Samsung 19" LCD-TV, Widescreen, HD-ready - 342.64

viking

Argos have this LCD-TV in their current catalogue for €444.99, however as of yesterday a new in-store mini-catalogue has this listed as €374.99 (wall bracket can also be purchased for half the normal price - €17.49). Was pleasantly surprised to initially find out about the price drop to €374.99 when I rang to reserve the TV, I was further pleasantly surprised when I was only charged €342.64 at the till in Tullamore!

Not sure if there were further reductions that I wasn't aware of but it was very nice to find out that a TV I was happy to buy at €444.99 suddenly was reduced by €100 when I actually went to purchase it. Plus its a very very nice TV!

Santa Claus

The ring and reserve has it at 337.64 but I'm assuming there's a €5 recycling fund contribution which would bring it up to the price you paid.

Very tempted by this but can't find it on the Irish site or the ring & reserve and anyway the Samsung price is much better !

viking

Does the Ring and Reserve has different pricing for many items compared to catalogue pricing?

samo

Thanks for the link Viking, just reserved one of these, need something for the kitchen! came up as €337 for me inc recycler fee.

Santa Claus

Is this a HD tv? It says it in the Argos catalogue but I had a look at a display model in the Stephens green store but there was no mention of HD on the TV itself.

kaisersose77

its basically a pc monitor (any recent pc monitor would be able to hd id say? - correct me if im wrong) with the added benefit of being a tv aswell, it does 720p , got one for my bedroom and my xbox 360 looks great on it.

shreddedloops

What are the connections like on it? would you need a VGA cable to hook up an xbox 360?

butts

My Dad got one of these a couple of days ago. Works great as a computer monitor, but Sky through RGB scart was not so great. I compared directly against a Dell W2600 and on something like Tennis, there was noticeable blurring around the ball on the Samsung where as there was not on the Dell (I read on one forum that the Samsung does not have a digital comb filter). If your main use is PC and console and TV viewing is secondary then I think its good value. Over the next couple of days I may get to hook a DVD/PVR through component and see what TV recordings and DVDs look like.

BTW, I read on some forums that Intel integrated 82845G graphics chipset would not be able to run these type of monitors at 1440x900, but this resolution was available on an old Dell once the monitor had been hooked up.

Ruu_Old

Ta for the feedback there, butts.

deisemum

I've posted a link about this tv in the other thread LG 32" LCD TV as I've 2 of these reserved in Argos €337.64 including the recycling fee.

In that link it gives lots of specifications about this tv but most of it is beyond me.

Are they worth getting then as my main reason for getting them are for my 11 and 9 year old's bedrooms who'll be using it to watch tv or for their ps2.

If you happen to get the Argos christmas edition check out the XRocker chairs on page 43. They're compatible with X Box, PS2, PS3, Gamecube, Gameboy, IPod, MP3 player, CD player

Santa Claus

butts wrote:

My Dad got one of these a couple of days ago.

Does it have a remote ?

butts wrote:

I compared directly against a Dell W2600

I'm still kicking myself that I missed out on that deal....Never seen a 26" TV for anywhere near as cheap since !

viking

Santa Claus wrote:

Does it have a remote ?

It does indeed.

I'm no expert but its quite a nice TV, picture quality and brightness is very good.

deisemum

Thanks for that, I'm off to pick them up this morning.

CH3OH

I think it has gone up to 370 from today

viking

Don't forget that you can pick up the wall bracket for 1/2 price when purchasing this TV! (€17)

deisemum

CH3OH wrote:

I think it has gone up to 370 from today

Yep it's gone up :mad:

Santa Claus

deisemum wrote:

Yep it's gone up :mad:

Well I went in to Stephens green Argos and they had some on display that were still priced at 342 so I asked the girl in Customer service and she said that I could have it at 342.
I also rang & reserved 1 to check the price on ring & reserve so thats being kept till COB tomorrow so if anyone wants it PM me (you could say you rang and someone said you could have it at the 342....they might well give it to you)

butts

viking, were you watching TV via scart, or the built in analogue tuner. Try watching sport such as football where the camera pans quickly from side to side and the ball has rapid changes of direction. What you are looking out for is the picture becoming somewhat mushy whilst the camera or ball is moving. I had been thinking of getting one of these to replace my W2600 (takes up less space) but wouldn't after see what Sky looks like on it. Just wanted Sky users to know this so that they are not disappointed - I read of another Sky user with same opinion of this monitor.

deisemum

I was in my local sony shop this afternoon and was told that with HD ready tvs I need a sky box that costs €450, €250 if I subscribe to Sky which I don't. I'm with NTL so if I was to get the Samsung 19" LCD HD ready TV would I need to get this box, worse 2 of them as I plan on getting 2 tvs?

I thought santa would have a very easy job this year if he was only bringing tvs. :rolleyes:

viking

butts wrote:

viking, were you watching TV via scart, or the built in analogue tuner. Try watching sport such as football where the camera pans quickly from side to side and the ball has rapid changes of direction.

The scart socket is used up by the divx/dvd player (used mostly) and the sky box uses the aerial socket. Don't have sky sports on the sky box so can't comment on the football issues you mentioned just yet.

As I said, I'm no expert, but I'm very happy with the pictures I've seen on it so far especially DVD and Divx movies/tv shows.

@deisemum: You don't *have to* have a HD-ready sky box to use this TV but to get the best picture quality out of it at the moment, the expensive Sky boxes are the only option if you want to watch High Definition Television. I believe you can also get a HD-DVD player which will display excellent quality pictures from a HD-DVD disc however I don't think there are too many of those types of disc currently on the market.

Essentially, by buying a HD-ready TV now, you are future-proofing your TV for the technology that will be in use in the coming years.

deisemum

viking wrote:

@deisemum: You don't *have to* have a HD-ready sky box to use this TV but to get the best picture quality out of it at the moment, the expensive Sky boxes are the only option if you want to watch High Definition Television. I believe you can also get a HD-DVD player which will display excellent quality pictures from a HD-DVD disc however I don't think there are too many of those types of disc currently on the market.

Essentially, by buying a HD-ready TV now, you are future-proofing your TV for the technology that will be in use in the coming years.

Thanks for that. As you can see technology is not my strong point :rolleyes:

My understanding of the whole digital thing is that transmissions across europe will switch from analogue to digital in 2012 and that HD ready tv's will not need a box then whereas the non HD ready ones will.

After the bloke in the Sony shop told me I had to have one I thought I better check it out here as most of ye seem to know what yer on about.
€900 for two boxes on top of the cost of the 2 tvs would put me right off.:(

viking

deisemum wrote:

My understanding of the whole digital thing is that transmissions across europe will switch from analogue to digital in 2012 and that HD ready tv's will not need a box then whereas the non HD ready ones will.

The switch off from analogue to digital, I believe, refers to the national transmission network provided by RTE whereby you have those rabbit ears on the telly and spend a week trying to tune in a channel. Currently this transmission network is analogue and will be switched off in 2012 and replaced by a digital broadcast system instead. You will need a new box then to tune in the transmitted channels.

If you have Sky already then you are receiving a digital broadcast via satellite, this broadcast is not HD however as a new Sky HD box is required to receive HD broadcasts.

Hope that makes sense, there are some more informed souls on the Cable and Digital TV forums that might be able to help you further.

Niall06

Just to let you all know that this TV is in PC World Liffey Valley @ €349.

besty

Sweet! Think I might go for one of these! Any experiences?

Conar

Hey folks, I may be off the mark here but if these are the screens I'm thinking of then they're not actually HD ready.
You need to have a HDMI connection to be HD Ready and these may only have a VGA and DVI connecter.
Worth checking.

EDIT:
Just to add to that....it doesn't mean that the TV is crap, just means its not officially HD Ready. Can't connect the PS3 directly etc.

Kintarō Hattori

Conar wrote:

Hey folks, I may be off the mark here but if these are the screens I'm thinking of then they're not actually HD ready.
You need to have a HDMI connection to be HD Ready and these may only have a VGA and DVI connecter.
Worth checking.

EDIT:
Just to add to that....it doesn't mean that the TV is crap, just means its not officially HD Ready. Can't connect the PS3 directly etc.

A common misconception. Component, VGA and DVI will all do High Definition signals, and they'll all look superb. However HDMI is the only one to combine audio and video and it is the only one that will carry the very highest HD signal which is 1080P.

Conar

eo980 wrote:

A common misconception. Component, VGA and DVI will all do High Definition signals, and they'll all look superb. However HDMI is the only one to combine audio and video and it is the only one that will carry the very highest HD signal which is 1080P.

I knew DVI and VGA would do HD signals but I thought that you needed to have a HDMI connector to be classed "HD Ready".
I ran off to find the info to back up my claim but alas it seems you are right :mad:
I take it all back.

Just to make myself feel a little better though I went looking for flaws.
http://www.digiuk.com/productdetail.asp?id=7988&c=20061123203945653754&g=&m=29&ob=&d=&pg=1&mf=&mn=0&mx=20000&k2=&f1=&f2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f=1&t=63&ms=&k=&s=0&gt=
If this is the telly please note that it doesn't have component or HDMI connecters which mean that some home entertainment equipment won't be able to make use of it. ***EDIT*** without a HDMI to DVI adapter.
Also the viewing angle isn't great "Viewing Angle (H/V): 150°/130°".

For that price though its still a great tv.