Looking For 32"- General Qs From Noob

[Jdrive]

Hi all,

Looking to get a 32" LCD in the next month or two, I have two 19" Samsungs that I got free with Optus phones a few years ago, I dont think they are HD (maybe a HDMI port?.. anyway)

I am pov so have been looking at AWA/DSE branded 32" LCD for around the $398-498 mark. Also saw some cheapy Pana/Sharp/Vivo models around the same $500 price, but seeing as I would prefer extended warranty would prefer the $400 mark (which takes it to $500 when you add in the warranty these things should come with more than 12mo).. most say they are 1080P (or 1080 via input), but none make reference to the refresh rate.. where as I notice more expensive models make sure they mention they are 100Hz. Is this because the cheapies are less? Does it even matter? Will be a lounge TV, used for casual gaming/dvds etc (I will pick up a BR player a few months after the tele though).

Anyone had any issues with DSE/AWA brand? I am not a videophile but I dont want ghosting/issues as I will notice obvious problems.

I will probably think of more stupid questions to ask later.. any input appreciated :-D

Edited December 7, 2010 by Jdrive

[-Bishop-]

I know there is a sea of random brand LCD's out there now, for me it's time I dumped my big CRT and got one, but I also have no clue what to get, last time I was in a store though I noticed some obvious differences between brands in terms of picture refresh rates, so I think personally I'll base what I buy off how one looks when it's running.

And yeah the warranty does seem awfully short on LCD, last few CRT tv's bought had anywhere from 3-5 years, all the new LCD including my PC monitor are what seems a very short 12 months, that is like blink and it's over time.

[pgdownload]

Waranties have largely become optional. IMO that's a good thing. Used to be you had no choice. You bought a TV you effectively paid $x+ for the embedded warranty. Now you can decide. Get a cheaper TV and either roll the dice (which IMO are still in your favour) or pay the $200 or so and get your warranty.

Seems there's quite a few 'old timers' finally deciding to give up their great 32" CRTs. I made the leap this week too.

FWIW, although I definitely recommend eyeballing TVs in store, they still mostly do an attrocious kob of displaying TVs to their potential. The TV I bought actually has a "shop or home" mode (Shop being something you'd never run at home but would look great short term in a store). IMO you should probably workout what reports of what models are good online, then do the eyballing to see if there's anything that really turns you off. It is somewhat of a leap of faith

I got the Panasonic 42" V20 Plasma ($1100). If you wanted larger then the 54" model is gettable at Myer for $2000

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[-Bishop-]

Making the jump to a LCD TV is probably more about the old CRT's finally wearing out. LOL

That and of course everything is 16:9 now, so you feel silly only using part of your TV screen constantly (if you don't zoom like me).

And yeah I usually base what I buy based off what I see, but they must tweak some things and in a brightly lit store, last CRT I got originally was a LG, got it home and it looked terrible, that bad I took it back and swapped it for a Samsung, which looked fine once home, better than in the store in fact compared to the LG.

Last time I was in BJhifi, some of the LCD's looked terrible, and others looked really good, with the odd part being cost was not the factor in how good all of them looked.

[johndee]

Making the jump to a LCD TV is probably more about the old CRT's finally wearing out. LOL

That and of course everything is 16:9 now, so you feel silly only using part of your TV screen constantly (if you don't zoom like me).

And yeah I usually base what I buy based off what I see, but they must tweak some things and in a brightly lit store, last CRT I got originally was a LG, got it home and it looked terrible, that bad I took it back and swapped it for a Samsung, which looked fine once home, better than in the store in fact compared to the LG.

Last time I was in BJhifi, some of the LCD's looked terrible, and others looked really good, with the odd part being cost was not the factor in how good all of them looked.

Have a good look at the back of the TV.

How is the input connected? I have seen one well known cHaiN store who connected the cheaper TV's with composite and the more expensive ones with component or HDMI. Guess which looked better.

I have just bought a Samsung 7000 series, and that was the first thing I did before deciding which was the better picture.

JB

[-Bishop-]

That same last visit to BJ I noticed they had done a major upgrade on how everything was hooked up, even the cheap stuff was all running off a massive distribution of Component connections, it generally gave everything a simular picture quality level (source wise), which just left you noticing what was important like refresh rates sharpness etc.

Having said that the last time I was in a Hardly Normal store, they still had everything hooked up via composite splitters, and 'everything' looked terrible.

Actually I was also at my Mums last night, she had bought a used LCD of somewhere or other, she made a comment at one point that she was disappointed how the picture looked, I noticed when I was leaving she had hooked it up to the STB with just composite video, so not all that surprising it looked fairly poor.

[BribieG]

Our local Dick (on Bribie Island) has recently upgraded the store and the 32 inch LCDs look great. I notice they have a runout 768 non full HD for around $380 and my stepdaughter is going to buy one, she lives in a little townhouse with a small lounge and a 32 is ideal. Unless you get your nose to within half a metre of the screen you really can't tell much diff between that and the 1080 - she's not interested in BR. Actually we have a 32 non full HD on the wall in the lunch room at work, it's just a TEAC and I had to ask the techs what the res. was as I couldn't really tell just by looking at it - picture looks really crisp.

Say what you like about DS nowadays the local stores are pretty good with returns and warranties as opposed to the likes of Big W (reportedly on this forum).