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Blake Connolly
Posts: 9,509 Forum Member
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Now I've signed up for Sky HD I need to get a screen... Had a look around online and seems the Samsung LE32R41BDX is one of the best 32" for the price, but of course with this sort of purchase you want to have a proper look at it before handing over the cash.
So went out at lunchtime and popped into Richer Sounds - they had the 26" model on display, but playing a normal DVD, not a HD source. The assistant said that some manufactures provide them with HD disks - like LG who had a stunning looking Beyonce concert on thiers - and others don't. They can't swap them round because the manufacturer specifically gave them the equipment to promote their screens - fair enough I guess.
There was one LG screen only slightly more expensive (but I think with a built in DVD) but not "HD Ready" because it didn't have HDMI, only DVI - is this a problem?
Anyway I went down the road to Dixons, which was bigger and I expected would have a greater range of screens to compare with each other, only to realise they were playing out a really poor quality promo disk full of adverts onto all thier screens, so no chance to compare picture quality at all! Even on the best screens they looked VHS quality, how they expect to sell I have no idea. I knew Dixons were bad, but that was awful!! The only HD source in the whole store was on the obligitory £5000 giant plasma.
I've still got the Samsung in mind, but I'm going to have to keep searching around to actually get to have a look at it in action first..
So went out at lunchtime and popped into Richer Sounds - they had the 26" model on display, but playing a normal DVD, not a HD source. The assistant said that some manufactures provide them with HD disks - like LG who had a stunning looking Beyonce concert on thiers - and others don't. They can't swap them round because the manufacturer specifically gave them the equipment to promote their screens - fair enough I guess.
There was one LG screen only slightly more expensive (but I think with a built in DVD) but not "HD Ready" because it didn't have HDMI, only DVI - is this a problem?
Anyway I went down the road to Dixons, which was bigger and I expected would have a greater range of screens to compare with each other, only to realise they were playing out a really poor quality promo disk full of adverts onto all thier screens, so no chance to compare picture quality at all! Even on the best screens they looked VHS quality, how they expect to sell I have no idea. I knew Dixons were bad, but that was awful!! The only HD source in the whole store was on the obligitory £5000 giant plasma.
I've still got the Samsung in mind, but I'm going to have to keep searching around to actually get to have a look at it in action first..
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PC World have refurbs of the Samsung LE32R51BD for £799, definately worth a look (12mnth warranty). Dixons will probably be getting better feeds in time for the world cup, but for now we're stuck with an RF feed on most sets unfortunately.
And a screen with DVI *can* be HD Ready, the requirements are:
Minimum of 768 lines
Widescreen Ratio
HDCP compliant input (can be HDMI or DVI)
Component Input
Although with Sky HD you'd need to provide your own HDMI-DVI lead or a convertor and audio leads.
Cheers - there's a PC World not far from here, I guess that's tommorrow lunchtime sorted!