Full HD or HD ready - talk to me about TV's

[steve_earwig]

Gone are the days when Phillip's 12" drew gasps of admiration...

The devil made me do it

[jasper5]

My next tv will be OLED.

[markw]

And don't get me started on the old tale of when a young lady travelled excitedly to Ireland in the search for an 18" Murphy and was bitterly disappointed to find out it was a telly......

[OllieNZ]

Another thing to consider is power consumption, the 42" led telly in the living room uses less power than the 32" lcd we have in the bedroom and even compared to other comparable tellys at the time I think it was in the region of 10-20% better.

[gumby6371]

A pet hate of mine is people living in modern houses (shoebox) with ridiculously big TV's, usually over the faux fire place so you sit there moving your head from side to side to watch a movie and get a bad neck from looking up for 2 hours!
Big TV's are great but if you're sitting within a few feet of them or you're watching non HD you can certainly have too big a screen regardless of the price tag, at least until all content is HD.
I have a cheap (Tesco) Technika 32" full HD in the front room with a V+ HD box which is a good size for the small room, bigger and standard Freeview would be awful.

The TV is surprisingly good for the money, excellent in HD, reasonable on Freeview, loads of inputs, DVD player and USB playback, just over £200. I have a smaller version in the bedroom running just Freeview, the pause live TV is great when you need a jimmy!!! and the PC input means I can run an old tower as a media centre.

Ideally TV showrooms should show standard Freeview for a proper idea of what you'll watch most of the time, also roughly pace the distance from your chair to the screen at home and stand that far away when you're choosing one in a shop.

[rwb]

I don't get the thing with big TVs either -- or with mounting them high up on the wall.
What's really confusing is that these are also the people who watch videos on the tiny screens on their phones.

I have a 32" 1080p which I discovered, shortly after digital switchover, doesn't have a HD tuner
When I'm sat in my chair about 4m away it looks fine.
However, on the sofa about 2m away it sometimes looks burry.
I actually prefer to sit further away from it, and I'd be happy with a smaller screen. I guess it depends what you're used to.

Another thing to consider is smart tv features.
I have a Google ChromeCast and it's great for watching BBC iPlayer stuff on the TV -- even in HD! (Although it's a nightmare connecting it to the wireless -- I think BT's thing where it automatically changes the wifi channel if it's crowded upsets the ChromeCast.)

[FarmerPug]

Ive got an old Panasonic Vierra 37 inch lcd tv, its at least 5 years old because i only paid £50 for it but the picture and sound quality are great, a chrome cast plugged into the back gives it all the smart tv stuff it needs.

Does anyone notice on some of these new TVs particularly Samsung and LG ones with LED screens the picture seems to move a bit funny, its as if the framerate is a bit slowed down, things dont seem to move naturally on this type of tv?

[DaiRees]

Does anyone notice on some of these new TVs particularly Samsung and LG ones with LED screens the picture seems to move a bit funny, its as if the framerate is a bit slowed down, things dont seem to move naturally on this type of tv?

Yeah, my Samsung LED was like that when I first had it. It has a "feature" called motion plus which is supposed to enhance your viewing experience by making moving objects more realistic, but it was just like the camera was moving around all the time, it made me feel travel sick and was almost unwatchable! Went through the menus and turned off anything to do with any kind of enhancement and it's been lovely ever since

My in-laws had a Samsung plasma a few years back which had a different issue, that used to badly pixelate the area around a moving object, so a fixed camera with a person walking through the shot would result in the person having a blocky halo all around them. Again that was pretty bad but I never got to the bottom of it, eventually they upgraded to a bigger Panasonic Plasma which is a lovely telly.

[Welly]

The search will continue but I've really got to sort this asafp now, I reckon I'll chance it and go HD-ready as I'll be able to get both TV's on a tight budget.

I've just had an extension built (an alternative Lounge area) money's all gone and the TV is the last bit to sort out so we can use it. I say 'we' it's more 'me' so I can sit in peace watching was I want

[benczuk]

Excellent initial reply highlander, I actually learnt (why doesn't Firefox recognise that spelling?) something.

Surprised you didn't mention Smart however, indeed it has only had a couple of sideways mentions. I wouldn't pay circa £500 for a TV without smart features, and I would want a manufacturer I stood a chance of getting an upgrade to the software from in due course.

Also look at what media formats it will play, from what sources. I obtain quite a few American shows and it annoys the hell out of me spending 10 minutes trans coding each episode before it will play on my caravan TV.

All of the above may have sod all relevance to you, and as someone who only just upgraded from a 32" CRT in the living room to a 10 year old 42" plasma (£30) i cant really talk. But i would like to think that for that sort of cash i was getting something that i wouldn't need to throw away in a few years time.

[steve_earwig]

I actually learnt (why doesn't Firefox recognise that spelling?)

Because you're using the stock US dictionary?

[highlander]

I definitely don't want a smart TV. Some of them (LG, for example) have been caught uploading data about your viewing habits to the manufacturers. Smart TVs that have built-in webcams have also been found to be easily hackable, meaning someone could be watching you. Fine if you have a decent router at home with a decently-capable firewall.

If you want a smart TV, forget it and get a normal TV and plug in a Chromecast or a PS3/PS4. No idea about PS4 yet as I don't have one, but PS3 is definitely a nice little media player in its own right, capable of streaming music and video over your local network from NAS units or PCs running Windows Media Player, and capable of signing in to Netflix / Amazon Video / BBC iPlayer / ITV Player / 4oD accounts for catch up TV and on-demand movie/TV streaming. And they're not too expensive if you pick one up second hand - they can be had for under £100.

[Welly]

Smart TVs that have built-in webcams have also been found to be easily hackable, meaning someone could be watching you

Who'd want to watch an overweight balding middle aged man drinking Lager and farting?

Oh wait that's just me.

Carry on...

[gumby6371]

Just had this via the seemingly hourly email from ebuyer;
http://www.ebuyer.com/638920-lg-42lb550 ... v-42lb550v

Looks pretty good for £300 notes

[gumby6371]

Smart TVs that have built-in webcams have also been found to be easily hackable, meaning someone could be watching you

Who'd want to watch an overweight balding middle aged man drinking Lager and farting?

Oh wait that's just me.

Carry on...

Isn't that already a tv show called gogglebox????