Decision made - Q's about transport

delly

Ok, after much to and frowing(sp) I have at last decided on a new TV. It is a Philips 42PF5421 currently going for €2000 in DID, Harvey Norman and Power City. Has an 8ms response time and I'm happy with its picture output after seeing it with different inputs. Question is regarding the transport in my car, as I remember before reading that certain types of TV's need to be transported vertically but I think that this was regarding plasma's. As this is an LCD can anybody confirm that its ok to put it on its side. Paranoid I know, but best to be sure.

Also, which of the 3 retailers above would be best to deal with or is it a much of a muchness?

Cheers.

Idleater

delly wrote:

Also, which of the 3 retailers above would be best to deal with or is it a much of a muchness?

I have had good experience with DID, any "sales" person that I ever spoke to in there told me honestly about different things, but like you I had done my own research and picked a model that I wanted so all I was looking for was the best price (which ended up being Currys). HN would have the worst "sales" people in my experience and that only a shade above Powercity/PCworld/currys. These seemed more interested in making a sale and knew practically nothing about the different models.

As far as I am concerned if the sales staff answer the question "what is the difference between this sony and this samsung" by walking between the two comparing the specs written out on the sheet then I can do that myself thanks very much.

Did you ask if DID would deliver for free?

I bought a 26" LCD and it just fitted (vertically) when I put the seat down in a 626 so I doubt you will fit a 42" in a car. If you know a man with a van that would work (assuming DID don't deliver for free).

L.

delly

Thanks for the reply.

I reckon i'll give DID the sale then as they do seem to know there stuff. Also they say on there website that you can return an item if it is in a resalable condition. Happy enough with my choice as I am, you never know until you get home.

Also i've checked around and while its not recommended to transport horizontally, if taken gently it can be done. Have a VW Golf so i'll see if I can get it in somehow, as its a killer waiting on a new piece of kit when all those DVD's are waiting.

Idleater

delly wrote:

Have a VW Golf so i'll see if I can get it in somehow, as its a killer waiting on a new piece of kit when all those DVD's are waiting.

Hee hee! Indeed!

The TV would probably fit in without all the packaging. The amount of it is unreal!. Even horizontally I don't know if the packaging would fit in a car! I saw a Samsung 42" box when I was picking up mine and Id say it was something like 1.5m high.

I also went with an "actual" shop rather than online for the "just in case" factor but like you, did my research beforehand. I dont trust sales people as a rule because I find they are naturally biased towards any sale rather than the right sale but found DID best of the bunch.

L.

Vmaxer

I'm also looking for a Plasma/LCD at the moment and have looked at the spec of the Philips 42PF5421 online and it seems like a good decision, though this one is a Plasma and needs to be shipped verticaly, I hope DID can do a deal on delivering locally :rolleyes:

delly

Picked it up last night and my god was it a tight fit I had about an inch to spare. Took a couple of pictures using standard TV through the aerial and i'm very happy at the moment with the results. I'll give you an update in a few weeks when I get used to it.

Sparky

Nice little setup you have there delly.

I see you were also watching, There's something about Mary.

delly

Sparky-s wrote:

Nice little setup you have there delly.

I see you were also watching, There's something about Mary.

And i just bought the special edition DVD a couple of weeks back and all, but you can't help watching when its on TV.

My player is a Sony DAV-SR1 and has 700w of power, with the woofer being a 200w twin drive beast. All i need is a new stand and i'll be sorted.

Sparky

Nice load of power there.
Great for helicopter scenes and explosions.

Vmaxer

I went out this evening and bought the same 42" Philips and got it Home in the car aswell, Just about fit in a Carina E Hatch Back its when Ya get this baby Home You realise the size of it. Nice picture with DVD but a bit fuzzy with SKY, I will have to look into SKY HD to see its full potential. BTW DID have this TV listed as a plasma on their website, but I was happy to see it was a LCD got their last one aswell

Roll on Blue-Ray...

delly

Dubsmax wrote:

I went out this evening and bought the same 42" Philips and got it Home in the car aswell, Just about fit in a Carina E Hatch Back its when Ya get this baby Home You realise the size of it. Nice picture with DVD but a bit fuzzy with SKY, I will have to look into SKY HD to see its full potential. BTW DID have this TV listed as a plasma on their website, but I was happy to see it was a LCD got their last one aswell

Roll on Blue-Ray...

Good stuff, I find my Chorus digital a bit fuzzy as well whereas regular cable is grand.

Maybe you could do a test for me at some stage if possible, probably nothing but now that i've had some time to examine it in detail, I have noticed if the screen is black in a scene, then the black appears to be a small bit patchy in places which stays if the camera pans if you know what I mean. Simple way of testing is to go to Ext4 when the room is dark and the screen will go black, if you sit about 8 feet away you may notice what i'm talking about.

I'm presumming this is the case with all LCD's, but thought i'd check now in case its not.

Vmaxer

Delly, I see what You mean on EXT4 but only in the dark and I'd say all LCD's are the same.I also have a Dell w2600 26" in the Kitchen and it has terribe problems with dark scenes in Movies. I haven't found the refresh rate on any specs for this set but its far smoother than the Dell. All in all so far I'm very happy with it and haven't noticed any ghosting but as far as I know LCD's do have diffucilty with dark (black) detail.

delly

Dubsmax wrote:

Delly, I see what You mean on EXT4 but only in the dark and I'd say all LCD's are the same.I also have a Dell w2600 26" in the Kitchen and it has terribe problems with dark scenes in Movies. I haven't found the refresh rate on any specs for this set but its far smoother than the Dell. All in all so far I'm very happy with it and haven't noticed any ghosting but as far as I know LCD's do have diffucilty with dark (black) detail.

Thats what i was hoping you'd say as I was paranoid that I had held it wrong or strained it as I put the stand on, but its only an extreme thing which won't come up that often.

I was watching some DVD's yesterday and it really is the business, I never thought that the picture would be as big as it is, but it really is a good viewing experience.

Idleater

Is EXT4 Composite only?

or put another way, if you view the same black picture in the dark over component/dvi/hdmi do you get the same blotches?


Composite is almost the poorest video quality and that may account for distortion in the picture.

L.

Vmaxer

nereid wrote:

Is EXT4 Composite only?

or put another way, if you view the same black picture in the dark over component/dvi/hdmi do you get the same blotches?


Composite is almost the poorest video quality and that may account for distortion in the picture.

L.

I think EXT 4 is composite alright but looking at the same black picture on EXT 4 in the daylight I cant see any blotches as You call it, I'll try one of the HDMI inputs Tonight to see if there is a difference. What I can only discribe that is seen on a black screen at night is more like the surface of the LCD that may not be completly smooth but is not in any way noticable in light only in complete darkness. I agree with Delly putting the stand on this TV is tricky and You need at least 2 people and have to lay it flat on the ground.

Vmaxer

Delly, I sent You a PM read it as soon as You can.

ozmo

Dubsmax wrote:

Delly, I sent You a PM read it as soon as You can.

Guys - any further thoughts on this tv - Im tempted to get one.

Will be using it for NTL Digital, PC output and possible future xb360.

Interested in Picture quality - Ive noticed some lower cost Sonys even have lots of tracers.. little dots that follow people moving (in shops - sales guys all say they dont have tvs rigged up properly - how do they expect to sell them - I dunno?).

These are 720P Tv's - Should I wait for the 1080p tvs to come down in price?

Thoughts from anyone whos bought one/seen one?

delly

Well the tracers that they refer to is 'ghosting' when a TV is not quick enough to respond to a sudden change of picture, its true that all LCD/plasmas can suffer from it but depending on the specs it can be better or worse. The Philips I bought though is very good in this regard and I would recommend it.

Dubsmax has informed me that DID have reduced this TV to €1,700 for this weekend only and even better than that they gave him back €300 when he inquried about it. I also rang them today and there going to honour the new price for me as well so thats €300 back in the hand.

So in short, great TV at a great price, and DID have become my number one in terms of customer satisfaction .

ozmo

delly wrote:

Well the tracers that they refer to is 'ghosting' when a TV is not quick enough to respond to a sudden change of picture, its true that all LCD/plasmas can suffer from it but depending on the specs it can be better or worse. The Philips I bought though is very good in this regard and I would recommend it.

Dubsmax has informed me that DID have reduced this TV to €1,700 for this weekend only and even better than that they gave him back €300 when he inquried about it. I also rang them today and there going to honour the new price for me as well so thats €300 back in the hand.

So in short, great TV at a great price, and DID have become my number one in terms of customer satisfaction .

Also - Its 1500 now til Tuesday in Curreys and 1500 til Monday in PowerCity - didnt want to mention this... but seeing he got cash back - (fair play to them). Since my last post I got to see one workign - PowerCity in Coolmine put it on a good HD source for me.

Raiser

Hi All,

Can anyone please post a link or three to a review of this TV - I've been searching with no success :mad:

Also am I too late to take advantage of these price drops as posted here and on bargain alerts ???

Thanks,

Raiser.

delly

Raiser wrote:

Hi All,

Can anyone please post a link or three to a review of this TV - I've been searching with no success :mad:

Also am I too late to take advantage of these price drops as posted here and on bargain alerts ???

Thanks,

Raiser.

You won't find many reviews of this TV online, believe me i've looked.

In terms of the low price, most shops have sold out there current stock and therefore put the price back up to €2,000. Give it a week or two and you may be in luck again.

ozmo

delly wrote:

You won't find many reviews of this TV online, believe me i've looked.

In terms of the low price, most shops have sold out there current stock and therefore put the price back up to €2,000. Give it a week or two and you may be in luck again.

It did look very good - but PowerCity had it beside a 2100 euro 40" Samsung and a 2200 euro 40" Sony - and that for me took the shine off it a little. The other two (more expensive ones) I thought had slightly better colours.

So I left confused - 1500 for good 42" or 2100 for better quality smaller 40".
Also the 42" one showing in Currys was playing standard DVDs very very poorly (a consert and a cartoon) with lots of mpeg artifacts clearly visible.
The 32" Samsung beside it was showing same stuff - but much clearer with no artifacts.

Still deciding. IMHO Dont trust most internet reviews for tvs! All reviews seem to be written by ppl selling them.:(
You need to see the tvs for yourself.

delly

Of the 3 shops I saw it running, it looked the worst in Harvey Norman which was playing the 'Liar Liar' DVD. I played around with the settings and I did manage to get it looking a little better.

I was actually deciding between it and the Samsung and had made my decision before the price went from €2,300 to €2,000. In the end a number of factors influenced my decision including being a happy Philips TV owner for the third time, those extra 2" and just being happy with its picture.

Only managed to get back to DID last weekend to get that refund, and he gave me the full €500 :eek:. Turns out that when I rang the shop and talking to the girl, she never told the manager that I was looking for €300 and he just presumed that I knew it was €1,500. Happy days.

f1refox

Has anyone ran there pc on this LCD 42PF5421

delly

Can't say I have

zt-OctaviaN

Nice setup there delly well wear!! (psst get some cable ties )

Ozmo you could wait for more 1080p units Sony will be releasing the 2500 series next March which will replace the 2000 series currently available and released in June this year just gone!

The 2500 series will offer 1920x1080 native panel and will show 1080 content brilliantly.

One thing tho. There aint nothing in 1080p!! unless you definatly plan on gettin Blu Ray or HD-DVD units aswell.
You may possibly find than SOME existing panels 1366x768 will display current HD broadcasts a little better than SOME 1920x1080 panels (less scaling)

But I dont think that Video can get any higher in resolution for some time!
(yes weve heard of UHDV resolution but thats along way off)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_High_Definition_Video

personally Im waiting for the 2500 series and lower response times maybe mid next year Ill have a few pound saved for it and splash out!!

N

delly

zt-OctaviaN wrote:

Nice setup there delly well wear!! (psst get some cable ties )

If I had of left it like that, i'd be in big trouble . That was only a temporary setup while testing. I now have a new stand and have everything tied up (just about).

TheBeatMan

A friend of mine just told me the Philips 42" PF5421 Lcd Tv is going for €1599 in dixons Blanchardstown.I rang them and they told me the offer was on until next wednesday.It was previously selling for €1999 there according to the sales rep.I'd imagine the offer is for all Dixons stores but I didn't confirm that with them.There have been quite good reviews on this model.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/review/2006/11/18/Philips-42PF5421-42in-LCD-TV/p1

I was just wondering what the people who bought it a few months ago think of it now.I'm seriously thinking of heading to Dixons tomorrow to purchase one.Any info would be much appreciated !

delly

Wel i can sum it up in 3 words.....BUY BUY BUY. Seriously I am so happy with this TV that I've being letting anybody who even mentions buying a TV about it. It'll be the best few quid you'll spend for a long time.

Sparky

Yo delly. There is a sticky on the displays forum. Could you add your experience to it when you got your tv?


Btw, what's your setup like today?

delly

Sparky-s wrote:

Yo delly. There is a sticky on the displays forum. Could you add your experience to it when you got your tv?

Will do man.

Sparky-s wrote:

Btw, what's your setup like today?

Its just the business and i'm so glad I made the plunge. My DVD collection is edging towards the 200 mark and i'm near half watched at this stage, but finding i'm watching more since I got the TV. Currently enjoying season 1 of Battlestar Galactica and recent viewings included Star Wars 4, 5 and 6. Band of Brothers is due another viewing anytime soon.

Everything just plays better now .

TheBeatMan

Well I went ahead and bought the Philips PF5421.I went to Currys in blanch first and they quoted me €1599 and €200 for the matching cerano stand.I popped around to D.I.D and they said they were selling it for €1599 with an extra 5% off if I bought it that day which took it down to €1525.I went back to Currys and they price matched it and I also got another €50 off the stand so I paid €1675 for the T.V and stand.Delly was absolutely right beautiful looking set.the picture and sound are excellent.I watched The BBC Documentary Planet Earth last night and the picture quality blew me away.Thanks to Delly for the info and encouragement.The neighbours have been knocking on my door all day to have a look and they are impressed big time.

delly

Well done, you'll have a great Crimbo watching all the films.

Jip

I've the same T.V. and have a question about the composite (Ext 4) connection.
I have an xbox 360 hooked up this way and when you go to the instal menu the title is "HD Menu" but you cannot change the resolution settings. From reading the manual you can only do this on the HDMI channels.
So what's the story here, does the T.V. automatically detect the input or is Ext 4 not Hi-Def ?

delly

Jip wrote:

I've the same T.V. and have a question about the composite (Ext 4) connection.
I have an xbox 360 hooked up this way and when you go to the instal menu the title is "HD Menu" but you cannot change the resolution settings. From reading the manual you can only do this on the HDMI channels.
So what's the story here, does the T.V. automatically detect the input or is Ext 4 not Hi-Def ?

Only the HDMI is HD afaik.

Jip

Hmmmm, I see, the 360 looks great on it all the same, would love to see how much better the HD picture is.
Must pop over to AV forums to see if there's any work around, I've seen composite to DVI converters but none for composite to HDMI.

But it does say "HD Menu" in the instal title as opposed to "Menu" (or is it "T.V. Menu" ?) for the other connections such as the 2 scart ones.

Jip

Ok, Philips Customer Service rang me back regarding I query I raised on their website about this. The lad who rang was a helpful chap, even spotting that I got the details in my mail wrong, I said composite rather than component, something I'm always doing.

Anyway, the component does accept HD signals at the resolution that's supplied to the T.V., it's detected automatically unlike the HDMI inputs where you can manually change from 720p to 1080i etc.

When I first connected the xBox 360 I was messing around with the HD switch on the HD component cable. When I set to it regular T.V. the quality did drop as opposed to when it's set to HD T.V. so that does concur with what I was told over the phone.