombest, who I believe works in selling and installing high end home cinema stuff, saying that plasma was the way to go as most LCD stuff simply wasn't good enough compared to them.

[Odin]

As some of the others have said, if you are going to spend a few pennies (say above 800) on a tele best buy a few mags, what hifi and the such. Basically I would filter out anything below 4 stars ( a 4 star may only be 4 star as the sound may be poor but if your going for extra speakers this may not be an issue with you) and get to know the exact product name and round about 3 up that you could live with. The names can be very frustrating, usually something like Samsung 32 ghtxxx123gghtf, but the devil is in the detail.

The tinternet is very good at finding low deals but I found that after I had a few good prices I phoned up and asked them if they could beat it. 8 out of 10 tried to do just that.

Hope that helps a little;)

[Ed]

I don't know much about all this Shell. But, like every man, I know that size matters;)

[russg]

hi guys and girls

i will chuck my views in aswell :p

firstly check mags but dont read to much into them try and get unbiased views on the tvs u like.

secondly the further back u sit the better the pic will be i have a leaflet with guidelines to how far u should be away from ur tv

thirdly full hd /hd ready as in 1920 1080 vs 1366 768 it all depends on what ur gonna connect to it if its just freeview get a hd ready tv if its just sky or virgin not hd get a hd ready tv if its sky virgin hd or blu-ray or ps3 for gaming then get a full hd tv u wont get the full benefit of a full hd tv unless u have blu-ray or have sky hd virgin hd freesat in future

fourth plazma is still a better image than lcd and i back this up with the release of a 200hz sony lcd lcd doesnt cope well with fast moving images sony are trying to sort it so it does but plazma does deal better with fast moving images

fifth sound is just as important as picture so make sure u listen to any tvs u like cause they all vary

i work in a well known:smt067 electrical shop selling this stuff but this is just my input

cheers
rusty
________
Pornstars Tube (http://www.****tube.com/categories/32/pornstars/videos/1)

[muffles]

I disagree. I'd say going full 1080p would be worth it for a television of the correct size. At 32" it is very much useless unless you are going to be relatively close to your telly. At 37" it is very much debatable. Finally at 40" and above I think it would be silly not to go for a true 1080p television. Therefore you need to figure out what telly would make sense in your living room before choosing a resolution for it. Figure out what the maximum reasonable size telly would be and go from there. But since Ms. Wozzle said she wanted something like 36"/42" I'd say 1080p would be worth it.

I believe that BBC HD is transmitted in 1080i over Freesat HD. If I remember correctly most of sky is transmitted at 720p. Also, most blueray disks out there now a days is 1080p at 24 frames per second. And they do look rather nice on the CORRECT (and this is very important) size telly.

I wonder how much of that was due to the change from interlaced to progressive. It does make a big difference, especially in movies.

Also, for such big televisions consider some plasma models as well as LCD. I remember coombest, who I believe works in selling and installing high end home cinema stuff, saying that plasma was the way to go as most LCD stuff simply wasn't good enough compared to them.

The TV size is surely a function of TV distance & TV image resolution. That said, I won't go into it any more - I'm not an expert by any means - BUT the point I was making is that if the media isn't out there, and the jump from HD ready to full HD isn't that big (regardless of why it's not that big...it's still considered a much smaller improvement), then there's no need to spend extra on the full HD TV given the significant increase in cost.

It'll be quite a while before everything is in full HD (not even just 720p/1080i) so I am of course making the assumption that she might be ready to buy another TV before then ;)

Regarding the 1080i/720p broadcasts, HD ready has to accept both of those, so the only concern would be Blu-ray discs at 1080p. And I'll be honest, if they are all in 1080p, and since Blu-ray is the future, I would consider more seriously going for a 1080p TV. I haven't had the chance to really compare HD ready vs full HD, but it would have to be fairly significant to me to persuade me into paying 50% more on a TV which might well be out of date by the time it's really mainstream.

Shell - taking a step back, I'd say try and check out some HD media (HD ready and full HD if you can) because only you can make the decision if full HD is that much better that you want to pay the extra. I'd definitely recommend taking a look at avforums, or maybe contacting the member Raf mentions, or if you have no luck there, on Pistonheads there's a couple of guys who will definitely be able to sort you out - 'Plotloss' or 'derestrictor' I believe. They both own companies that sell/install some high end stuff (as well as TVs more in our range, lol) so have some good experience.

[SimJ]

It's all pretty much been said but to try and simplify it - If you're buying a 32", HD ready is fine. Unless you're using the TV as a PC monitor as well then you'll struggle to tell the difference. Any larger than that and Full HD 1080p is the way to go.

I'd also second BluePete's advice about AV forums. The tech debates can get a bit anal on there but lots of good info otherwise.

[Viney]

Buy a screen size that fits the room. If you go too big, you end up with a poor picture. All Pannels have an optimum viewing distance and this MUST be taken into account.

Im still not convinced with HD. Its still not really taken off imho, not as big as people would like and not everything is actually filmed in HD, therefore its digitaly enhanced! So, yes, by all means get a HD pannel (Hard not to nowadays) but dont worry about all the HD services yet. (Thats a personal opinion)

I just bought an LG Plasma. Its only a baby 32" and i bought a new Sony upscaling DVD player and to be honest, its all you really need depending on what you are going to watch. Just dont get a huge screen if you have a small room. Most modern houses need no bigger than a 37" screen imho.

[$tevo]

I thought you was off to Oz Shell, no time to be buying big telly and stuff - have you changed your mind?

[Mr_Chin]

Tesco's are doing a 37" for £349.99, and the 42" for £399.99. I don't know about the resolutions on them, but what a bargain either way!

[Ceri JC]

On the subject of good telly, Sainsburys have a 40" Sony 1080P telly for £599.99 at the moment, which has the best screen of any TV I have ever seen. Blue Ray on it looks insanely good.

[AndyL]

Not got time to read all the preview posts in this thread (cos im at work) but do bare in mind that the bigger the TV the better the HD signals (e.g. XBOX360, SkyHD, Bluray players) will look, BUT also the bigger the TV, the worse the standard definition will look.

Before somebody posts a reply to say that im wrong - the above rule only applies up to a certain size TV approx 50-60"