New telly

[00dave]

Ok I've finally decided to upgrade my steam powered old style tv for one of these new fangled HD thingys.

Budget is around £600 although flexible for a good deal, and I would like to take advantage of this tv scrapage scheme if possible.

Suggestions?

Note: I know nothing about TVs so please explain the techno babble slowly and as if you are speaking to a child

 

[old.user4556]

Sony KDL-32V5500 TV review - from the experts at whathifi.com

Bang on the money, meant to be very good.

I've not seen it myself, but unless you speak to someone who has specific knowledge of testing various sets or can speak from personal experience, I'd go with whathifi as a good starting place.

My only concern is that some of the larger Sony sets suffer from uneven and dodgy backlight problems, and in the upper price range I'd be looking at one of the new neo plasma sets in the Panasonic Viera plasma range - they've been very highly spoken of too.

 

[DaGaffer]

You don't say what size screen you want; but for the money I'd go for:

Samsung LE40B550A5 LCD HD Ready 1080p Digital Television, 40 Inch

or

Sony Bravia KDL37S5500 LCD HD Ready 1080p Digital Television, 37 inch

There's a £50 trade in the Sony.

 

[Bahumat]

I Like the Sony Titan HD as it's got everything you need.

Spoiler

 

[old.user4556]

Dunno Gaff, I'd prefer a more superior Sony telly that was smaller in size and less money. The 'S' range is their 'entry' level. I put that in quotes as i'm sure it's still very good. I'd check a review though before buying.

 

[DaGaffer]

Dunno Gaff, I'd prefer a more superior Sony telly that was smaller in size and less money. The 'S' range is their 'entry' level. I put that in quotes as i'm sure it's still very good. I'd check a review though before buying.

Samsung makes Sony panels though; so there's no image quality issues really. I'm a bit of a Sony fanboi (not Bodhi league obviously ) but the latest Samsungs are pretty damn good.

 

[old.user4556]

Yeah I can't see past Sony TVs either, but the backlight talk on the 46 to 52 inch models gave me a wandering eye. Felt like I was cheating on Bodhi .

 

[Bodhi]

Samsung tellies are pretty gash in fairness. Panels are OK but their image processing engines suck donkey penis. I've always found them really uncomfortable to watch after a while, everything seems to appear almost cartoony on them. Plus their LED tellies aren't true LED tellies, they just have LED backlights.

Plus people in the industry call them Samdungs.

Go Panasonic, Sony or LG. I recently got a 37" Full HD LCD for around 560, and it's been superb. Speakers are a bit pish but the panel is excellent. Games on the puss 3 look beautiful.

 

[Vasconcelos]

With the Sony Bravia you cant go wrong. Pricey but quality stuff.

I myself have a 42" Bravia and happy with every euro spent on it (plus the insurance)

 

[old.user4556]

B&O still using Samsung panels anyone know?

 

[old.user4556]

With the Sony Bravia you cant go wrong.

Actually you could go very wrong. There has been well documented problems with some of the more recent ones.

Official Sony Bravia LCD Uneven Backlight/Cloudy Thread - AVS Forum

 

[00dave]

Games on the puss 3 look beautiful.

Lies, damn lies!!!

 

[nath]

I got myself a KDL-40W5710 (basically the JohnLewis/Sony exclusive of the KDL40-W5500 but with a different bezel). Got it for £700 and it's a great TV. I price matched Sony to Richer Sounds KDL40-W5500 (900 down to 800) then traded in a 14" CRT to get another 100 off it. The Sony website, however, claims that the offer expired yesterday so dunno if you can still do that.

People have been worried about backlight bleed and clouding, I've not noticed the former at all. There's a bit of clouding but it's *very* faint, almost to the point that you can only see it if you're not looking directly at it on a completely black screen. I've read that if it's much worse Sony will send an engineer round and swap the panel for you.

 

[old.user4556]

That's good to know nath, I need a TV to compliment the projector which although awesome is no use for bright daylight / joe average TV, but all that talk had me worried.

 

[Tom]

Don't choose the screen size on budget or quality; choose it on room size.

No point having a 50" telly if you're sat 12 feet from it.

 

[tris-]

LG PQ600042
give it 80-100 hours use and it really starts kicking in with the ownage.

 

[Zenith.UK]

I agree with Bodhi that Samsung image procesing does *something* odd to the picture. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but cartoony is as good a word as any. I once saw a bluray film being played at 1080P/24 and it was like the processing was enhancing edges too much to make the picture "hyperreal". It was actually distracting me from the film itself.

I personally like Toshiba screens. Not the entry level models but the more premium models with the extra gubbins and image processing.
Put it this way, this screen ticks all my boxes.
Toshiba 37XV635DB 37" 1080p LCD TV - Cheap Toshiba LCD TVs, Plasma TVs, HD Ready TVs
1080P/24, 100Hz, decent contrast and a built in system for upscaling SD content.
£528.43

 

[Trem]

Sharp Aquos tbfh.

I had one and had issues with it but oh my the picture was amazing for the price I paid. I had image retention issues but I think that may of just been my set up and me being way too fussy and not being arsed to mess with it.

 

[TdC]

Sharp Aquos tbfh.

I have this. Tis awesome tbh!

 

[Ch3tan]

Sharp Aquos tbfh.

I had one and had issues with it but oh my the picture was amazing for the price I paid. I had image retention issues but I think that may of just been my set up and me being way too fussy and not being arsed to mess with it.

At the time they were great, if I had to buy one again however I would have gone the Plasma route and spent more moula. Given your budget though, dave, you'll need to go the lcd route. As always you'll get user reviews over at avforums.com once you have a few models in mind.

 

[Cyradix]

I suggest you go to your local shop and just look at the screens.
It is all down to personal taste....
No matter what Bodhi says, I still prefer Samsung

 

[Jiggs]

Panasonic TXL37G10 :worthy:

If you can find any of the KRL Pioneers around they are dirt cheap now.