DS Forums

 
 

New TV


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 14-08-2016, 21:14
victor mel
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 2,854

I am looking for a new TV for a spare room. 32 inch, full HD with HD channels. My budget is £200. Any ideas?
victor mel is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 15-08-2016, 21:17
JurassicMark
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 5,539
SAMSUNG UE32J5100 32" LED TV or SAMSUNG T32E310 32" LED TV

Neither are smart TVs but I'm assuming that's not important to you as you did not mention it.
JurassicMark is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 16-08-2016, 10:30
barbeler
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 11,688
Can televisions like those above be used without a sound bar, because that can make a big difference to the actual price?
barbeler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-08-2016, 12:09
Winston_1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 5,007
Can televisions like those above be used without a sound bar, because that can make a big difference to the actual price?
Any TV can be used without a sound bar. All TVs have built in speakers.
Winston_1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-08-2016, 15:53
victor mel
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 2,854
Thanks, I had a look in my local Curry's. Surprising how rare a full hd is for under £200. There are even some over £300 which are just HD ready.
victor mel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-08-2016, 20:01
Nigel Goodwin
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,783
Thanks, I had a look in my local Curry's. Surprising how rare a full hd is for under £200. There are even some over £300 which are just HD ready.
Simply because Full HD isn't that important, and a good quality HD Ready set will give better pictures (in both SD and HD) than a cheap Full HD set.
Nigel Goodwin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-08-2016, 22:49
victor mel
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 2,854
So how can you tell a good quality hd ready set?
victor mel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-08-2016, 23:06
JurassicMark
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 5,539
So how can you tell a good quality hd ready set?
In terms of resolution, an HD ready set can be perfectly fine, the critical factors are screen size and viewing distance.

There's a chart on this page (scroll down a bit) which may give you an idea if an HD ready (720p) set will be okay for you.
JurassicMark is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 17-08-2016, 23:27
jp761
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: In a building
Posts: 24,018
32 inch size samsung are the ones to go for.
jp761 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 09:03
Nigel Goodwin
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,783
So how can you tell a good quality hd ready set?
'Good' ones would be Sony or Panasonic (but NOT the Vestel made Panasonics), middling makes would be LG and Samsung, pretty well everything else is cheap crap.

Picture wise, the thing to do is compare the pictures - on both SD and HD - cheaper sets are usually a LOT poorer on SD, it's not important on HD, as downscaling is easy and doesn't produce artefacts.
Nigel Goodwin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 09:50
Winston_1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 5,007
'Good' ones would be Sony or Panasonic (but NOT the Vestel made Panasonics), middling makes would be LG and Samsung, pretty well everything else is cheap crap.

Picture wise, the thing to do is compare the pictures - on both SD and HD - cheaper sets are usually a LOT poorer on SD, it's not important on HD, as downscaling is easy and doesn't produce artefacts.
Avoid Panasonic. They frequently make sets that don't conform to the DVB specs and then try to blame anyone but themselves. Terrible customer service. See this long thread:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2124224
Winston_1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 10:42
Chris Frost
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 6,450
Avoid Panasonic. They frequently make sets that don't conform to the DVB specs and then try to blame anyone but themselves. Terrible customer service. See this long thread:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2124224
This is one of Winston_1's hobby horses. IIRC the issue with Panasonic only affects those TVS with a Freesat tuner where the customer uses a satellite dish rather than an aerial feeding the Freeview tuner. At £200 I doubt any of the Panasonic TVs you may be considering will have a satellite tuner anyway, so it's pointless to worry about something that won't affect you.

On the question of what makes a good TV it's a case of knowing what to look for in the picture and being able to set up the TV properly so it displays good contrast, decent shadow detail, no additional sharpening, and realistic colour rather than the Dale Winton Tango-orange over-saturation that's often the default on most TVS preset picture modes. I have a Vestel-made 32" HD Ready Sharp in one of my rooms which I chose in preference to similarly-priced Full HD sets because it does a better job of displaying a natural image. Then again, I calibrate TVs and projectors for a living so I know what to look for.
Chris Frost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 12:00
victor mel
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 2,854
I am looking at this Sony 32 Inch KDL32RD433BU. Any good?
victor mel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 12:45
Nigel Goodwin
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,783
I am looking at this Sony 32 Inch KDL32RD433BU. Any good?
Yes it's a good TV, we've sold lot's of them, and had no faulty ones.
Nigel Goodwin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 13:57
victor mel
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Kent
Posts: 2,854
Yes it's a good TV, we've sold lot's of them, and had no faulty ones.
Thats good, I bought it for £200.
victor mel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 19:40
Winston_1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 5,007
This is one of Winston_1's hobby horses. IIRC the issue with Panasonic only affects those TVS with a Freesat tuner where the customer uses a satellite dish rather than an aerial feeding the Freeview tuner.
It is a fact, not a hobby horse. Read the thread.

Prievous problems have been DVB-T sets with an MPEG 4 decoder that would not work on MPEG 4 transmissions in Ireland.

Then there was the split NIT issue on DVB-T sets.

So it is not just Freesat sets that Panasonic don't make to spec.

We can only guess what their next problem that they will try to blame someone else will be.
Winston_1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 20:37
anthony david
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,457
What makes you think the o/p wants to take his TV to Ireland? Split NIT problems were donkeys years ago. You obviously have a personal grudge against Panasonic, I think it is time you explained why that should be the case.
anthony david is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 21:13
Chris Frost
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 6,450
It is a fact, not a hobby horse.
I never said it wasn't a fact. You should check the definition of hobby-horse:

"a subject that someone often talks about, usually for a long time"

The point is that the problems you're banging on about aren't relevant to a lot of buyers in Great Britain.

You obviously have a personal grudge against Panasonic, I think it is time you explained why that should be the case.
Exactly.
Chris Frost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 22:31
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,902
What makes you think the o/p wants to take his TV to Ireland? Split NIT problems were donkeys years ago. You obviously have a personal grudge against Panasonic, I think it is time you explained why that should be the case.
They probably refused to honour the non-existent 2 year EU guarantee which is another thing he bangs on about
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-08-2016, 23:03
ianradioian
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 24,336
Make sure it is "freeview hd " whatever you choose otherwise you won't get all the channels.
ianradioian is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 22:17.