New TV advice

[LeMarchand]

As there seem to be some cracking deals about, I'm thinking about replacing our old (but still working well) CRT with an HD TV. Will mainly be used for TV (Virgin), media streamed from my PC, the odd DVD (trying to avoid Blu-Ray as I'm sure it will be superseded very quickly - probably by streaming) and possibly playing PC games (only console in the house is a PS1). Not interested in 3D - hoping it will die a deserved death, frankly.

 

Anything I should watch out for? Or is there some new tech about to be launched, hence the keen prices at the moment?

[Haptic]

Having bought a 40" 1080p Toshiba myself about 5 months ago which is absolutely brilliant picture-wise, has more outputs than I can through a stick at, has the regza link and streaming capabilities I have been very disppointed with the sound. In fact it was that bad, I have had to opt for surround sound. (that is genuine and not just what I told the other half before purchasing the surround sound!) So my main point would be check out the sound as well.........learn from my mistakes!

 

Hope it helps.

 

Chris

[mac_shinobi]

has more outputs than I can through a stick at

 

Probably being a spelling pedantic or something now and it's not very often I get the chance to be but I think you meant "Throw" instead of "through"

 

[mac_shinobi]

I personally think Panasonic would be a good choice

[cpjitservices]

Sound seems to let down alot of TV's these days, however the best soundings TV's I've come across are LG's and Panasonic - the Panny has such a deep bass that my jaw hit the floor first time I turned it on in the settings, the LG's sound alot crisper and you can get nice bass and surround effects if you tweak the settings but standardly they don't sound 'Great'!

[mac_shinobi]

Sound seems to let down alot of TV's these days, however the best soundings TV's I've come across are LG's and Panasonic - the Panny has such a deep bass that my jaw hit the floor first time I turned it on in the settings, the LG's sound alot crisper and you can get nice bass and surround effects if you tweak the settings but standardly they don't sound 'Great'!

 

As far as sound I have a 40" Samsung which is pants by itself but you could do something similar with any telly but I got a pair of M Audio AV40 studio phile speakers and hooked those up, sounds amazing now

 

ok ok only 2.1 instead of THX 7.1 or whatever but hey

[Haptic]

Probably being a spelling pedantic or something now and it's not very often I get the chance to be but I think you meant "Throw" instead of "through"

 

 

Ha indeed I do....crikey it is Friday! I don't often make them but that is a good one........killer.

[Haptic]

Sound seems to let down alot of TV's these days, however the best soundings TV's I've come across are LG's and Panasonic - the Panny has such a deep bass that my jaw hit the floor first time I turned it on in the settings, the LG's sound alot crisper and you can get nice bass and surround effects if you tweak the settings but standardly they don't sound 'Great'!

 

This is exactly what mine sounded like and it is pretty unbelievable when you hear it. The Wharfdale's are great sound and good value, but are obviously not the best on the market. Wharfdale sound is always going to be good. I bought an LG 2.1 surround sound system as I have a small living room and it was all I needed. It does the job I need it to.

 

Chris

[mac_shinobi]

Never heard a panasonic - maybe in the next 5 years or so might be able to upgrade the tv i have now

[LeMarchand]

Not too worried about the sound, as we have a 5.1 setup that currently only gets used for "special event" viewings (do Virgin even supply a surround feed?) that could step in if necessary. Was more concerned that there were technologies/brands to avoid and that there might be "the next thing" launched mid-year.

[dhicks]

Anything I should watch out for? Or is there some new tech about to be launched, hence the keen prices at the moment?

 

Myself, I bought an Advent all-in-one PC, with Windows 7, TV tuner and remote. At first I tried PC World, which was absolutly useless as the salesperson assured me the VGA / HDMI ports included were out ports where actually they're in. Currys (high street Wimbledon branch), however, were absolutly great - they didn't have one in stock so the manager actually brought one in on the train on his way to work - now that's proper customer service! The sound quality is actually very good, perfectly fine for our small living room, although I'm guessing if you have a bigger room you might want to plug in some heaftier speakers. The picture quality is fine, too, although the viewing angle is a bit limited and the image tends towards the dark side - you'll probably find that with the cheaper LCDs you're looking at anyway, though. As pointed out, is does take both VGA and HDMI inputs, so you can use it as a monitor for your games console and PC, although it will handle basic PC-based gaming itself anyway, letting you ditch the desktop PC or use that as a home server.

[bossman]

Just purchased a beautiful 42" LCD with built in freeview HD and network connectivity plus all the other inputs you could think of for £329.00 from Tesco's and the model in question is the Technika (German built) and the sound and picture quality match that of TVs 3 - 4 times its price with a 3 year warranty it warrants a look.

 

 

I have been very impressed

[RTFM]

Sony have a new range of Bravia's out which are meant to be top notch and come with 5 year warranty....

 

That's what i am saving up for at the moment!

[SYNACK]

If you want format support (having a network media player in the tv is handy) go for Samsung or LG. If you don't want any format support, want to leak your personal details every six minutes and have purchased features revoked in a years time then you could consider Sony.

 

Honestly I had lots of Sony gear and switching to different brands like Samsung has been the best move I made, no more 1.5 year burnouts of tv motherboards, no tv won't switch off errors, no information titles jammed on issues... Sony, at least for me has made some of the worst hardware I have ever owned. Their new gear may work better but supports just Sony not the consumer that brought them.