Looking for New TV advice

Needatv

Good evening

Apologies if the following post is in the wrong forum – if so moderators please move. I am a long time viewer of boards but first time I decided to post. I am looking for some advice on buying a new TV which I hope to do this weekend.
My current TV is ancient and on its last legs – the new TV is for the sitting room and is to be stand mounted. My budget is in or around €800 but the more under that amount the better! I am interested in a 40 inch + and for no other reason as they seem to look clearer I am leaning towards the LED.

Have you any advice what I should ensure that the TV does / has included? It will be used for general TV viewing, DVD and Wii use – but would like it to be as future proof in the medium term as possible e.g. also thinking of getting PS3.
My questions are

1) Is there a minimum Hz rate I should go for sports?
2) I would like to use Netflix on TV and ideally would like a “smart” tv – does smart functionality work in Ireland?
3) Should I ensure that it is 1080 P and HD ready or do these matter ?
4) Do all TVs have free view as well as saorview installed or is there a particular specification that lets you know it can pick up free view
5) The following looks like a good deal
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10542591/art/samsung/ue40d6500-3d-led-televisi.html
has anyone had experience of buying a tv from these guys? Am I correct in assuming that soarview wouldn’t work on above?

I will probably not be brave enough to order online so will be looking at the weekend at a variety of shops but any help will be much appreciated for my discussions with the sales staff this weekend
6)Should I forget the marketing of smart TV and save some money and buy something like a Hanspree instead which saves €€€s?

Again thanks for any assistance

Tea 1000

Most new TV's should be able to receive the Saorview channels now. The shop will confirm this anyway to you. There's plenty of info on Saorview in the Terrestrial forum. FreeView is different, that's the UK equivalent of Saorview. You can only get that over in the UK. What you might be thinking of is FreeSat, which is the Satellite version. Strictly speaking, a TV maker can only advertise a set with FreeSat built in and sell it in the UK, so not many make it to these shores with FreeSat on them.
Most new TV's from Samsung, Sony, Panasonic etc are Smart TV's now, they're handy to have but not vitally essential. There'll always be a box or device for under the TV in the future if you're worried about future compatibility.
Full HD or 1080p is pretty much standard now on that size screen, and does make a difference. Plenty of good deals frequently come up in the RicherSounds forum, the Philips Shop is represented in there too. Worth a look there anyway.

Needatv

Hi Tea1000
Thanks a million for your reply and advice . It was very helpful. I will check out the forums you mentioned. Should have mentioned I live near the north so was hoping could pick up freeview which think I can.

Apologies for idiotic questions but I am completely lost when ready the tv specs

Thanks

Tea 1000

Needatv wrote: »

Hi Tea1000
Thanks a million for your reply and advice . It was very helpful. I will check out the forums you mentioned. Should have mentioned I live near the north so was hoping could pick up freeview which think I can.

Apologies for idiotic questions but I am completely lost when ready the tv specs

Thanks

Oh that's a benefit alright if you live near the North. Provided you're house is not in a fairly deep valley there's every chance you should be able to pick up both free to air terrestrial signals. The Saorview one is fussier, basically it needs the TV to able to decode an MPEG4 signal. The Freeview signal is around a little longer, so they're using an older MPEG2 encoding, so basically if your TV has MPEG4 capabilities it will definitely be MPEG2 compatible. I'm not 100% sure if the FreeView signal has changed recently, but the guys in the Terrestrial forum would know and also the guys in Richer Sounds would know what the TV they're selling is capable of.
There are a few terms alright regarding TV's that aren't familiar ones to most people. The main ones would be:
Resolution. This used to be a little easier to see, HD Ready was generally used when the TV could display up to 720p and 1080i. Then Full HD was the term used when the TV could display 1080p. (p is better than i, stands for progressive, and i for interlaced... progressive means it's building the picture on the screen one line at a time in sequence, interlaced means it's doing every second line, the even lines in the first pass and the odd lines in the second pass). Recently though the "Full HD" term seems to have gone, and they're all HD Ready, but the 1080p will be written under that logo for those TV's. Basically trust the actual spec sheet of the TV rather than the sticker!
Signal. Basically your TV will have a tuner at the back like all TV's have had since the beginning, but you need to look for MPEG4 in the specs, or ask the shop is it MPEG4 compatible. That will ensure you'll be able to receive the Saorview channels.
Contrast Ratio. This is a term used to compare a TV's brightest part of the picture versus the darkest part of the picture at the same time. It's used to determine how good the TV is at displaying dark scenes with good detail. The higher the number the better, but don't get too hung up on it as the way the ratio is measured is not always equal, so a better score may not mean a better picture. Plasmas are currently best for this, LCD's worst and LED-backlit in the middle.
Refresh Rate. This is measured in Hz. It's the number of times the TV can refresh the screen. Our TV signal over here is broadcast at 25 frames per second, so most TV's are 50Hz. 100Hz is better, as the TV is refreshing the picture twice as quickly, reducing the flicker effect that you may see. Anything above that is hard to quantify because different TV manufacturers use different processing rates to get different results. You'll see TV's boasting 400Hz and 600Hz, but they're not quite as straight forward as you might think. So basically 100Hz is an ideal minimum, and take anything above that as possibly a bonus, but depends on the set after that.

Zonda999

OP, like you've already said, the samsung series 6 LED sets do look to suit all your needs, ans saorview would definitely work on that set, remember pixmania is based in France where they use the same system as our saorview. As to whether you should order off them, i can;t really say, i've bought off them before and had no issues but plenty people here on boards would. You can certainly put a price on the hassle there is getting something big and delicate, like a tv from an online retailer. I see that tv you linked to is €900 in power city, so not a lot in it. That set will handle netflix fine btw

Why do you say you'd prefer LED by the way, if its the power consumption thing, remember plasma sets are a lot better now than they used to be.

The question as to whether you'd be better off getting a far cheaper set and just using a media player or something for netflix is a tricky one, make sure you know what you're doing and how the costs stack up. Its certainly less hassle going for a tv with it built in but theres more to it that just the cost of the tv, remember practically none of these tvs have wifi built in, so you're stuck either wiring a ethernet cable to the set of getting the manufacturers proprietary wifi adapter, which are at least another 50€ by the way

Needatv

Tea 1000 thanks again (new to this boards posting so when I figure out how to thank a post i will ! ) . The info you provided explains to the newbie like me what the specs mean and what I should look out for. Not in valley so hoping I'll be ok.
The "trust the actual spec sheet" is something I'll definitely look out for as well as the 1080p. On your advise at least feel a bit more confident dealing with sales staff !
Hi zonda99, Thanks for your post also. Yes what you have said is also a concern for myself - (ordering online such a delicate item , what if there is an issue how do you return etc ). That is why I will more than likely buy in shop and if extra € needed then so be it for peace of mind. Your link to power city is much appreciated.
To be honest with you the only reason I was drawn to LED is that when I viewed display models when in electronic shops I seemed to find them "clearer/brighter" when looking at them. Dunno whether this is just my eyes !! The plasma's didn't seem to me to be as clear. I would never have thought of the power usage at all !!
Thanks for your point on the wifi adapter , I had assumed that For example on the power city tv that when it said wifi enabled that that adapter / dongle was included
Thanks again

Tea 1000

Needatv wrote: »

Tea 1000 thanks again (new to this boards posting so when I figure out how to thank a post i will ! ) . The info you provided explains to the newbie like me what the specs mean and what I should look out for. Not in valley so hoping I'll be ok.
The "trust the actual spec sheet" is something I'll definitely look out for as well as the 1080p. On your advise at least feel a bit more confident dealing with sales staff !
Hi zonda99, Thanks for your post also. Yes what you have said is also a concern for myself - (ordering online such a delicate item , what if there is an issue how do you return etc ). That is why I will more than likely buy in shop and if extra € needed then so be it for peace of mind. Your link to power city is much appreciated.
To be honest with you the only reason I was drawn to LED is that when I viewed display models when in electronic shops I seemed to find them "clearer/brighter" when looking at them. Dunno whether this is just my eyes !! The plasma's didn't seem to me to be as clear. I would never have thought of the power usage at all !!
Thanks for your point on the wifi adapter , I had assumed that For example on the power city tv that when it said wifi enabled that that adapter / dongle was included
Thanks again

Actually, it should be noted that the absolute worst place to view a plasma is in a store, they're really undersold in there. Different ball game in your sitting room though.
I find www.trustedreviews.com quite a good site for TV reviews if you want to find out more about TV's that take your interest, they give you a general low down on the performance and the pro's and cons. Some cons would put some people off but not others so you may find that what they're criticising a TV for you may not be bothered by. The reason I'd direct you to a site like that is because it's hard to judge TV's properly in shops. Some look much better than others, but when they're at home it's a different ball game.
The bright side is that most TV's are very good now. You really had to know what to look for even as recently as 2 years ago before you'd get a good one for your money, now it's just a case of picking a budget and either landing home with at worst a fairly good one or at best a great one!

Needatv

Tea 1000 thanks a million for all of your support on this - your advice has been invaluable.
I am going shopping this weekend a lot more confident

Thanks

Akrasia

Needatv wrote: »

Tea 1000 thanks a million for all of your support on this - your advice has been invaluable.
I am going shopping this weekend a lot more confident

Thanks

One thing to be careful about, When you see a tv in a shop the clearest sharpest picture might be the most impressive, but when you're at home, you'll give yourself a headache if you watched a movie at those 'dynamic' settings.

The brighest clearest picture might not be the best quality picture, you'll want the image to be realistic smooth and to be able to show accurate colours. Some of the digital processing in the lcd/led tvs can be a bit intrusive and may not handle standard definition images very well (which will be the images you will see the most for the medium term at least as most tv channels only broadcast in SD)

I think plasma tvs are still producing the highest quality image and they are very competitively priced. samsung do an excellent range of 43 inch plasmas with features depending on your taste from hd ready to full hd 3d smart tvs (the psd range) (and they look great too).

dharn

to op why not go to your nearest tv dealer and tell him you can buy xx tv for yy, and see will he match the price,i bet he will or come as close as not making it worthwhile buying on line you would be mad to but a telly online i have read that the samsung 6 series do not support netflix, read here on other forums, also led is just a lighting system, you either go for lcd or plasma, most higher end tvs like what you were looking at are led backlit, plasma runs hotter and use more electricity and are poorer in a bright room, but probably have slightly better picture, 100 htz is minimum you should go for, i bought a panasonic recently with 5 year guarantee dont know if that is still available