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buying a big screen TV--advice please

de1amo
Posts: 3,401 Forumite

in Techie Stuff
İ have finally been offered a half decent selection of 40/42 inch tvs for what i consider a reasonable price!--i live in Turkey where things are very different from the uk when it comes to products available.
There were 2 units that i am considering --1 is a phillips and the other a toshiba and they are roughly the same price--the product codes dont translate to the uk market to get a price fix or product quality so i am blind!!--they cost about 555 quid so arent top end stuff but they are 40/42 inch.--i tried to read the spec items but it was hard to translate and when i did it made no sense to me!!
One had 1,,50000 something and the other 1 -15000--which is better---one had dynamic contrast and the other didnt state its contrast level--one had 2 scart plugs and the other 3 usbs--i know its sketchy but i dont speak or read turkish!
What are the main points to look at when your buying such things and dont want to spend twice this amount!
There were 2 units that i am considering --1 is a phillips and the other a toshiba and they are roughly the same price--the product codes dont translate to the uk market to get a price fix or product quality so i am blind!!--they cost about 555 quid so arent top end stuff but they are 40/42 inch.--i tried to read the spec items but it was hard to translate and when i did it made no sense to me!!
One had 1,,50000 something and the other 1 -15000--which is better---one had dynamic contrast and the other didnt state its contrast level--one had 2 scart plugs and the other 3 usbs--i know its sketchy but i dont speak or read turkish!
What are the main points to look at when your buying such things and dont want to spend twice this amount!
mfw'11 No68- 55k mortgage İO--little to nothing saved! i must do better.
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Comments
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You can probably get over the language problem by looking up the products on the Philips and Toshiba websites.
TBH, things like contrast ratio aren't that reliable, as there are different ways to measure this. Personally, I'd check that both are full HD (1080p), and that both have enough inputs and outputs for the things you want to connect to it or are likely to - bearing in mind that SCART is probably not going to be on anything you buy in future, and HDMI probably will.
And then go and look at them in a shop, and buy the one which you think has the better picture (and sound, if you don't plan to use an external sound system).0 -
You pay for quality, size and features
Dont be duped into believing all this 'contrast ratio' rubbish. Its a marketing con
My suggestion would be look for reviews on tvs such as these -
http://whathifi.com/Reviews/TVs-Reviews/TVs-Reviews/
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/reviews.php
I would NOT suggest comparing them in a shop as theyre never set up correctly:idea:0 -
I would NOT suggest comparing them in a shop as theyre never set up correctly
This may be true in some shops, but when I bought mine recently I went into half a dozen major stores, and they all appeared to be reasonably well set up - because there was hardly any difference between any of the top makes.
It's true that they will probably have been left on whatever defaults the makers send them out with. This may not be optimal for some applications, but the makers aren't stupid - they know that in most cases a shop won't play with the settings for half an hour, so they make the defaults (or the default "shop mode") good enough to compare well with other makes.
The fact is that different people like different things (e.g. some people like sharp, glossy screens and others like a heavy matte finish), so if you don't look, you won't know whether you like the picture until you've bought it.0 -
I certainly agree with the actual finish of the screens. But ive never known any place have their tvs calibrated (not even partially)
As in example, I saw a pioneer 500A (Claimed to be the best tv ever made) in a hifi shop. It was bought and I noted how bad the picture was, as ALL the processing modes were switched on.
After calibration however (All processing switched off, it didnt need greyscale calibrating as its supposed to be calibrated off the shelf), it looked incredible:idea:0 -
Fair enough - it's bound to vary from shop to shop. I suspect if you buy from one of the big stores, where they have dozens to set up, the staff probably can't be @rsed to do anything other than put it in "shop mode". In a smaller shop, they may be tempted to fiddle with the settings and c0ck it all up...0
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Fair enough - it's bound to vary from shop to shop. I suspect if you buy from one of the big stores, where they have dozens to set up, the staff probably can't be @rsed to do anything other than put it in "shop mode".
A believe some of them arent allowed to alter them from their 'shop default' settings:idea:0 -
i have found some model numbers but cant get any match up with the sites given--the phillips is 42pfl3405 and the toshiba is 40lv703--looking at the reports the phillips seem higher priced than toshiba-are they worth the extra money in the uk?--the phillips is only 20 pounds more than the toshiba but they are both under under 550 for 40 42 inch--both are 1080x 1920!
viewing them properly is difficult because of the bright lights in the shop and the phillips wasnt on display but appears in their ad paper--as a money saving offer they give me 150 quid back in vouchers when i buy either set!--its a carrefore storemfw'11 No68- 55k mortgage İO--little to nothing saved! i must do better.0 -
It's difficult because many manufacturers have different model numbers simply to signify that the mains lead has a different plug on it...
A full spec in English for the Tosh can be found on the toshiba.eu website.
Can you find out how old a model the Philips one is? Until recently they were generally considered to be at the top of the "second rank" of makers, but some of their recent models have been getting very good reviews. As long as it's not an old model, I'd probably go with the bigger screen if it's only £20 more.
Having said that - do you know when/if Turkey's equivalent of Freeview HD is live? I'm guessing neither has an HD tuner built-in, only standard definition.0 -
Make sure you are not paying for the box printing that it is widescreen when it is not a widescreen television, there are a LOT of companies doing this including toshiba and sony, they advertise a television as widescreen when it isn't true, instead they simply zoom in a bit when changing formats."Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck" - The Doctor.0
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