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[Allenm]

I remember there being a thread on this before, but a search let me down!

Well Sod's Law, a couple days to Christmas and my TV packs up (gonna change my name to Lucky!).

So Christmas telly will be watched on a portable as I'm not spending money on a new one until the sales start in January.

Question is... What is the best HD Ready LCD TV (32" or 37") for around the £800 mark.  I don't want to spend first adopter money, but also don't want to go cheap, I did that last time with the 28" 100hz pile of crap that has just died after 3 years!

Criteria is simply down to picture quality, brightness and viewing angle (will be wall mounted).  I don't subscribe to HD so won't be using HD resolution, so the TV needs to render normal resolution correctly.

Cheers
Merv

[theolodian]

After a lot of looking I ended up with a Samsung.  Still really like it.  Much better value than Sony.  Also considered LG, but not as happy with features.  Got mine from http://www.247electrical.co.uk

Here is the 32" version of the TV I got:

http://www.247electrical.co.uk/epages/twentyfourseven.storefront/458c2b8a004d5b3827490a020f01057a/Product/View/SAMLE32R74BDX?cid=31in_37in

[tunnie]

I am gunna say Samsung again, there screens out there look really nice, sharpe image too.

[TheBoy]

A mate has a Sony Bravia (silly boy ) - it has fans which are audible. Also, has no PC inputs which may be limiting in future (ie PC based PVRs etc)

I have a 37" Dell - currently £850. Only downside (but its a big one) is sometimes the freeview tuner crashes and needs to be restarted.  Also, freeview tuner takes about 10s to initialise at switch on, though this isn't a problem for me.

[Martin_1962]

Which is best is entirely dependant on size of pocket!

As to IDTV Freeview, the best tuners WERE the Welsh made Sonys (like my TV or the old Freeview box), the tuners on their new LCD panels are not as good as the earlier ones.

The ex employees now design a range of Freeview boxes and PVRs with various badges (sell in Tescos!!) but are Sony made but not badged

[JesterRT]

I've got a Sony Bravia 28" on my desk at work (hard life ain't it!)  and the picture quality is good.  I'm just not convinced that they're worth the extra money.  The one I've got does have PC connectivity on it though (along with the usual component, Scarts and HDMI leads).

The most important thing i'm going to look for in a new TV is how it looks with regular 480i TV being displayed.  Be wary of just looking at one in the shops and thinking the picture looks great - I'll guarantee if it does look great that it's a High-Definition picture.  What most LCD/Plasma TV's fail to do very well is display the regular TV resolution (which I think is the 480i).  I'd insist seeing the lower resolution picture on the screen I'm about to part with cash for.  The more expensive TV's tend to stretch the picture onto their screen's better (through image processing chips).  The cheaper TV's tend to do it really badly, with obvious image degradation.

A friend of mine bought a Samsung, and it looks great with the Hi-Def picture, but really poor with a normal TV signal (maybe it's his setup - not bashing Samsung's - they're usually pretty decent).  I know there's supposed to be a big switch towards HD, but how long will that be?  And will the TV actually last that long, or will I be replacing it before most channels are broadcast in HD anyway?  If it's the latter, then I wouldn't be bothered about LCD TV's 'just' yet.

The other thing to watch for on PC connectivity (and in general) is that the smaller TV's (to my knowledge) don't natively support 1080 - the really hi-definition pictures which will perhaps be supported by gaming consoles.  Very little I know actually outputs at this resolution yet anyway.  PC's tend to look crap on the TV.  I can't stand it.

Then there's the whole Blu-Ray / HD-DVD setup...    God help us when it comes to getting that right!

I'll be interested in what you eventually go for though!  I know someone in exactly the same position (well - looking to change to LCD, no catastrophic loss of TV for Crimbo).

Best of luck in the choice of screen!  

[TheBoy]

Standard PAL isn't 480i, its 576 line (PAL is 625 line, but looses some for teletext, front/rear porch, sync etc, leaving 576).

Most LCDs I've seen do a reasonable job of displaying PAL. Obviously a 72" screen being watched from 4 ft away is going to have issues....

My 37" LCD is fine with freeview, watched at a distance of 10 - 12ft.  Watching via MCE (which will upscale it if using a PC connection to LCD, rather than S-video type junk) is better though.

My pet hate is watching 4:3 broadcasts in widescreen, so any telly I have it has to be really easy to flick between 16:9 and 4:3 quickly...

[theolodian]

My pet hate is watching 4:3 broadcasts in widescreen, so any telly I have it has to be really easy to flick between 16:9 and 4:3 quickly...

My life got a lot better when I found the widescreen tv setting in the NTL box, now it formats everything correctly.  The other great setting in the NTL box was component out.  With that the picture looks great on the LCD.  I do prefer to watch movies on the Mac instead of the DVD player, b/c the Mac has DVI out and it makes a difference.  That and it's a £30 DVD player . . .  

[Timbuk]

Well Sod's Law, a couple days to Christmas and my TV packs up (gonna change my name to Lucky!).

So Christmas telly will be watched on a portable as I'm not spending money on a new one until the sales start in January.

Join the club, bought a new TV at the end of June for the Word Cup and it's just gone T*ts Up

[Allenm]

Well Sod's Law, a couple days to Christmas and my TV packs up (gonna change my name to Lucky!).

So Christmas telly will be watched on a portable as I'm not spending money on a new one until the sales start in January.

Join the club, bought a new TV at the end of June for the Word Cup and it's just gone T*ts Up

Piss poor isn't it!!  What did you buy!  I hope you have called the bastards out!

[Taxi_Driver]

My Dad has one of these

http://www.digital-point.co.uk/model.php?ID=2476

Dunno if its got fans in it, but if it has you carnt hear them, plus its got pc input (not that hes ever going to use it or any of the other inputs except scart, and only those cos i plugged the cables in   )

Picture quality is great, altho maybe coz its only 26"  :-/

[Martin_1962]

I've got a Sony Bravia 28" on my desk at work (hard life ain't it!)  and the picture quality is good.  I'm just not convinced that they're worth the extra money.  The one I've got does have PC connectivity on it though (along with the usual component, Scarts and HDMI leads).

The most important thing i'm going to look for in a new TV is how it looks with regular 480i TV being displayed.

Sorry but[size=48]576i[/size]

[Martin_1962]

HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray

Well since more films I want are on the electronics companies format - and it will be supported by PS3 I will go for that.

Since I tend to go for Pioneer or Sony for a lot of electronics I will end up BR as that what they make along with 3/4 of electronic companies

[Martin_1962]

My best advice is to test all the ones you want tp audition.


They all look crap on analogue. So the tests are Freeview and DVD unless you have a games console.

I am not recommending or dissing the following but watch model ranges carefully, I will use Sony as an example.

They have 4 ranges S V W X, for HD avoid the bottom 2 as they do not support full 1080 resolution, but are fine with 576i, if you go HD the W and X are so much better.


The same applies to quite a few companies. So either buy for decent 576i or stuff it and get 1080 support

[Allenm]

Well, so far the Samsung is looking good, although the Wife doesn't like the colour :-?

Keep the ideas coming!

Cheers