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Author Topic: How do you choose a new tv?  (Read 8935 times)

rafletcher

Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #75 on: 31 December, 2011, 11:45:46 am »
Quote from: eck on 31 December, 2011, 11:35:44 am
The "Click" programme on BBC News Channel has what they call a "handy guide to buying the right TV" some time in the next few minutes. I think Click is repeated quite often, and it's prolly on i-player too.

It's here too... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5063066.stm
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frankly frankie

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #76 on: 31 December, 2011, 11:56:47 am »
Quote from: rafletcher on 30 December, 2011, 10:27:00 am
Quote from: Valiant on 30 December, 2011, 08:02:09 am
Calibrate it. You'll be amazed at the picture and energy consption improvement. Same with all TVs when first brought actually.
How?

Perhaps there should be an entire channel devoted to the Test Card.



Having been a Sony-only person for over 30 years I bought a Panasonic a year ago, and am pretty happy with it.  Picture endlessly tweakable, sound slightly better than average, looks good when the signal is poor, even on HD Freeview.

But I agree with an earlier comment that the Panasonic EPG is just terrible.  And the EPG is an important part of the TV IMO, this alone would make me look elsewhere next time I buy (unfortunately in Curry's etc the EPG is not something you can view).
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #77 on: 02 January, 2012, 03:16:37 pm »
Dragged Pingu kicking & screaming to look at tellies today.
We haz ordered the Samsung, not a 32" as planned but a 37" :-[. None in stock at JLP so on order, damnit.
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rafletcher

Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #78 on: 02 January, 2012, 04:50:47 pm »
That'll be my choice too (only I'll stick with a 32") when they come back into stock.
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Valiant

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #79 on: 02 January, 2012, 05:29:59 pm »
Quote from: redshift on 30 December, 2011, 10:12:02 pm
Quote from: Valiant on 30 December, 2011, 08:02:09 am
Calibrate it. You'll be amazed at the picture and energy consption improvement. Same with all TVs when first brought actually.

Hah, now you're in my domain...

That's where I've been spending most of today.  Unfortunately, the colour analyser I'm using is a bit costly for home use.   ;D

A Spyder calibration jobbie will do most and offer significant improvements for very little outlay. Oh and just to state the obvious to anyone not in the know, while the settings for Person A's telly will look great, it might not as good on Person B's who has the same telly. That said they will go a long way to helping than nothing. The reason for that is panels will have their own unique trait but also the viewing environment plays a big part. If you google your model number, someone like HDTV Test or AVForums will have some calibration info for it.

Seriously worth doing though. Also you'll need to do it for each source too if your TV has source dependant settings.
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Pingu

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #80 on: 06 January, 2012, 07:08:57 pm »
Quote
How do you choose a new tv?

Apparently you go to the shops with your partner & choose a bigger model than the one you were originally contemplating  ;)
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #81 on: 06 January, 2012, 07:20:09 pm »
And it's here! :P
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Kim

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #82 on: 06 January, 2012, 09:31:39 pm »
Quote from: frankly frankie on 31 December, 2011, 11:56:47 am
Perhaps there should be an entire channel devoted to the Test Card.

There really should.  You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get a proper test card, short of playing one off a DVD designed for the purpose, and often even then.  It's not like it would take up much bandwidth.  TV-ify one of the radio channels or something.

And when BBC HD launched they deliberately put up a munged testcard with the colour levels all wrong to avoid confusing the viewers, or something.   :facepalm:

On the other hand, how many people actually know what to do with one?
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rogerzilla

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #83 on: 06 January, 2012, 10:04:59 pm »
I think the clown looks like a cheap blow-up sex doll.
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Kim

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #84 on: 06 January, 2012, 10:06:32 pm »
Pedobear wasn't available.
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Frere

Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #85 on: 06 January, 2012, 10:20:11 pm »
Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 06 January, 2012, 07:20:09 pm
And it's here! :P

Go on, do tell what TV & size ended up in your abode? :)

Frere
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #86 on: 06 January, 2012, 11:04:22 pm »
As I mentioned upthread, the 37" Samsung. Couldn't get it to see a signal from the dvd player earlier but i'll not lose any sleep over that right now.
It's nice to be able to read the PVR EPG without squinting though. :-)
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #87 on: 07 January, 2012, 12:46:24 pm »
OK, so for those looking at this model of Samsung be aware there is no Scart input on the telly.
It does come with a Samsung proprietory Scart to 'Ext RGB' convertor but it's not all that great. It's a bugger to plug into the back of the telly (according to others on Google) and ours didn't work at all last night, and intermittently when Pingu & I were troubleshooting it earlier.
However, I just had a good fiddle with it and routed the Scart lead thru the little cable tidy thing and it's worked for the last 5 mins so hopefully everything is pointing in the right direction. It's not a very well designed interface though.
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rafletcher

Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #88 on: 07 January, 2012, 02:55:54 pm »
Quote from: Mrs Pingu on 07 January, 2012, 12:46:24 pm
OK, so for those looking at this model of Samsung be aware there is no Scart input on the telly.
It does come with a Samsung proprietory Scart to 'Ext RGB' convertor but it's not all that great. It's a bugger to plug into the back of the telly (according to others on Google) and ours didn't work at all last night, and intermittently when Pingu & I were troubleshooting it earlier.
However, I just had a good fiddle with it and routed the Scart lead thru the little cable tidy thing and it's worked for the last 5 mins so hopefully everything is pointing in the right direction. It's not a very well designed interface though.

Yes I read about that too - it's a feature to keep the unit slim. Perhaps a reason to upgrade to a blu-ray player next :-)
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Karen Sutton

Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #89 on: 07 January, 2012, 03:08:18 pm »
Just before Christmas we had to replace our very old TV as it conked out.  After a bit of research we bought a Samsung UE32D6530 LED HD 1080p 3D TV from John Lewis.  It has a good rating from Which.  It has a great picture and enough connection points for our PS3, the ancient VCR and the cable TV box.  It also has integral wifi which is great for getting LoveFilm direct to the TV.
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rogerzilla

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #90 on: 08 January, 2012, 01:21:07 pm »
They really need snappier model names.  Who (except for the most geeky IBM sysprog) would drive an Audi UE32D6530?
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marcusjb

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #91 on: 08 January, 2012, 01:23:36 pm »
Trouble is with a market shelf life of 6-12 months, they'd run out names quickly!
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Ooooh. That sounds like a daft idea.  I am in!

Jaded

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #92 on: 14 January, 2012, 03:19:38 pm »
Just got my new 110" HD TV up and running.  :smug:
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rogerzilla

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #93 on: 14 January, 2012, 03:54:10 pm »
Have you bought a projector?
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Jaded

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Re: How do you choose a new tv?
« Reply #94 on: 14 January, 2012, 04:14:21 pm »
Yes. It is rather good. It replaces a normal (SD) one. It will go up to 128" from its current mounting, but that would be silly, wouldn't it  ;D
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