New LCD TV!

[WPKenny]

Just ordered one of these...

http://www.mirai.eu/Uk/ProductDetails&product_id=46&cat_id=43

Our 32" CRT's on the way out. Takes up to 5 mins to turn on and then the screen's all squashed for a few mins till it warms up. It's only a matter of time. It's not lasted all that long tbh, just a few years but never the less it's time to replace it.

I've been pondering it for a while. Flittering between makes and models and sizes and prices. But I think this is the best trade off in terms of price, features and quality.

Fingers crossed it's in good condition when it arrives.

 

[Maljonic]

I was looking at flat tellies in Tesco yesterday. It's the first time I've looked at them in about 2 years and I was quite surprised at how cheap they are now, compared to how they were the last time I looked that is.

 

[Tom]

Considering I probably watch my telly about 1-2 hours a week, I think I can wait

 

[Lazarus]

WP,

where did you get it>

I was considering the 27" telly but couldnt see any reviews.

how do you like it - does it tick all the boxes?

 

[Ch3tan]

And how much was it?

 

[WPKenny]

Cheapest I found it for was 410ish but it was from some website I'd never heard of so I paid 10 quid extras and got it from Overclockers.co.uk. I know some people have had issues with them but tbh I can't fault them. They've been quick with deliveries and are great with RMA's (even if they do need a little chasing sometimes).

It ticks all the boxes for me as long as the picture is good and has no dead pixels. It's got VGA, HDMI, component, 2x RGB SCART, s-video. All of which are of use to me.
I had a poke around the avforums and it seemed to get a positive response so I took the plunge.

I know there's better models out there but I felt it was the right telly for what I wanted from it and it was within our budget.

 

[WPKenny]

I changed my mind on vendors. I found a site called www.techfever.co.uk that sell it for 380 incl vat and p+p so I email oc.co.uk to cancel my order and re-ordered it from techfever.

Fingers crossed I don't get screwed over on the payment and oc.co.uk keep my money for ages before refunding it.

 

[WPKenny]

Just in the nick of time it seems. I switched the telly on for a bit before I went to bed last night and it died on me. It just makes this high pitch chirping noise when you press the power button. Tried it again this morning and it's still doing it.

Dos anyone who knows much about CRT's here think it's worth getting repaired or does it sound like an expensive task?

 

[Guest]

its sounds exactly like the big ends gone in the fluffle valve.

or it could be just the power supply or the tube.

 

[WPKenny]

It arrived today and I have to say I'm very impressed to some extent but a little unsure about other aspects.

The analogue signal is below average. But in fairness I did expect that from reading as much as I could before hand. I just didn't expect it to be such a mixed bag. Some channels are fine, some are horribly fuzzy, looking like colour's bleeding all over the screen.

Through RGB on my SD Sky box I get a perfectly acceptible picture. No complaints there.

I hooked up my girlfriend's laptop to the telly and the picture is superb. Just like a giant monitor. I played some hi-def trailers on it and they look fantastic.

Then I tried my PS2 via RGB and that looks a little washed out. But my brother-in-law's just got himself a HDTV so has borrowed my component cable. Will know more about pic quality at the weekend.

The let down for me has been the DVD playback. For some reason on my DVD player (which I admit is a bit crap) with built in amp has issues. The top of the screen seems to flicker like bad tracking on a video tape. The thing is it only does it when a movie is playing. It doesn't occur in the menus. This is on all discs.
I've met a halfway house with this and change the output on my DVD player from RGB scart to YUV scart (no idea what this means but it's better than the s-video option). This results in a good picture but it suffers from blurring or ghosting. I can live with it for now if I assume this will go away if I get a cheap upscaling DVD player (50 quid is the cheapest I've seen on ebuyer, any others?) The only problem with this is that I'll need a separate amp to get 5.1 again otherwise it'll be dull pro-logic.

Overall I'm very pleased. It's much lighter and thinner than the 32" philips CRT it's replacing too. It is however going to make me spend more money on feeding it hi-def sources rather than the plain standard def stuff I'm feeding it for the moment!

Well, I hope I haven't waffled TOO much. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in the thread for all the feedback!

 

[Rubber Bullets]

No idea if it's any good, but certainly cheaper

RB

 

[Ch3tan]

How many of the scarts on the TV are RGB? It is uncommon for all of them to be, are you using a splitter or just swapping out when you want access to the RGB enabled one?

 

[WPKenny]

Both of the SCARTS are RGB and the second one even has a special option to put it into S-video mode.

 

[Tom]

YUV is the method used to transmit PAL signals over analogue airwaves.

Y is luma (a monochrome sum of all three colour channels, since summing pure red green and blue produces white light)
U is blue minus luma
V is red minus luma

They don't transmit green. They don't need to as its already contained in the luma signal - you just subtract blue and red from luma, and you get green. They did this to retain compatibility with monochrome sets when colour was first introduced. Its also a very good way of saving bandwidth as the human eye is very insensitive to colour, and because green is the most prominent of the three colours in terms of amplitude (0.59V).

RGB is just red green and blue, and doesn't produce as natural a colour rendition as YUV.

 

[WPKenny]

m00!

Well I got it all finally. Set me back 600 quid in total.

Got a 32" HDTV, a 5.1 amp and a DVD upscaler player with HDMI output.

Will post full detail later as I'm a little tipsy but for now here's a pic...

Excuse the wires and stuff. I'm still tidying but that is pretty much how the equipment's going to be placed.

 

[MYstIC G]

Bless ya, turned into a lil house husband ain't ya Kenny

"excuse the wires"

*chuckle*

 

[Trem]

Awww ain't he just.

Use a ribbon out of your hair to tie them up with.

 

[MYstIC G]

Oh wait. Does this mean he's now got "feelings" that we have to be careful of?!?

 

[WPKenny]

I was tidying my cables and I found something. Wait. What's this? Oh look it's a big sign saying...


FUCK RIGHT OFF *****!


































(i went to a spa today and had a facial)

 

[Lazarus]

you still got the pearl necklace?

 

[MYstIC G]

I was tidying my cables and I found something. Wait. What's this? Oh look it's a big sign saying...

I don't believe this sign exists.

I hereby (on behalf of the readers of this thread) demand proof of the existence of said sign immediately!

If proof is not provided you will be considered to be a house-husband for all eternity.

 

[moomin]

best thing about this tv kenny's got is they've got a 3 year warrenty and it's retro active from what I gather

I think I'm gonna go for the hannspree 32" tho

 

[Ch3tan]

The Evesham ones also come with a three year warrenty as standard and most of the models have integrated freeview and two tuners. They are more expensive than most other budget sets though -but better quality.

 

[Pfy]

Been looking to buy a 32" today. All I really want it for is a glorified PC monitor with my xbox 360 hanging out the back ...

This TV much cop as a monitor / any good with Xbox via component ?

I'm pretty much a novice, but hey :/

I was actually gonna buy that cheap Techwood from Chetans Woolworths today and hook my PC upto it via my scart but this seems better value ... anyhow ...

Any advice much appreciated.

 

[WPKenny]

Been looking to buy a 32" today. All I really want it for is a glorified PC monitor with my xbox 360 hanging out the back ...

This TV much cop as a monitor / any good with Xbox via component ?

I'm pretty much a novice, but hey :/

I was actually gonna buy that cheap Techwood from Chetans Woolworths today and hook my PC upto it via my scart but this seems better value ... anyhow ...

Any advice much appreciated.

The Mirai looks great as a monitor. I've got it hooked up to my PC via a 10m vga cable and the image is pin sharp. The TV's got an auto adjust on it which works perfectly. I've not got a huge amount of experience with flat panel monitors/TV's but I can't see a thing wrong with using this TV as a monitor for your PC aswell. You could even stick a DVI/HDMI cable into it but I don't think it's needed.

I've got my PS2 on it with component inputs and after a little tweaking it looks great aswell. I don't know why but on some games the text and the overall image can seem a little pixelated (not just sharper, I mean like someone's deliberately pixelated the picture). This doesn't occur on every game tho and progressive scan on games like Burnout Revenge and God Of War II look fantastic.

 

[Ch3tan]

The techwood does not have a vga or dvi input and so you could not use it as a pc monitor unless you got a dvi-hdmi adaptor.

If you want a screen to use as a monitor then make sure that it accepts a good resolution via the vga input, quite a few accept a lower res than the panal is capable of supporting.

If you can find a woolies that has the technosonic 32" tv instock then get that, that did have a vga input and looks great as a monitor.


ON a related note, I went shopping with my mate today and ended up coming home with the sharp 42xd1e that Doomy has been raving about, my mate went home with the Sammy f71 that Deebs has been raving about. heh.

 

[Doomy]

ON a related note, I went shopping with my mate today and ended up coming home with the sharp 42xd1e that Doomy has been raving about, my mate went home with the Sammy f71 that Deebs has been raving about. heh.

Hope you went home with a good un Bar the lack of 1080p on vga/component its a very nice set and still love it lots. Tekken DR is SO sharp n nice looking.

 

[Ch3tan]

Haven't checked the seriel to see which batch it is from yet, I'll be getting the 360 with hdmi, so the lack of 1080p over component does not bother me, and dvi-hdmi adaptor solves using the pc at 1080.

I just couldn't bring myself to spend extra on the sony after seeing them run side by side, the pic quality is the same, but the sony looks cheaply built.

 

[Ch3tan]

 

[Xtro]

After digging around the avforums and dvdforums I ordered this yesterday:

http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?product_id=21790

Only had a budget of £400-500, the cheaper the better really as I am saving for going travelling again.

Should arrive in the morning, it's had rave feedback on the other forums I frequent anyways.

Btw ch3ts, nice cuddly toys mate :$