Nerdy Awesome shit you bought!

[Trem]

Choose the *right* Samsung TV and they are the best and easiest to live with and they have the most useful smart features over the others, choose the wrong one and they make your eyes cry.

I love LG phones but have always thought their TV's were dreadful, unwatchable bags of shite and yes I have ordered the critics choice of LG and done the settings and within a day I have returned it.

 

[TdC]

just got me some of this in 48T, 165mm, all black anodized

 

[Scouse]

I've thought about that. The thought of gaming on a phone has made me do a little sick in my mouth.

Jeesus. Twice in a day. I feel dirty

 

[old.user4556]

So I got the TV on Saturday and here's my honest, balanced opinion:

ZOMFGJESUS.

But seriously, it's an exceptionally good TV and the first smart TV where the software is actually very slick (thanks to a quad core processor) and not complete dogshite.

Here's the pros:

- the upscaling of 1080p content is sensational. Feed it with blu-ray (even 2001 on blu-ray!) or a broadcast Sky HD signal with 1080i and the picture is flawless.
- colour balance is spot on, flesh tones look natural.
- there's plenty of settings for picture control to fine tune for your viewing conditions.
- the styling of the TV and the stand are gorgeous. Very attractive in the living room.
- you completely forget it's curved once you start watching it, you never sit there thinking "hmm this is curved".
- did I mention a flawless picture? The dynamic range of the images is way beyond my old Sony (which was a W range) which was very good at the time, but there's no contest. In a medium lit room, blacks are inky and detailed and the mid-tones and whites are full of detail.
- noise is very good, particularly in the dark areas, but this is quite dependent on source material.
- the curve does really well to eliminate reflections.
- games via the PS4 are fantastic as expected (fast motion is no problem here).

Here's the cons:

- not sure if this is a con, but backlight uniformity is what I would call "good", but it's not completely perfect. You only notice this is a completely dark room.
- LED TVs still struggle in completely black rooms, and this TV is no exception - you need to be careful with the backlight level if you're watching dark movies (The Matrix, Blade Runner) in a dark room. Until OLED is affordable, we'll need to compromise. When watching dark movies, I have the lights down low instead of completely off.
- viewing angles are not great @Moriath , there is a bit of give but like most LCD panels you'll start getting washed out quite quickly. If you need wide viewing angles for a large family, and sit quite close, you'll need to do some testing to make sure it's suitable for you.

A great purchase.

 

[Hawkwind]

- LED TVs still struggle in completely black rooms, and this TV is no exception - you need to be careful with the backlight level if you're watching dark movies (The Matrix, Blade Runner) in a dark room. Until OLED is affordable, we'll need to compromise. When watching dark movies, I have the lights down low instead of completely off.

Plenty of people use Assent Lighting and state they help with the dark room issue. 99% of the time you tend to have some lighting anyway, so only really for the home cinema enthusiast.

http://www.amazon.com/LED-Home-Theater-Accent-Lighting/dp/B00316IVAG

 

[old.user4556]

Plenty of people use Assent Lighting and state they help with the dark room issue. 99% of the time you tend to have some lighting anyway, so only really for the home cinema enthusiast.

http://www.amazon.com/LED-Home-Theater-Accent-Lighting/dp/B00316IVAG

Yeah I've got IKEA's 'dioder' mounted at the back of my TV unit which I'm still testing (update to follow) but it does assist nicely with subtle accent lighting to keep the room "dark", but nicely lit so that dark films can still be enjoyed without your eye picking up that slight backlight glow.

 

[Hawkwind]

Supposed to help with eye strain as well. If I remember correctly blue was the best colour for that.

 

[old.user4556]

Yeah, I'm not convinced about watching the TV in very dark rooms / pitch black anyway, it does hurt my eyes over the long term.

 

[JBP|]

Have you tried out 3d on it G? (I assume it has that feature )

 

[old.user4556]

Nope, no 3D on this set - it's one of the features removed to bring the price down.

My opinions on 3D are well documented around these parts...

 

[Moriath]

I agree 3d is rubbish

On a different note. Just ordered a 128gb cellular version of this

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad-air-2/

I know the apple haters will hate but I like my current ipad4

 

[wolfeeh]

Today I bought;
MadCatz R.A.T. M. mini gaming mouse
Logitech extreme 3D Pro joystick
Star Citizen

 

[Billargh]

Today I bought;
MadCatz R.A.T. M. mini gaming mouse
Logitech extreme 3D Pro joystick
Star Citizen

Good review on that mouse

 

[wolfeeh]

to be honest I didn't read *that* review before I bought the mouse, there are actually plenty of extremely positive reviews about the mouse on other sites, more geek orientated sites... i'm inclined to say that that guy is either a n00b or he isn't but has a duff model and has had bad customer service about it. even very prestigious brands sometimes make cataclysmic fuck ups.

I won't state the name of the brand, but when I got married the last time my wife and I stayed overnight at a five star hotel in Bristol, it was meant to be two nights. I won't bother going into details but we had a horrendous experience on the second day - to the point where at 11 pm at night we packed up our shit and left without staying the second night. we complained about the issue the next day and had over £500 compensation plus our stay refunded + all the room service and restaurant charges, parking etc + got offered an alternative stay. it was bad shit man. so yeh, even premium brands can fuck up.

I wouldn't call mad catz a premium brand but I haven't experienced any problems with the mouse, to answer the guys issues on a point by point basis:
ergonomically; I would agree that it is not suitable for those with large hands. to be honest a compact mouse is always going to be a compromise, you can't expect the same experience as with a full size mouse. imagine having a wank if your cock was half the size it is now....? I personally have small hands, I've tried out several small mice. I tried this one before I bought it. I find it very comfortable... i'm not experiencing any hand fatigue, pain or discomfort, having used the mouse for the last 8 hours, constantly.

Intermittently stops working: haven't experienced this.

intermittently reacts in an erratic way: haven't experienced this, behaves exactly like a wired mouse.... my G700s on the other hand does occasionally have a spasm.

software issues: none. windows 8.1, 64 bit. worked immediately on being plugged in. downloaded the correct driver, no installation problems, other button immediately became functional. installed programming software, no issues... and while it may not be overly pretty to look at it's also 1000 * better than Logitech's programming suite, also corsair and razer's. intuitive drag and drop interface, straightforward setting panel.

when I can be bothered i'll be doing an amazon review on that page, unless some issue occurs by the time I do it will be a lot more positive than that one.

I will additionally mention I had £30 off. £40 paid.

 

[Athan]

It does indeed sound like he experienced an issue similar to the one I had with a different MadCatz mouse. He really should have badgered tech support more and/or tried for a refund anyway.

 

[leggy]

So I got the TV on Saturday and here's my honest, balanced opinion:

ZOMFGJESUS.

Which TV are you referring to? The 239 quid one you linkyd a couple of pages ago? (32" Sammy)

 

[old.user4556]

No the 65".

The 32" is also very good indeed, 1080p on a 32" set is very sharp.

 

[leggy]

Thanks. Just saw the original post and came back to delete this one

My issue is that I need a new 32" TV as I refuse to have anything bigger. Mostly because I don't watch much TV. That £239 price was fairly attractive

I don't need smart features as I already have an all singing all dancing streaming/smart device.

 

[wolfeeh]

Curved 65"?

My wife spent ages saying "no, you are not having a 65" curved tv" then she saw it and she was like "oh. ok".

 

[Hawkwind]

TomTom Multi Sport Cardio GPS Watch with Heart Rate/Cadence/Speed/Altimeter Sensor - Black
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TomTom-Card...qid=1416298643&sr=1-5&keywords=tom+tom+cardio

TomTom Large Comfort Strap Bright Green


TomTom Bike Mount for Watch

Been looking at these for a while and the fact that this does run, swim and bike with a run treadmill mod ticks all the boxes for me and my son. Reviews look good so quite hopeful it will be a good buy. Came to 305 GBP total on Amazon UK.

 

[Hawkwind]

So tempted....

http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-...=product_intro&utm_campaign=inspire-1campaign

4k Camera Quadcopter from Dji

 

[Gwadien]

So I got the TV on Saturday and here's my honest, balanced opinion:

ZOMFGJESUS.

But seriously, it's an exceptionally good TV and the first smart TV where the software is actually very slick (thanks to a quad core processor) and not complete dogshite.

Here's the pros:

- the upscaling of 1080p content is sensational. Feed it with blu-ray (even 2001 on blu-ray!) or a broadcast Sky HD signal with 1080i and the picture is flawless.
- colour balance is spot on, flesh tones look natural.
- there's plenty of settings for picture control to fine tune for your viewing conditions.
- the styling of the TV and the stand are gorgeous. Very attractive in the living room.
- you completely forget it's curved once you start watching it, you never sit there thinking "hmm this is curved".
- did I mention a flawless picture? The dynamic range of the images is way beyond my old Sony (which was a W range) which was very good at the time, but there's no contest. In a medium lit room, blacks are inky and detailed and the mid-tones and whites are full of detail.
- noise is very good, particularly in the dark areas, but this is quite dependent on source material.
- the curve does really well to eliminate reflections.
- games via the PS4 are fantastic as expected (fast motion is no problem here).

Here's the cons:

- not sure if this is a con, but backlight uniformity is what I would call "good", but it's not completely perfect. You only notice this is a completely dark room.
- LED TVs still struggle in completely black rooms, and this TV is no exception - you need to be careful with the backlight level if you're watching dark movies (The Matrix, Blade Runner) in a dark room. Until OLED is affordable, we'll need to compromise. When watching dark movies, I have the lights down low instead of completely off.
- viewing angles are not great @Moriath , there is a bit of give but like most LCD panels you'll start getting washed out quite quickly. If you need wide viewing angles for a large family, and sit quite close, you'll need to do some testing to make sure it's suitable for you.

A great purchase.

Whut dat?

Think my Dad is looking for a new TV soonish.

 

[caLLous]

So tempted....

http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-...=product_intro&utm_campaign=inspire-1campaign

4k Camera Quadcopter from Dji

If you're tempted to spend well north of £2k on that then you're a mug tbh.

 

[wolfeeh]

If you're tempted to spend well north of £2k on that then you're a mug tbh.

well. to be fair, it's his money...

 

[caLLous]

Didn't say it wasn't.

Optically you could do better (I expect) for less with a Hero 4 Black (proper lovely 4k30 or 1080p120) on a H3-3D gimbal on a Phantom 2. DJI's previous cameras haven't been all that special so, even if I was interested in the Inspire 1, I would wait until some thorough reviews of their new camera start coming out.

 

[Hawkwind]

Didn't say it wasn't.

Optically you could do better (I expect) for less with a Hero 4 Black (proper lovely 4k30 or 1080p120) on a H3-3D gimbal on a Phantom 2. DJI's previous cameras haven't been all that special so, even if I was interested in the Inspire 1, I would wait until some thorough reviews of their new camera start coming out.

Already have the Hero 4 Black on my Dji Phantom 2. the panoramic's are not great on it tbh. Bit of fish bowl effect. The 4k camera on the Dji has had excellent reviews from professionals. From what I've seen of the raw footage vids they are pretty decent. the new gimbal with 360 deg camera operation is a big plus to. If you get the two controllers + spare batteries its about 3k USD.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuS_gmN_7mQ


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9HlDWOq6Do

http://petapixel.com/2014/11/12/dji...lets-capture-high-end-aerial-imagery-4k-12mp/
http://gizmodo.com/dji-inspire-1-a-badass-drone-that-shoots-lovely-4k-vid-1658076017

 

[Tilda]

Anybody got any thoughts on Bravias as TV's?
We have John Lewis vouchers to use after our wedding and looked at this one: http://www.johnlewis.com/sony-bravi...-tv-50-with-freeview-hd/p1593179?colour=Black
Ideally trying to find one that can output Dolby 5.1 via optical so at some point we can plug in a Sonos Playbar.

Any other decide LED tv's for that sort of price? Are the cheap ones you see at Tesco for £300 odd crap?

 

[old.user4556]

Read some reviews first, see my post above about the newer Bravias.

 

[Moriath]

Anybody got any thoughts on Bravias as TV's?
We have John Lewis vouchers to use after our wedding and looked at this one: http://www.johnlewis.com/sony-bravi...-tv-50-with-freeview-hd/p1593179?colour=Black
Ideally trying to find one that can output Dolby 5.1 via optical so at some point we can plug in a Sonos Playbar.

Any other decide LED tv's for that sort of price? Are the cheap ones you see at Tesco for £300 odd crap?

Usually better taking the outputs of equipment and pushing via an amp. So you put your sky box through the amp and into the to and split the sound out to whatever speakers etc.

 

[Trem]

I'm going to ask a really (yes I know) stupid question here but doesn't optical output just output a definite signal rather than different types (Dolby etc)? I guess what I'm getting at is surely it's the thing that the optical is going into's job to change the sound because optical is just...erm....optical.