Anyone bought an LCD TV recently?

lisahobden

I'd like to buy an LCD TV - 26" and spend less than £600 - has anyone any recent experience or recommendations?

Thanks

Lisa

toadyfrog

Woolworths are doing a 32" for 599.00, don't know if its any good though

psychy

Dell 26" W2600 is what most peeps got from the recent Dell bargain.

You can get them from a range of places for £500ish. Check out ebay also.

tallica_2

ive heard the woolworths one is not very good,apparently the argos one is better 32in £499 not from personel experience though!

toadyfrog

Just checked Argos have a 26" for £399

catzeyes79

Hi,
i must admit I have heard mixed reports about LCD. The worst thing supposedly is if you are not sat directly infornt of the screen you get shadows. this sis just like the shadows you get on you laptop screen if you look at it from the side.

Anyone else know more? Have a look at this site it might be useful http://www.digitalspy.co.uk

D

mediaman

tallica wrote:

ive heard the woolworths one is not very good,apparently the argos one is better 32in £499 not from personel experience though!

This is the same model re-badged with a different name.
I bought the Argos one but returned it.

talkshop

catzeyes79 wrote:

Hi,
i must admit I have heard mixed reports about LCD. The worst thing supposedly is if you are not sat directly infornt of the screen you get shadows. this sis just like the shadows you get on you laptop screen if you look at it from the side.

Anyone else know more? Have a look at this site it might be useful http://www.digitalspy.co.uk

D

LCD technology is improving constantly. If you can wait until this time next year when HDTV appears, then the prices will fall due to more competition and better quality LCD panels.

The older LCD TV's were not that great, but the latest technology in the last 2 or 3 months has vastly improved the picture quality.

The recent LCD TV's from Samsung, Panasonic and LG are the best you can buy.

The best I have seen is the LG XD models.

The 26inch LG is over your budget though, but worth the extra.

http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/455_263729.html

svkhtn

I have heard that Kwiksave and Somerfield have LCD TV on offer at the moment:

Medion 32" LCD TV WAS £699.99 NOW £399.99

Hope this helps !

jellacott

This is a lengthy post, but I'm going somewhere - so stick with me.

The key 'stats' that you are looking for when buying an LCD screen (TV or monitor), as far as picture quality goes, are contrast ratio, response time and resolution.

The contrast ratio is the ability of the screen to display differences in brightness, and is usually represented like 500:1. The higher the ratio the better the screen is at showing light/dark differences. So, put simply - 500:1 Not great. 1000:1 Good.

The response time (IMHO) is the most crucial factor and it represents the ability of the screen to respond to the input signals its receiving. For example, if you are watching a DVD on LCD TV with a 25ms response time, that means it takes 25ms for the picture to change from the previous frame to the next. Therefore (in this example) with fast moving images, you will get 'ghosting' or 'streaking' of images across the screen as the TV tries to keep up. Cheaper screens will have higher response times. 25ms Bad <16ms Good.

The resolution of the panel is the number of pixels the screen is able to display and also tells you the aspect ratio (normal or widescreen) of the picture. Higher resolutions are better.

The Dell W2600 is actually a poor screen as it has a high response time (26ms) and a relatively low contrast ratio (500:1). It has a decent resolution at 1280 x 768 (15:9).

This is also true with the LCD TV from Argos, but I'm not sure on its response time as its not listed on their website. But for the price its safe to assume that it will have a high response time.

Basically, the old mantra rings true here. You get what you pay for. Cheaper screens will give you blocky, soft, dark images that are liable to ghosting. My advice would be to buy a slightly smaller, better quality screen for your money. The following screen is very good for your £600 price tag:

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=ELEC&title=742335&p=318&g=404&pa=genna

To see it in action pop into any local HMV or Virgin Megastore that has an Xbox 360 demo pod on show. All of the demo pods have the same make and type of Samsung screen as the one listed above.

Flimber

jellacott wrote:

...

...that means it takes 25ms (1/4 of a second) for the picture to change from the previous frame to the next.

...

So if it takes four lots of 25ms to equal one second, how many lots of 250ms does it take ? :snow_grin

Mike.