Tevion 32" LCD TV

There's a load of TV manufacturers out there but only a couple of companies internationally that produce the actual LCD panels. Think the major ones are LG and Samsung.

This means ALL TV makes will have the same LCD panel components. The TV manufacturers basically add the software, inputs and other components to run them - some are good quality, some are bad - but the components are pretty similar.

The more expensive brands pay for the higher quality from the panel manufacturers - ie. they will have less dead pixels and the contrast and other parameters will be guaranteed to higher levels so the image should look better. However, the image will only be as good as the computer programs driving them (yes TV's have internal controlling computers if you didnt know!)

Some 'lower' brands have learnt to get the best of the quality of panel they have supplied. Some expensive brands haven't quite managed to get their software right to get the most out of their high quality panels.

At the end of the day, the best way to assess an LCD TV is to look at the picture. If possible, take a DVD of a fast moving image (wildlife/snooker/football) to a shop where they have one powered up and look if the image leaves a 'trail'. If it does, the response time of the screen is low. The better ones won't leave a trail!

Second quick test is to see how dark the 'black' is on a picture. If it appears grey rather than black it's not so good. Also check how bright the 'white' appears - the brighter the better. This is the contrast (measured in cd/m2) - the higher the better but beware of specs as there are several ways to measure it. This is especially important if your room gets a lot of light as the lower the contrast the less you'll be able to see the picture.

Other quick check is to make sure you can view the screen from all the angles that you're likely to use in your living room and the image seems pretty much the same.

Another weak link is the quality of the tuner. The aerial gets plugged into the TV but the freeview or UHF signal may not be filtered from noise very well so you get a sort of snow effect over the picture. Normally the better brands have this done to a T so the internal TV tuner(s) wont affect the picture. If you have external freeview box rather than internal to the TV, the quality may be better.

Final advice on buying an LCD telly is to make sure it has all the input connections you need for the video/sky box/dvd player/game console etc. that you have. You normally find the cheaper ones may only have one input of a certain kind (eg. SCART or HDMI) so you'll end up with another spend for a switching unit so you can plug all your devices into it and either the inconvenience of having to manually switch which input you want or another remote for the switching unit to confuse whoever uses it more.

As long as the above tests are good, most TVs have mood settings which control the colour and brightness and there is usually one that will satisfy a watcher - it's quite personal as to what the best look is.

Hope this helps someone!

Or just buy the Aldi one and take it back within 28 days if you don't like it, for a full, no questions asked refund.

Now where else can you do that ?;)

Sorry I cannot agree with that statement, it could well be, there are lots of people having problems with both Sony and Panasonic TV's over on AVForums, at least Aldi give a 3 year warranty, which does not come as standard with either Sony or Panasonic from most retailers.

I never mentioned that there wouldn't/couldn't be problems with more expensive brands:rolleyes:

My observation was that " it won't be as good in certain aspects as a premium branded set " which is correct. Please read good post from fonzy8.
I'm defintely not having a dig at this set in Aldi, I'm just saying the market expands beyond here and price is levelled for a reason.

You mention " Premium Branded " sets, however some " Premium Branded " sets are just re-badged stuff from other makers, Hitachi being just one example, so how does anyone define a " Premium Branded Set " .. ??

No hitachi would not be in the top tier of manufacturers.
The current top 2 for consideration are Panasonic and Sony.
Before you say my choice? No - its the choice of just about every industry magazine and review. These reviews are based on intensive technical tests conducted on the TV and range & quality of components.

But then again they all might be completely wrong and missed the shining jewel in Aldi's crown - "The Tevion". However we know that not to be the case, but I'm sure its a perfectly capable TV if that is what you want.

Hi,
I too got one of these TV's yesterday for a relative. He has just phoned to say the speech (dubbing???) is slightly out. The picture is fine and all the stations are tuned in. They have read the instructions and re-read them but this annoying speech thingy still prevails. Can anyone point them in the right direction please. I apologise if this is on the wrong forum, I just thought it might get more readers on the original thread. Thanks - Sally