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Picture quality of TVs in shops |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Letchworth
Posts: 3,446
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Picture quality of TVs in shops
I'm looking to buy a new tv soon - finally getting a widescreen LCD tv. However I notice when looking around the shops that the picture always looks terrible on most of the tvs. Usually the picture looks really fuzzy and blurry. Is this how the picture will actually look at home, or is it just to do with the way it is set up in the shop (e.g. John Lewis)?
Also can anyone recommend what might be the best Tv I can get for anout £400 maximum - looking for around 26-32inch screen? |
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#2 |
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Guest
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 8,966
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Shared Ariel signal.
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: NE Hants
Posts: 456
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Quote:
I'm looking to buy a new tv soon - finally getting a widescreen LCD tv. However I notice when looking around the shops that the picture always looks terrible on most of the tvs. Usually the picture looks really fuzzy and blurry. Is this how the picture will actually look at home, or is it just to do with the way it is set up in the shop (e.g. John Lewis)?
Also can anyone recommend what might be the best Tv I can get for anout £400 maximum - looking for around 26-32inch screen?
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Letchworth
Posts: 3,446
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Quote:
I asked a similar question over on the HDTV forum. I'm seriously starting to wonder if, for standard definition TV - and particularly freeview, these new LCD TV's are pretty rubbish really.
![]() That's what i'm worried about since I'll only be watching through freeview, not Sky HD or similar?!! |
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Sussex
Posts: 12,173
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Most shops just unbox the TV, tune it in and turn it on... usually connected to an aerial system that feeds 50 other TV's so the signals are usually poor. It's remarkable some stores sell any TV's at all!
TV's always have their 'out of the box' factory settings way too high, colourful and sharp so in a shop with a lousy signal they'll look rubbish. Some shops (smaller independents usually) take the time to set them up correctly but watch out as some will obviously want to show the TV at its best and will feed it with an HD signal, so it'll look great but won't show you what normal Standard Definition programmes will look like. I've got the Sony KDL32W4000 and it does perform very well on standard definition programmes as well as really good with HD programmes. It took a little bit of time to get the picture settings about right but now I'm more than happy. It looks good and comapares very favourably against my older (but well performing) Sony CRT. Try and get a decent store to show you properly setup TV's with various sources such as SD (freeview and/or Sky) as well as HD. Remember to view the TV at a sensible distance too, in the shops it's too easy to stand 2 feet away and pick holes at the awful picture... all TV's will have some noticable flaws at close up viewing.....view it from at least 5 feet... you might well compare models in the shop, try to set the colour, contrast and brightness to sensible levels as well as turn off 'picture enhancements' if possible. |
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 712
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Don't buy a tv based on what you see in Currys/Comet. Most if not all the tv's on display will be set with Dynamic/Vivid picture modes to give a bright garish picture. If they used the standard/cinema modes thay would all look too dull in the store. Say how much you want to spend, what size you want, shortlist a few then search for reviews from people who actually own them.
LCD/Plasma tv's are more than capable of a good standard definition picture, they just don't hide as many flaws as smaller CRT sets do. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 822
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There is no LCD TV that looks "better" than a well set-up, good-quality CRT. Most look "worse".
Mind you it is quite subjective, it is just as true to say that LCD simply has a different set of "characteristics" which bother some people but not others. My friend edits TV programmes for a living on broadcast quality monitors and says that (in his opinion) domestic LCDs are "crap". He still has a Sony CRT at home. |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,794
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Just to put things in perspective, the reason sets in shops are set to Vivid/Dynamic is because that's how they are designed to be set for display purposes - and usually come with that as the default on the grounds that shop staff are too thick to set it themselves.
Remember, a shop is far more brightly lit than a home, and the TV's are set to account for that. Many of the new Sony sets actually prompt you doing install for Home or Shop use, and set the picture accordingly (which strikes me as a far better idea). |
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#9 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 368
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Always try and get a DVD player plugged in to any TV you're interested in buying. If the shop hasn't got one available (it probably has but can't be arsed to set one up), either walk out and go elsewhere or fix up your own portable DVD player through the component input to give you a reasonable idea. Component isn't good, but it's far better than a cheap DVD player with the signal divided to twenty TVs which you get in small Currys stores.
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 6,762
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Quote:
There is no LCD TV that looks "better" than a well set-up, good-quality CRT. Most look "worse".
(Although the decent SD channels look perfectly OK to me on my LCD panel) Give it HD though and the best CRT in the world looks "worse". HD panels are built to be give best performance with HD materiel. They handle SD material, some better than others, but it's not where their optimal performace is. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 712
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Quote:
Always try and get a DVD player plugged in to any TV you're interested in buying. If the shop hasn't got one available (it probably has but can't be arsed to set one up), either walk out and go elsewhere or fix up your own portable DVD player through the component input to give you a reasonable idea. Component isn't good, but it's far better than a cheap DVD player with the signal divided to twenty TVs which you get in small Currys stores.
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 3,206
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If the sets are all connectd to the same signal thet should nowadays still look good because almost all sets now have Freeview buit in. The thing that most people do when looking for a new set is stand 18" from the screen then complain about the image. Always work out how far away you sit before you go shopping, then view your potential purchase from that distance.
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Sussex
Posts: 12,173
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The trouble is that often Currys or Comet show a shop demo video on all their TV's and it seems to be fed via RF on a channel that's usually blitzed by co-channel interefernce or their aircon units
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 177
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The fact is that buying a new plasma or LCD is a punt. You won't know how good an SD picture you are going to get until you get it set up at home.
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 501
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Sorry for bringing this thread back up but I totally agree with the OP.
I want to get a HD TV soon so have been looking for the best ones on the internet etc, and then my Dad said he wanted a new set. I went to Currys and Comet with him to look at them, and had said he should look at getting Sky HD at the same time while it's cheap. I think he's been put off getting HD for life. Okay, I can understand they have to use a splitter on the majority of the TVs, so the picture quality is crappy, but they had one set up next to the Sky HD stand. It was showing Eurosport HD and it looked like a bad quality youtube video. It was tennis and when the players names and the scores came up at the bottom of the screen it was barely readable. They didn't have one TV in either shop showing 'proper' HD. They all looked terrible. I don't understand it, it must affect sales, and would take minutes for them to set a couple of sets up showing HD straight from the HD source, and then explain to people it would look like that on all the sets if they could do it. Like I said I can understand they can't show HD on all the TVs, but they should on at least a couple for when they are trying to sell it to people. I can't believe Sky would be happy about it either. Sky HD looked like absolute crap on their TVs. |
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 2,926
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Quote:
The fact is that buying a new plasma or LCD is a punt. You won't know how good an SD picture you are going to get until you get it set up at home.
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#17 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 166
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Quote:
I'm looking to buy a new tv soon - finally getting a widescreen LCD tv. However I notice when looking around the shops that the picture always looks terrible on most of the tvs. Usually the picture looks really fuzzy and blurry. Is this how the picture will actually look at home, or is it just to do with the way it is set up in the shop (e.g. John Lewis)?
You have to understand that the people in these places are just shop assistants and know virtually nothing about what they're doing or selling.... Not like the old days where they guy running your local TV shop actually WAS a TV engineer... |
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