28'' Non-widescreen for under £200?

[Deleted User] · 13/12/05 - 09:52

Just wanting to know peoples opinions on buying a non-widescreen 28'' TV for under £200. Worth buying?
I spotted a Goodmans K2850T on the Comet webiste for £129. Looks ok, not flatscreen though, anyone know if this is any good?

Thanks for your comments

jeffersbnl · 13/12/05 - 15:27

Given that almost all UK programmes and most US ones are now made in 16:9, that most DVDs you'll buy are 16:9 and that most major digital channels are 16:9 most of the time, I wouldn't even consider buying a 4:3 screen. There are some very good value 16:9 TVs out there so I'd have a hunt around for one of those.

fat controller · 13/12/05 - 15:56

Recently, Argos were selling a Sony KV28HX15 widescreen for £229 - not a lot of cash for a blindingly good TV. Try and stretch the extra £100, it is well worth it.

[Deleted User] · 13/12/05 - 15:59

asda selling a widescreen tv, 28inch for £139

[Deleted User] · 13/12/05 - 16:42

Yeah, gotta ask - why non-widescreen?

Spot · 13/12/05 - 23:07

An interesting question, why not widescreen. I've still got a 4:3 TV - not sure what I'd do at this moment if I had to replace it. I can see the advantages of widescreen and if necessary (and it often isn't) I sometimes do watch a 16:9 picture in widescreen mode with the bars at top and bottom, but the thing I definitely would not want to do is watch a 4:3 picture stretched out, or just see the centre part of the picture. So I'd have to watch with the black bars down the side, which I think is a lot less pleasing to the eye than bars top and bottom. Can I ask, how straight are the lines along the edge of such pictures? I worry that they wil appear to have bends in them according to the amount of light in the picture. This would be a serious distraction. I believe I have seen examples of this on cheap sets in shops (although it's quite unusual ever to see a widescreen set in a shop showing a 4:3 picture in its correct aspect ratio) but I imagine better sets do not have this problem - or do they?

That would be my main worry - no idea what the OP's reason for wanting a non-widescreen set would be.

Another thing I could add - I like the extra height of the picture on my 25 inch 4:3 TV. I think I would need to get a 32 inch widescreen one to get a picture of similar height.

System · 13/12/05 - 23:38

On a typical 16:9 TV (I have a 28" Philips which is reasonable enough) there is a barrelling effect on 4:3 pillarbox images it has to be said, which gets worse on bright images (poor quality mask, surprising on a mid-range TV).

On my 36" Panasonic these lines are 100% straight.

A good compromise when watching 4:3 material is to view in 14:9 pillarbox. This way you get slight bars at the left and right, the TV seems to be able to display these without so much barrelling, and you lose a little from the top and bottom of the screen. However most programmes are just fine in this mode.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/05 - 02:10

jase1 wrote:

On a typical 16:9 TV (I have a 28" Philips which is reasonable enough) there is a barrelling effect on 4:3 pillarbox images it has to be said, which gets worse on bright images (poor quality mask, surprising on a mid-range TV).

On my 36" Panasonic these lines are 100% straight.

A good compromise when watching 4:3 material is to view in 14:9 pillarbox. This way you get slight bars at the left and right, the TV seems to be able to display these without so much barrelling, and you lose a little from the top and bottom of the screen. However most programmes are just fine in this mode.

What is this barrelling effect?

I've just reported my TV as needing to be looked at. On non -widescreen shows the sides at the top of the image curve in. Things like ABC World News and other US shows and stuff from the archives.

The longer the TV is on, the more the sides at the top curve in. After a few hours any straight line is only straight for about 60% of the way up and then starts to bow in noticeably.

I hope you're not saying this is normal? It's driving me mad.

Spot · 14/12/05 - 09:00

Obviously I was right to suspect this might be a problem! Luckily my present TV is fine at the moment, but I still wonder whether, if at this moment I had to get a new one, I might not go for a big 4:3 screen so that the 4:3 material would not be a problem and I could still get a reasonable widescreen picture with bars at top and bottom which is much more pleasing on the eye, and the edges of these these do at least tend to be straight!

I will also remember the correct term to use in future - barrelling!

Teflon 2 · 14/12/05 - 11:02

tivo1977 wrote:

I hope you're not saying this is normal? It's driving me mad.

I wouldn't have thought this normal. I have an eight year old Sony 28 inch widescreen set - when watching in 4:3 pillarbox the edges are (and have always been) perfectly straight.

System · 14/12/05 - 11:56

tivo1977 wrote:

What is this barrelling effect?

I've just reported my TV as needing to be looked at. On non -widescreen shows the sides at the top of the image curve in. Things like ABC World News and other US shows and stuff from the archives.

The longer the TV is on, the more the sides at the top curve in. After a few hours any straight line is only straight for about 60% of the way up and then starts to bow in noticeably.

I hope you're not saying this is normal? It's driving me mad.

That's not normal.

Some TVs distort, which is normal for the model, but they shouldn't be getting any worse as the TV's been on for a while.

In fairness I think this Philips might be a poor example. I've seen other small (24/28") Philips widescreens do the same thing, but playing around with an Akura at Asda a few months back that TV didn't seem to have any significant problems.

*Good* TVs (Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Samsung) should be free of this distortion. The fact that the Philips (and Thomsons from my experience) TVs distort I found very disappointing.

One to look at before you buy.

System · 14/12/05 - 12:03

Teflon 2 wrote:

I wouldn't have thought this normal. I have an eight year old Sony 28 inch widescreen set - when watching in 4:3 pillarbox the edges are (and have always been) perfectly straight.

That's one of the advantages of the Trinitron tube -- it's flat vertically (only bulges out horizontally) so vertical lines will always be perfectly straight.

Some of the better manufacturers have sorted this out with their tubes as well. Ironically when Philips were making tubes at the Mallards factory in Durham years ago these tubes were excellent, but they've fallen back now buying in cheap crappy tubes from the Far East. The high-end Philips TVs are great, but the cheap ones, well, aren't.

I'd still have a cheap widescreen over a cheap 4:3 though. The 4:3s are being made *very* cheaply now and I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't as reliable.

System · 14/12/05 - 12:09

Me again...

This TV should be fine though, a 28" Sanyo for £190:

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/sound-and-vision/vision/tv/391509/prices

In my experience Sanyo TVs are good all-rounders; reliable, good picture and sound and reasonably priced. Not the last word in quality but much better than some Alba or Goodmans.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/05 - 12:45

Have a search around for...

Daewoo DTH2881GB100D 100hz scanning 28" PURE FLAT TV

I believe you can get them for £189. Bid advantage in the 100hz

BexTech · 14/12/05 - 17:02

I have an 7+ year old Philips W/S TV and on 4:3 images it is 100% straight edged.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/05 - 17:28

jase1 wrote:

That's not normal.

Some TVs distort, which is normal for the model, but they shouldn't be getting any worse as the TV's been on for a while.

In fairness I think this Philips might be a poor example. I've seen other small (24/28") Philips widescreens do the same thing, but playing around with an Akura at Asda a few months back that TV didn't seem to have any significant problems.

*Good* TVs (Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Samsung) should be free of this distortion. The fact that the Philips (and Thomsons from my experience) TVs distort I found very disappointing.

One to look at before you buy.

I should have mentioned that my TV - being looked at next Monday by a service engineer - is a Philips.

It's the 24PW6518. I bought it because it was the smallest one in the shop. I hate huge TV's.

This is the second call-out needed for this set. I'm not happy.

[Deleted User] · 15/12/05 - 08:56

Well, I decided to go for a TOSHIBA 28Z47B 28'' flatscreen widescreen in the end. Really nice set. thanks for your comments

[Deleted User] · 15/12/05 - 11:22

dblake wrote:

Well, I decided to go for a TOSHIBA 28Z47B 28'' flatscreen widescreen in the end. Really nice set. thanks for your comments

good choice, i have the previous model to that and its great

Hey there!

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28'' Non-widescreen for under £200?

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