Panel Lottery, alternatives to 40C530/550, grey market in Hyd?

[skumar]

I am upgrading to a 40" FHD LCD shortly, looking at Samsung 40C530, mainly because (a) had a trouble-free 32" sammy LCD for the last 3 years, (b) 40C530 is ~38" in length whereas I have ~40" space in my wall unit, (c) looked at C530, C550, not too keen on the additional features offered by C550 compared to C530 etc. I have a quote of 49.3k for 40C530 and 52k for 40C550 without any freebies/offers.

I have not looked at LG (refer (a)), and one of the salesman told that there are no 40" LCDs in their range.

Have been reading about the panel lottery, buzzing sound and see some of the posts are from 2007/2008. Would like to know if one or both these are still issues to reckon with today or have they been dealt with by Samsung and no longer issues? Can any of the experts (adder?) confirm this?

What are the experiences of members who bought Samsung LCDs in the last 6months? Any complaints on the panel (colours) or sound buzzing?

If I need/want to consider other brands, is Sony EX400 in the same league as C530? Are there any LG or Panasonic models that I could look at (40" only). Not too much worried about +10% price difference... Any other recommendations?

Finally, is there any grey market in Hyd for LCD TVs? where? Thanks.

 

[adder]

Well panel lottery is still there in samsung. AFAIK buzzing is a issue only in their plasma not lcd.
Again about the panels after you buy the lcd you won't really care about the difference in colors or the contrast.Its only when you start comparing will one find the difference.

Yes the EX400 is priced at 45k in grey market and yes its in the same category as C530/C550A.The lg and panasonic lcds have a lower contrast compared to sony/samsung.
This year sony is using mostly S lcd and sharp panels in led lcd and high end.

No idea about the grey market in hyd,but these days they only sell sony lcds in grey.

But you can't go wrong with both the samsung C5xx and sony EX400.

 

[amitksingh2003]

I bought Samsung 40B550 in Feb'10. Its more then 4 months now with no problems what so ever so far. Initially I didn't like the PQ much viewing Tata Sky compared to 21" CRT. However, after some time even Tata Sky PQ started appearing very good, though I am not sure whther it was because of my eyes adjusted to that or Tata Sky's transmission improvement.

 

[theironhorse]

hi skumar i got ur msg..unfortunately was not able to reply as was on the way to office. wud the get for you asap.

 

[theironhorse]

it happens amit once u shift from a crt to lcd and the tv looks like more of documentry..
once we get adjusted it seems to be normal.

also in case if the tru montion is on.. turn it off it makes tv look like documentry

 

[skumar]

got a quote of 55k for Sony 40"-EX400 with B&W. Still searching for that elusive grey market in Hyd... Once I confirm on whether I could get EX-400 in grey market, will deide between C530 and EX-400. The C530 is 38" wide whereas the EX-400 is 39" wide, leaning towards C530 now...

 

[S.P.KRISHNA]

Grey items - you will get inside Haridas market , Koti - Pappu electronic shop and also at Jagdish Market , Abids.

Regards

 

[theironhorse]

koti is a good place for electronics.. however jagdeesh market is specifically for cell phones

 

[skumar]

After all due consideration, bought the Samsung 40C530 last weekend, yet to mount it as Samsung is out of wall plates and will send me one later this week. Will come back over the weekend with first impressions.

Thanks for all the suggestions/help, price is 49.3k with B&W.