Best 26" TV of these choices

shnaek

I am trying to decide between these TVs. Any ideas which is best?

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/166075/art/toshiba/27wl54g-16-19-27-hd-ready.html

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/99556/art/samsung/le26r51-hd-ready-16-9-26.html

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/266182/art/sharp/lcd-16-9-26-66-cm-aquos-l.html

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314486 - Samsung 27" LCD-TV LE27T51B

I am leaning towards the samsung le26r51 - it seems to get the best reviews. The Toshiba gets good reviews too. Damn it -why so hard to decide!!

Idleater

shnaek wrote:

I am leaning towards the samsung le26r51 - it seems to get the best reviews. The Toshiba gets good reviews too. Damn it -why so hard to decide!!

depends, but the LG lx2r has better connectivity, contrast and brightness. HDMI and DVI.

L.

shnaek

nereid wrote:

depends, but the LG lx2r has better connectivity, contrast and brightness. HDMI and DVI.

L.

It looks good, but how reliable are LG?

bucks73

Personally I am going to wait till sets with 2 hdmis come down in price a bit more. If its not too pricey have a look at this one:

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/313174/art/panasonic/lcd-television-16-9-26-66.html

Idleater

bucks73 wrote:

Personally I am going to wait till sets with 2 hdmis come down in price a bit more.

erm, since DVI and HDMI are interchangable directly, such tv sets are currently available. The LG that I linked to has both.

The only difference being that hdmi can carry sound (L/R Audio) and that depending on source and or destination devices. At that, you are relying on the TV set speakers which generally are not the best, and most people would be using an external amplifier and surround sound speakers.

Shnaek, I find the LG perfectly reliable (had one since the new year). The picture is excelent with NTL analogue and digital and I have tried out a friend's 360 on it and it is superb.

L.

bucks73

nereid wrote:

erm, since DVI and HDMI are interchangable directly, such tv sets are currently available. The LG that I linked to has both.
L.

erm, and what if you want to connect Sky HD, Xbox 360, PC and a HD DVD player when they come out? 2 HDMIs, 1 DVI and 1 Component please.

Idleater

bucks73 wrote:

erm, and what if you want to connect Sky HD, Xbox 360, PC and a HD DVD player when they come out? 2 HDMIs, 1 DVI and 1 Component please.

Use an amplifier like one of these, and/or a HDMI switcher perhaps???

Like I said in my post above, most people would agree that using a seperate AV amplifier to switch sources is a good upgrade because the sound and connectivity on the tv itself either is not sufficient or the cabling is messy.

L.

shortys94

I have never heard of, or used pix mania before, are they reliable? Reputable?

How do they ship their goods, courier?

andy1249

DVI and HDMI are directly interchangeable for video only , there is no audio on DVI , so unless you have an external amp and speakers then a DVI TV is not for you.
For Pictures and sound you must have HDMI.

On that Komplett link for the samsung it says that DVI is HDCP compliant , this is misleading , its compliant in the sense that it wont play HDCP content , DVI does not support HDCP , only HDMI does that !!

Having said that , Komplett are excellent to deal with in my experience , I have bought lots of stuff off them , including My Panasonic LCD and have no complaints , except for the fact that sometimes their descriptions are misleading , there are other threads in this forum about that , see the one about the HDTV compatible LCD !

Idleater

andy1249 wrote:

DVI and HDMI are directly interchangeable for video only , there is no audio on DVI , so unless you have an external amp and speakers then a DVI TV is not for you.
For Pictures and sound you must have HDMI.

Wrong. HDMI and DVI are directly interchangeable.
However, you are correct in that DVI does not carry sound.

However, again, the sound carried by HDMI is only stereo, and the TV is only capable of decoding and transmitting Stereo, so there is little point in a fancy HD LCD with stereo sound from your 7.1 DVD now is there???

An amp is going to be used by pretty much everyone to get the most out of their LCD tv.

andy1249 wrote:

On that Komplett link for the samsung it says that DVI is HDCP compliant , this is misleading , its compliant in the sense that it wont play HDCP content , DVI does not support HDCP , only HDMI does that !!

Wrong again. DVI does support HDCP (see here). In fact there is no obligation on HDMI to support HDCP. In fact, the whole HD Ready specifications just say that a HD Ready screen must support one of HDMI or DVI and must support HDCP over one input.

L.

j4vier

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/99556/art/samsung/le26r51-hd-ready-16-9-26.html

just one question about this tv..
it says that no dvi is present which for me is a problem since i wanted to use
it as a pc monitor as well and my graphics card has only 2 dvi ports,
but it also mentions a PC conncetion (D-Sub.15)
is that a vga cable or what?
does that mean i can use a dvi to vga cable to use it as a pc monitor?

shortys94

have alot of you used pixmania? are they a good company?

Idleater

j4vier wrote:

just one question about this tv..
...
is that a vga cable or what?
does that mean i can use a dvi to vga cable to use it as a pc monitor?

Yes.

Just read the instruction manual/specifications (online before you buy) to make sure what resolutions are supported via the VGA/computer port. The reason I say is because I remember something about some of them only supporting a max resolution of 1024x768 (ie non widescreen) with two black bars down the sides.

L.

j4vier

Resolution (horizontal x vertical - in pixels) 1366 x 768
thats referred for the samsung lcd previously mentioned
will that be alright would u say?

shnaek

shortys94 wrote:

I have never heard of, or used pix mania before, are they reliable? Reputable?

How do they ship their goods, courier?

You hear good and bad reviews of them. I have used them once before and had no problems. They ship by courier.