Reply to: Digital flatscreen TV's

[css_jay99]

I think its best to go for samsung smartTV LED's. A shame that their menu is not as simplistic as the sony though.

OR maybe wait to see if Apple is going to get into the TV business ... hopefully very soon


css_jay99

[PAH]

Bluray varies appreciably the test Blueray I used was 'The Dark Night' the opening sequence compared to DVD instantly reassures you about the benefits of Bluray & HD.

Oh yes, the IMAX scenes integrated into The Dark Night are awesome. When I first watched it (on blu-ray) I wondered why the screen aspect ratio was changing slightly then found out about the IMAX scenes.

So while there are quite a few blu-rays that are top quality and show off the HD superbly there's also plenty of sub-par blu-rays that are barely better than an upscaled DVD.

There's a blu-ray quality tier system on various blu-ray forums that list the ones considered reference quality and grade down to absolute crap. I've used it in the past when deciding if it's worth upgrading my favourite DVDs to blu-ray or wait for an improved release.

Yep, you still get the studios milking sales by releasing multiple versions of the same film over time (director's cut, ultimate, remastered, anniversary, ...), yet don't offer any discounts to the mugs who bought the earlier and sometimes awful/crappier release. So blu-ray doesn't mean it's always the best quality the movie could be, as the studio may be holding back the best possible version until they've sold enough interim versions along the way.

[Mr.Whippy]

Whippy, which model is this and how much would it cost?

The model is UE55D6530 and around £1,500.

[Sysman]

Things with bright colours do look fantastic, but at times I almost wish I'd kept my old 15-year old CRT screen.

Still happy with my 9 year old Trinitron.

I'd have to rearrange all the furniture if I put a wacking great screen in.

[vetran]

We have a £750 (end of range) 2 year old 50" Panasonic Plasma. Reasonably priced LCD screens weren't good enough to compete at the time. Try both as they seem to be close now. I used Lakes who were very helpful.

We sit 8' away so it fills the view which is what a good tv should do. A smaller 'less chavtastic' TV would leave us staring at the wall around. We tried a hand me down 42" and it was annoying in the same place.

Size matters, Vectraman's opinion doesn't in this case. The vast majority of well off and cultured people I know have large TV's in their huge lounges so when they do get around to watching the tennis or Movies in their lounge they can do so in the best quality possible, they can afford it.

My opinion of the chavtasic tag - a 50" TV in a council flat is the issue, they should spend their money on better things like decent food for their kids.

Picture quality except blacks (they aren't perfect) is mainly dependant on the source on this TV, I can see the difference between broadcast HD & SD though its harder on upscaled DVD via the home theatre.

Bluray varies appreciably the test Blueray I used was 'The Dark Night' the opening sequence compared to DVD instantly reassures you about the benefits of Bluray & HD. Terminator Salvation day is good as well, 'The 300' is annoyingly encoded with 'snakes' .

I have 1 HDMI cable & 1 aerial connected to the TV, its slightly annoying switching sources via my HDMI switch but its future proofing and the TV hangs on the wall without cables which I feel looks right. The other gear is hidden away in a cabinet on the other side of the room.

I have freeview in the TV but HD Freeview & Satellite are in the HTPC as are internet, iplayer & games. When Canvas etc come on line will your TV be upgradeable? Maybe its wise to split now and buy a separate box? That is what I decided to do.

I could have spent £1500 on a Freesat HD enabled TV but I spent £500 on an HTPC I blew the other £250 on a Home theatre which give me great surround sound for movies and a blueray player (end of range again) They are both Panasonic so I can select source etc from the same remote which makes it slightly less annoying changing channels. That is what a smart TV is the ability to run a limited applications from the TV itself more flexibility comes from having a separate box.

[bobspud]

Hey Bob, what's a smart LED TV? Is it really £3k for the 60"?

It's one of these:

8000 55 Inch Smart 3D LED TV | UE55D8000YUXXU | 8 Series LED TV - SAMSUNG UK - OVERVIEW

It has a web interface an wifi to stream movies
Looking at the model number it's actually a 55 rather than a 60 either way John Lewis priced matched it down to £2000 from £2700

[ChimpMaster]

We have a samsung 50 inch plasma thats about 4 years old. We just bought a samsung 60 inch smart Led tv for games and tv in the other sitting room. The new samsung led tv beats the old plasma in just about every way. The real bonus is that I hung the led tv on my own with a bad back and a bandaged foot because I had trod on a drill bit the previous week. It took 2 60mm screws and a 10mm drill bit. The plasma is hung on a steel cage that has 12 100mm coach bolts racheted into the stone fireplace. And took 3 of us to lift it onto the frame.

Today you can buy the latest version of our plasma for about £500 but the smart tv's are more than 5 time the cost so take your pick.

But stick to samsung or panosonic and. Buy it from John Lewis.

Hey Bob, what's a smart LED TV? Is it really £3k for the 60"?

[ChimpMaster]

I have a wall mounted Samsung 55" LED.
<snip>

Whippy, which model is this and how much would it cost?

[VectraMan]

Maybe so, due to SD programmes generally having poor bitrates (or even soft focused to make the equivalent HD channel look better ) so look poor compared to DVD, but I was thinking more of DVD vs Blu-ray.

I can spot straight away that for example, BBC News on BBC One HD is all in SD. So the bitrate argument or compression argument doesn't apply, because it's an HD channel.

But you are right in saying that Freeview/Sky SD TV could be an awful lot better if it weren't for the low bitrates. (Also if you have a Sky HD box, they've made a complete pigs ear of the HDMI SD support, it's actually better to use SCART!).

A good DVD master can be better than a poor blu-ray master as the TV upscales non-HD and I sometimes would have difficulty telling if a blu-ray was really true HD.

Not necessarily, Blu-ray players will upscale too. I've played with mine both ways, i.e. having the Blu-ray player upscale and the TV upscale when playing a DVD, and without being able to do a side-by-side test, I'm never quite sure what works out better.

More pixels means more sharpness; SD can never beat HD on that. Blu-ray also has better compression system and a higher bitrate; in theory an SD Blu-ray should be far superior to DVD. But "better picture quality" covers a whole range of factors, and is all subjective anyway.

[VectraMan]

define chavtastic sizes

Anything bigger than 32" obviously.

I sometimes think I should have gone for 37", or 40", especially as I now nearly always watch HD. Anything more than that is just a bit silly.

[PAH]

I finally bought a Sony 32" LCD earlier this year, and you'd have to be half-blind not to be able to spot the difference between HD and SD.

Maybe so, due to SD programmes generally having poor bitrates (or even soft focused to make the equivalent HD channel look better ) so look poor compared to DVD, but I was thinking more of DVD vs Blu-ray.

A good DVD master can be better than a poor blu-ray master as the TV upscales non-HD and I sometimes would have difficulty telling if a blu-ray was really true HD. And that's on a 50" TV sat less than 3 metres away. So it's only going to get worse on a smaller screen unless sat right next to it.

Maybe I'm just going blind or the upscaling is working well, but I've stopped buying blu-rays just because they're blu-rays and still get DVDs when much cheaper than the blu-ray.

[bobspud]

We have a samsung 50 inch plasma thats about 4 years old. We just bought a samsung 60 inch smart Led tv for games and tv in the other sitting room. The new samsung led tv beats the old plasma in just about every way. The real bonus is that I hung the led tv on my own with a bad back and a bandaged foot because I had trod on a drill bit the previous week. It took 2 60mm screws and a 10mm drill bit. The plasma is hung on a steel cage that has 12 100mm coach bolts racheted into the stone fireplace. And took 3 of us to lift it onto the frame.

Today you can buy the latest version of our plasma for about £500 but the smart tv's are more than 5 time the cost so take your pick.

But stick to samsung or panosonic and. Buy it from John Lewis.

[Mr.Whippy]

I have a wall mounted Samsung 55" LED.

Picture quality is outstanding, sports/films/games are all fine. Black levels are also very good, pretty comparable with a plasma.

It's only about 3cm thick, with an additional 2cm wall mounting kit.... so it sticks out a mere 5cm from the wall. There is also hardly any visible bezel.

55" would probably be classed as "chav-tastic" size by VectraMan, but 32" is way too small for my cinema/games room... he must live in a caravan in Dale Farm or something

[Spacecadet]

I hate it when people say that.

I finally bought a Sony 32" LCD earlier this year, and you'd have to be half-blind not to be able to spot the difference between HD and SD.

The plasma vs LCD debate is largely moot as plasmas only come in chav-tastic sizes, much bigger than I wanted. However I have to say that the classic problem of lack of proper black on LCD TVs is very noticeable on my 2011 spec "LED" 1080p Sony LCD. Things with bright colours do look fantastic, but at times I almost wish I'd kept my old 15-year old CRT screen.

define chavtastic sizes

[VectraMan]

if you watch a lot of sport go for a plasma gas light tubes rather than digital switches, light travels faster so high speed sports action should be clearer on the plasma (I dunno, thats how it was explained to me)

Physics (and common sense) taking a bit of a holiday there.