I am planning to buy a LCD tv ..help me select

hi ! I am planning to buy a 32 " LCD TV. Have been checking the specs of two brands , namely Sony & Sharp. Had almost shortlisted Sharp but then someone told me that Sharp after sales service is not good and they don"t have as many service centres as Sony does. So changed my mind for Sony. But fortunately i read comments of some members and feel disheartened now about Sony. So a bit confused which one to go in for. In fact with this issue of Aspect Ratio ( 4:3 and 16 : 1 ) and the resulting stretched picture has put me in a thought ..is it really worth putting in so much of money in a LCD tv !!

Can someone guide me ..which brand should i buy ? I have an option of going to Singapore and picking of a good TV from there . All i need is advice .
Waiting .

Hi,

I was in the same state about a year ago. I was considering Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and Samsung. During my research, I realized that most shops displayed HD content for their demo. The reviews on the US/UK site also give very high weightage for the HD display.

However in India, you rarely have a native HD feed (unless you are one of those few who have a HD disk player or have an upscaling DVD player). So checking the TV on SD content is very important (so that you are not dissappointed when you view the TV at home). I also believe, that a TV that does good with SD will also probably do well with HD (once it is available). So keep these considerations in mind while you select.

Just FYI, I selected the Panasonic over the other three and am an happy owner of LM60 for over an year now. However, you have to make your selection based on your requirements. So select not just the brand but the exact product (each manufacturer has many of them in 32") carefully.

Regards,
Prasad.

Hi ! Thanks for your invaluable suggestion. I have also checked Panasonic 32" , model LX D 700 with DCR of 8500 : 1 and PCR of 16 : 9 . If you have any comments on this one , i would appreciate. I have certainly dropped the idea of Sony now. What about Hitachi vis-a-vis Panasonic ?

Regards.

Yogesh Grotra

Garry,

You can go for Samsumg Full HD TV. I am owning one of these 46 inches. The same you can consider for 32 inches.

I am very satisfied with this TV, it has all the new features you can look for. Very clear picture quality with HDMI and excellent outlook.

Full HD is little costlier than HD ready, but theres a lot of difference in picture quality. It will be a one time investment.

when you think of lcd, you have to think of full system (ie concept of hd).
More you understand hd more it is easy to decide.

If you have decided for lcd (for some reason)

1. check minimum vertical resolution is minimum 780. This is dvd resolution. our normal resolution is very less (almost 340 )and most of dth channels are coming up to 468 or so. full hd has 1080 vertical pixels.
1a, buy lcd has hdmi connection.
1b. more brightness the better (8500:1 is really good)
1c. check for response time less than 8ms. without this your lcd is only a monitor not a video panel.
1d. check for viewing angle both horizontal & vertical has to be 160 minimum

2. when buying lcd, go for dth or else no point in having lcd.

3. buy dvd player which has hdmi and upscaling

4. always view your dth tv through upscaling dvd player.
5. if suppose you buy full hd, invest in blu ray player or hd-dvd player or buy playstation-3 or xbox-360.
i would suggest wait another 2 years, whatever you are seeing in market are obsolete technology except full-hd & hd ready lcd panels. dont buy anything less than this.

Valid points!

Hi,

Though I agree with your suggestions, I do not agree with all your points. I also feel that there are some factual errors in some of your statement. This post is just to correct some misnomers. Some of my sources are:
DVD Player Benchmark - Introduction
NTSC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(1) DVD resolution is *NOT* 780 vertical lines. DVDs can be in NTSC format (480vertical x 720horizontal) or PAL (576vertical x 720horizontal). Upscaling DVD players just interpolate and generate 720 vertical lines (720p) or 1080 vertical lines (1080i/1080p) from the 480p data.
(2) TV (whether from Tata Sky or Cable distributor) is in interlaced (generally called 480i/576i) while DVDs are generally in progressive format (generally called 480p/576p). However, Tata Sky (and generally all DTH or set-top box based solutions) are better than cable because they rely on digital transmission where the intermediate noise is reduced drastically.
(3) Contrast ratios have become a marketing hype as all do not use the same notion. Samsung uses dynamic contrast - What is the brightest picture possible in one frame followed by the darkest in the next frame? Sharp uses a different measure which tells what is the darkest and the brightest possible in the same frame. Hence, it is worthless to compare contrast ratio. However, be assured that the contrast ratios of all TV are adequate.
(4) There are many picture processing techniques which makes you feel that the picture is good while actually taking away some of the details. (DNie used in older Samsung TV was reported in avsforum.com to take away the details from darker scenes - something called as black crushing). Beware of such processing as they make the dark scenes (generally encountered in most Hollywood movies) unwatchable.

Having said this, I second all the above suggestions.
(a) Go for a LCD TV which has minimum of 720 lines of vertical resolution.
(b) HDMI connections (possibly 2) is a must for future expandability
(c) Response time 8ms (preferably 6ms) or less.
(d) Horizontal and vertical viewing angles greater that 160deg. Nowadays, you get horizontal viewing angles of 178deg.

No comments on (2).
(3) Depends upon the processing in your TV. LCD display is inherently a progressive type display. Hence it will have an in-built de-interlacer. Also to convert the input format into the native display format, it will have upscaling/downscaling capabilities. For eg. the processing the in the Pioneer Kuro plasmas is so good, that it beats most dvd players in the video processing capabilities (see link 1 above for more details). The four brands that I have mentioned above have decent video processing capabilities. However, the video processing improves in the higher models in case of Sony and Samsung. While, it was the same in all the models for Panasonic when I bought it. Not sure of panasonic now or Sharp.

My comments above applies to (4). No comments on (5).

My viewpoint is that its worth investing in an LCD for just the amount of space it saves as against a CRT. Also, the LCD technology has advanced enough that the actual difference during normal viewing is miniscule. You will be happy with whatever you buy.

Regards,
Prasad.

prasad you have good depth of knowledge on dvds. i agree there is some factual error on resolutions.
what ever i suggested is for those who dont have time to research on brands and models to choose,

anyone can adapt this lcd + upscaling dvd + dth to have a satisfying experience.

existing set of av systems ie dvd/vcd player, cable tv wont give you satisfying experience with lcd. ie point i want to drive.

rather my suggestion is a formula which if choosen will provide a satifying experience.

Garry, do take a look into these models before making your choice.

a) Samsung LN-T3253H
b) Sharp LC-32GP1U

All the best.

Hi,

I totally agree with you on the suggestions. And you offered very good suggestions to the original poster.

My idea was just to increase the awareness of the people on this forum. The ultimate idea is that people are not taken in by the smooth talk and blatant misinformation spread by many consumer electronic dealers in India.

Regards,
Prasad Redkar.