New LED TV Advice
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andyred
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chouglez said:
My only advice would be to listen to it if you can, there are numerous sets out there that look good etc, but the sound quality lets them down significantly. Obviously you can get round this with extra external speakers / theatre kit.
Hope this is of some help ...
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Don't put too much weight on LED - it is just a different form of back-lighting - the panel could be the same. Some of the LED sets you can see the light sources on dark scenes so check the reviews when you find one you like. I went for a conventional backlit set as it just looked better. On a different model LED might be better. Don't rule anything out until you have seen it.
arad85
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The latest Pannys aren't half bad. Ms arad85s' mum has just spent £400 on a 42" Panny plasma and it's not far off the Pioneer plasma we have here (bit of a green tinge by comparison when next to it but...)
Anything LED/LCD looked abysmal by comparison and that was in the showroom where everything is pushed to make it look good...
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I wouldn't say that is true of the 3D TV's. the picture quality for normal 2D on a 3D capable set looks just as good,if not better, than plasma to me and is the only reason I bought a 3D LCD TV. We only have the one pair of glasses it came with as the 3D is just a gimmick for us.
arad85
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TBH, it's very difficult to judge what a TV is capable of in the usual slew of out of town electrical retailers. Not only do they have it on dynamic picture settings to make it look appealing to the punter (but loses all semblance of accuracy) but it is often very difficult to demo what you'd normally watch - which for most people is SD TV with a smattering of HD. Why is this an issue - simply because there are 1001 ways of scaling SD TV onto an HD panel. Some are good, some are bad.
The times I've bought TVs recently, I've chosen from reviews and other peoples comments (avforums.com is quite a good resource for this). Rarely do I go to the likes of Comet/Currys to look at TVs. Having said that, we did visit Comet before buying the MIL's Panny as I wanted to show her plasma and LCD side by side. Once we'd taken the TVs out of "jump-out-and-assault-you" mode, it was clear that the colour rendition, black levels and viewing angles just didn't cut it on the LCD/LEDs we tried (including a smaller Panasonic backlit TV with IPS screen) and some had some dodgy scaling going on too.
Also, buy bigger than you think you want. I wish I'd gone for the 60" now (not that I had the money for it anyway but). When this TV gives up the ghost, I'll be looking for the biggest Panny I can lay my hands on....... I mean afford
The times I've bought TVs recently, I've chosen from reviews and other peoples comments (avforums.com is quite a good resource for this). Rarely do I go to the likes of Comet/Currys to look at TVs. Having said that, we did visit Comet before buying the MIL's Panny as I wanted to show her plasma and LCD side by side. Once we'd taken the TVs out of "jump-out-and-assault-you" mode, it was clear that the colour rendition, black levels and viewing angles just didn't cut it on the LCD/LEDs we tried (including a smaller Panasonic backlit TV with IPS screen) and some had some dodgy scaling going on too.
Also, buy bigger than you think you want. I wish I'd gone for the 60" now (not that I had the money for it anyway but). When this TV gives up the ghost, I'll be looking for the biggest Panny I can lay my hands on....... I mean afford
neil_g
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The latest Pannys aren't half bad. Ms arad85s' mum has just spent £400 on a 42" Panny plasma and it's not far off the Pioneer plasma we have here (bit of a green tinge by comparison when next to it but...)
Anything LED/LCD looked abysmal by comparison and that was in the showroom where everything is pushed to make it look good...
i know panasonic and pioneer used the same panels at one point (hence after the kuros went out of production the panasonics were the next best thing)
arad85
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Definitely different panels on the 2008/2009 production runs (which is when I bought mine - I did a LOT of research at the time!). Think Panasonic picked up some of the Pioneer engineers when they shut up shop. A couple of years ago, Pioneer were definitely the class leaders in the consumer space. Decent black levels, the "best" upscaling and deinterlacing technology together with some calibration controls. Just a shame they were priced out of the market...
Panasonic are doing some neat features now - not least the ability to fully ICC calibrate the panel in situ. That's also a must-have feature for me on any TV for serious viewing.
antihero
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Pioneer were seen as market leaders, especially plasma's for exactly the reasons you stated....lush deep blacks
although I thought they left the TV market to concentrate on in-car entertainment? (which to this day I still don't quite get)
neil_g
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Pioneer were seen as market leaders, especially plasma's for exactly the reasons you stated....lush deep blacks
although I thought they left the TV market to concentrate on in-car entertainment? (which to this day I still don't quite get)
as andy said, pioneer were having to make them at a loss so it was a no brainer to bail out.
scottthehat
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you can never judge a telly properly in a shop, so look for reviews and take them with a pinch of salt like everything in life people will always favour some brands, personally when i brought my first lcd tv going back 8 years ago the sharps were the best i could find and updated it a few years later, i decided a couple weeks ago to update again and one again i got a sharp 60" 3d led quatron and the picture quality is just amazing.
http://www.sharpdirect.co.uk/quattr...e-60-inch-quattron-3d-led-tv/invt/lc60le831e/
http://www.sharpdirect.co.uk/quattr...e-60-inch-quattron-3d-led-tv/invt/lc60le831e/
Rico
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Plasma all the way. It's not just about the best blacks, it's the best all round colours and whites as well. You wouldn't want blown out 'whiter than white' whites in your photos so why would you settle for them on a TV?
Most definitely. When I renewed my telly I thought 50" was big enough (and it took ages to convince the Mrs why 50" was better than 32"! :bang
but once it was home and in situ I realised I could have gone bigger! 
onomatopoeia
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The price difference going from a Panasonic to a Kuro was something to behold though. It was something like £600 vs £2000 for a 42" when I bought my first plasma, so I bought the Panasonic
arad85
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Yes. I ended up with the 50" LX508 (first full HD panel). The ability to calibrate it and the fact it did 24p properly swung it over the 50" Panasonic of the time (the panasonic did 3:2 pulldown and displayed 24p at 60p which annoyed the heck out of me as I have a lot of film material).The price difference going from a Panasonic to a Kuro was something to behold though. It was something like £600 vs £2000 for a 42" when I bought my first plasma, so I bought the Panasonic
Mine cost £3200 (as opposed to £1800 for the Panny) from memory
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LED Technology has caught up with Plasma on these large screens now. Samsung are probably the leaders in this particular field. They do a 46" that fits your requirements with freeview and wi-fi included. The John Lewis site gives some good reviews. http://www.johnlewis.com/231244295/Product.aspx?source=63318
It's £50 cheaper at Comet.
It's £50 cheaper at Comet.
arad85
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Have to say, not in the comparisons I did before Christmas....
scottthehat
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i agree and looked at plasmas and led and lcd and got the one that had the best colours and the best black and whites, and that was the sharp quatron,
neil_g
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likewise in what ive seen friends and family buy
arad85
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Did you take the TVs out of "burn your retina cos everything is so far pushed" mode in the shop? 99% of people don't.
It is VERY difficult to compare TV sets in a shop environment and understand how well they actually perform. Setting them to an accurate colour balance/brightness will make TVs look very dull and dreary compared to shop mode TVs next to them.
hdtvtest.co.uk is a good site to get reviews by people who know what they are on about when it comes to calibrating TVs (if the exact model isn't listed, they oftenm have a different size but same variant)....
scottthehat
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yeah i sure did infact i tried them at home over a couple nights(got a friend that work for a hifi company) and he kindly borrowed the ones i was interested in to try, so i tried it on my gear,cables.
arad85
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Out of interest, which models did you try?
scottthehat
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i tried the
Samsung PS64D8000
Panasonic VIERA TXP50VT30
Sharp AQUOS LC60LE636E
Samsung UE55D7000
Panasonic VIERA TXP50GT30
sharp LC60LE831E 60 inch Quattron
was a few i tried, i tried 10 in total ranging from 42" and upto 60" all seemed close but the sharp quatrons colours just wowed me.
arad85
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That's interesting... Looking at the review of the 40" LE831E here: http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/sharp-lc40le831e-lc40le831-201111101501.htm?page=Performance it does mention that the colours it produces are different to other panels. Just shows how personal preference come into these things.
boliston
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My partner recently got a 40" LED Samsung set and the default settings were shockingly bad. The worst thing was the awful "edge enhancement" which put nasty artefacts, like ghosting, near straight edges. The hdtvtest.co.uk site had recommended settings for the set with sharpness set at 0% instead of 50% and the artefacts were no longer visible - also the default colour settings were awful and too "in your face", with the hdtvtest settings much better.
joescrivens
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am also interested in an LED TV having seen them come down in price so much lately. Currently I have a panasonic Viera 50 inch plasma.
Reading through this thread it seems that a lot of people don't rate the LEDs. Interesting, so I understand that the tv shops crank up the settings and then put on a blurry dvd disc, but are they trying to shift the LEDs over the normal LCD and plasmas because in the shops i have been in the LEDs seem to blow the other tv's away. Are the cranking up the settings just on the LEDs to make the other tv's not look as good in comparison?
Reading through this thread it seems that a lot of people don't rate the LEDs. Interesting, so I understand that the tv shops crank up the settings and then put on a blurry dvd disc, but are they trying to shift the LEDs over the normal LCD and plasmas because in the shops i have been in the LEDs seem to blow the other tv's away. Are the cranking up the settings just on the LEDs to make the other tv's not look as good in comparison?
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Having just ordered a new LED TV for the bedroom I was reading through the spec on the Sony site. One thing that caught my eye was home use power consumption 59 Watts, shop mode 101 Watts. No wonder they look bright in the shops.
Oh and very little research for this purchase. Saw it on HotUKDeals at Mark and Sparks for a very good price and 5 year warranty included.
Oh and very little research for this purchase. Saw it on HotUKDeals at Mark and Sparks for a very good price and 5 year warranty included.
joescrivens
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which one did you get robert?
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This one
It says 3D but will never be used for 3D. price is better than 2D sets of similar spec. DNLA and USB will get used.
arad85
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LED/LCD TVs are great for displaying bright things. They have a backlit design which means you can get lots of light through the pixel plane and out to the viewer. It's very easy to whack up the light and make it jump out at you in store. Plasmas, by definition, make their own light and are not as efficient at it, so cannot get very white screens blasting out at you (in fact, plasma brightness depends on how much of the screen is bright - the more it is, the less power per square cm is output).
Shop settings are WAY over the top as I managed to demonstrate to the MiL before Christmas by turning the Panny she ended up buying into True Cinema mode. Brightness very much reduced, as was perceived dynamic contrast and it looked dull as dishwater in comparison to the other sets in the shop. Back on dynamic and it we were back to ultra-brite whites etc. We had her TV delivbered here as she was out working. When we put it in True Cinema mode and compared it side by side to my ISF calibrated Pioneer, they were pretty close (there was a slight green tint in comparison to the Pioneer but that was pretty much it).
The downside to LCD/LED TVs tends to be difficulty in getting true blacks (LEDs are better at this), viewing angles and displaying anything other than perfect HD material (which tends to be CGI movies) well. I haven't yet seen an LCD/LED TV do a good job of upsampling SD broadcasts (this is normally VERY difficult to test in shop as most don't have aerial feeds) and IMHO, they don't do as well on natural colour rendition. They do a fab job on rendering computer displays though as they can display really sharp pixels (something plasmas are not brilliant at doing hence why they look more analogue).
I'm teetering on buying a new bedroom TV - have my eye on one of the 3 lower end Pannys which can be had for as little as £400 for a 42" set. Having just bought a media centre for the bedroom, I think it's only a matter of time before I give in and replace the crappy LCD 40"....
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arad85
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Noo.. If I could justify the cost to myself, I'd get a 50" for the bedroom. I'll certainly be looking at going from 50" in the living room to 60"-65" when it comes time to replace.And there was me thinking the 32" I've ordered may be a bit large for the bedroom
Mind, it does depend on your bedroom - our bedroom TV is a good 11ft away from the nearest usual viewing point.