18 replies to this topic

[oli8925]

Hey everyone.

I've started looking for a new TV to take down to uni so i can have my PS3 down there, but I'm a bit out of the loop now and need some advice.

Basically I'm looking for a 22" full HD (1080p) TV from a company with a good reputation. I don't really want to go much over £200 but ive had experience with the 'bargain' companies and know that picture, sound and build quality can suffer greatly.

So what are the good manufacturers these days? and who are the ones to avoid? got a samsung in the living room and had no problems in the last 2 years so am tempted to stick with them, but would be useful to save as much money as possible.

Also with regards to it being full HD, ive noticed some websites mention that the TV is full HD and 1080p, and some just say HD for every TV they have. so is there another way to tell besides it saying full HD to 1080p?

And finally, is there any reason i shouldn't get a TV from play.com or amazon? only reason i ask is, if it goes wrong i cant take it back to a shop to argue. so am i taking a risk should it go wrong and are their products anymore likely to be crap?


Many thanks in advance

Oli

[davegreory42]

you are right in looking for some of the more well known brands, with tv's you generally get what you pay for.

i spotted this the other day, LG 22"looking at the spec its fairly good.

full hd, otherwise known as 1080p is the best currently available. ones that say hd ready display at 720p. ideally 1080p would be the one to go for, your ps3 will output at 1080p and looks very good. One of the other things to look for is the contrast ratio. this is the number of shades of colour that is between white and black, the higher the number the better.

i see no reason not to get one from play or amazon, they still offer a returns policy and you're still buying the same product. richer sounds is very well priced and you still have the option to take it back to one of their stores if theres an issue.

[secondopsman]

Dont know how true this is ,But when i took my LG back to Currys because it wouldnt switch off and only went in to standby,The tech gut there was telling me that 99% of the internal panels are made in ONE factory and just badged up for other manufactures so i nipped across to the COOP and cased the tvs out and got told the same thing.
Pete

[rusty789]

http://www.amazon.co...0/dp/B002DPSKDO

Technically, thats a PC monitor with a freeview tuner.. Why i dont know because i've just bought one of ebay and it has all the connections on the back the same as a normal TV..

I paid £148 for mine..

I'll let you know how it is tomorrow hopefully if your interested..

[scsracing]

Try not to worry about full HD as on a 22" you will not notice the difference between 720 and 1080 as it way to small to notice.Richer sounds do quite could good deals on end of line stock.

Sony, Samsung, Toshiba,lg, Hitachi are all good brands.

[oli8925]

thanks for the advice guys. i'm going physical TV shopping tomorrow so ill have a look around and see if i can get any deals, we've also got a richer sounds in tunbridge wells so ill have a look there, thats where we got the samsung for the living room.

is there any reason why i shouldn't get the samsung monitor rusty pointed out on amazon? because as it stands that has 5x the contrast ratio of the LG on richer sounds and i can't see any disadvantages...

[oli8925]

also full HD and 50000:1 contrast ratio is this Philips on Play.com. what are thoughts on this one?

[Black.Ghost]

I looked into this a bit when I was looking at TVs. With the contrast ratio, although the higher the better, don't let it be the be all and end all. The contrast ratio is only relevant in pure darkness.

Stick with the well known brands.

Obviously, if you buy something from say Ebay you lose the ability to take it back but you will get a better tv. If you can afford it, sneak up to 32". You will be glad you did when you get your PS3 on it.

As for buying on Play/Amazon I believe the law says you can take anything back to any shop that sells it, and they should send it back on your behalf. Im not sure if they have the right to charge you, but a manufacturer's guarantee is just that.

have fun TV shopping though.

[Shifty]

They're men who dress as women, should be avoided when you're drunk, hope this helps!!!

[rusty789]

I can only comment on samsung, i've had a 40" monster in my room since 2007, been nothing but awesome..

Awesome for games, awesome for PC (its main use..)

And that 22" i linked you too a second ago is for my girlfriend for christmas and my dad just bought another samsung 32" for my sister..

The thing i like about samsung is they seem to add a bit of design to your standard looking tv..

Thats mine.. probably a bit out your price range at that size but i think you can get the new model in anything from 19"

Another thing i can say about the samsung's as far as im aware the user interface is very friendly, the same on both mine and my sisters unsure about the latest one yet..

Edited by rusty789, 13 December 2009 - 09:41 PM.

[oli8925]

I was going to get 32" originally, but that was about 6 months ago when i had a nice income rolling in every month i'm also not too keen on having to lug 32" of TV to uni and back every term, and the fact i have a fairly small room and i don't want the TV to take over it, as i only have my desk to put it on and i need that for a fair amount of paper work and my laptop too. but ill see what i can do whilst sticking as close as i can to £200.

I take it i shouldn't be tempted by the philips then?

I agree about samsung, mine has done nothing but impress. but i'm afraid with my finances its function over design.

Ok, so at the moment the main contenders are LG and Samsung, so looking at all the tech. specs, which one is technically better for gaming? as i have very little idea of what half of it means

I've also heard some pretty nasty stories though, ive heard you can pick up some illnesses etc from too much exposure to TV's? shifty, could you shed some light on this for me please? you sound like a man with experience

Edited by oli8925, 13 December 2009 - 10:13 PM.

[newbambeeno]

I'm doing some TV shopping myself at the moment and have learnt a thing or 2...

Firstly brand wise. Samsung and LG are hard to seperate on picture quality, they are the 2 stand-out brands at the smaller size of the market. However LG blows Samsung out of the water for sound quality, and, they tend to be price exactly the same. So I'm going for LG personally.

Secondly, how much are you in a hurry to buy a TV? Especially if it's with freeview. Not a great deal of people know this, but freeview as we know it will be obsolete by the World Cup (potentially by March) as HD Freeview boxes will be required for HD freeview. I know that you can get HD channels on freeview now, but channels keep 'disappearing' from standard freeview boxes so that they can go onto the HD boxes. Just something to consider because TV with current freeview will get cheaper when the new stuff comes out. And obviously, if you want Freeview built in, then you'll need to buy a new box anyway in 6 months

Hope this helps, like I said, not many people know about it, I think it's being kept as secret as possible to keep people buying TVs for Christmas etc

[davidv]

I like the Samsungs to with the pc port as a monitor to i want one and they look great to on design im still using my Xerox screen but they are dear had it a few years so its been good so far

[minili]

Sorry if this has already been covered but can you use consoles with PC monitors? They tend to be cheaper, if you don't want to watch TV/pay a licence fee, I bought a 24" 1080p Samsung monitor about 6 months ago for about £200 so probably cheaper now! BF has a Samsung monitor too (only 22" though, low tech!), top stuff

Also if you wait until after Christmas you may find some good deals on TVs and monitors, sales woo!

[gordioda]

not sure if i'm too late or not but I've got the LG M227WD that davegreory42 posted a link for, bought it from amazon about 8 or 9 months ago to use....at uni (ok i bought it at the end of the year using my last months rent money because i was pi**ed at the landlord but thats another story....)

anyway, I had absolutely no problems with getting it from amazon, I think I went for the slightly more expensive delivery becuause it came faster or was insured or something, it was delivered quickly in perfect condition (no i dont work for amazon lol)

powered it up and found no dead pixels (i think theres a rule that says an LCD can have a certain amount of dead pixels without it being classed as faulty) but that wasn't an issue

I use it as a PC monitor for desktop and laptop, nintendo Wii and x-box 360, The quality is brilliant when running 1080p, for some reason the difference between 720 and 1080 is noticeable more on the PC than the x-box, dont know why that would be though


I like my TV