TV for our sitting room

[RayorDragonFall]

Ok, after like.... 10 or more years of service, our old tv is no longer worth the hassle of getting it fixed. The Scart plug doesn't work right, and we have cable tv now so we sort of need it to work.

So anyways, dad was reading the newspaper when he saw this ad of a big shopping center.
Hyundai LCD TV 40" Q400 for 800 euros.
I've had a look around and the price seems to be about right, but I was wondering if you guys could tell me anything I need to know before buying a tv or if there are other options that are better.

Thanks a lot guys/girls

 

[shaunj66]

Personally I wouldn't recommend any LCD other than Samsung. But saying that; I've been out of the LCD loop for a while now so some other company may have bettered them.

Those popular Samsung LCD's (don't know the model - but they're very common) that everyone seems to have are fantastic displays.

 

[TaeK]

Yea... i'd recommend Samsung or Sony Bravias ... They sell em pretty cheap in the UK at Makro.. like £599~£799 for 42"~50"

 

[enarky]

If you only want to spend such a little amount of money it would probably be better to get an oldschool CRT TV instead of an LCD Monitor. While LCDs look infinitely more fashionable to TVs you just won't be very happy with it. The picture quality on these LCDs usually looks abominable compared to real TVs, for HDTV as well as SDTV. SD has to be upscaled to a higher resolution and I haven't seen a cheap LCD yet that used an algorithm that made the picture not look completely distorted. Also those "720p" display all have a weird resolution, all HDTV content has to be scaled somehow to fit. This makes HDTV picture usually looking worse on such a display than SD on a CRT TV. Colors usually look washed out when you look at these displays from an angle - this will be especially noticeable when you have guests (or you are a big family), as these on the far sides of the room will only see a crap picture.

My suggestion: don't buy cheap LCDs, please.

 

[TaeK]

CRT TVs f*ck ur eyes up.

 

[RayorDragonFall]

Well, I only mentioned that deal because it looked good to us. Today we'll have a look around the shops, see what there is for sale.
Looks like samsung is the the thing to look for though?

 

[Spikey]

I don't know if they sell 'em over there, but Westinghouse has done us really well. No complaints TBH, everything looks purdy.

We have had this one for over a year.

So I suggest taking a look at Westinghouse if they exist over there.

 

[mthrnite]

I second the Westinghouse brand. Good price/quality, lots of inputs, well designed. I've got the 47" version of Spikey's, and it's lovely. Westinghouse used to be a huge appliance brand in the US, but in the past decade or so has slipped to an also-ran. I think they're trying to get their reputation back to where it used to be. Looks like they're taking a tip from Samsung by selling quality goods at reasonable prices, cutting some of their profits to get into more homes.

 

[RayorDragonFall]

Looks like I can't find that brand in Spain..

Btw, its a TFT LCD, not just LCD, if it makes a difference? I'm a total n00b, sorry.

 

[lagman]

If you can't get a Westinghouse LCD, the Samsung screens are great quality for a good price...wait mthr said that already

You can always test the TVs on the store, they're usually connected to some video source, check it by yourself and decide if the quality is good enough for you.

And...ask about the store policies on dead pixels issues...ya know

 

[Taras]

With Sony and Samsung, you're paying for the name. Oh yeah, and piss on Sony, I wouldn't support their gangster racket any capacity. Off-brand LCDs are fine.

 

[Strokemouth]

Just go with any decent brand name LCD, stay away from no-name companies. LCD panels are only made by 5 or 6 companies in the entire world. They then sell the panels to other manufacturers. LCD panels are divided into 3 groups based on quality. The lowest quality group gets sold to no-name manufacturers. The middle quality group goes to standard applications (computer monitors, TV's, etc. from big name companies), and the highest quality panels go to professional applications.

Taras could not be any more wrong. In fact, Sony and Samsung have started a joint venture producing LCD panels in Korea. I don't know if it is operational yet, but it will be soon. The big names that actually make the LCD panels are LG, Sharp, Samsung, and a soon-to-be joint venture between Sony and Samsung. No name companies get the shit with higher dead pixel rates and manufacturing defects. Stay away from them.

 

[ianz]

go to some big store that have these tvs on display.. and bring your own video source if you can... puting 40tvs on one cable like they do in those stores is not good for image quality

 

[Taras]

Taras could not be any more wrong. In fact, Sony and Samsung have started a joint venture producing LCD panels in Korea. I don't know if it is operational yet, but it will be soon. The big names that actually make the LCD panels are LG, Sharp, Samsung, and a soon-to-be joint venture between Sony and Samsung. No name companies get the shit with higher dead pixel rates and manufacturing defects. Stay away from them.

No, dude. You're talking out of your ass.

I have a Sceptre and I've been happy. Same with a friend of mine. In fact, let's look at the buyer consensus on newegg.com regarding this off-brand:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....ription=sceptre

You see the ratings in gold eggs? That's right, most users are happy.

four stars out of 83 unique ratings
four stars out of 184
five stars out of 235
etc.
etc.

The Sony TVs have either no reviews or 1 respondent. What's up with that?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....Order=BESTMATCH

 

[cenotaph]

Yea... i'd recommend Samsung or Sony Bravias ... They sell em pretty cheap in the UK at Makro.. like £599~£799 for 42"~50"

The only difference between the Sony Bravia-line and Samsung's LCD line is the Sony/Samsung sticker respectively + ~$100 price difference (with Samsung being the cheaper) as Bravias are OEM'd by Samsung. Inbreeding and feuds within Sony management at the time when the shift from CRT to LCD occurred within the electronics industry resulted in them missing out on the whole first generation. In order to get their shit together after their internal issues had been resolved, they outsourced production to Samsung to get products into stores as fast as possible and that arrangement remains to this day.

 

[Strokemouth]

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I've been working in this industry for a while now.

You're looking at a very limited set of information there. Reviews on newegg do not constitute global quality of LCD panels. Do you know what type of panel is in your Sceptre? I can guarantee you Sceptre did not make it. Also, most of their reviews on newegg are for computer monitors, very few with 5 eggs. And keep in mind that the only TVs that have 5 eggs also have less than 10 reviews. Again, not very accurate. You also have to keep in mind that when it comes to something like TVs, most people will be prone to saying that it is great to offset buyers remorse. That and most people know nothing about TVs and don't know what to look for.

Since you're such a fan though, a quick google search also seems to show that most Sceptre reviews on cnet have an average user rating of around 6 out of 10. Not great at all.

You also have to keep in mind that not all budget LCD's are going to completely suck. If you know nothing about TV's, you can often be very happy with them and they provide a decent picture. And a lot of them will be ok, but failure rate is much higher when you go with a no-name brand. However, you are not going to get a truly awesome picture going with no-name brands as the higher quality panels are just not sold to those companies. Plain and simple.

 

[Taras]

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I've been working in this industry for a while now.

You're looking at a very limited set of information there. Reviews on newegg do not constitute global quality of LCD panels. Do you know what type of panel is in your Sceptre? I can guarantee you Sceptre did not make it. Also, most of their reviews on newegg are for computer monitors, very few with 5 eggs.

Since you're such a fan though, a quick google search also seems to show that most Sceptre reviews on cnet have an average user rating of around 6 out of 10. Not great at all.

You also have to keep in mind that not all budget LCD's are going to completely suck. If you know nothing about TV's, you can often be very happy with them and they provide a decent picture. And a lot of them will be ok, but failure rate is much higher when you go with a no-name brand. However, you are not going to get a truly awesome picture going with no-name brands as the higher quality panels are just not sold to those companies. Plain and simple.

Frist off, being a Best Buy warehouse stocker aren't any kind of credentials.

The only cnet rating I see is a 7 and their rating system calls that "Very Good"

http://www.cnet.com/4244-5_1-0-1.html?quer...av&type=product

Thanks for not providing a link though.

And Newegg is a trusted source among every IT person I know. Their user base is very technical, but you claim to know more than all of them combined. LMAO

No most of those aren't computer monitors since they have tuners and HDMI.

I'd be interested in proof about the failure rate (a recently dated article for instance).

 

[Strokemouth]

Frist off, being a Best Buy warehouse stocker aren't any kind of credentials.

The only cnet rating I see is a 7 and their rating system calls that "Very Good"

http://www.cnet.com/4244-5_1-0-1.html?quer...av&type=product

Thanks for not providing a link though.

And Newegg is a trusted source among every IT person I know. Their user base is very technical, but you claim to know more than all of them combined. LMAO

No most of those aren't computer monitors since they have tuners and HDMI.

I'd be interested in proof about the failure rate (a recently dated article for instance).

What about working for one of the major telecom companies in the country that also happens to be a major television provider where job duties also include product compatibility and performance testing?

And you don't have to try and have a cock-off with me. I know what I know. If you don't want to believe it, that's fine. You can swear by user reviews on newegg and spout wikipedia knowledge with no real world experience all you want. I'll try and get you hard numbers when my VPN access comes back up, though that won't be linked to wikipedia article, so you probably won't believe it anyways.

 

[RayorDragonFall]

Uh... well I'm back from the store and I got this: A Grundig Vivance.

So yeah, I'm sorted, but you guys can continue ranting if you want

Edit:
In black, not silver. Should arrive on Monday.

 

[silverspoon]

.