Buying a new TV

Huggles

Hello

like the title says I am going to buy a new TV. I have a budget of 2000 and I am limiting myself to 32" (anything bigger than that is crazy!)

I am going for plasma or LCD.

I like the Philips Ambilight or the Sony Bravias...can't see to get a price for the Bravias online though.

Can anyone give me an idea of the price of the Bravias or a better brand?

Ideally I would like to get a stand included. I saw a 32" samsung with stand for 1599 yesterday....thats the kind of deal I am after.

Thanks in advance

mathias

Over on AVforums the general consensus is that the best three brands are ,

Samsung
Panasonic
Sharp

www.avforums.com

The latest bravias are apparently very good but last years models definitely were not , they looked great with HD content but were pretty bad with standard TV ( SD content ) and SD is about 95% of the stuff that you will watch.

All of these are pretty good , and there are plenty of 32" TV's for your budget.

Heres a site that should give you an idea of the prices to expect , online sites are generally something like 100 to 200 cheaper than a high street shop .

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10616

Watch out for the connections on the TV , nowadays there should be at least one HDMI connection , preferably 2 , this is what all the new satellite boxes , DVD players , and games consoles are using to connect.

There should also be a component video input , good for Xbox's and some DVD players if they dont have HDMI

and make sure there is audio connections for in as well as out.

That should get you started , good luck.

Huggles

Fantastic thanks!

Cooee

this isn't technical "advice" it's just a general comment on screen size. The general consensus is that no-one ever regrets getting a bigger screen i.e. > 32". But lots regret getting a "small" screen.

Just yesterday while browsing harvey Normans I herad a girl comment to her mother that her 42" TV is looking small and she is thinking of getting a 50 or 55".

It funny how after a while that 42" TV just looks very ordinary....so be sure before making that spend.

Huggles

Nah honestly, for the room and seating arrangement 32" is plenty big! I have a 28 at the moment and it looks massive!

xabi

Is it just me or is the quality of CRT TVs far superior to LCD and Plasma. I have yet to see a flat panel out perform my 6 year old 32" Panasonic. I would love a flat panel for the space saving aspect, but am put off by the picture quality. watching soccer is fine until you get a pause in the action for analysis, then you get the 'shadows' aroung the players. Cant beat CRT in my opinion.

X.

mburke

Quote "The latest bravias are apparently very good but last years models definitely were not , they looked great with HD content but were pretty bad with standard TV ( SD content ) and SD is about 95% of the stuff that you will watch."


This may seem like a stupid question but how do I easily find out what is last years model verus this year.

I saw the Sony Bravia 32" V series on Komplett for 1549 and reckon that is a good price but is it last years model ?

madds

I'm also in the market for a new TV, and have been looking at getting a 40" Bravia, and came to this forum to ask if anyone has bought one of these yet....then I found this thread.

I found this Bravia review...pretty detailed....http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=61818

This is the cheapest site I've found...€2,100 for a 40"...
http://www.cheapelectricals.co.uk/acatalog/Sony_40__LCD.html

Thanks for the AVForums link Mathias.

Cooee

I'll stand over my "bigger is better" statement, mark my words ....but on to buying...

If you want to buy online I would recommend looking at the following sites to get started on pricing....

www.pixmania.ie
www.richersounds.ie
www.technikdirekt.de
www.katronics.de
www.komplett.ie

And there are a lots more but these seem to be the most used and discussed with solid trading histories and lots of satisfied (and some dissatidfied :cool: ) Irish customers.

The German places have had some threads discussing them on boards.ie and on avforums.com if you want to search..........

And yeah for normal Standard Definition (SD) TV broadcasts plasma/lcd will struggle to produce a picture up to CRT levels of quality. Once you go into the HD world (currently a very small world, Vatican City sized to be honest!) then the plasmaa/lcds come into their own.

mathias

Is it just me or is the quality of CRT TVs far superior to LCD and Plasma. I have yet to see a flat panel out perform my 6 year old 32" Panasonic. I would love a flat panel for the space saving aspect, but am put off by the picture quality. watching soccer is fine until you get a pause in the action for analysis, then you get the 'shadows' aroung the players. Cant beat CRT in my opinion.

The above is very true for a lot of LCD /Plasma brands , thats why its important to stick to the main players , Some of the cheaper brands have terrible pictures over scart and take a lot of setting up and tearing of hair etc.

But all the main players as mentioned above have the technology cracked and have pictures as good as or better than CRT over Scart. And once you go all digital over HDMI they all wipe the floor with a CRT.
Same goes for DVD's over component.

neacy69

reduced price tv's in argos here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=52278755#post52278755

mathias

That Argos stuff is a bad product and is misadvertised , the only connections are 2 scart , a VGA , and a component in.

While this can show HD stuff , its not strictly speaking a HD ready TV as for that to be the case you need a HDCP compliant connection , .....so that would mean it should have a DVI or HDMI connection.

Big tip when shopping for LCD/Plasma , you need to see the connectors , it needs to have HDMI/DVI , component , scart and audio for it to be any good.
Otherwise its a waste of money.

byte

mburke wrote:

Quote "The latest bravias are apparently very good but last years models definitely were not , they looked great with HD content but were pretty bad with standard TV ( SD content ) and SD is about 95% of the stuff that you will watch."


This may seem like a stupid question but how do I easily find out what is last years model verus this year.

I saw the Sony Bravia 32" V series on Komplett for 1549 and reckon that is a good price but is it last years model ?

AFAIK, the 32S2030 has replaced the 32S2010.

There are 3 main versions. Their cheaper U series, the middle of the road model S series, and then their high end V series.

The U series does not seem to have the "Bravia Engine" and the V series has some fancy cold cathode lighting to make pictures brighter.

Might be an idea to check their website for full specs on each variant.

greeta

mathias wrote:

The above is very true for a lot of LCD /Plasma brands , thats why its important to stick to the main players , Some of the cheaper brands have terrible pictures over scart and take a lot of setting up and tearing of hair etc.

But all the main players as mentioned above have the technology cracked and have pictures as good as or better than CRT over Scart. And once you go all digital over HDMI they all wipe the floor with a CRT.
Same goes for DVD's over component.

Will my new Nordmende 32" LCD have a better picture if I go digital, I am using standard basic now and when I use a scart and HDMI connectors a lot of noise comes into the picture.

mossym

mathias wrote:

The above is very true for a lot of LCD /Plasma brands , thats why its important to stick to the main players , Some of the cheaper brands have terrible pictures over scart and take a lot of setting up and tearing of hair etc.

But all the main players as mentioned above have the technology cracked and have pictures as good as or better than CRT over Scart. And once you go all digital over HDMI they all wipe the floor with a CRT.
Same goes for DVD's over component.

definitely wouldn't agree there..a hd crt will look every bit as good, and better than an lcd or plasma. It has little or none of the problems that plague the new technologies..and has black levels they can only dream of. The new technologies might be getting to where crt is, but in no way are they wiping the floor with crts. you can get crts with digital inputs as well.

byte

mossym wrote:

definitely wouldn't agree there..a hd crt will look every bit as good, and better than an lcd or plasma. It has little or none of the problems that plague the new technologies..and has black levels they can only dream of. The new technologies might be getting to where crt is, but in no way are they wiping the floor with crts. you can get crts with digital inputs as well.

Except CRT choice is rather limited in todays marketplace.

I know of the HD Ready Samsung SlimFit, are there others of note?

mossym

don't sony have a new slim fit crt as well? i'll do a search, but maybe it wasone of the american magazines i get i saw it in...


unfortunately crt choice is very slim. The nature of the guns in the crt is that for a big screen they need to be a distance from the screen...so that makes them big...

what i was arguing was the comment that the flat panels were wiping the floor with them..simply not true. hell only for the fact that my new house has a room designed for a projector i'd be keeping my 48" crt hdtv..brought back from the states though it may be, if i wasn't tripling screen size i'd have no reason to get rid of it

byte

Indeed, maybe Sony have still CRT's for sale in USA, but not in Europe anymore. I did see one household with a massive Sony CRT (4:3) set and it was the business with great sound to boot. He imported it from USA. No such models were available over here. Selection here was always dire in relation to US and Japan.

speedfreak

hey, i'm also in the market for a new TV and tbh my head is wrecked with all the decisions to be made and choice of screens! As mentioned above AVforums is a wealth of info but sometimes too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. If you are in the market for a 32" specifically the Bravia 32V2000 is the one by all accounts. (what HIFI TV of the yr in that category). Its small enough not to show the flaws in SD TV and colours and blacks are superb by all accounts. LCD is also the one to go for if you plan on using gaming consoles. So it gets my vote! Personally I'm looking at the 40W or 46W havent decided on size yet...

Kur4mA

Wahey! I just posted about the Sony Bravia kdl-32V2000 in another thread and I'm happy to see yet another vote for it. I bought mine from Komplett and it is currently on it's way so I really can't wait to see what all the fuss is about.

*EDIT* This is the best review I've seen of this TV and if you have a read of it you will see exactly what all the fuss is about.

mossym

nice review, but i cannot understand any tv manufacturer only putting digital input on a tv these days...it's ridiculous..sony aren't the only manufacturer doing it, but they should all realise their mistake

Gurgle

TheGooner wrote:

like the title says I am going to buy a new TV. I have a budget of 2000 and I am limiting myself to 32" (anything bigger than that is crazy!)

I am going for plasma or LCD.

Pity you're hooked on plasma/LCD, 2k would buy you 6 Beko 32" Widescreen Flat-CRTs.:D

But I guess everyone has to find a way of burning their money.

speedfreak

the ONLY thing is that there is a newer version out either in Nov or Jan (32V2500) which will add another HDMI port which may or may not be important to you

bazpaul

This TV is definitely worth checkin out!