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LCD TV choice / reliabilty

B

b

Jan 1, 1970
0
Al Moodie ha escrito:
Hi,

I'm about to upgrade our 5 year old 26" Sony Wega CRT by purchasing
an LCD TV, probably 40" - 46". I've been loking mostly at Sony and
Samsung.

What's the general reliability/repairability of LCD TVs, particularly
these brands.

These sets come only with a 1 year warranty. Does it make sense to
spend $250 for a 3 year extended warranty considering the sets
themselves are priced at $1600 - $2000.

Al Moodie.

Don't do it. what's wrong with the sony CRT set?
LCD's are awful , see:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/consumernews/story/0,,2014901,00.html
 
A

Al Moodie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,

I'm about to upgrade our 5 year old 26" Sony Wega CRT by purchasing
an LCD TV, probably 40" - 46". I've been loking mostly at Sony and
Samsung.

What's the general reliability/repairability of LCD TVs, particularly
these brands.

These sets come only with a 1 year warranty. Does it make sense to
spend $250 for a 3 year extended warranty considering the sets
themselves are priced at $1600 - $2000.

Al Moodie.
 
M

Mike Berger

Jan 1, 1970
0
That was not the conclusion of the article you cited.
Maybe your criteria are different than al's.
 
C

Charles Schuler

Jan 1, 1970
0
Don't do it. what's wrong with the sony CRT set?
LCD's are awful , see:

What is awful about them? I was just at Best Buy and the pictures on most
them looked wonderful.
 
A

Arfa Daily

Jan 1, 1970
0
Charles Schuler said:
What is awful about them? I was just at Best Buy and the pictures on most
them looked wonderful.
Most of the pictures that I see on them look bloody awful, so I'm not going
to be replacing my 36" Tosh CRT set anytime soon. However, I have seen some
*very* good pictures on some NEC pro plasma panels installed at a local bar
where I gave some assistance to the installer / supplier with some sound
distribution issues. These were big mothers - like 60" - and weighed in at a
hefty 6 grand UKP each, but it just goes to show that given the money, these
things can work. I think that part of the problem is that people trade up
from a 26" CRT set to a 40" flat panel, and then sit the same distance in
front of it. I have to admit that the further you get away from them (
assuming that your living room is big enough ) the better they look, but
that's defeating the object of upgrading the size, as you come back to,
effectively, a 26" equivalent again ...

My daughter recently bought a 32" Philips LCD, and I have to say that in
general, it looks pretty good - good enough brightness, contrast ratio and
viewing angle, that I initially mistook it for a plasma. However, that said,
you can still see motion artifacts on it, and colour shading rendition
errors, that just are not there on a CRT set with a standard off-air TV
signal going in - either analogue or digital. My mother has a Panasonic CRT
set with a built in digital tuner which is now exclusively all that is used
to receive off-air transmissions. With the exception of the low bitrate
'cheapo' channels, which suffer from all of these digital display problems
anyway, the picture on this set is still better than my daughter's LCD.

I think that the best advice that can be given to anyone thinking of
purchasing a flat panel TV, is to set aside a half day to go into the stores
that are selling them, have a really good look from the sort of viewing
distance and angle that you will be at in your home, and talk to the sales
person. Whether they are showing pictures from a DVD or not, all stores have
the capability of showing a real off-air picture, so you should ask to see a
variety of stations' pictures on any set that takes your fancy. Don't be
taken in by the nice darkened home cinema demo areas either. A lot of the
time, your TV will be watched in daylight, not a darkened room. Also, don't
let the salesman blind you with just HD pictures. Make sure that you see
some 'normal' resolution pictures as well, as these will still be the
standard for a while to come yet, and if the set is operating in a
non-native mode to display these, it may perform rather less well than it
does in its native hi res mode ( a bit like LCD PC monitors ).

As far as the extended waranty deals go, I would recommend them, but make
VERY sure that the panel itself is covered under the terms of it. Some, I
believe, exclude this very expensive (both plasma and LCD) item. Hope this
helps.

Arfa
 
J

Jim Yanik

Jan 1, 1970
0
Most of the pictures that I see on them look bloody awful, so I'm not
going to be replacing my 36" Tosh CRT set anytime soon. However, I
have seen some *very* good pictures on some NEC pro plasma panels
installed at a local bar where I gave some assistance to the installer
/ supplier with some sound distribution issues. These were big mothers
- like 60" - and weighed in at a hefty 6 grand UKP each, but it just
goes to show that given the money, these things can work. I think that
part of the problem is that people trade up from a 26" CRT set to a
40" flat panel, and then sit the same distance in front of it. I have
to admit that the further you get away from them ( assuming that your
living room is big enough ) the better they look, but that's defeating
the object of upgrading the size, as you come back to, effectively, a
26" equivalent again ...

My daughter recently bought a 32" Philips LCD, and I have to say that
in general, it looks pretty good - good enough brightness, contrast
ratio and viewing angle, that I initially mistook it for a plasma.
However, that said, you can still see motion artifacts on it, and
colour shading rendition errors, that just are not there on a CRT set
with a standard off-air TV signal going in - either analogue or
digital. My mother has a Panasonic CRT set with a built in digital
tuner which is now exclusively all that is used to receive off-air
transmissions. With the exception of the low bitrate 'cheapo'
channels, which suffer from all of these digital display problems
anyway, the picture on this set is still better than my daughter's
LCD.

I think that the best advice that can be given to anyone thinking of
purchasing a flat panel TV, is to set aside a half day to go into the
stores that are selling them, have a really good look from the sort of
viewing distance and angle that you will be at in your home, and talk
to the sales person. Whether they are showing pictures from a DVD or
not, all stores have the capability of showing a real off-air picture,
so you should ask to see a variety of stations' pictures on any set
that takes your fancy. Don't be taken in by the nice darkened home
cinema demo areas either. A lot of the time, your TV will be watched
in daylight, not a darkened room. Also, don't let the salesman blind
you with just HD pictures. Make sure that you see some 'normal'
resolution pictures as well, as these will still be the standard for a
while to come yet, and if the set is operating in a non-native mode to
display these, it may perform rather less well than it does in its
native hi res mode ( a bit like LCD PC monitors ).

As far as the extended waranty deals go, I would recommend them, but
make VERY sure that the panel itself is covered under the terms of it.
Some, I believe, exclude this very expensive (both plasma and LCD)
item. Hope this helps.

Arfa

One has to remember that with any TFT LCD display,there's a certain number
of pixels allowed to be defective and still be "salable" or "good".
The LCD monitor I'm using has one bad pixel [ON,not OFF]close to the top of
the display,and fortunately not in a really objectionable location.
 
J

Jamie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jim said:
Most of the pictures that I see on them look bloody awful, so I'm not
going to be replacing my 36" Tosh CRT set anytime soon. However, I
have seen some *very* good pictures on some NEC pro plasma panels
installed at a local bar where I gave some assistance to the installer
/ supplier with some sound distribution issues. These were big mothers
- like 60" - and weighed in at a hefty 6 grand UKP each, but it just
goes to show that given the money, these things can work. I think that
part of the problem is that people trade up from a 26" CRT set to a
40" flat panel, and then sit the same distance in front of it. I have
to admit that the further you get away from them ( assuming that your
living room is big enough ) the better they look, but that's defeating
the object of upgrading the size, as you come back to, effectively, a
26" equivalent again ...

My daughter recently bought a 32" Philips LCD, and I have to say that
in general, it looks pretty good - good enough brightness, contrast
ratio and viewing angle, that I initially mistook it for a plasma.
However, that said, you can still see motion artifacts on it, and
colour shading rendition errors, that just are not there on a CRT set
with a standard off-air TV signal going in - either analogue or
digital. My mother has a Panasonic CRT set with a built in digital
tuner which is now exclusively all that is used to receive off-air
transmissions. With the exception of the low bitrate 'cheapo'
channels, which suffer from all of these digital display problems
anyway, the picture on this set is still better than my daughter's
LCD.

I think that the best advice that can be given to anyone thinking of
purchasing a flat panel TV, is to set aside a half day to go into the
stores that are selling them, have a really good look from the sort of
viewing distance and angle that you will be at in your home, and talk
to the sales person. Whether they are showing pictures from a DVD or
not, all stores have the capability of showing a real off-air picture,
so you should ask to see a variety of stations' pictures on any set
that takes your fancy. Don't be taken in by the nice darkened home
cinema demo areas either. A lot of the time, your TV will be watched
in daylight, not a darkened room. Also, don't let the salesman blind
you with just HD pictures. Make sure that you see some 'normal'
resolution pictures as well, as these will still be the standard for a
while to come yet, and if the set is operating in a non-native mode to
display these, it may perform rather less well than it does in its
native hi res mode ( a bit like LCD PC monitors ).

As far as the extended waranty deals go, I would recommend them, but
make VERY sure that the panel itself is covered under the terms of it.
Some, I believe, exclude this very expensive (both plasma and LCD)
item. Hope this helps.

Arfa


One has to remember that with any TFT LCD display,there's a certain number
of pixels allowed to be defective and still be "salable" or "good".
The LCD monitor I'm using has one bad pixel [ON,not OFF]close to the top of
the display,and fortunately not in a really objectionable location.
you know, i use to have 1 bad pixel with this DAEWOO 15", at some point,
i don't know when, it cured it self.. :)
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
Charles said:
What is awful about them? I was just at Best Buy and the pictures on most
them looked wonderful.


They look pretty bad to me, especially if you view non-HD content on
one. Even good HD content I tend to see a lot of banding with smooth
gradients like sky. That said, I'd still rather a 40" LCD than a 26"
SDTV but I'm still fond of CRT projection myself, despite the large size.
 
C

clifto

Jan 1, 1970
0
James said:
They look pretty bad to me, especially if you view non-HD content on
one. Even good HD content I tend to see a lot of banding with smooth
gradients like sky.

To me, a still picture on an LCD is really nice. A moving picture from an
NTSC source or computer is nice. But the artifacts from HDTV broadcasting
are horrible, and it wouldn't be any different on CRT, or plasma, or any
form of projection.
 
G

Gary Tait

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,

I'm about to upgrade our 5 year old 26" Sony Wega CRT by purchasing
an LCD TV, probably 40" - 46". I've been loking mostly at Sony and
Samsung.

What's the general reliability/repairability of LCD TVs, particularly
these brands.

These sets come only with a 1 year warranty. Does it make sense to
spend $250 for a 3 year extended warranty considering the sets
themselves are priced at $1600 - $2000.

Al Moodie.

At that size, I might look into plasma. Or check out reaer projection sets,
if room allows.
 
Hi,

I'm about to upgrade our 5 year old 26" Sony Wega CRT by purchasing
an LCD TV, probably 40" - 46". I've been loking mostly at Sony and
Samsung.

What's the general reliability/repairability of LCD TVs, particularly
these brands.

These sets come only with a 1 year warranty. Does it make sense to
spend $250 for a 3 year extended warranty considering the sets
themselves are priced at $1600 - $2000.

Al Moodie.

Extended warranties are a major earner for retailers. If you view not
having one as a bet, its a bet with excellent odds.


NT
 
J

John

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,

I'm about to upgrade our 5 year old 26" Sony Wega CRT by purchasing
an LCD TV, probably 40" - 46". I've been loking mostly at Sony and
Samsung.

What's the general reliability/repairability of LCD TVs, particularly
these brands.

These sets come only with a 1 year warranty. Does it make sense to
spend $250 for a 3 year extended warranty considering the sets
themselves are priced at $1600 - $2000.

Al Moodie.

Above 32", plasma generally looks better than LCD, plus has a wider
viewing angle.

Consumer Reports used to recommend getting the extended warranty on
LCD TV's because of the cost of backlight replacement, but now
recommends against it - in 3-5 years, you can buy a new TV for just a
little more than the extanded warranty. As usual, they made that
change just after we bought a new 26" Sharp with warranty....
 
M

Malissa Baldwin

Jan 1, 1970
0
They look pretty bad to me, especially if you view non-HD content on
one. Even good HD content I tend to see a lot of banding with smooth
gradients like sky. That said, I'd still rather a 40" LCD than a 26"
SDTV but I'm still fond of CRT projection myself, despite the large size.

That sounds like you were watching a Sony LCD TV.
Just because Sony sucks doesn't mean that all LCD TVs suck, dickhead.
 
U

UCLAN

Jan 1, 1970
0
Malissa said:
That sounds like you were watching a Sony LCD TV.
Just because Sony sucks doesn't mean that all LCD TVs suck, dickhead.

Ah, the foul-mouthed troll returns. Shields UP!
 
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