Anyone bought an LCD TV recently?

RufusA

IMHO judging a flat panel monitor/TFT on response time and contrast ratio is at best limited, it's the equivalent of judging a car on BHP or a stereo on it's Watts. What makes a good car isn't the power, but how it uses it (i.e. wheels, chassis, style, comfort etc.)

The reponse time quoted by the "manufacturers" is often misleading as it sometimes gives just the rise time, rather than rise and fall. Even if there was an exact standard that everyone adhered to, the figure still wouldn't give the true picture. The response time is measured for changing a pixel from Black to White (rise) and back to Black (fall). However in the real world the pixel may change from one shade to another. In the real world panels can be designed to have a 12ms response time (black-white-black) but take 100ms to change from one grey to another accurately.

Colour depth / accuracy, even backlighting, good viewing angles and a decent screen coating are IMHO more important factors. Not to mention having a decent resolution and a good array of inputs (including DVI) & outputs.

In essense there are 3 main types of flat panels:

TN+Film (Twisted Nematic) - this is found on most cheap fast response time panels. However whilst quick Black-white-Black, it's slow changing shades/colours. Tends to have poor vertical viewing angles and poor colour reproduction (often only 6 bit with quick colour switching to give the impression of 16 million colours, an LCD time dithering trick).

IPS / S-IPS ([Super] In Plane Switching) - IPS was how panels were originally designed. The newer S-IPS found in top "professional" panels has excellent colour reproduction / depth (near CRT), reasonable response times (20ms typical) but equally quick at gradual changes. Contrast isn't huge, but is improving, and S-IPS is expensive. This would be my panel of choice for a TV and the colour and clarify blow anything else out the water.

MVA / PVA (Multi Domain/Patterned Vertical Alignment) - A compromise with some of the speed of TN+Film but with some of the colour of S-IPS. PVA found only in Samsung panels has one of the best contrast ratios.

If you go by the numbers alone a TN+Film panel may be the "best" but if you put it next to a PVA or S-IPS panel I think you'd notice what you were missing, particularly if watching natural scenes rather than computer games.

HTH - Rufus.

johnniegif

I have to agree with gram333. I bought the Samsung 26" LCD TV with built in Freeview a couple of months ago. Mine cost £611 with free next day delivery from Waratah. They were extremely helpful and responsive to my queries and unlike many other online stores, actually had the stock.

It might break your budget by £11, but in my opinion, it is well worth it ... and it is furture proof, high definition ready, with plenty of inputs. You can get the non Freeview (analogue only) version for less than £600.

The speakers on the TV are fine, but as I was replacing my 10 year old Sony TV which had built in surround sound, I didn't want to miss the benefit of whizzy sound, so I added an AV receiver and 5.1 surround sound speakers and *WOW* it blows your socks off!

http://www.waratah.co.uk/acatalog/p_info.html?gl=televisions&id=643

Prices might come down after Christmas, so if you are not in a hurry, wait.

Good luck with your selection.

Johnnie

P.S. the usual disclaimers apply - I have no connection with Waratah, other than I am a very happy customer and am happy to recommend them.

Draiman

Not sure how good this is, but the price seems reasonable:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=97483

gram333

johnniegif wrote:

I have to agree with gram333. I bought the Samsung 26" LCD TV with built in Freeview a couple of months ago. Mine cost £611 with free next day delivery from Waratah. They were extremely helpful and responsive to my queries and unlike many other online stores, actually had the stock.

Waratah!! Dam the guy couldnt give the name out on overlclockers forums, and i couldnt find a retailer begining with W!!!!

Guess i only paid a wee bit more but its a cracking telly and i only got to play with it for a couple of hours last night

lisahobden

Thanks for all your advice, everyone! It looks like a lot of thumbs up for the Samsung.... so I will watch the prices after Christmas and hope they fall further!

mrnomoneybags

for the xbox360 i would go for a smaller screen and make sure it has HD 1280x768 res and a fast response time ...... at least 16ms

jellacott

RufusA wrote:

IMHO judging a flat panel monitor/TFT on response time and contrast ratio is at best limited, it's the equivalent of judging a car on BHP or a stereo on it's Watts. What makes a good car isn't the power, but how it uses it (i.e. wheels, chassis, style, comfort etc.)

The reponse time quoted by the "manufacturers" is often misleading as it sometimes gives just the rise time, rather than rise and fall. Even if there was an exact standard that everyone adhered to, the figure still wouldn't give the true picture. The response time is measured for changing a pixel from Black to White (rise) and back to Black (fall). However in the real world the pixel may change from one shade to another. In the real world panels can be designed to have a 12ms response time (black-white-black) but take 100ms to change from one grey to another accurately.

Colour depth / accuracy, even backlighting, good viewing angles and a decent screen coating are IMHO more important factors. Not to mention having a decent resolution and a good array of inputs (including DVI) & outputs.

In essense there are 3 main types of flat panels:

TN+Film (Twisted Nematic) - this is found on most cheap fast response time panels. However whilst quick Black-white-Black, it's slow changing shades/colours. Tends to have poor vertical viewing angles and poor colour reproduction (often only 6 bit with quick colour switching to give the impression of 16 million colours, an LCD time dithering trick).

IPS / S-IPS ([Super] In Plane Switching) - IPS was how panels were originally designed. The newer S-IPS found in top "professional" panels has excellent colour reproduction / depth (near CRT), reasonable response times (20ms typical) but equally quick at gradual changes. Contrast isn't huge, but is improving, and S-IPS is expensive. This would be my panel of choice for a TV and the colour and clarify blow anything else out the water.

MVA / PVA (Multi Domain/Patterned Vertical Alignment) - A compromise with some of the speed of TN+Film but with some of the colour of S-IPS. PVA found only in Samsung panels has one of the best contrast ratios.

If you go by the numbers alone a TN+Film panel may be the "best" but if you put it next to a PVA or S-IPS panel I think you'd notice what you were missing, particularly if watching natural scenes rather than computer games.

HTH - Rufus.

Resolution was also one of my criteria. But you are telling me you are going to go into Currys and ask the sales assistant the pertinent questions to satisfy your above criteria?

RUFUS: "Excuse me....er....Tracy is it? Could you answer some questions for me about this LCD?"

TRACY FROM SALES:"Of course, Sir"

RUFUS: "Is this a 'Multi Domain/Patterned Vertical Alignment' or a 'Twisted Nematic' panel with an adequate black to white to black rise and fall response time?"

TRACY FROM SALES:".....er......its a TV"

RUFUS: "I'm aware its a TV, but does this 'Samsung', if that is its real name, 'TV' come with the appropriate colour depth and shading to be viewed at a 67 degree angle?"

TRACY FROM SALES: "......I'll just get the manager...."

paul.carter

Just been shopping in Exmouth and noticed that the Somerfields one is now reduced by a further £50 to £349.99 for 26".

Only appeared to be one left by the till but there may be others.

Babbler

I found this one was cheap but too big to hang on the wall so...:






:xmassign:

Big_Daddy_5

i am about to take the plunge and buy a samsung LE26R41BDX. TV looks great and have heard great things about it, but would be interested if anyone has a reason not to buy it or alternative suggestion.