Choosing a television

[StarBound]

If you have something that does the job then ask what the replacement is giving extra. I know pc screens lcd vs led that led uses 50% less power than lcd.

[RiaX]

hmmm, i got 2 plasma full HD TVs a sony bravia and a samsung. Everytime i look at the tvs in an electronic store i always think to myself "gosh those LED samsungs are epic"

But i believe asking which is better a LCD or an LED is the wrong way of looking at it. You should buy a TV that suits you, in other words does it have enough connections that i need like 3 HDMI ports and composite connections, scart what ever. Will it play the stuff i want it to. Once you answer these things you will be left with a few TVs that suit you then the choice because LED vs LCD, there is a notibe difference in quality between the two, BUT only if you watching Blu-rays our HD broadcasts ther is not much difference there IMO. Also look at the power consumption and how much that will cost you per month. Anyways the simplest thing is to buy a tv that you wont need a personal loan to pay for it, and if you going to buy a new tv buy the best one you can afford becuase a tv is usually something that will be around for a while

[naughty]

there is a notibe difference in quality between the two

oh i dont know about that - the panels are exactly the same thing - the differences are in the backlighting - and then the power supply - but if its generally the same panel then how is it that the picture is different

IMHO its more about the fact that people expect it to seem better - but in reality its mainly marketing nonsense that makes it different - sure there are differences but those are generally minor and not worth spending twice the money on

so to be honest i cant really see where anyone comes from with that "Oh but LED looks better" story - it doesnt really by that much as its made out to be - its thinner and lighter and uses less power - but thats about as far as it goes

Yes there are more adjustments in a newer TV and probably better specs as far as contrast and brightness go but even those are mostly laughable especially all that gumpf about dynamic contrast that manufacturers pull out from their bottoms

LED is just a more expensive LCD and there isnt much more to that story besides for it being thinner, lighter and using less power as stated above ..... the claims about it really looking better is subjective myth perpetuated because people cant go around saying that its a very small difference for such a large amount of extra money

Everytime i look at the tvs in an electronic store i always think to myself "gosh those LED samsungs are epic"

this is the reason why - in a store they set it deliberately to dynamic mode and then play demo stuff on it thats designed to look good - get it home and it wont look any different than the TV you have right now with the rest of your equipment

[KALSTER]

Unless my screen dies, I'll probably only upgrade once larger format AMOLED screens become available and settle into the market.

[RiaX]

how does a 3d tv work since this is a tv thread

[naughty]

how does a 3d tv work since this is a tv thread

you have basically a concept similar to stereo - there is an image for your right eye and a different image for your left eye - so it was recorded with two camera's (they look like twins on one tripod) - this is why everything looks blurred until you put on the glasses - the glasses basically join the two images into one to create a sense of depth

thats a basic as i can explain it if you would like a more detailed explanation then you can read here

http://www.best-3dtvs.com/guides/how-3d-tvs-work/

even more info

http://www.howstuffworks.com/3d-tv.htm/printable

3D will soon be working without glasses using a technology called lenticular lenses ( from wiki ...... A lenticular lens is an array of magnifying lenses, designed so that when viewed from slightly different angles, different images are magnified) - this is also why its going to be difficult to use for projectors and movie screens but hopefully they will overcome these limitations in the future and soon you wont have to wear the glasses to get those stereo images to work together

[IcePick88]

3D is a stupid gimmick. I say that 3D will stay 'n nice to have and will never become mainstream in households.

If I'm wrong, who cares.

[RiaX]

thanks for the simplified version appreciate it didnt want to read the whole detail thing

i wouldnt put it here if i wanted the detailed version, i can use google too

[StarBound]

I still say 3D is the future. Because once they figured out how to go glassless the next step would be how to go screenless.

[naughty]

i wouldnt put it here if i wanted the detailed version, i can use google too

thing is though that some of us dont have to use google unless its to find links to explain to other people things that we know as fact

[Jonboy]

Guys, help, two excellent TV specials this week, want to get one but battling to choose, both are going for R5999, the LG at Makro, the Samsung at Game:
http://www.samsung.com/my/consumer/tele ... cification

http://www.lg.com/za/tv-audio-video/tel ... 2LD460.jsp

Does anybody own either of these? REally battling to decipher the tech jargon in the tech specs, people are saying I need 100Hz refresh, can't find what refresh these are at, know that both have a 4ms response time. The other big thing for me is media playback - my bro has a 5 series samsung and it handles everything I've thrown at it, especially MKVs but I can't seem to find if the LG has MKV support natively.

Help and suggestions please?!

[GreyWolf]

Samsung has a way better image quality. I find the LG displays have too much contrast and the colours are too saturated.

[ryanrich]

Samsung has a way better image quality. I find the LG displays have too much contrast and the colours are too saturated.

+1

Samsung > Sony > LG

[StarBound]

wrong thread

[jphegers]

In the latest game brochure they are advertising a Samsung 40" 3D LED television model no AU40C7000 for R9999 seems a heck of a good price, is it a good proposition to buy, any comments and inputs please.

[naughty]

i have no idea how good that TV is that you are asking about but i do know that the price drops are due to the fact that Samsungs newest and latest models are being launched in the next two weeks

[jphegers]

i have no idea how good that TV is that you are asking about but i do know that the price drops are due to the fact that Samsungs newest and latest models are being launched in the next two weeks

The Queen of the house needs a TV in study to watch her dvd's and thought it would suite her needs,if she gets a Blue ray player later on?

[ryanrich]

I completely take back what I said after going out and looking at a few LCD sets and comparing. I replaced my 32" Samsung with that LG 42" 1080p (LD460) mentioned a few posts up and it's a fantastic set, especially for the price, paid R5799!

[naughty]

i have no idea how good that TV is that you are asking about but i do know that the price drops are due to the fact that Samsungs newest and latest models are being launched in the next two weeks

The Queen of the house needs a TV in study to watch her dvd's and thought it would suite her needs,if she gets a Blue ray player later on?

yes most definitely - in fact even getting a 3D blu-ray player wont be a bad idea with that tv - it wont be a bad solution at the price - only thing is that i reckon that the newer models will just have a better physical look to them and will seem more modern but will PROBABLY be around a similar price

so yep its a real tossup .... wait two weeks and the odds are you get the newer unit at a similar price or the price could go up and that means you lost the good discount on the older unit - so thats also a risk cos maybe that discount on the older unit outweighs anything the newer unit can do

another thing to consider is that the older units may not be all that bad compared to the newer ones - i havent compared specs but i soon will have to because my 50" plasma is definitely not economically repairable - so im waiting to see how much insurance pays me out before i decide on what TV im going to get ..... hopefully they give me the money instead of just getting me some old junk TV that i dont want

if i was in your position what i would do is look at the Samsung USA site and look at the new models just launched there and compare them to the ones just going out now cos those new models will probably be the same ones coming here in two weeks time - only problem is that no-one will be able to give you indications on pricing - but you will be able to see from the specs if the new ones have extra features that interest you ie media player functionality for example with some tv's you can plug in external harddrives and play all your avi and mkv files and now they are adding more functionality like this directly to the TV itself .... this might save you having to buy some form of media player and you can play dvd and bluray backups from harddrive - or maybe even stream it directly to a TV from a PC or NAS besides for hooking up the obvious blu-ray players to it (sorry for adding all these snippets but i have just bought a blu-ray writer and im backing up all my discs to HDD so that i can play those via the media player in the lounge main system so right now its one aspect that im really concentrating on right now ie how much usefulness i can squeeze out of anything new that i buy)

[jphegers]

The TV for what the misses wants will mainly for watching ordinary TV and a occasional movie or two so it need not be all that fully specked the only problem is, I phoned Game and the set does not come with any 3D glasses which one has to buy separate.Game does not sell these glasses,so would have to buy at least two pairs and i believe they are quite expensive.
So I will have a look at those American sites and see what the specification of the new "D" series is and maybe the new models come out with 3D glasses thrown into the deal.

[naughty]

from what i know the 3D glasses retail at around R800 each - and at one stage samsung was doing a special with a 3D blu-ray player complete with two pairs of the glasses at R4k - not sure if you can get those kits now though

seems like too that the Tv will work well enough for what you need it for - but personally i would still research into those new ones .... i dont know much about them now but by the time they are released here i expect to have done my research into whether they are worth it or not

BTW most TV sets will do what you need - so even a cheaper 2D LED or even LCD model will do the same job if you dont really want the 3D with glasses experience - so you could look for a bigger regular non 3D capable model which will be just as cheap or even cheaper - as an example i can get a 46" series 6 samsung here in Durban for R7999 - so dont look only at one size or spec unless the 3D aspect is a must have

[jphegers]

seems like too that the Tv will work well enough for what you need it for - but personally i would still research into those new ones .... i dont know much about them now but by the time they are released here i expect to have done my research into whether they are worth it or not

I totally agree with what you say regarding researching the new models and I am looking out for the "D" series for my "Den" witch has the WI-Fi internet and the likes and also hopefully get a bit larger screen for myself. So might hold back on buying now and maybe get a good deal when buying two sets together.

[Screeper]

I coughed up some cash for one of the Game specials today.
http://www.game.co.za/RapidCat/game/rsa ... page-3.jpg
Got the top one on the page. The Samsung 46" LED 5 series...
From what I can tell it's a good price. Googled the model last night and the prices ranged from R11899 to R17999 so the Game special at R10499 seems acceptable..
I hope so.

Reason I have not gone for 3D is that I wear specs already and the whole idea of wearing specs over my current specs is just daft.. and very uncomfortable, so until they fully sort out spectacle-less 3D screens for a reasonable price I will give the 3D side of things a skip.

Anyway going to pick it up in 10min, will let you know how it performs when I connect the PS3 up to it and play a spot of Gran Turismo

[jphegers]

[quote="Screeper"]I coughed up some cash for one of the Game specials today.
http://www.game.co.za/RapidCat/game/rsa ... page-3.jpg
Got the top one on the page. The Samsung 46" LED 5 series...
From what I can tell it's a good price. Googled the model last night and the prices ranged from R11899 to R17999 so the Game special at R10499 seems acceptable..
I hope so.

Reason I have not gone for 3D is that I wear specs already and the whole idea of wearing specs over my current specs is just daft.. and very uncomfortable, so until they fully sort out spectacle-less 3D screens for a reasonable price I will give the 3D side of things a skip.

Anyway going to pick it up in 10min, will let you know how it performs when I connect the PS3 up to it and play a spot of Gran Turismo [/quote
Nice enjoy your new TV and let us know how you find your new set's performance.
I also wear specs and have never even seen a pair of 3D glasses so maybe someone who wears glasses can let know how they find having to wear 3D glasses over their ordinary glasses works.

[naughty]

okay - i wear very strong glasses and i have tried the 3D glasses on top of those many times since 3D has been introduced - it isnt totally uncomfortable and is okay even though it seemed cumbersome the first time around but you get used to it

3D is an awesome thing but unfortunately there are a few problems with it for me - the first being that everything gets a bit darkened including the picture on the screen - and then theres the biggest problem in that there is totally a huge lack of content - there are probably only around 20 or 30 proper 3D blu-rays available that work properly wiht those TV's and out of those you would only want to own around 3 or 4 of those

i dont want a movie because it relies on a gimmick - i want a movie because i enjoy watching the movie and if i invest in buying it i must want to watch it more than one time otherwise it was a waste buying that movie and sadly most 3D movies are just gimmicks for the movie - they dont really improve the storyline in any way and while the experience is pleasant and in some ways awesome you could easily live without the pitfalls ie in the no 3D version everything is sharper and more vivid and far more detailed - whilst in 3D you are having to concentrate so much on the effect it just makes everything a bit dull for me

if on the other hand you like the experience then for sure its worth the effort but good luck in trying to get content to play with yout new toy becauese as ive said i dont want a movie just because its 3D and right now thats what the manufacturers are forcing you to do ie have 300 to 400 normal movies and maybe 3 or 4 3D movies just to demo your new screen - is it worth spending the extra - well when i find a 3D set thats priced like its non 3D equivalent i will probably get serious at looking at it but by then the lenticular lenses and 3D without glasses should be close to seriosly overcoming its "sweet spot" drawbacks and im sure 3D without glasses will be an expensive reality then .... so im truly not fussed or bothered about getting what is in my opinion a stillborn technology like laserdisc was

laserdisc led to the advent of dvd as we now know it and dvd became so popular that right now its even difficult for blu-ray to break into the market leave alone 3D and IMHO 3D is an introduction to upcoming technology in the way that laserdisc was an introduction to having digital optical discs ....so i reckon im going to bypass 3D altogether until it matures into a must have technology and its nowhere near that right now