Be Excellent To Each Other

As some of you may have noticed, I've been flogging my old games, CDs, DVDs, etc. I have two reasons for doing this:

1) We're moving away and most of that stuff was going to be left behind collecting dust in my parents house because there was just too much of it to store in the new house. Well, unless I installed some sort of MEGA SHELVING WALL. So, better to cash-in on it.

2) I'm planning to put the funds towards a spanking new telly of awesomeness for our front room.

So. Tellies!

Right now, I'm pretty much set on this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... ROKL5A1OLE

I doubt I'll buy it from Amazon, but that's the model I'm after. I want 37" because 32" always seems too small to me, but anything bigger than 37" would have me stepping into a whole world of "it's too big" and other such comments from the Mrs. Plus, anything bigger probably would be too big. It's quite a small living room.

Any way. I have a Samsung 26" currently and I've been very happy with it, so I'm happy with the brand. But, what are my other options in this price range? £400-500 really. Do I really need LED backlighting? Is 100Hz enough? What are the cheaper brands like? I've seen some cheaper Toshiba models with similar features, but my mate has a 32" Toshiba and it needed fixing (£80) after a year of use.

So, any suggestions?

For the record, I'm not interested in 3D. It seems as though you're looking at £700+ for 37" 3D TV and I have no intention of sitting there with specs on for, in my opinion, fairly gimmicky rewards. I do want Freeview HD built in, and I think I want LED backlighting. I mean, it sounds good. Am I eyeing up a shit telly here or what?

When I researched two years ago, it was Samsung all the way for price/performance, and I believe that hasn't changed now. And buy from John Lewis, pricematched to Richer Sounds and/or any other local bricks-and-mortar store, to get a good price and a free five-year warranty.

Edit -- and all of the 100+Hz image smoothing modes are a makes-it-look-weird gimmick so don't pay more to get them. LED backlighting is pro and worth paying for. 3D is even more of a gimmick and definitely not worth paying for. All IMO, obviously.

Edit edit -- that specific model looks good. The InternetTV stuff isn't a gimmick -- they'll play Youtube, for example, and do a decent job of streaming arbitrary AVI/MKV/etc content from DLNA servers on your network.

In the spirit of Beex. The best TV out there at the moment, bar none, is
http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/panasoni ... 600hz.html

Panasonic have taken over from Pioneer as the makers of proper good quality high end TVs.

37" is too small by the way

Cheers Rich! I hadn't thought about the pricematching game. I've noticed a few stores are taking in your old TV for a bit of a discount as well. Might investigate that if I can't unload the 26"er on an unsuspecting family member...

I wish!

* makes obvious looting joke *

Agree with above regarding 3D - I can see it quietly dying in the next few years, in the home at least.

I did specifically say "price/performance"

You might want to have a browse here
http://www.avforums.com/forums/tvs/
Some of them know what they are talking about, much more than us idiots anyway!

Go big or go home, that's what I say.

On that note, the 40" version of that TV is £520 from Richer Sounds: http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd ... -ue40d5520

And in stock at John Lewis: http://www.johnlewis.com/231209826/Prod ... =UE40D5520

(The 37" model isn't on Richer's website)

So, to sum up, that's four years more warranty and 3" more screen than Amazon will give you for £20 extra spent.

Edit -- disclaimer, the JL pricematch is within 15 miles or something so this does rely on you having both JL and RS nearby.

Edit edit -- I have a 40" TV in my living room, which is pretty small. It's fine.

I can see 3D picking up when they can make use of the passive glasses people get in the cinema. I think I saw one in Currys over the weekend.

Other than that, glasses free is the only way to go.

You're going to get me in trouble.

Bought it yet?

If your local JL has stock you could have it this afternoon.

Stop! I'll be making the purchase towards the end of the month I imagine. Plenty of time for the prices to stay the same, followed by a dramatic price drop the day after I buy one.

I am impossible to live with regarding this sort of shit. If I decide I want something, then i'm getting it immediately, regardless. I would have been posting in the thread from the queue in JL by now

Believe me, I would be too were it not for the fact that we don't move in until the end of August! I'd rather have it delivered there than have to move it down to York in a couple of weeks.

SERIOUSLY, go bigger than 37". My living room isn't exactly huge and I have a 50". I know if I'd gone any smaller I'd have had regrets about it. It seems ridiculously large at first, but you soon get used to the size of them, and I'd say anything smaller than a 42" and you'll feel buyer's remorse.

I've got three LG TVs, and I've had precisely zero issues with any of them. They've got a nice picture and very good value for money, IMO.

I think you're all underestimating just how small our living room will be!

Ours is barely 6x10ft.

I refer you to my recent thread on Samsung's shitty treatment of customers, and recommend the LG I got from Richer Sounds recently - £300, 32", Freeview HD, 1080p, no discernible latency on games, Internet TV, but most importantly, 5 year warranty and you can drop it off at the sop, no waiting in for a van man.

I think the overriding factor these days is life of product things aren't built to last like they used to be, so make sure the repair/replace process is as painless as possible. Samsung screens are great, but not sufficiently greater than LG or Panasonic (Sony have high-latency screens overall, not really that good for games unless you've tested the game mode and found it ok online) to warrant the shit you have to go through when they break.

I've got a LG5000 which has been fine with performance 'stuff' that never gets touched. The 'pooter looks great through a HDMI lead. I think it has two HDMI ports and three of the scart ones I reckon so I can plug enough crap into it. It was about 500 quid when I picked it up so I'd imagine it'd be about a hundred pounds cheaper by now. The LG6000 is the better one and looks sexy-modern if you can find that one for a decent price that'd be the one I'd get if I got another box.

Both display "pictures" that "move" on the front. Probably using magic beans.

I have the 40" model of the one WTB linked to in the opening post - it's an excellent telly and brilliantly light and thin.

I have a 37" LG and a 32" Samsung. Both are good TV's, I think the Samsung is sharper but it is newer by a few years. The LG is about four years old and is still fine, the Samsung is a year old and the same. I would recommend either brand. The samsungs do look very nice though, I think that they are a bit more stylish looking.

Oh as for size, I wish I'd gotten bigger for the living room, but I'm not disappointed.

You wish you'd got bigger than 37 or 32, Gilly?

I've got a 9000-model Samsung. Come to the BeexBeeQueue and have a look at it.

Then buy one because it's fucking awesome.

I do like the Panasonic plasmas (we've had a couple). Currently we've got a 42" V20 and I am very happy with it, good picture, physically looks OK, lots of HDMI inputs, relatively easy menu system.

37". That's what I have in the living room and although I'm happy with it, I wish I'd gotten bigger for split screen gaming, movies and football. My decision was hampered by my girlfriend though, a bit like you!
I have a 32" in my bedroom and that's fine for the odd episode of a tv show or watching Planet Earth or something and it hidden inside a sliding door most of the time, but I would go bigger for the living room next time.

No, wait...

We have a 26" in the bedroom and it feels small. I'll probably move my 32" gaming telly in there once I get a bigger one for the back room.

Ha, I have a 26" CRT in my lounge.

My 'main' telly is 24 or 26. It's nice, though, and I don't need anything bigger til I'm in a bigger place.

Look at this shit. Adverts on my telly on the actual telly's UI.

So I've, y'know, bought the telly, and now Samsung are selling advertising on the UI.

Fuckers!

Every time you turn it on after it's been off for more than an hour or so, you get an advert served up bang on the main source/options bar.

Sony would never do that to me.

So it's only on the menu? The menu you use to select programming? So the perfect place for advertising content?

Well yes I get that, but it's my telly, I don't want Samsung selling advertising space on my telly's UI. (It's only started in the last couple of weeks.)

You're somewhat missing the point here.

Packet sniff and block the ad server?

I think if you pay a normal amount of income tax then ads aren't shown

Well, that went wrong.

I think if you pay a normal amount of income tax then giphy works properly

We've had an LG for a few years and it's been brill.

All I would say is, DON'T BUY A SMART/IOT TV, because it will watch you picking your nose/wanking/everything else you'd rather no-one else knows about, and listen to you ranting about the fucking useless Government, etc. all of which will be used to target advertising at you at every opportunity and also act as evidence when you are hauled into court, accused of wanting to violently overthrow the current regime.

Be aware that the Butlerian Jihad is almost upon us, and you don't want to be on the losing side.