LCD TV. Waste of time?

toptensmiler

After many days umming and ahhing I decided to take the plunge and buy an LCD TV. I went for a Panasonic LDM70 as this had good reviews.
Anyway, to cut a long story short the picture is not what i expected. It's blocky, smeary and just not what i expected. The picture on my crappy wharfedale tv is better.
I bought the TV yesterday. Can I take it back under a 'cooling off period'? I bought it on debit card at BHS
I know this isn't strictly a question for this forum but I can't find the appropriate forum.
Your help would be appreciated.

Hotspur

If you are using the inbuilt digital tuner the picture issues you describe are more likely to be due to the signal strength getting to the tuner and not a fault of the tv per se. Do you live in a good area for freeview digital signals? There are some online checkers that can let you know which channel you can receive though they are conservertive with their results.

I have a Panasonic LXD70 and live in a marginal signal area and can get all channels, most of the time but do get some blocking in the picture/sound loss sometimes.

If you bought by mail order/internet then you have the right to return the item within I think 7 days under distance selling regulations. If purchased from a shop they may have a policy of accepting goods back in an usused state but that is not the law.

Best advice is stop using the item immediately, let the seller know you are disappointed with the performance and ask if they will take it back.

superscaper

How big is the TV? If it's significantly bigger than your old one then standard definition signals will look significantly worse and that's down to the size of the TV in addition to the possible problem Hotspur mentioned. What was the picture like when you viewed it in store? Was it completely different to the one you bought?

toptensmiler

Hi,

Thanks for your advice and help. I took the TV back to BHS and they gave me a refund.
I had read lots of great reviews of the panasonic but hadn't really investigated the pros and cons of CRT to LCD and to see the picture shocked me. The freeview pic didn't look that great in the shop but I put that down to them having a dispersed signal because lots of the tvs on display were using the same aerial.
The size was 32 as opposed to the bog standard CRT (not widescreen) i was using.
The DVD picture was the most disappointing. I don't know, maybe I was expecting razor sharp but frankly the image was poor. I was advised that a HMDI lead would make a difference and an upgrade to a better DVD player but I couldn't justify the expense.
So for now, I'm going to stick with the CRT I've got and wait till all broadcasts are going to HD. It's not as if i have to carry the tv around with me so size and weight are not an issue!
Thanks for suggestions though.

superscaper

toptensmiler wrote: »

wait till all broadcasts are going to HD.

If you're talking about terrestrial, there're no plans to ever make those HD.

timbim_2

What you needed was a freeview box capable of upscaling, i.e. increasing the definition of standard signals to make them look good on larger TV's. Just using a HDMI cable will not improve your image quality, it would be madness to suggest that it could. What you get is a case of rubbish in rubbish out!

Fifer

superscaper wrote: »

If you're talking about terrestrial, there're no plans to ever make those HD.

This suggests otherwise.

timbim_2

Freeview is digital, not analogue. Terestrial is analogue, but I get the drift. Perhaps a minor misunderstanding?

superscaper

Fifer wrote: »

This suggests otherwise.

I only knew about the pilot scheme. Still seems impractical, complete restructuring of the use of the spectrum cutting present channels and everyone would need new specialised HD freeview tuners/boxes to take advantage of it. I'm sure it'll happen eventually but not for a long while.

superscaper

timbim wrote: »

Freeview is digital, not analogue. Terestrial is analogue, but I get the drift. Perhaps a minor misunderstanding?

Freeview is terrestrial. Terrestrial can be analogue or digital. It simply means land based transmitters to be picked up by aerials. Freeview is just another name for digital terrestrial.

Fifer

DTT = Digital Terrestrial Television.