5punk

i couldn't immediately find a TV thread so i just made a new one, because i'm a bastard and such. anyway, my current tv is about 8 years old now, and although it's a good little thing, it's time for something fancy and more important, larger. so i'm looking for something affordable, rather good, and large enough (somewhere between 22 and 30 inch, to give you a rough idea) HD and other fancy things preferred.

cheers.

Currys have a 37'' LCD HDTV for £650 quid.

The 28" or 32" Samsungs are quite nice, my Dad just got one - although need a bit of tweaking to get the best picture for broadcast stuff. There are some long threads on a forum I found by searching the model number which are very helpful.

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Do they have Currys in Belgium?

no currys as far as i'm aware. however, we've got these guys; http://www.mediamarkt.be/home/index_nl

the've got a great range of stuff, and it's affordable.

Currys? No
Curries? Yes, but the belgians are a little, erm, shall we say, homosexual conservative when it comes to spicy food, so it's more like "indian tasting stew"

Mediamarkt, otoh is a pretty good shop.

/back on subject; I wanted a big screen telle a couple of years ago after getting a nice bonus at work. I ended up getting a projector. About 800 of your good English Pounds shuld be enough.

advantages;

upto 120" screen (max really about 100" due to screen availability, unless you have a convenient wall)
unobtrusive. Postion it (and the screen) correctly and you'll hardly notice it's there when you're not using it
until you switch it on that is and drop the screen and witness the 120" glory
Units these days take any input (PS2, PC, DVD and cable telle hooked up to mine)
Compact (easy to move house etc)
did I mention the 120" screen?

disadvantages

Bulb lasts about 3-5000 hrs then costs you a couple of hundred to replace. This is supposed to be a problem, but I've had mine 3 years and not needed to change the bulb yet (watch it blow this evening now I've said that)
Not as bright as a telle. however with the right model of projector you can zoom down the image size on a bright day, thus increasing the brightness (same lumens over a smaller area). Daylight viewing of 50"+ screen size is very possible. Still, good curtains are better
No sound. You need a sparate sound system. OTOH the first time you use a proper sound system instead of your telle speaker, you're never going back anyway.

i've been thinking about a projector, but it's for my room, and that particular room is a bit too small for a projector. just the right size for a tv though.

hmm, fair enough

you can get some projectors with very wide throws on them, about 2m from the wall to make 80-100", but really, if you can't sit back a little from the screen (2-3m I'd say) then you don't really get the benefit.

amblin wrote:Don't buy anything from currys ever.

This. I am about to start working there over xmas, but even with my rather nice discount I'll probably find stuff cheaper. Only reason I would go in (other than work) is to look at all the tv's next to each other and make a judgement of quality from that. But that again relys on them being set-up properly.


Samsung do make nice tv's, LG have got a lot better too, also sony, panasonic and philips, all of whom have been dropping prices recently because they've noticed lots of people buying other stuff thats pretty much as good, but for a lot less monies. Full 1080p 'proper' hd is getting a bit cheaper too, and plasma tv's are fighting back with improved viewing angles and cheaper pricing, it is a good time to get a loocudatuf ready for da hud.

For uk 5punkers - on ebuyer a 37" samsung bordeaux is £576.58, which is pretty bloody cheap, a full 1080p 37" hd LG is £734.76, also rather cheap.

I want a big new HD telly, but I can't afford it because I went and procreated.

Dog Pants wrote: I want a big new HD telly, but I can't afford it because I went and procreated.

pwnd by genetics (and missuses)

Mostly depends on your room size how big you want to go, particularly how far away from the screen you sit.

For the 2' I sit away from my monitor, a 22" widescreen is sufficient, with my 19" 4:3 only occupying my peripheral vision.

In my current sitting room at about 4', my 28" TV is right at the limit of how much as I can see at once, though I am moving my TV room to one where I'll be around 8' from the screen (for better Wii-age) and it might look a little small.

My Dad's 32" at between 10' and 12' is okay for social viewing, but could be larger for better immersion on your own.

Go too big for the distance and it's actually quite uncomfortable in a front-row-of-the-cinema-type way.

Dog Pants wrote: I want a big new HD telly, but I can't afford it because I went and procreated.

You've got to wrap it up before you slap it up, big dog!

HereComesPete wrote: You've got to wrap it up before you slap it up, big dog!

i settled for a 26" vestel*, because all the samsungs where either too expensive or too small. at the moment it's sitting pretty much in front of me, and as FJ said it's better from a distance. i'll probably hang it on the wall sometime tomorrow, for increased viewing pleasure.


*according to the salesman this is the new name of JVC. i think he's full of shit but the price was significantly lower.

He's kinda full of shit.

apparently they make stuff for a lot of other companies, including JVC.

Low price for the size you want has always been my motto. Never paid more than I could afford to buy again in two years time - to hell with store warranties, though I've actually only had to buy three tellies in ten years - two were second-hand and the latest is less than a year old, total price around 700 notes.

Unfortunately, technology sometimes does a jump on you, and my non-HD CRT now looks a bit pants and I almost wish it would blow up to give me an excuse to get an HD-ready LCD. Not a forlorn hope, as even though I bought it new, it's the crappest, least robust one I've owned.

to be fair, this one is really nice but i still have to figure out how to make it a bit less "grainy" although i believe it's more of a distance thing. i'll give it a nice place on the wall tomorrow to see if it makes any difference.

It may well be grainy from running non-hd stuff. Press all the buttons on the remote, and try all options in settings, failing that you could look in the instructions manual