Flat Screen Tellies: The Emperor's New Clothes?

magyar

I've been vacillating about whether to buy an LCD TV for a while now. I’ve currently got a 32” LCD TV (a Sony widescreen; it’s about eight years old and a little long in the tooth, but still a very good picture). There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, other than “I want a nice new, pretty one”.

The thing that keeps me from it is that I have never seen decent standard definition TV through an LCD TV. There’s no question that a good HD source through a good HD telly looks lovely, but there isn’t much HD around yet, it’s far from the norm.

Do people think there is an element of Emperor’s New Clothes about LCD/Plasma TVs? Are we just being conned into thinking they're wonderful? (I’m thinking of the late 80s and how we all threw away our ‘outdated’ LPs and bought them all again on CDs…)

f1charlie

I agree with you. Perhaps I just haven't seen a good set-up with a decent signal, but I don't think the picture quality on LCD sets matches up to a good CRT.

Similarly with digital broadcasts. If there isn't much movement on screen, a digital picture is great, but once it starts moving....

Also, with a digital broadcast, when the signal quality drops, you don't just get a deterioration in picture and sound quality as you would with analogue, you get freezes, sound blips or a complete picture loss.

bigdic

Go to a pro shop and have a look at the pictures, it isn't as easy to get a really sharp picture on a flatscreen as it is on a CRT but it can be done with a good signal and someone with a little time to set up the picture correctly.

I was in Currys last week and most of the flatscreens looked pretty bad IMO and not worth the money, but I've had a plasma for 2 years now and it still looks fantastic.

Omertron

I have the Sony Bravia 32" LCD (KDL-32V2000) and this produces an excellent picture from a SD source (Humax 9200 Freeview PVR) much better than any other TV I've seen. But then this TV was over £1,000.

Would you get the same picture from a £300 Aldi/Lidl panel? I think not. You get what you pay for most of the time

Scooby_Drew

Omertron wrote:

I have the Sony Bravia 32" LCD (KDL-32V2000) and this produces an excellent picture from a SD source (Humax 9200 Freeview PVR) much better than any other TV I've seen. But then this TV was over £1,000.

Would you get the same picture from a £300 Aldi/Lidl panel? I think not. You get what you pay for most of the time

But do you get 700 quids worth of improvement by buying an expensive one???

Depends on your perspective...

magyar

Omertron wrote:

I have the Sony Bravia 32" LCD (KDL-32V2000) and this produces an excellent picture from a SD source (Humax 9200 Freeview PVR) much better than any other TV I've seen. But then this TV was over £1,000.

Would you get the same picture from a £300 Aldi/Lidl panel? I think not. You get what you pay for most of the time

That's a very wise point, and it worries me slightly to see all these £300-400 tellies for sale to the stupid. It's one thing to pay £1000 (and if you can afford it, why not!) on a ruddy good telly, but if your budget is £300-400 then you are probably (far?) better off staying where you are or, if you really need a new telly, then buy a good (maybe 2nd hand) CRT.

magyar

Scooby_Drew wrote:

But do you get 700 quids worth of improvement by buying an expensive one???

Depends on your perspective...

It's hard to quantify in that way, but it seems to me that for £1000 you get something which is better in some respect than a good CRT. It's hard to say where the cutoff point will be, but it seems to be around £800 at the moment.

£1000 well spent is certainly better than £300 thrown away.

I'm just worried that people are looking at these and thinking "that'll look good", or "everyone's getting one of them these days" and it just isn't true.

Mr_Meanie

magyar wrote:

Do people think there is an element of Emperor’s New Clothes about LCD/Plasma TVs?

Yes I think you have summed that up pretty well,

A few years ago when they arrived on the scene I wanted to buy one ASAP but after seeing them in the shop against a CRT they just don’t cut the mustard.
In my opinion they still don’t process fast enough for action scenes, blur, blockyness, artefacts whatever you might call them still show up badly on most screens.
I think it’s all a bit of hype at the moment all this HD Ready business, by the time the average person in the UK has an HD signal your new HD Ready screen will be worn out anyway, what’s the service life of a flat screen TV, less than 5 years?.
Keep your money in your pocket for the time being, wait for the technology to catch up with the hype.

Omertron wrote:

I have the Sony Bravia 32" LCD (KDL-32V2000) and this produces an excellent picture.

Yes I was very nearly tempted by the Sony, one of the best(so far), just too much money.

magyar

Mr_Meanie wrote:

I think it’s all a bit of hype at the moment all this HD Ready business, by the time the average person in the UK has an HD signal your new HD Ready screen will be worn out anyway, what’s the service life of a flat screen TV, less than 5 years?.

Gosh, is that true? How awful! To me, this also adds an environmental aspect to it. LCDs/Plasmas are not easy to mend (if indeed possible at all) as well as having (in many cases) higher power consumption.

BillScarab

I agree with you original point Magyar but surely LCDs and Plasmas use far less power than a CRT?

Apparently broadcasters still use CRT monitors for for editing and monitoring purposes which to me says something about the quality of LCD and Plasma screens.

If you haven't got HD the only reasons to buy one are if you want to save space or you want a big telly as CRTs over 36" are huge and I think they start to get more geometry problems the bigger they get.

Mr_Meanie

magyar wrote:

service life of a flat screen TV, less than 5 years? Gosh, is that true?

Snip from Panasonic web site:

"Long Service Life: 60,000 Hour Plasma Panel "Half Life"
The inner panel improvements give Panasonic plasma panels a long service life of approximately 60,000 hours, even with increased brightness over previous models. 60,000 hours represents the plasma panel's "half life:" the time until panel brightness is reduced to half its initial level, when displaying moving images at standard mode.

The LCD panel has a service life of up to approximately 60,000 hours."

Do your own maths based on your average daily viewings hours.