Buying a TV

The ~20 year old CRt Tv has finally died after three days of death throes, so we figure it is time to go and buy a replacement.

Looking for cluebies on what to look for, extras worth getting, etc.

Is it just a matter of size Vs price and choose the colour variation you like?

The old TV was just analog (VHF &UHF) with 3 sets in inputs (used 2 occassionaly but rarely VHS/DVd & CMOS) and Teletext( totally useless here).

So, is it worth getting digital tuner inbuilt? HD worth it?

what gives with the `080p & 100Hz labels on some of the shop junk mail? Is it just DPI and Freq (as in higher is better like monitor?

T.I.A.

Reply to
terryc
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I thought they almost ALL had in-built tuners these days? When I bought an LCD and Plasma about 18 months ago, you paid a LOT extra for the inbuilt HD tuner, so I opted for external boxes. You most likely won't have much of a choice here, unless you buy an older model.

YES! Simple as that. Doesn't matter if your screen is "true" HD or not, the HD tuner gives you some extra channels and MUCH better picture quality. It's not just the number of pixels, it's the bandwidth/MPEG compression. Try watching fast action sport on SD, it's truly awful due to excess MPEG compression, you can't even see the ball when it moves for example. The exact same source material on HD is great. For normal material there is less difference, but HD is still better.

There is still some price difference between true HD 1920x1080 and the lesser 1366/1024x768. 1366/1024 still looks terrific, but if you can afford it, get true HD.

1080p is "True HD", this is what you pay the difference in price for. 100Hz is just a higher refresh rate which is good.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.

It just that based on the snail food in the letter box, it doesn't look like I'll get much change out of $2K. Unfortunately, tonights experiment of "oh look, we can watch all the ABC programs online, so lets not buy another TV" seems to have failed.

So Tuesday looks like TV shopping day.

Reply to
terryc

Can you recommend any places to look?

That is worrying.

The set in question is a Sony CPP2186TX. Nice simple single board that looks repairable, if I can just work out what is "broken". Not much help from search engines there.

  1. Retursn to standby after couple of seconds. Before that stage,
  2. Picture would go but still have sounds (50%+). could be fixed (mostly) by turning off then one again.
  3. Trimmed picture to HD format. First noticed this on TVS, then it spread to other channels. At time I thought it was just TVS's source material.
Reply to
terryc

I know I keep saying this, but the first thing to check with a weird fault like this is the condition of the electrolytic caps, mainly in the power supply. If they're all OK, then you could get more deeply into the problem (or maybe replace the TV).

BTW, I did a Google search for 'CPP2186TX' and most of the few results I got kept saying 'Sanyo'.

Reply to
Bob Parker

If you just want a telly then a conia in 42" from Clive petters with built in tuner and hd ready.. should be under $900.00

Reply to
atec77

If money is an issue then go for either a 1024x768 or 1366x768 "HD ready" TV. You can get a top brand name one of those for the price of a true HD cheapie. I'd go for the better brand myself. No point having a cheapie brand True HD set if you don't plan on taking advantage of true HD material (e.g. Blu-Ray) within say the next 5 years, which is the likely life a cheapie brand. True HD on TV usually isn't that flash, a 1366x768 set looks just fine. So many people get sucked into feature creep and paying higher prices for big screen TV's.

Also, what size are you looking at?

32" have some nice price points, and they are all LCD's. Larger than that you have the choice of Plasma or LCD. Plasma is better as a "CRT replacement" in terms of watching TV in a dark room. But if you have a brightly lit room LCD is far superior.

Other functionality also may come into consideration. I couldn't live without the pivot stand on my Sony LCD in the living room for example. So handy to be able to turn the screen orientation. I don't need that in the main lounge room though.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

I was never a TV watcher so I never really bothered about buying a good TV, but recently as a bit of a present to myself I bought a Panasonic Full HD TV. It was on special for about $1800. I eventually got to the shop late on a Friday and got the last one they had, a 42 inch plasma. Since then I have become an avid TV watcher. The images are really sharp, the colour is vivid and the sound is good too. Since I bought it I've watched the Tour de France and the Olympics, not to mention the more normal shows. Do yourself a favour and spend the money on a good quality Full HD TV. You won't regret it. There is no comparison between the "old" tv and the new, it's just so much better.

Reply to
Davo

The problem is that most really look crap*. There was a definite improvement in true Hd (1920x1080), but all seemed to have quirks at different times**.

After visitng 3 local shops yesterday, we are looking at a Samsung 550(?) 81cm/32" 1920x1080, 5ms for $1,289.

We probably would have walked out with it, but we went shopping for else first and the ready cash went there. Well, actually, CFO said we need a new mattress and a matress shop was beside the first place we were going to and we went there first. Now,if I can just get her to play the same to & froing as she did in the mattress shop(50% off finally), we should get it or a better one at a reasonable price.

Actualy, by the time I have visited three shops, I had a better nderstanding of the questions I should be asking when I^hwe*** go back to finally choose.

Do people take in their own DVD's to play when choosing them?

Naah, connections are my interest, aka how many things (esp old) can I plug into it. The CFO will probably ask "does it come in blue?"

  • The CFO is speech trained and continually comments on badly produced stuff that isn't voice-vision synced properly.
** What is the story with modern CRT TV's. They all look crap with the pictures looking lie a collection of little dots. Is this just because they are trying to show a digital signal on them? *** no way am I making the final decision.
Reply to
terryc

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind as a backup. They are 10kms away and we have at least 5 outlets here in the bulk warehouse strip before I look further.

Dick Quinn/good Guys has a nice long wall of TVs to compare, but are price lousy. Then there is Bing Lee, who negotiates well and gets most of our business and if I can find where Betta Electrical has relocated, then I'll go there again as they are also good on price.

Then there is Hardly Normal and his wife Domayne if I have too much time and money, before I even do the main street or either of the two Malls.

Reply to
terryc

Thanks will do. The CFO has decided that it "needs replacement" and didn't want to pay $45 to the local guy for a repair quote, so I'm free to play around with it now. The main/only board comes out in one piece quite nicely, so I can pt the spotlight on it.

My mistake. You're correct.

Reply to
terryc

Had a look and nothing that I could see in the exploded, ballooned or similar line. The only odd one was a 220uF 160V electrolytic that looked like it had pissed it pants and was sitting in a ring of brown stuff.

Defintely wasn't silicon (clearor grey) used elsewhere on the board. Thought it might have been glue to hold that cp in place ( of 1 tallest/2nd biggest), but the stuff is smear and doesn't appear anyywhere else, except a streak across a heat sink for a transistor in another quarter of the board. Scrapped off okay.

I will see if I have one in the "collection" and replace it.

The only other clue I can offer is that this Tv was 3' away from a slow combustion heater and probably suffered from light ash deposits over the years. Theflyback area seams the have a dirty coating that can probably benefit from a clean up.

Reply to
terryc

Congrats, you've fallen into the HD trap.

I've seen people do that, but really, it's splitting hairs on name brand sets.

I found that in the end one set always stands out as the only real choice due to price, features, physical looks, usability etc. There will be people who disagree, but good picture quality is a given with name brand sets.

You sure about that? You don't care about how well the remote works, how the menus work, how fast the channels change, what the standby consumption is, if the screen can pivot etc? I find the most important things are the day-to-day usability of the set. Get one with an annoying quirk and you'll forever regret it.

pictures looking lie a

You saw a CRT in a shop?

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

Probably. The bottom line is that the other half thought they were all crappy and despite her keeness to buy on the day, she is now prepared to wait for a while.

So what are the names that are good now? Sanyo, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonc, & Phillips are what crosses my mind and gets a tick, but given this is modern electronics, anyone of them could be pushing a crappy line.

To put it in perspective, this is a first buy and like a lot of things, we'll learn what we really want for the next one. Too many considerations just end up a point in all directions. As I've indicated, I've done the first tyre kicking and worked out a little bit of what to look for next roll through. As far as I'm concerned, it will come down to my okay on a few models and CFO can choose which she prefers. She is the one who finds F2A TV interesting.

99% will be off & on and channel change.

Thanks for that tip.

Nope. Although I can tell the young cat is going to be pissed as LCDs are so much slimmer, it will not be able to reach down from the top and attack people on the screen.

Yep, almost all in chrome, unless they are making LCD's with the same depth and back shape as CRT's.

Reply to
terryc

The Sony Bravia series are pretty much the ducks guts, and IMO some of the (aesthetically) best looking sets. They have price/performance variations in the line but all are excellent. Watch the X series Bravia though (top of the line), annoying quirk on the menu system with favourite channels. Samsung are rated well. Philips are rated well. Panasonic are rated very well, and #1 in Plasma. Heard not so great things about LG.

Ah, you obviously haven't played with digital TV then!

You have the guide information for starters, all brands work and display info differently.

Favourites are a very important feature. Scan in the channels when you get the set and you end up with something like 30-40 channels with lots of duplicates, want to switch through every one of them? (you may not want to delete them either) With digital "just switching channels" has it's own new challenges. With HD you'll likely end up with 2 of every channel, just in case extra shows are on the "other channel", navigating is thus slower than the old 2-7-9-10-28.

Also, how does the digital tuner handle garbled data - does it lock up the screen, does it produce annoying audio pops, does it recover quickly...

Once you get into digital you'll find a bunch of small things that have the potential to annoy the crap out of you.

As a reference, my Sony Bravia S series is superb, with only 0.3W in standby

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

If you're looking at Plasma, you can also consider Pioneer. Their RRPs are very high, but the "street price" can be quite reasonable, depending on what you're looking for, and where you go. Without getting into any sort of brand-war, a lot of 'research' and my own visual comparisons leads me to think that Pioneer produce some of the better Plasma sets. Note I'm only talking about Plasma here.

Regards,

Ross..

Reply to
Ross Vumbaca

The computer guy seems willing (18% for cash and existing customer for some small stuff yesterday), but the LCD guys (3) didn't even want to talk to me until they probably decided to see if they could move me (only customer) on or something. I have tried haggling before but they can not be on bonuses out our way. Next time, I'm going to sit in their sofa and watch the complete video for their top of the line model (~$5k) and then ask if they have one for $200.

We'll probably go there for a better final offer before we buy. I've always found it handy to let the opposition tell you what is wrong with your intended purchase {:-), but it really depends on whether they are hungry for business or have plenty of customers that will just turn up and shell out the asking price.

I've priced JBs on other stuff, but they start too high in my books to be worth visitng. Our JB is in a mall and no one there is keen to give a good discount as their books get malled each month anyway.

Reply to
terryc

It's sounding like the simplest solution is to just replace the TV. Good luck. :)

Reply to
Bob Parker

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