LCD TV Advice

Paul,

In the tech specs the response time is given as 25ms. Ideally a TV should be 16ms or less. The best are now down to 8ms. Would recommend you look for something a bit faster.

Willy.

Hi Willy,

Not trying to be awkward, but in my head a responses time of 25ms means the ability to show 40 frames per second.

I'm assuming that the 25ms means the time it takes a pixel to change from one colour/brightness to the next to show a change in the frame.

Wouldn't that mean that 25ms is ample?

I'm not claiming to know a load about this - just a reasoned, interested question (from someone who hardly ever watches TV, anyway)

Cheers!

Rich.

Rich,

Have been looking into LCD TVs for the past couple of months. There seems to be a fairly consistent recommendation that 16ms or less is required for a reasonable viewing experience. Have no scientific basis for this. Am toying with the idea of a Novatech 32" (http://www.novatech.co.uk:80/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-LCD320)that has an 8ms response.


Willy.

I had the day off today so I did a lot of online digging, read a bunch of reviews, and bit the bullet and decided to order one - at that price it is too good not to try, and if it sucks I shall return it as Dell have a 7 day return policy so it would cost me the postage only.

I went to large Currys at J9 of the M6 earlier - little tip if anyone ever wants to go into the LCD TV business, by all means have 50 on display, but if you hope to sell any to someone like me don't rely on a shared signal from a coat hanger on the roof for your source!!!

Paul

I am quite curious Paul, please report back!

BTW do you know if you can fix it to a wall?

quote:

is there actually a reason NOT to order one of these?

How about an inferior picture?

I have a 32" CRT Panasonic TX-32DK1 (a few years old now) which gives me a picture via a PACE Freeview box and a QED SQUART lead, I am very happy with.

The guys on the Gadget Show recently did a CRT/Plasma/LCD comparison test, and reckoned that the best picture quality still comes from a good quality CRT TV.

John.

IFAIK
it still does - i agree with J.N

Hi.

I got an Acer TV amongst other things because it is HDTV ready like the dell here. However it turns out that just because it can show HDTV does not mean it is compatible, something to do with the connections.

I know have useless this post was, but do a search on HDTV to insure that when it arrive the TV can show it.

I believe some TV's have non-HDTV resolution, but are "compatible" with HD, which means they can accept an HDTV signal, but then reduce the resolution so that it's no better than normal TV.

There is some magic phrase (possibly "HD-ready"??) that means it really will be able to display HD signals.

ISTR it's only a year or so since an "encryption" standard was released which was a pre-requesite for the content providers (Hollywood, etc) to allow their content to be available in HD format.

Unfortunately, older equipment which would be physically capable of HD, but doesn't have this encryption support will never be able to accept an HD signal.

See High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection on Wiki. I'm not sure if this technology is exactly what will be used on UK sets, but it's the same basic idea.

cheers, Martin

PS this might be what Gary's post refers to.

Hmm. The set arrived yesterday.

Looks nice cosmetically, certainly doesn't look cheap and nasty.

I have to say I'm quite disappointed. I've not had much experience of LCD TV's but having watched Sky+ and a few DVDs over an RGB scart connection I'm distinctly underwhelmed.

I'm not sure if the TV is poor or if it's simply showing up all the artefacts in the Sky Digital signal but things just seem "smeary", I'm afraid I can't word it much better than that.

At the moment I think I shall be calling Dell tomorrow to get them to arrange a return. It might do better with DVDs over a digital connection, and it might do better when Sky start delivering HD, but I don't think I can stick this sort of picture even at the price.

Paul

Paul,

change it for a crt tv, they are much better!

regards

Stephen,

I suspect that's what it comes down to. I daresay that fed by a good digital signal it would be better, but I don't care about that as 99% of its use will be with Sky.

Back to the Panasonic tomorrow I think. I don't care if the LCD had only cost fifty quid if the picture's crap!

Paul,

i have noticed crt tvs still improving and getting cheaper and more stylish.
I also like the idea of having a flat screen such as lcd/plasma, but i have not yet seen either as good picture than a crt in blacks, whites,colours and sharpness anywhere near the same sort of money,reliability, and on that i can live with it's bulk and dust attraction.

regards

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Hutchings:
things just seem "smeary", I'm afraid I can't word it much better than that.

Paul,

sorry, but you was told:-

quote:

In the tech specs the response time is given as 25ms. Ideally a TV should be 16ms or less. The best are now down to 8ms. Would recommend you look for something a bit faster.

cheers, Martin

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Tate:
I also like the idea of having a flat screen such as lcd/plasma, but i have not yet seen either as good picture than a crt in blacks, whites,colours and sharpness anywhere near the same sort of money,reliability, and on that i can live with it's bulk and dust attraction.

Stephen,

I saw a display of plasma & LCD TVs over the weekend (fed by DVD, although through a splitter), and every one looked most disapointing, including some fully-HD units.

I guess I'll be sticking with a bloody great box between the speakers for a while, yet.

cheers, Martin

Just got off the phone from arranging for Dell to collect - have to say I'm glad we deal with a Dell business salesman at work as if I have any trouble he'll be the person I call, I'm not at all impressed with their Indian call centre.

I've got my previous CRT hooked up and the difference is night and day, it is soooo much clearer even with a highly compressed Sky+ channel.

It would have been interesting to see how the Dell LCD would have coped with a HD digital source, but as Sky HD is still some time away it's not a gamble I'm willing to take, even at that price.

Paul

paul,

good olde pana.

greetings.

My two cents worth guys but if space is not a constraint, get ye self a 34" CRT and be happy for a looong time. I am using a 21" Sony Wega, 5 years good service and still going strong.

The 34" will weight close to 100 kg mind you

Cheers
Jag

Hi Folks,

Just catching up with this thread and realised I could comment on the speed thing. I use an iiyama 15" LCD panel (model 3818UTC) all day every day and one or two nights a week I watch a DVD on it too. (I just 'never' watch ordinary TV broadcasts, on a TV, from TV land).

Although it dates from 2002, its response time is 25ms, just like the Dell's. It's not even remotely smeary, so maybe:

this is another case of a measurement that isn't all that useful,

some people are more sensitive to such things than I (like the rainbow effect some people see on DLP-projected images),

the quoted 25ms response time is what the LCD-screen is capable of but there were other limiting factors in the unit (along the lines of the HD-compatible, er, swizz).

...just an interesting little theoretical diversion, from my POV. Hope you get a TV you're happy with!

Cheers!

Rich.

Rich,

I'm not convinced the refresh time was the problem, as I said the reports on other forums where digitally connected HD material is the source are outstanding, so I honestly do think it's just a case of garbage in, garbage out.

I shall stick with my Panasonic, there wasn't (and isn't) anything wrong with it I just thought I'd spotted a bargain

cheers,
Paul

Hi Paul,

Fair enough - you have a practical problem/issue to deal with and I was just having a bit of a mental workout (dividing 25ms into one second is a workout for me ).

Hope you remain happy with your TV for a long time yet - mine is still a 14" Sony Black Trinitron which I bought new in about, er 1987?

G'night!

Rich.

I also found that there was a substantial gain to be made when getting the picture settings right on my LCD tv.

I owe Jimsan over on the AV forums site a beer where this is concered - my philips was only average when 1st plugged in, but ater altering a few settings -

You probably tinkered with this anyway...

I would also recommend spending some time on the AV forums. I had come to the conclusion that all of the LCD and Plasma screens were cr*p based on the usual demos in Comet etc. After wading though a load of postings I bought a Panasonic plasma panel for under £1k which has miles better PQ than anything that I have ever seen demonstrated in any high St store

Hi BLT,

I see you recommend referring to AV forums, and of course there is a perfectly good one right here, but as a snortcut (that was a typo but I'll leave it be ) for the lazy folk (me), would you mind telling me what you got?

I'm on the lookout for a reasonable screen in the New Year, but I don't want to spend a large amount as its mostly to shut-up my whingeing mate who complains about my 14" non-remote TV's picture in comparison to my amazing Naim sound system (though I can see his point ).

Yours in a kind of can't-be-bothered-to-research-it-myself fashion,

Rich.

I bought a Panasonic 37" PW7 display with a component input card. I use a JS Technology RGB Scart to component converter (for my freeview box) and use my Denon 3805 receiver to switch the video signal at component level between the DVD player and component box.