Mum needs a new TV today

darrenm

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My mum's CRT has broken and needs replacing.

She's keen on 40" Sony LCD.

I think LCD is going to be the better option (over plasma) as she is a childminder and kids will be using the TV all day for games consoles etc and we don't want it to get burnt in.

It needs to be a decent set to last for many years to come, so she doesn't mind paying a premium for a brand.

We'll likely be popping to Currys/Comet etc this morning, so any suggestions let us know
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B

Bry-Fi

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To my eyes the recent offerings from Samsung are top notch and good value.
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Jezzer

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Well, if she wants a Sony then there's the KDL-46W2000. Top telly with 'true' HD.

 

darrenm

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We only have a standard Sky box, and no true HD on the way really.

I'm sure she's not too discerning, just wants something reliable and stylish.

And will an LCD fit in her 206?
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gsrai

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Just one thought with LCD/Plasma - they are not child proof as my son has proven by throwing a toy at the LCD and bursting a few of the LCD cells.

Just a thought - the Sony's are neat (I have the small 20" version in the bedroom).

 

Jezzer

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darrenm wrote:

And will an LCD fit in her 206?
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I do like the Philips 'Ambilight' sets.
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(as I have one of these)

A 40" LCD (including its packaging)is unlikely to fit into the back of her 206...
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darrenm

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Jezzer wrote:

darrenm wrote:
And will an LCD fit in her 206?
wacko.png
I do like the Philips 'Ambilight' sets.
cool.gif.9d6c72c555b38e519336a6d9b55ca875.gif
(as I have one of these)

A 40" LCD (including its packaging)is unlikely to fit into the back of her 206...
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It's her Philips CRT that just broke, so probably avoid them this time.

My Panasonic CRT has been going strong for 15yrs, but I dislike their flat screens.

Tosh, Samsung, Sony, seem to be in the running
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Nick

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If you dont need the 1920 res then try the 40V2500 from Sony, just had a price drop. I have the 32V2500 at home at the moment and it is a cracking screen.

 

darrenm

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Ok... plugged it in...

BBC1 via a standard Sky box is pretty poor picture; quite grainy/breaking up.

I only have standard Sky and freebie scarts. Is this to blame?

 

Chumpy

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Hopefully someone will help you if you have not already sorted things to satisfaction of all.

IMO from many DVDPs/VCRS etc/VirginCable cheap-freebie SCART leads into adequate CRT TVs/PC grabbers are fine (I have bought-tried one expensive vaunted SCART cable and it is not definitely better/worse...).

Obviously, I accept that there are some duff cheap SCART leads - mis-wired.poorly screened etc.

Some freebie-cheap SCART cables seem to cause problems in some complex sets-up.

Your Comet service sounds dire, but for what you must have paid, surely you could get someone sensible to come around and sort things?

 

Sid and Coke

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I bought a 37" LCD TV just before christmas. It is made by LG who are OEM panel manufacturers for other major brands including Sony and Samsung.

The picture from my standard Sky+ box is pretty shite, watching fast moving stuff such as football is bearable - just.

I was really disappointed as it looked so good in the shop, not the best £750 i've ever spent. However...

I get a simply fantastic picture from my Panasonic DVD player! so I can only asume that the Sky+ box is to blame.

Both my Pnasonic DVD® and the LG Tv have inbuilt digital freeview tuners. I am in the proces of replacing my Terrestial TV aerial. I've got the Aerial ( Triax Unix 100 ) the cable (Webro WF100) and the monting hardware, just waiting for my pal to deliver a scaffolding tower next week to install it all High up on my roof. It has not cost me too much for this gear and so If the terrestial freeview picture is better than Sky+ it will give me more ammo to attack Sky with over the phone, as they hate losing customers.

So in a nutshell, compare your picture between DVD and Sky to see if its the Sky box or the TV giving the bad picture.

You can pick up a very good quality Scart or HDMI cable for about £20.

The very cheapest ones, or freebies are crap ( e.g.<£5 - £10 )however as ALWAYS with cables, paying top dollar for a fancy badge and brand will not guarantee the best performance.

Take a look at the Thor brand of fully wired Scarts next time you are in B&Q, £20 for a 1.5 metre, good performance and excellent build/material quality.

 

darrenm

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Thanks for the tips.

Games and films are fine, so it's the Sky/scatr that's the problem. It's not really that bad, and I don't have to watch it everyday anyway
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A

Alex A

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Sid and Coke wrote:

I bought a 37" LCD TV just before christmas. It is made by LG who are OEM panel manufacturers for other major brands including Sony and Samsung. The picture from my standard Sky+ box is pretty shite, watching fast moving stuff such as football is bearable - just.

I was really disappointed as it looked so good in the shop, not the best £750 i've ever spent. However...

I get a simply fantastic picture from my Panasonic DVD player! so I can only asume that the Sky+ box is to blame.

Both my Pnasonic DVD® and the LG Tv have inbuilt digital freeview tuners. I am in the proces of replacing my Terrestial TV aerial. I've got the Aerial ( Triax Unix 100 ) the cable (Webro WF100) and the monting hardware, just waiting for my pal to deliver a scaffolding tower next week to install it all High up on my roof. It has not cost me too much for this gear and so If the terrestial freeview picture is better than Sky+ it will give me more ammo to attack Sky with over the phone, as they hate losing customers.
Generally speaking digital channels are much much more compressed than DVD media, and on many channels you should expect obvious blocking and grain on a big HD TV. Cant get around that.

We have Sky HD in our main lounge with a Sky HD box, and Sky+160 in a second lounge, both with Panasonic 42" Plasmas. They don't tell you this, but the Sky HD box actually upscales everything to 1080i to prevent your screen flickering and readjusting when switching between HD and SD channels. As you'd expect, then, normal Sky channels in the main lounge are a little bit sharper and certainly less grainy. It's dead obvious when you compare the menu screens (I think the HD menu screen is probably coded as a HD image). Having said that, the Sky+ in the back room produces by no means a poor picture (content variable of course), and never detracts from the viewing pleasure. Much better can be had of the display, of course. But I think Plasma has a better knack of making poor SD signals look natural enough than LCD does. I suspect what you're experiencing is your LCD TV doing no favors at all to SD broadcasts. I would expect you'd find an improvement with the built in freeview box, as the incomming signal can be properly scaled to the LCD resolution internally. Sky+ outputs analogue and so cannot do this.

You could of course have a naff Sky box. If you like your sport, though, it is so stunningly superior (you can literally see the blades of grass and read the names on the shirts from a distant view) on Sky Sports HD than with the normal feed that it makes buying the box worth it. I think Sport is the medium that most clearly demonstrates the limitations of SD and the advantages of HD.

 
G

Guest

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dont buy lcd i have just bought a new sony lcd for my boys room and a new 50 inch pioneer plasma for the lounge.

there is no contest the lcd is shockingly bad compaired to the plasma. all grainy and the blacks are not black they're grey.

thats using the same source for both tvs by the way fellas.

lcd's are crap end of story. plasma is the way to go for the best pcture.

 
A

Alex A

Guest
Maybe Rudi, but the Sony true HD Bravia's are brilliant on full HD sources. And a full HD plasma is the Pioneer at £4k+.

Problem is they really look bad on a lot of SD stuff (especially compressed). 32" is ok. And the blacks being gray thing is very true. Can't really escape that with backlit technology, although some LCDs do it much better than others (and the Qualia projectors somehow escape it). It's annoying on dark scenes when everything just looks completely washed out and you lose the atmosphere.

Hence why I'll be going for a 37" plasma next week
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. Not as good as a computer monitor but much more natural for video and just as clear as the equivalent res LCD.

 
G

Guest

Guest
Alex_A wrote:

Maybe Rudi, but the Sony true HD Bravia's are brilliant on full HD sources. And a full HD plasma is the Pioneer at £4k+.Problem is they really look bad on a lot of SD stuff (especially compressed). 32" is ok. And the blacks being gray thing is very true. Can't really escape that with backlit technology, although some LCDs do it much better than others (and the Qualia projectors somehow escape it). It's annoying on dark scenes when everything just looks completely washed out and you lose the atmosphere.

Hence why I'll be going for a 37" plasma next week
biggrin.png
. Not as good as a computer monitor but much more natural for video and just as clear as the equivalent res LCD.
tried it with hidef. we have it and it's still no where near as good as the plasma.

we don't have the latest 1080 pioneer(too expensive) but it still blows the lcd away.

in fact this sony lcd is probably one of the worst tv's i have ever bough(picture quality wise anyway). but hey my boysdelighted with it so thats all that matters.

it's like most hifi fellas lcd's are just over hyped garbage.

BUY A PLASMA

 
G

Guest

Guest
i would say the pioneer when running hidef is probably as good as picture as your ever likely to find.

truely awesome.

we watched the last starwars installment last night on hidef. and it's astounding in every way.

oh and hdmi is far better than component.

our hidef digi box has both and it's better with all broadcasts using the hdmi connection.

 
A

Alex A

Guest
rudi. do you have a 1080p Sony? 40" W series and upwards?

If so, your boy is very lucky indeed! If not, we're not talking about the same screens.

I went to Sound and Vision on Tuesday who have every latest TV under the sun all hooked up to parallel HDMI HD feeds. And there was the SonyV series 1080P 50" nearby the Pioneer 50" that you have (which is only 1080i ofc), and the Sony was clearly more detailed from the 1080P feed, the pioneer more Cinematic.

Both great TVs. Personally I prefer the plasmas, and I'm sure the 1080P Pioneer stumps most anything. But I can equallysee why a good number of people might prefer the1080pBravia series(especially for gaming &computing). As discussed these Bravia's make more or less all SD look shite, but really shine with HD. The best plasmas tend to look great with anything, and the superior black level and improved motion tracking really helps with movies no matter what the source.

The lower end Bravias are rather outdated now and due replacement very soon, and there is rather a lot of tough competition. It's a bit unfair to compare a 32" U series, for instance, to your 50" Pioneer plasma, and on that basis conclude that LCD is crap full stop.

 

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