Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello.

I'm moving house, and don't want to clutter up the new place with my ENORMO-TELLY. As such, I want to get a lovely HD one. I reckon about 37 inches should do the trick, though awesome deals on slightly larger ones would also be cool.

Anyone know of any particularly good ones, or ones at a good price?

Also, does anyone want an enormous CRT telly for free? You just have to be able to pick the bugger up!

Although just checked Dixons and they actually have a better price it seems:

£889 - £100 = £789
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/d ... urce_id=aw


So if you can get the Eco cash back from Dixon thennnn it could be a good buy.

*EDIT*

Or
£829 - £100 = £729
http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd ... -ue40b6000

MORE EDIT - The Richer Sounds one is only available in store at £929 bad!

What's your budget?

Some great buys for 1080p 32-37" around £500.

This is pretty damn good for a little more:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001RCU7G2/phaedrus159-21

Id buy a 42 inch 1080P panasonic Plasma

When I bought mine I took a free trial of a subscription to Which? and used that to do loads of research on what things you want in a hi-def telly as well as checking out their opinions on them all which was really helpful. They seemed to be of the opinion at that time (maybe 2 years ago?) that Panasonics were the top of the tree but as I was discussing with a couple of guys at work just yesterday, Samsung seem to be ahead in the style stakes- their TVs look much nicer and the picture quality always looks great on the demo models I've seen.
I found Comet quite helpful when I was buying- their sales staff aren't targetted and paid commission in the same way most shops are and it is more of a customer service focus for their bonuses so you are less likely to feel like they are pushing you and more like they are offering useful advice. Might be worthwhile taking a look in there and then you can see them in real life, then leave and check out prices online. It's always worth asking them to pricematch as well because if they don't give you the same price they often create bundles with the stand and sometimes surround sound or dvd/blu-ray players.
I agree with your decision to get 37", I wanted at least that and Jen decided 37" was the max (*grumble*) but I think she is glad I went for it now. Both our parents and my sister have 32" and it looks really small in comparison. I would always like to go bigger but that is just me being greedy

I only own a very small TV (so I don't watch it much at all), but I agree, get the biggest you can feasibly afford.

Cheers for the tips.

My budget is basically as cheap as I can possibly go for a nice telly. Don't really want to go much past 500 though.

I think I'll pop into Richer Sounds next week and have a chat with the peeps there, then check out HotUKDeals and other internetty places.

The Samsung 37" I got from Sainsburys was about 500 quid. The only problem is the panel is a little laggy on solid blacks on SD sources, 60's Doctor Who's suffering especially badly. It's fantastic for everything else considering the price and the fact it's 37". You won't get what I would consider a really good 37" for less than £700 so the one I got is a good compromise.

About a month ago I got a new telly and went from 32" to 37", and yeah, have to say it was the best size to go for. I was a little overwhelmed at first, thinking it was 'too much', but you soon get over this and then it feels spot on.

Those extra 5 inches are all important.

The first thing I watched on my 37" widescreen HD TV:

But we wouldn't expect anything less!

I'm actually amazed that there haven't been more uses of in this thread. I very nearly used it myself.

Are you saying you like a nice big one, to slot in nicely (nice big TV, to slot in nicely in the lounge, I mean)?

So, the thing is, if you start looking for TV recommendations on the internet, you'll quickly end up going down a maze of twisty passages, all alike - everyone will recommend the TV they own, and will more-or-less arbitrarily tell you that some other brand is rubbish. If you aggregate all the advice on, say, AVForums.com, you'd conclude that every TV in the world is both simultaneously absolutely brilliant whilst at the same time being total dogshit.

My advice? Set yourself a budget, have a wander into a few high street telly shops, have a look at things, and then buy something that you like the look of - and if you can get it cheaper via HotUKDeals or something, then so much the better. Most of the big brands (Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc) are, for all intents and purposes, perfectly fine. Don't obsess over it, because if you do, you'll end up finding that after all your carefully considered research, you buy your perfect telly only to find two weeks later a bigger/better/cheaper one is available and you end up with massive buyers remorse.

Did you say your budget was 19 grand?*

http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/public/view_item_cat.php?catalogue_number=sony_BVM-L231


* I know I do this for every TV thread.

I have a Which? subscription I'm happy to share, if it's useful.
Also, remember to try and buy your TV from John Lewis if you can, as they price match and give you a three year guarantee.

So very much .

Possibly the most useful advice from people about tvs they own, would be to ask for a list of bad things about them.

I bought my HDTV about this time last year. I decided on the following:

Based on minimum viewing distance of 2.5x the screen diagonal, don't get one that's too big for where you're going to sit, or it will look shit as you'll be too close to it.

I went for LCD rather than plasma. But only really for weight (as I was wall mounting) and cos I heard longevity issues have affected plasmas, but as I understand it most of the plasma downsides have been solved now (weight aside).

However, if it fits with viewing distance, I'd get a 40" as a minimum. Once it's there the extra size really makes a difference.

Get a wall mount bracket of some description so you can get the centre of the screen at the right viewing height for where you sit. I can't believe how much difference this made to me once I raised the TV as opposed to on its stand on a unit. I went for a swivel arm because of my room layout, but the height was the big improvement.

My next challenge was to get my head round the mind boggling quantity of "numbers" you have to get right!

I knew I wanted the 100hz speculative frame adding motion stuff as I watch a lot of sport. Although this motion tech seems to have moved on now and I see 600hz TVs advertised!

For the same reason I wanted a decent panel with a decent colour ratio. When I bought 50,000:1 was good. No idea now!

As I play some 360 I also wanted a panel with a good response time too.

Finally I wanted some future proofing so I wanted 1080p with 24p (24 frames per second playback) for when I get round to buying BluRay.

I found once I narrowed down using my criteria I wasn't left with too many choices. In the end I plumped for a Samsung LE40A686 and I continue to be very pleased with it. I paid about £680, but had a good deal. DocG and Egg have newer Samsungs, with a B in the model number and they're nice too. My sis has a Sony in the late 100s price bracket which is also nice in SD and HD.

My bro has a real cheap and nasty Hanspree which is a few years old now. It looks awful. I'd say avoid bottom end screens, go for a mid-range and look at the numbers. They look a lot better.

One side effect of this is how shit SD Freeview is compared to SD Sky. The difference for me is as marked as the difference between SD Sky and HD (I can't see much difference between 1080p and 720p in truth!). So be aware that your lovely new screen may look awful if you feed it a Freeview source.

Longest post I ever wrote that.

I've got a hannspree you dick. Be honest though, I bought it 3 years ago and it was 300 for a 32" and it was far cheaper than going for good HD telly of the same size which would have cost at least over £500 at the time. I only really use it games but I still get a bit envious when I see my brother in laws full HD samsung. But the prices are totally different knwo so I agree with the sentiment but my hannspree is going to have to do me for a while.

My TV feels small now. But I'm small too so I tell myself that makes it the perfect size for me.

Part 1, I have 2 32" Hanspree jobbie, one with freeview and one without. The one with is much better and far less blurry at sports scenes or gaming.

Part 2. I have found SD freeview to be much better than some SD sky. With Sky I've found that there seem to be different bit rates that the channels can buy. and if you, say, compare watching a football match on ITV on the two, then freeview wins hands down, but if you compare watching, say, life on bbc1 then Sky is much better.

Malc

600hz TV's are a product of short sightedness back in the day.

I can't bothered doing the maths, but isn't 600 the lowest common multiple of 24, 25 and 30? This allows the screen to show any of the common frame rates without having to interpolate.

600Hz is a Panasonic plasma dealie, and it's not the same motion interpolation-prediction-compensation that LCD 100/200Hz technology is for.

Turns out Pioneer have been doing 800Hz essentially forever on their plasmas. I think Panasonic are just trying to find any way in which to compete with LCD (in marketing terms), and 100/200Hz is one of the current LCD deal breakers.

Ok Hanspree owner(s):
That didn't read as it was when it was in my mind. I'm not saying Hanspree only make shit TVs, as I'm sure they don't. I meant my bro has a 37" Hanspree he paid about £300 for about 3 years ago. Trust me, it is truly shit. It was the cheapest 37" he could find at the time. Which tells you everything you need to know about it. I think it has a colour ratio of 700:1 or something. It's not a good set at all.

SD Freeview vs Sky:
That's the opposite to my experience with Freeview vs Sky, but then I suppose it probably depends on equipment. You can definitely see the difference between BBC SD on Sky and some shit up in the channel list and likewise on Freeview. Though my experience is that Sky is always better. I expect science people to wade in now and talk about bit rates etc and tell us why we're both wrong!

I don't have Sky so can't comment on that but I'm sure I've noticed an improvement in the picture on some terrestrial digital channels since the analogue signal went off last week.

Improvement? BBC1 is a mess of macroblocks now. Boo.

Really, I had that with Channel 5 after the last retune, it was pretty much unwatchable at times, no problems at all now. You on Winter Hill transmitter too?

Yep. It's still good though. It just used to be be so much better.

Anyway. Not after a big telly, but a telly nonetheless.

Want either a 22 or 26". But is it possible to get a 1080p under 32"? And would I want to?

Ta.

1080p on a 26" TV would be pretty much unnoticeable. I have a Samsung 26" and it's brilliant. No complaints whatsoever and I'll be getting a Samsung again when I move out and buy a monster telly.

We've got two of these (one in the master bedroom, one in the lounge, the former being a newer 400Hz model). Both have been, and are excellent, for a very reasonable price. I paid £580 for the 400Hz model at Comet a few months back; you can probably get 'em cheaper now.

We've also got a smaller (37"?) LCD Samsung in the sitting room; this is perfectly okay but the picture is not as vibrant as either of the plasma units.

TV in the bedroom?

<shudders>

Sure that's 1080p? What's the model number?

MrsA was well impressed with mine.

How else do you see what the camera is pointing at?

Hope it was a widescreen.

Makes no difference during close-ups.

Yeah, but nicer if you ever want to use it as a 2nd monitor.

Depends also on viewing distance. Better to have 1080p I'd say if at a similar cost but no too bad going lower for less.

You'd need to have your face in it to notice the difference (unless using it as a monitor, as you say). If it costs the same and there's no drop in quality elsewhere, then obviously go for the bigger numbers. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry.

Yup, both deffo 1080p for the PS3 mate - I'll check the model no. when I get home.

Meh, nowt wrong with that, I say. It's just great curling up in bed with Mrs C and watching DVDs.

Presumably the same 26" we all have?

As it can be used as a second monitor, the 1080p feature is a big advantage.

If anyone knows of a good deal on that there 26" (or wants to sell theirs) I may be in the market for one as my 21" CRT has started to play up.

Actually isn't it 22"? Dr Gaywood? I think mine is 22.

I bet you eat chips on the beach as well.

It sure is!

(Someone was going to.)

Well yes indeed, including those kind of DVDs.

(As for chips on the beach, too right - a reet good cone of 'em with plenty of salt 'n vinegar, preferably with a fishcake as well and a tin of dandelion and burdoch - lovely jubbly ).

Aw man! I think I've just decided what I want for tea.