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Small widescreen TVs
KeithSheppard
08-12-2005
At a time when the world seems to think that big is beautiful (personally I find most modern TV sets extremely ugly), I am looking for a small TV for the bedroom. Let's say 17" screen as a maximum. It will spend most of its time turned off so looking good when not in use is a high priority.

My bedroom is not in the modern style - think old fashioned cottage look, so something that looks like it's been snaffled from the bridge of the Start Ship Enterprise will look completely out of place. The less noticable it is, the better.

Widescreen is also an essential feature in my book so it looks like I am stuck with a choice of LCD models. I say "stuck with" because my impression of most LCD TVs is that the picture shimmers to an alarming degree in large blank areas or around the edges of sharp moving lines.

Is this an inevitable consequence of the technology? The LCD screens I have seen are clear and bright but this darned shimmering makes them considerably worse than a good old CRTs IMHO. Are some brands better than others?

My current first choice is the Hitachi 17LD4220 but this is based almost entirely on what it looks like when turned off. At least it's not silver.

Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, of this particular model?

Any observations gratefully received.

Keith
clockworks999
08-12-2005
Not all LCD TVs suffer from this "shimmering". The picture on my new Samsung 40" is every bit as good as on my 3 year old Toshiba 36" CRT, with the added bonus of perfect geometry - always a problem with big CRTs.

Finding a small LCD with a good picture might be more of a problem. Seems to me that manufacturers don't develop their small screens as carefully as the big ones. My Mikomi 17" WS LCD suffers from this edge pixellation. The same TV is also sold with Proline, Crown and AFAIK (with a slightly redesigned lower front bezel) Hitachi badges. For the £250 I paid, I'm happy with it. At £350 as a Crown, or £400 as a Hitachi, I wouldn't be.

Maybe you should look at bigger TVs, where more effort is put into the design?
KeithSheppard
09-12-2005
Originally Posted by clockworks999:
“The same TV is also sold with Proline, Crown and AFAIK (with a slightly redesigned lower front bezel) Hitachi badges. For the £250 I paid, I'm happy with it. At £350 as a Crown, or £400 as a Hitachi, I wouldn't be.”

FWIW, the Hitachi is now under £310 on the web.

My choice is severely limited by the fact that I abhor silver. Even if you can get the same works in a different brand box, I'd rather pay a few pounds more for something which fits the decor - just so long as it is reasonably watchable.

From what you are saying, it sounds like the 17" chappies are all much of a muchness in the picture quality department

Keith
David (2)
09-12-2005
Philips 17" Widescreen LCD is good quality. Also saw a Panasonic of a similar size which was quite good. But I do agree, that at the smaller end of the market, the "quality" LCD screens are a bit thin on the ground.

Dave
clockworks999
09-12-2005
Originally Posted by KeithSheppard:
“FWIW, the Hitachi is now under £310 on the web.

My choice is severely limited by the fact that I abhor silver. Even if you can get the same works in a different brand box, I'd rather pay a few pounds more for something which fits the decor - just so long as it is reasonably watchable.

From what you are saying, it sounds like the 17" chappies are all much of a muchness in the picture quality department

Keith”

The Hitachi that I saw was all-silver - must be a different model.
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