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Best 32" TV
Richard46
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Can anyone suggest the best 32" TV for watching SD and I would guess increasingly watching freeview HD/Blu Ray disks. Not too bothered about internet connectivity.
Bufget about £600+or minus a bit but would rather not pay for stuff I will not use.
Thanks for any comments
Bufget about £600+or minus a bit but would rather not pay for stuff I will not use.
Thanks for any comments
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It looks like most places are selling this for about £300.00 at the moment leaving plenty of money for a Blu ray player and some films.
Ahh.. the millon dollar question - which is the best
First up, you should easily be able to get what you want for less than £ 600.
Secondly, if SD viewing is likely to be the main viewing, then you can safely consider HD ready sets, as well as Full HD sets as HD ready sets do seem to cope better with SD than Full HD sets.
In terms of brands, you're probably looking three - Panasonic, Sony or Samsung.
You'll hear a mix of views and feedback from various posters - here's my view: I'd choose Panasonic first and Samsung second. I say that with my main set being a Sony KDL32V4000, which I inherited, and have never been happy with either the picture or sound quality, despite trying many different settings. My parents have a Panasonic 37" which to my eyes is immeasurably better.
The best advice is to go out and visit a few places and actually view the sets. What consititutes a good picture is a matter of personal opinion and what you find perfect somebody else may find less than perfect.
Thanks for that the Sonys where No 2 on my list although I am struggling to work out if a 503 or even a 603 could offer some PG benefits
Yes SD will be for now be most of the viewing but the OH does not approve of regularly updating kit (our present Panny 36" W/S CRT is ten years old) and this is a rare chance to future proof. So that rules out HD ready as against full HD.
Panny is top of my list currently (probably a TX-32d28) as have never had a Panasonic product miss a beat.
Many thanks
http://www.comet.co.uk/p/LCD-TVs/buy-PANASONIC-TX-L32S20BA-LCD-TV/633739
Darren
Wont you find a 32" screen a bit small coming from a 36"?
I have the model TXL32D28BP, got it from JL for just over £600 with a five year warranty, I had a 22 yr old Sony 29 inch CRT,but the screen on the 32D28 is huge compared to the old Sony, this is an excellent TV, you will not be disappointed.
The SD BTW is excellent on DVB/Freesat/Multisat plus the bonus of two HD tuners built in, I had toyed with the 37 inch
but now find the 32 inch top notch, without it taking over the room.
As a satisfied user ten out of ten.And yes as a DS member I spent days checking out models in stores,
One point I rate Sony as good as Pany, but the four tuners plus analog if wanted on the D28 was just what I wanted,the
satellite tuners tipped the scale over Sony.
Samsung in my opinion are best avoided,no spares after 18 months, many tales about this on DS,
Funny you should say that; my old panny was sold as a 36" and I always called it a 36" but last week when deciding what size new TV to go for I measured it and it is actually only just over 34". So the difference should not be all that.
The room was never really big enough for the old crt monster anyway, indeed the house isn't really we had to unpack it in the front garden to get it through the door. :eek: Apparently industructable bit of kit though still working perfectly.
Many thanks all; dragging wife off to JL Bluewater now she will be pleased to get a chunk of front room real estate back.
Looks like it will be an L32D28 but probably not the purple one.
A 32 LCD/Plasma will look tiny after a 36 CRT, you can generally have quite a bit larger LCD/Plasma than a CRT, simply because they take up so little room.
I would suggest a 40 would probably be fine, even more so than a 37.
Surely the 'viewable' area of the screen won't be much different as most CRTs had a viewable screen size of 1" - 2" smaller than their 'stated' size - which doesn't seem to be the case with LCD / Plasma?
On this basis the OP probably had a viewable screen of 34"
But the new set will be a LOT smaller - it will really look tiny.
A 32 inch LCD is only about the same size as a 25 inch (4:3) CRT, and has a similar height picture.
In height terms, yes, but you've then the added width.
It depends what the OPs priorities are. Not everyone wants a TV to 'dominate' the room. As long as the OP has measured up and is happy with how a 32" will look, then that's OK.
Hopefully the OP has had some useful advice and will be able to make a better decision.
No added width - the 25 inch will most probably have speakers either side - so is pretty well identical in size to a 32 inch LCD.
I fit a fair number of TV's, and I'm speaking from MANY examples when I say it will look tiny after a 36 CRT. They 'may' be happier with a smaller TV?, but certainly the vast majority of people aren't - and it will look a LOT smaller!. As responsible dealers we like our customers to be happy, and we would certainly try and convince such a customer to try and have a larger TV - to the extent of delivering two sizes for them to compare.
On what basis?
This is the point I was making earlier in this thread and is the reason the OP needs to go out and look at the options.
Personally, I would go the other way every day of the week on the basis that in my experience Panasonic offer better picture and sound quality, comparable reliability and a better price than Sony do.
So would I, but only because I've got better access to Sony, there's pretty well nothing to choose between them.
Sony are the number one brand in the trade, Pansonic are number two - it's been that way for years, but differences are only slight.
I agree with this.
Remember OP that with a CRT the viewing distance to where you are seated is effectively a couple of feet nearer than that of a flatscreen TV. Because of the CRT's box like shape.
Definitely worth considering.
M and S have this as their 'Deal of the day' which is a good price with the 5 year warranty. Two week wait for delivery though.:o
its the new 32 "
Bear in mind of buying online and the hassle involved if you get any problems.
As for the screen being a couple of feet further away that will not apply, If I get the TX32D28 the stand does not protrude beyond the screen so it sit flush on the edge of my Hi-Fi table puttting the screen just where the old screen was, whatever TV I get it will only be an inch or so further back.
Had a look at a lot of Sonys and Panasonics and Samsungs today and frankly I am none the wiser shops are not really very good places to do comparitive tests for a start the ones you want to compare are rarely next to each other and without having a quiet half hour with the remotes for each fiddling with the settings and the sources it all seems a bit random. They all looked pretty amazing on HD although on SD no improvement over my old crt and perhaps not as good but then I have that tuned to my liking.
Still mulling anyway and thanks again folks.
I believe that was common with many CRT tvs and monitors. The quoted size referred to the entire screen, part of which would be concealed behind the casing, rather than the viewable screen area.
ETA: I just noticed AlanO already said the same thing
I got so pedantic, I measured the Panasonic screens, the TXL32G20B, which I owned for two weeks was actually less than 31 inches, the TXL32D28B is true 32 inches.
So I was not fussed about the G20b going back due to a fault.
As the other Op says he prefers Sony over Panasonic,in my book the two are equal in reliability & efficiency.
The Samsungs/LGs/Philips TVs are no match,in my opinion.
Only had a few minutes watching it (took a couple of hours; risking serious hernia; to remove 36?" CRT to its new home) but picture on HD looks stunning and more surprisingly SD looks terrific as well and without doing any fiddling of the settings yet.
Sure it looks smaller but the room looks a lot bigger now. :D I may just sit a tad closer.
Word about Comet I always thought of them as the pits, just box shifters but they must have initiated staff training, they where polite enthusiastic, not pushy and knowledgable plus having the best price I could see.
10 out of ten to Beckton Comet.
Thanks again for all advice.
PS I finally ruled out the Panny 32D28 because that angled stand is apparently not an option but a fixture, I did not want a TV permanently pitched backwards; the 32D25; which is always some £50 more than the 28 just seemed too expensive compared with the Sony (over £200 more). It does have a freesat tuner of course but I doubt I would have ever used it.