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Smaller sized HD televisions.

RPP

RPP

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 13, 2006
49
0
Melbourne, Australia
You guys are pretty wise when it comes to technology (being mac users), so I thought this forum would be an appropriate place to seek some advice.

Can anyone suggest a good, smaller sized television that comes with an in-built HDTV tuner? It seems like the market only supports those who wish to buy the largest tvs possible. Basically, what's the smallest television I can buy from a reliable company that comes with an in-built HDTV tuner?
 
I wouldn't get a TV with a built in HDTV tuner - get an external one.

HDTV and digital broadcasting is moving along so quickly at the moment that you're going to be buying a TV which has soon-to-be out of date technology in it.
 
Well, I think Sony makes a 11" TV using OLED technology that kicks some major arse. but it costs $230 per inch
 
My family were in the same boat. We had a 14" CRT (also Sony) before (don't watch much TV, don't want it taking over the living room). We went for a 20" BRAVIA KDL-20S3050 in the end. It doesn't take up that much more space than the CRT and looks a lot nicer.

It was a bit pricey (there was some money of at the time), but did come with:

[1] Digital Tuner
[2] Up to 1080i HD
[3] Dolby Virtual Surround Sound
[4] HDMI input
[5] 4000:1 Contrast Ratio
[6] BRAVIA engine

All the other smaller TVs from others compromised in terms of input, contrast ratio, sound or picture. The model comes in colours, we went for the “Mocha”, which is sort of like a dark grey.

Edit: Sony's smallest BRAVIA is a 15", but it is 4:3 and not widescreen, which kind of defeats the point.
 
"HD" is all about getting a certain resolution. With small televisions, you simply don't "need" to have so many pixels in order to get HD quality. It's not really about the resolution. You should care more about pixel density, which means that an 70 cm TV will/should look better than a 100 cm TV, if the resolution of the televisions is the same, and if you are looking at them from the same distance away. But once you start asking for very small HD televisions, you get these screens with super dense pixels, and they just don't do that right now.

That's just an educated guess, not a solid explanation. I could be wrong, but I think that if they could make screens with high pixel density just to cater to the small TV market, they would have done the same for larger TVs.
 
Killyp said:
I wouldn't get a TV with a built in HDTV tuner - get an external one.

HDTV and digital broadcasting is moving along so quickly at the moment that you're going to be buying a TV which has soon-to-be out of date technology in it.
Click to expand...

Umm, no. The ATSC standard isn't going to change for quite a while. The group that developed the standard was formed in 1982 and we're just doing the transition from NTSC to ATSC now.


Now, back to the OP. I just got a new 23'' Samsung that's really nice. I'd definitely recommend it. They also make a 19'' if you wanted to go smaller. If you're staying at 32'' or below, the TVs you can get are going to be 720p (because you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on that small of a screen).
 
zioxide said:
Umm, no. The ATSC standard isn't going to change for quite a while. The group that developed the standard was formed in 1982 and we're just doing the transition from NTSC to ATSC now.


Now, back to the OP. I just got a new 23'' Samsung that's really nice. I'd definitely recommend it. They also make a 19'' if you wanted to go smaller. If you're staying at 32'' or below, the TVs you can get are going to be 720p (because you can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on that small of a screen).
Click to expand...

The OP is in Australia, and Killyp is in the UK. I think they use different broadcast standards than we do, so he may have a valid point. I don't know what the lifetime is like on their stuff over there
 
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