Entertainment For Lively Minds
Help me to choose a TV please!
Posted by Patrick Crowther on 7 June 2009 - 1:11pm.
Hello there dear Massive... I am in need of some advice.
I want to buy a new television but the amount of choice out there is doing my head in. I'm looking for a 32 inch LCD television. I don't care about lots of fancy features although I'd like built in Freeview. Picture and sound quality are what matter to me. I want to spend £450 or less. I am currently leaning towards a Sony KDL-32S5500.
If any of you can help I'd be extremely grateful, especially if you know of a good bargain out there or have bought a TV you're really pleased with recently...
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What TV
I love my Samsung Series 6 LCD TV, 40 " screen. Does everything I need brilliantly. Had it 18 months.
For quality try Pioneer
I used to always buy Sony for consumer electronics - 10 years or so ago they were the best in terms of quality. But these days they seem to have lost it. Whether thats due to a move of manufacturing from Japan to China / Thailand or just the cut throat nature of Consumer Electronics - but I have not been impressed with anything from them in recent years.
These days I tend to always buy Pioneer - they seem to be up there in terms of technology and they still build their TV's at least in Japan. I have a Plasma TV, DVD, DVD-R from them and all have performed flawlessly.
One caveat though is that Pioneer are better at Plasma than LCD (although they have recently started to concentrate on LCD). From what I have seen, Samsung have come a long way over the past years - their models are both good in terms of quality and features.
At the end of the day though, go and look at in the shop - there is a lot of personnel preference on terms of colour balance (be careful though the shops do tend to turn the colours up to saturation to make them stand out). It also matters on the overall design - i.e. some have very bulky / ugly surrounds with the speakers, others hide them away.
btw - I do work in quality in the electronics industry and so do have some insight in that area (although I don't know the in and outs of each company so don't take it as gospel !)
It also depends...
...on the size of your room - I have a fairly big living room (he boasts) but anything larger than the 26" i've got would look over-size.
Its an H.D.ready jungle out there ....
I* went through the TV research thing recently.
Ended up paying about 600 for a Panasonic Viera* which I'm very pleased with.
Got mine at Richer Sounds* who seem to have the odd bargain, especially as models get upgraded, and they sell off the "older" version.Their web site has the one you're interested in for 399 (dont know what its like) , and a promising sounding LG one for the same price. As usual may be worth nudging your budget up a bit, in the long run.
* other shops/televisions/people talking bollocks are available.
new
We have a LG plasma Patrick which isnt the best. The picture quality is rubbish and I dont use any of the other gubbins on it,just tun it on and off. My friends swear by Samsung tvs though if thats any use
Get yerself a 25 year old Sony Trinitron
TV sets never got any better than that :-)
Sony KDL-32S5500
That's the one I have. It's awesome.
Hope that in depth detailed review helps.
What's it for?
You don't say what you want it for. If you want to watch any fast moving sport then you might be better off opting for the LG 32PG6000 plasma. I've yet to see any LCD set in your chosen price range that isn't really annoying to watch football on.
This is where I get confused...
with my old TV I could watch anything and it looked fine. I keep reading about something called 'motion blur' which just makes me think that modern TVs just aren't as good as the old ones. I want it for watching TV!
Cathode Ray rules
I'm clinging defiantly to my 10 year old CRT set, if only because archive British telly (at least the type recorded on videotape, whether that be Doctor Who, The Likely Lads or Top Of The Pops) never seems to look right on LCD or Plasma. Modern sets seem designed for the express purpose of watching Finding Nemo; when it comes to 60s or 70s stuff they appear to apply a milky filmised sheen, taking away the original immediacy, atmosphere and texture that was so much a part of the British cultural experience of television. Or have they licked this particular problem now? Is there, by chance, a handy That's How It Looked in The Old Days switch?
Can you still buy an old CRT TV?
I'd be tempted to do so if I could find one...
I'm waiting for OLED
Just go into John Lewis when there's football on and you'll be able to immediately work out which of the sets are plasma and which are LCD. If you watch mainly studio based programmes then you'll see very little difference. LCD sets fed directly from a Sky HD box look magnificent when they're lining up a free kick but when the kick is taken the ball aquires a "comet's tail". I believe Sony has almost kicked the problem into touch on it's new range but it's not available as a 32 inch set and if it was it would be very expensive. The basic problem is that the state of the individual LCDs can't change quickly enough to follow fast action so unless there's a breakthough there, it will never be solved and with OLED around the corner, which doesn't suffer the same problem, it's unlikely.
I'm very suspicious
of all of this HD Blu Ray malarky, in much the same way as I am about "remastered" versions of cds originally released a few years ago. As most of the TV and films I enjoy were made about 25 years ago, they can only do so much with the remastering. To me "The Godfather" is "The Godfather" whether it's on video, TV or DVD. In any case, you can't polish a turd, and no amount of HD specs is going to make a stinker of a modern movie or TV show any better. Watching "Lesbian Vampire Killers" is still going to make me want to kill myself, whether it's in Hi Def or ordinary DVD.
Besides, I watch most stuff on my ipod to be honest, as the missus doesn't often approve of my viewing tastes and, surprisingly, doesn't share my enthusiasm for watching every episode of "The Tomorrow People" back to back.
That's what I thought
Until I saw Dog Day Afternoon broadcast in HD the other day (I imagine as a Blu-Ray rip). Good grief. Who'd have thought? Seventies films were actually in sharp focus!
I laughed out loud..
..at some of the previous posts.
I have twice given up trying to get a decent LCD for my girlfriend. Her main critera is that "I don't want a shiny black one, I want a matt black one" - impossible task.
I am clinging onto my Panasonic CRT - great picture & sound, and even if I bought a flat screen it would still occupy the same corner, saving exactly 0cm's of space.
You can get a CRT TV that cost well over a grand 3/4 yrs ago - for a liitle over a hundred quid on ebay. No contest for me, but then again I don't really watch TV or DVD's. So no help here then !
I've always found richer sounds helpful and well
informed last time I bought an amp they actual had me spending less than I had intended on kit and I'm more than happy.
sound can be tricky in shops but the picture quality is what looks best to you don't worry about reviews. Having said I have philips portable 15 " (the same as amelia has in the film!) and I'm more than happy.
Its odd
but my wife prefers a 26" in the bedroom but a 32" in the living room - as long as it is Panasonic of course. I dont know whether you consider it to be the Bible but Which magazine gave its highest ratying to Panasonic in its last 2 reports on TV's.
I took the plunge a couple of months ago...
with a 37" Full-HD Panasonic LCD wuth all the trimmings. And I love it. Although their rep is built on their plasmas, Panasonic have quietly been moving into the LCD market recently and cleaning up. In a recent Which? test, this TV rated even above the equivalent Sony Bravia.
The 32" version - with identical technology - is here. A bit pricey, admittedly, but go and look at one and you'll probably be convinced it's worth the price tag.
What a coincidence, Archie!
After a day's research that is exactly the model I've decided to go for! I thought that it was probably worth stretching my budget a bit. And to make it better still, Currys are selling it for £599!
Thats the critter I bought as mentioned earlier...
good choice - worth the extra dosh IMHO.
Sorry mate...
I'd forgotten you'd mentioned it too. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions... much appreciated. It's truly a telly jungle out there...
Panasonic
Pretty fond of my own, which is a 32" Panasonic Full HD model bought last summer, so v similar if not same as the one you are all talking about.
Only two comments:
1. Remote is a pain, just not a v good action and not as good as the 28" CRT of theirs I had
2. Does anyone know anything about their video streaming technology, see
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/02/24/panasonic-viera-cast-on-demand-t...
and which sets support it ? (and how useful it would be ?).
to save me a load of mither....
.... does it have a shiny black gloss surround ? - I think the current term for such a finish is Piano Black or something like that ?
Indeed it does....but do not abandon hope
Follow this simple procedure:
1. Spray the glossy black surround with a Pledge-type product.
2. Don't wipe it or touch it. Just let the dust settle on it and stick there, like pollen on flypaper.
3. Voilà - in a few days, a lovely matt finish.
We're not alone
I have it on very good authority (a Twitter tweet), that someone with strong connections to Word Towers plumped for the same model too.
It wasn't me
But I also do have a Panasonic 42".
Samsung & LG TVs are perfectly well made, and good value for money, but the colour palette has been developed for South Korean tastes, and is slightly more garish, more cartoon-ish, than the Japanese or European brands. If you like that, fair enough, but I prefer something a little more natural. Panasonic do really good blacks, which may sound a little odd, but it makes a huge difference, because it lifts all the other colours.
Nod, Nod, Nod
which wasn't one of Cabaret Voltaire's gentler moments - but me agreeing with all Fraser says above about the above.
British Lions in Sky HD on said machine - nothing finer
Can I also echo the plug for Richer Sounds - particularly the branch below where there is a friendly chap called Sean who is the manager and is usually up for a bit of a wheel and deal especially if you are spending £500+.
Failing that John Lewis/Peter Jones are good. Personally, I would avoid Currys/Comet etc like the plague unless you like being sold useless additional breakdown cover by a 17 year old infrequent soap user with low technical knowledge and a vaguely threatening manner
Richer Sounds
29 Bloomsbury Way,
London, WC1A 2SL
TEL: 0207 831 2888
Or get John Lewis to price match Richer Sounds
...as they (or at least they used to when we bought ours) give you a free 5 year warranty. without the warranty factor, I'd have definitely bought from Richer sounds as they are cosistently both knowledgable and extremely helpful.
that's the branch of richer sounds
I bought my amp and speakers from and they are always good in there. A five year warranty (if you don't pay for it) is worth having I suppose.
I'd always buy that sort of electrical appliance
from John Lewis - when I've had problems, they've replaced them without question AND they offer their own free extended warranty
Panasonic Viera 32"
Was about to buy Sony (cos I always but Sony stuff, dunno why) until I was told by our local independent retailer that they were inferior to Panasonic, so that's wha I went for. Two years on, happy enough, though it's amazing how technology moves on and I believe it's pretty out of date. So carry on procrastinating - it'll be cheaper or better this time next year.
Panasonic Viera here too.
38" (I think) plasma. I've had it about a year and it was the smallest(and the only one under 42")plasma that could be bought then. I opted for it rather than an LCD TV because the picture was excellent when watched from any angle. This was necessary as the tv would be sitting in the corner of the living room.
I've got a cheapo (Tesco) 21" LCD TV in my bedroom which is fine provided I watch it head on. Viewed from an angle, the picture isn't nearly as good.
i bought one of
these recently and I bladdy love it. //advert ends//