Bedroom TV

typeractive

Hi all, usually I'm quite ok with techie stuff though TV's are something I haven't kept up with over the recent years. So I thought I'd look for some advice. Basically I'd like:

40 / 42" TV
LCD or possibly LED? - I'm not too sure about plasma? I hear a lot of people saying LCD these days.
Probably made by Samsung or LG
Full HD
Built in freeview - maybe HD freeview?
HDMI inputs
Phono audio out (so I can hook it into an amp / receiver)
RJ45 / ethernet capable would be nice as I have cable in situ.

Ideally I'd like to spend around the £400 mark if possible? Probably unlikely for the spec I've listed. Though model recommendations would be great and then where to buy for the best deal etc. I was on the richer sounds website which I think is really good and I can drill down through a lot of the options I have listed, but the freeview and hd freeview bits confused me.

I'm not fussed about 3D at the moment (never actually seen one yet lol) and my budget probably is nowhere near that mark!

ANY advice on decent sets would be good. I know the avforums website would be a good place to look for info but I also think it's can make such decisions even tougher! lol

Cheers!
:j:j

shoperholicnot

Hi They have a Samsung LE40C650 on Amazon at the moment which has excellent reviews.
It comes with full HD and Freeview HD, i think its got 4 HDMI inputs. its £519 but if you go amazon warehouse you can get one cheaper about £450, but these are returned sets so be sure to check the condition its listed under before you buy, good, very good or as new etc.
Samsungs are much better than LG.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B003DNSJ4A/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&qid=1304326516&sr=1-1&condition=all

BTW i had a look at in currys and the picture is amazing

aliEnRIK

Dont compare tvs in shops, theyre NEVER set corectly (All tvs need calibrating)
Dont compare contrast ratios, theyre meaningless

LCD - cheap to run, high pixel response time
Plasma - more expensive to run, best with motion
LED (edge lit) - expensive, cheapest to run, very similar to LCD

Decent makes all look pretty similar in hi def. You should look for ones with a decent SCALER (Unless your sources scale to 1080P) for less than 1080P content

Panasonic, Sony and Samsung are the main 3
LG make some very good tvs but are geared more towards pros (As they need pro calibration to look their best)

The vast majority of tvs have poor sound. You mention an amp, if it as optical input then you should buy a tv with an optical output

I look at hdtest for main reviews
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/reviews.php
and WHF
http://www.whathifi.com/search/apachesolr_search/?filters=tid%3A397%20type%3Ahcmproduct%20fs_cck_field_price%3A%5B0%20TO%20400%5D&solrsort=created%20desc&retain-filters=1
(Forgetting the top anomaly!)

martinthebandit

I bought one of these 18 months ago and I cannot fault it, especially for a tele for the bedroom

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.208-9998.aspx

spec looks like it ticks all your boxes and the price is right, especially when you take into account the clubcard vouchers you get.

aliEnRIK

Doesnt sound good to me
http://www.whathifi.com/review/technika-42-2030

Plus - technika are well known for breaking down just outside warranties

dizziblonde

We've got a Samsung - very impressed with it and the picture quality always gets my mother hassling my step-dad to buy one for her when they visit.

scottishblondie

Another vote for Samsung, my parents got a lovely 37" one at Christmas. Full HD with Freeview HD, Internet@TV (via Ethernet or USB adapter) etc. I'm quite jealous of it But as long as my one keeps going (also a Sammy) I have no need of a fancier new one!

The LG ones are fine too, I just think the Samsungs outperform them. I wouldn't touch a Technika tho - I had one very briefly and it just didn't hold up.

typeractive

Thanks guys - still lots of homework for me to do then!!

I'm looking to buy the TV so I can build a stud wall around it in prep for it being wall hung - so it's flush. Obviously that means I need to know the exact measurements. After posting last night I was looking on the web and found this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-42LD450-42-inch-Widescreen-Freeview/dp/tech-data/B003H1048C/ref=de_a_smtd

Which looks OK. Doesn't quite have everything I was looking at, but I guess within the budget I'd expect that. I'd also like to hook up a laptop or media centre of some sorts. In actual fact I was thinking of using my mac mini (or buying an extra one with a wireless keyboard all rigged up to my network (which I'm still yet to investigate! lol) so I can surf online / stream films or music etc.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to get an extra cable - optical out for the audio as aliEnRIK suggests. I've never used one of these and was hoping for the usual audio/phono out.

Thanks for all the recommendations guys! It's very much appreciated and I'm sure with your help I'll get something half decent for the price.

aliEnRIK

typeractive wrote: »

Thanks guys - still lots of homework for me to do then!!

I'm looking to buy the TV so I can build a stud wall around it in prep for it being wall hung - so it's flush. Obviously that means I need to know the exact measurements. After posting last night I was looking on the web and found this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-42LD450-42-inch-Widescreen-Freeview/dp/tech-data/B003H1048C/ref=de_a_smtd

Which looks OK. Doesn't quite have everything I was looking at, but I guess within the budget I'd expect that. I'd also like to hook up a laptop or media centre of some sorts. In actual fact I was thinking of using my mac mini (or buying an extra one with a wireless keyboard all rigged up to my network (which I'm still yet to investigate! lol) so I can surf online / stream films or music etc.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to get an extra cable - optical out for the audio as aliEnRIK suggests. I've never used one of these and was hoping for the usual audio/phono out.

Thanks for all the recommendations guys! It's very much appreciated and I'm sure with your help I'll get something half decent for the price.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/lg-32ld450-42ld450-20101120901.htm

As stated. LGs are more for pros to calibrate. As seen in the link above (or pic below)



The RGB tracking level 'should' be equal, but is far from it. So buying this tv will mean it never looks 'right' with colours (Which might not sound like much, but a much closer greyscale will look far better and natural)

You need a colour meter to get an LG looking its best (I have one, but its complicated and expensive you certainly wont want to be doing it)

That said, id say its far better than buying a technika

As for optical, you can still go with normal phonos, but the cheap tvs your looking at will all have cr*p DACS (Digital to analogue converters) so will never sound as good as a decent amp doing the converting

typeractive

aliEnRIK wrote: »

The RGB tracking level 'should' be equal, but is far from it. So buying this tv will mean it never looks 'right' with colours (Which might not sound like much, but a much closer greyscale will look far better and natural)

You need a colour meter to get an LG looking its best (I have one, but its complicated and expensive you certainly wont want to be doing it)

That said, id say its far better than buying a technika

As for optical, you can still go with normal phonos, but the cheap tvs your looking at will all have cr*p DACS (Digital to analogue converters) so will never sound as good as a decent amp doing the converting

Wow - thanks Alien! I did actually look on the site for that model when you gave me the link - I just didn't quite get the time to gen up on it all. You're right - I certainly don't want a colour tester thingy me bob!

Can you advise any more on the optical cables? I just want something cheap and cheerful. It needs to be around 5m long too - so it can get round the wall, under the floor and back up with a little bit of slack.

Is this sort of thing I'm looking at on ebay ok?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Optical-digital-audio-lead-SPDIF-TOSLink-cable-5M-/180443979336?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item2a034c9e48

I'm also wondering if I should get a VGA and a DVI cable. I've already got 2 hdmi's, a phono and a usb cable there. It doesn't hurt to add more just in case as they'll be well hidden and don't cost much on ebay.

May I ask alien - if it was your cash, what set you'd opt for if any?

Thank you
:j:j

aliEnRIK

That optical should work fine. Just make sure you dont bend it too much, optical cables will break under stress

By all means buy a VGA and DVI cable.

When you say 'set' you mean tv?