TV request from a newbie...

Tipperarymike

Hi all,

The title is a bit misleading in that I am not new to tvs just new to buying one. My wife and I moved in to our new house before Christmas and we thought we might survive for a while longer without a tv but we only made it to Jan 14. We haven't the faintest clue about anything in this area and naturally I landed on boards to solve the mysteries and ended up here then.

We measured the sitting room this evening and the couch is about 9-10 ft back from the wall the tv would be mounted on so I guess a 32" model would be plenty for what we want. Things are pretty tight right now so we can't afford to go too wild on price. We won't have Sky but hope to get that free to air thing set up, I am sure there is a more technical name for it than free to air thing. I see lads posting about MPEG 4 , Saorview and lots of other stuff I have no idea about, so I guess I might need that too.

Could you point me in the right direction or budget or basically any move that would see us spending less time reading in the sitting room and more time watching an auld bit of telly.

Thanks for your time

Mike

Richersounds.ie: John

Tipperarymike wrote: »

Hi all,

The title is a bit misleading in that I am not new to tvs just new to buying one. My wife and I moved in to our new house before Christmas and we thought we might survive for a while longer without a tv but we only made it to Jan 14. We haven't the faintest clue about anything in this area and naturally I landed on boards to solve the mysteries and ended up here then.

We measured the sitting room this evening and the couch is about 9-10 ft back from the wall the tv would be mounted on so I guess a 32" model would be plenty for what we want. Things are pretty tight right now so we can't afford to go too wild on price. We won't have Sky but hope to get that free to air thing set up, I am sure there is a more technical name for it than free to air thing. I see lads posting about MPEG 4 , Saorview and lots of other stuff I have no idea about, so I guess I might need that too.

Could you point me in the right direction or budget or basically any move that would see us spending less time reading in the sitting room and more time watching an auld bit of telly.

Thanks for your time

Mike

Mike,

Thanks a million for the post & for the opportunity to quote .

You moved in before Christmas and you survived until the 14th Jan with no TV??????? Well done - must be newly married!!:D:D

I know that there are lots of technical terms flying around - and it really can be confusing - but what I would look for are these features 1st & foremost:

MPEG 4 (If you are in the ROI this will become important over the next couple of years)

HD ready or even better Full HD - if you opt for Full HD this means that your TV is ready to display full 1080p high definition.

50/100Hz - If you are into sports or gaming I would try to stretch to a 100Hz TV as the movement on a 100Hz TV will generally be smoother on a 100Hz model.

LCD/LED - Another term that appears designed to confuse - I would generally opt for an LED - as generally the LED will use less energy and produce a better picture - however do be careful with this one as the picture quality on a decent LCD can frequently be better than on a budget LED.

Sound Quality - The sound is at least 50% of the picture - I know that sound crazy but it really is true - we very recently sold a brand new 55"+ LED TV to a Customer - the picture quality was amazing - it was wafer thin but it was going into quite a large room and the audio quality was really poor and did not reflect the excellent picture quality at all - really do look out for a model that has reasonable audio quality!

These are probably the top 5 things I would look out for (don't post giving out to me - I know there are 100's of other issues that are important as well!)

If you are looking for a deal I have an excellent 32" Demo model to clear:


LG 32LD690 - £389.95 - Full HD / 100Hz / Net cast / Freeview HD / MPEG4
http://www.richersounds.com/product/...690/lg-32ld690

Alternatively we do have the New Sharp LC32SH7 available from stock at £269.95 which is a great budget option or the Philips 32PFL5405 which is Full HD/ 100hz and MPEG4 at just £344.95 http://download.p4c.philips.com/files/3/32pfl5405h_05/32pfl5405h_05_pss_eng.pdf

Apologies for being so longwinded but it's an interesting query and I wanted to give it a bit of thought!

Thanks again and keep me posted if we can assist or even better if we can set something aside for you!

ATB,

John Mc & Crew

Tipperarymike

Hi John,

Thanks a mill for the very great detail in which you went in to for a reply. In a way I am more confused, don't know which one to choose, but in another way I know a lot more than I did at 4am this morning when I originally posted!

The link to the LG didn't work but I will have a root around on yer site for it anyway. You raise one interesting issue though, our sitting room is around 28ft high, so I guess sound quality is a bigger factor than I had though. Granted we will be sitting less than 10ft from the TV but do you think that extra high ceiling presents a sound issue? If so , what should we opt for? I would also need a wall bracket for whatever TV we buy as the sockets and TV outlets are about 6ft off the ground, not sure why we did that at the time but I think it sounded like a good idea.

Michael

Richersounds.ie: John

Tipperarymike wrote: »

Hi John,

Thanks a mill for the very great detail in which you went in to for a reply. In a way I am more confused, don't know which one to choose, but in another way I know a lot more than I did at 4am this morning when I originally posted!

The link to the LG didn't work but I will have a root around on yer site for it anyway. You raise one interesting issue though, our sitting room is around 28ft high, so I guess sound quality is a bigger factor than I had though. Granted we will be sitting less than 10ft from the TV but do you think that extra high ceiling presents a sound issue? If so , what should we opt for? I would also need a wall bracket for whatever TV we buy as the sockets and TV outlets are about 6ft off the ground, not sure why we did that at the time but I think it sounded like a good idea.

Michael

Michael,

http://www.lg.com/uk/tv-audio-video/televisions/LG-lcd-tv-32LD690.jsp

Apologies for the delay getting back to you - there is a working link for the 32LD690 - apologies for the earlier one!

..mmm yes high ceilings can be a nightmare for audio quality especially when matched with hard floors (ie timber or tile) and require a decent audio system in the TV or preferably a separate sound system or sound bar to reinforce the audio.

If it was me I would go for the 32LD690 or the Philips 32PFL5405h which is an excellent Full HD LCD TV with 100Hz and great audio quality with a 2.1 system with 40 W quasi surround sound (2 x 10 W RMS plus virtual 20 W)
http://download.p4c.philips.com/files/3/32pfl5405h_12/32pfl5405h_12_pss_eng.pdf - and we can do that at just £349.95

Keep me posted and again apologies for the delay getting back to you!

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

Tipperarymike

Hi again John,

No bother re the "slow" reply, you lads seem to be pretty busy and this thing is all about quality not quantity!

I was in Newcastle yesterday and happened across two of the models you mentioned to me on the high street over there. I was a little wary of the 32" as it seemed "small" for the viewing distance we will be sitting at. Then by chance I happened to be in Limerick today, the wife sneaked out of work for a few mins, and we had a scope around a couple of TV stores. We came to the conclusion that 32" is not ideal for the sitting room. We are thinking now of a 37" instead but then issue then becomes that these might be outside of our budget for right now.

The sound issue is certainly going to be a concern when you mention hard flooring as an issue, we have slate flooring in the sitting room and as well as that we have a fair bit of glass in the sitting room as well. I see other lads on here talking about sound systems etc but again that is something I know nothing of.

I will pm you, I assume that is ok, to trash this out a bit further.

Thanks again,

Michael