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Anyone know anything about HD TVs?

M

MortimerJazz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2007
102
0
London
Hiya,

Having just bought a PS3, I'm toying with the idea of saving up for an HDTV. I guess I'd be looking at one somewhere between 26" and 30".

Can anyone recommend one for around about £500/$1000?

What's the minimum kind of resolution I should be looking for?

Thanks alot in advance
 
Look into whether or not you can find Vizio TVs in the UK. They have a great price/quality ratio. As far as resolution, you really don't need anything better than 720p with a TV in your size range, unless you want to use it as a computer display as well.
 
I was looking through this thread to see if anyone posting had yet stated they had no opinion, or that they don't have an HDTV, or that they don't watch television.

Well, it looks like I am the first.

My rarely-used vintage 1994 RCA ProScan still works just fine, for what it's worth.
 
HDMI is a hi-def interconnect standard for transporting digital video (DVI) and 5.1 surround sound (also digital). Its a bit like USB in shape/size of the connectors... imagine SCART connectors but for digital and HD - and without the weird input/output on the same cable.

More here
 
MortimerJazz said:
Ok, I'll admit now that I'm new to the world of HDTV's

What's 720p. And what's HDMI?

Cheers,
Click to expand...

720 just means it has 720 vertical pixels. 'p' stands for progressive scan, while 'i' is interlaced. Don't worry about what they mean; its like rocket science :)

As for opinions, I can't say anything bad about my Panasonic. The colour and contrast is great, the viewing angle is bigger than you'll ever need, the sound out of the inbuilt speakers is surprisingly good and bassy...

Anything more? ;)
 
MortimerJazz said:
Ok, I'll admit now that I'm new to the world of HDTV's

What's 720p. And what's HDMI?

Cheers,
Click to expand...

HDMI = High Definition Media Interface. Basically it's the HD version of a SCART cable.

As for 720p, well thats a little harder to explain.

There are a few picture outputs most HDTVs can show, 420i, 420p, 720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Without going into too much detail the numbers stand for the number of vertical lines in the display resolution.

They basically go up in quality. 'i' stands for interlaced and 'p' stands for progressive, that is how the screen shows the picture both being different depending on what you are viewing. Progressive, or 'p' is the way you need to go for general day-to-day use.

It's all explained pretty well here, read through it. :)
 
Scarlet Fever said:
I recently got a Panasonic Viera 32" LCD, and it's awesome! I can't find a price for it in the UK, but I think it would fit your budget perfectly :)
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you there as I have the exact same one but you won't find this for £500 as I paid over £1k for it but it came as a package.

My parents have a Sony bravio one and those are nice too. You might be able to get one in the sales for that price as LCD TV's have dropped down in value here now. Good luck with your find.

I just wanted to say though that my first LCD TV purchase was a Phillips. I took it home, set it up and the picture quality was absolutely awful. So awful it was almost un-watchable. I took it back to the shop and swapped to the Panasonic one (quoted above) but I may have just got a dodgy one. I wouldn't touch now though. I'm not saying they're all like that because maybe I did get a dodgy one but it's put me off.
 
Sony and Samsung make the best HDTVs.

I got my 26'' BRAVIA for $699 from B&H.
 
Markleshark said:
Sony has the name, thats all. Their TVs are not a patch on the likes of Samsung and Pioneer.
Click to expand...

I disagree with that... my mum has a sony TV and it is really quite a nice device. We also have a (larger) samsung which is great... but I wouldnt put the Sony down like that - its a pretty good TV.
 
Markleshark said:
Sony has the name, thats all. Their TVs are not a patch on the likes of Samsung and Pioneer.
Click to expand...

Clearly, you have never seen an XBR4 or XBR5 in action. I own the former, and it is the basically the best LCD (apart from the XBR5) that you can buy for the money, without going into insanely high price ranges. Sure, an LED light Samsung might have better blacks, but they are so unreliable since the technology is new. Samsung and Sony both get their LCD panels from the same [Samsung] factory, and only differ in the computing chips used to process the images, which the Sony has one up on the Samsung.
 
MortimerJazz said:
What's 720p.
Cheers,
Click to expand...

As has been explained before, it's a part of the resolution, 720 pixels vertically. Most HDTVS are either 720p (1366 x 720 or thereabouts) or 1080p (1920 x 1080). With a TV in the size range you're looking for, you probably won't notice much difference between 720p and 1080p with an exception being made if you plan on hooking your computer up to it.
 
Well, we don't have a TV in our house :) And no plans to buy one, HD or otherwise. Too much ***** on the box these days. There are some good programs, but it's too much hard work to find them. Bring back the 4 channels that God gave us I say!

We do sometimes watch DVDs on our laptops, and this xmas we borrowed a video projector from work.

Faboulous! 7 foot wide screen! Can be easily moved between bedroom and lounge! (both have white walls) So now, buying a video projector is on our maybe list.

They're pretty cheap now, only about £500 for a decent one.
 
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