Monitor or TV advice please

A couple of months back we bought a Panasonic Viera TX-L39E6B LED from John Lewis to replace the rather dull Sony job which we never really liked but got used to. I'm adverse to replacing tellys in good working order so this was a big treat and rather guilty purchase for us.

It exploits a network connection very comprehensively and slickly - if you want it to. We mostly don't bother. It's got all sorts of super duper features, but the important thing for us is picture quality. Which I believe is the best I have seen to date, in terms of detail, motion, contrast, cast, depth and backlighting.. The viewing angle is also good, which was one of many issues with our previous set. 

Something which we particularly like is the thin bezel. The front view of the set is nearly all screen. The overall size of the front panel is actually smaller than our previous 37" set, so we've ended up with more for less space. A 39 is about as big as we can go in our room with respect to the positioning and distance of the screen from the sofa. I was a bit concerned that I had pushed the bounds too far but it works. beautifully.

I did a lot as asking around and spoke to my local HiFi dealer, as opposed to reading the star reviews in the comics. We watch very little broadcast TV. Less than 5 hours a week, sometimes less. The picture quality off air from the built in tuner looks excellent to me. For DVD and BD it's fantastic - once you make the various adjustments and disable some of the smart picture features. I use a THX calibration DVD. 

Sound wise I cant comment because we use a sound bar. 

Very happy with this set. Also happy with the five year warranty and it should do us fine for many years to come if it doesn't fail.

I can't say I've seen a monitor-only display for sale recently so you're probably best just getting an LED/LCD TV from one of the main manufacturers - Sony, Samsung, Panasonic. "Which?" currently rate Samsung as having the best picture but really there seems little to choose between them these days. I've a large Panasonic plasma in our lounge, a smaller Samsung LCD in our kitchen & they're both excellent.

As Harry's mentioned it's worth setting the display up properly with a calibration disc; I've got several but IMO the best one is Spears and Munsil BluRay Edition. An alternative is to search on line for best settings for your particular display.

Harry's also pointed out the relatively poor sound on offer from flat-screen TVs & it's really worth investing in a sound bar (or run the sound through your hi-fi).

Just did a quick websearch.   It would be much cheaper to get a TV.  Very few current PC monitors offer greater than 1920 by 1080 resolution, and most new TVs double quite happily as computer monitors. (I know, because I use my 40" Sony TV when playing PC games)

John

My 27inch monitor is running at 2560 by 1440.

Many thanks to all for posting. It seems like a TV is the way to go rather than a monitor, which is what I suspected but it's nice to have it confirmed. Many years ago, in the days of CRT TV's, I looked into getting a Sony professional studio monitor. Apart from the very high cost compared to similarly sized domestic TV's, there was a range of bewildering adjustments to be made and also the connections were mostly studio-type ie. XLR etc. I came to the conclusion that it would be quite unsuited for normal domestic use and therefore I gave up on the idea.

I'll have a look around to see if there are any bargains to be had!

The Swami

Funny, when TV monitors are mentioned my mind skips over computer ones and considers the old Sony Trinitron Proline (which is probably what you're referring to Mr Swami). They were indeed very pricey at the time but had a certain attraction for us hi-fi types!

I still use a 42" Fujitsu Plasma monitor - one of the first hi-def sets although no HDMI, just DVI and RGBHV on BNCs (I think there may be an HDMI upgrade card available though).  It uses metal alloy and glass where most sets these days use plastic - it is built beautifully, made to last and still gives a superb picture. It even has an effective in-built audio amp of around 10 or so w/pc - if space is limited you can just connect up a pair of hifi speakers and the sound quality is surprisingly good.  Spares support is excellent, mainly because most of it is on module cards, although it's never yet let me down.  Despite an original cost of around £5k, all this can be bought secondhand these days for peanuts.

Also, if you don't have a TV receiver of any kind then no Television license is needed.

Hi Richard,

Just to clarify - if you don't watch live TV services you don't need a licence, which therefore means you can use iPlayer (as long as it is not a live broadcast).

I am still using a non-HD 37" panny plasma, with no TV module - RGB composite only, in our 2nd system; great screen. In some ways I prefer it to the super-wide LCD Phillips.

M

A good thing about LED tellies is that they are very efficient. My 42" set uses only 40w, whereas a plasma of similar size would use ten times that. We have a Panasonic and it is excellent. The sound is rubbish though - you need a sound bar or to route to sound though the Hifi.

We just bought a 60" Sharp LCD/LED. Quite nice. Took a while to turn off all the stupid default signal processing so that it was watchable, though. Very good now. Unbelievable value.

An added bonus is that it converts all incoming audio to PCM so all audio for video can now be handled by a single channel on the SuperNait. The previous Sony would only pass-through (nbut not convert) digital audio, so anything non-PCM had to be done via analogue connections and alternate channels on the SN.

Damn...Tempting fate mentioning how good my Samsung TV was. The other day it decided to break its digital tuner so no broadcast TV. I looked at replacing the module but, the usual story, it really wasn't worth the cost.

I've now bought a Sony LED to replace it & that seems really good so far. I do wish they'd supply a proper paper manual though.

Nigel, yes, I think the Fujitsu uses around 300w.  Luckily it's only used for films.  There's a smaller and much more efficient LED set in another room for TV viewing

I'll probably go for one of the LED models. I don't require surround sound, virtual or otherwise, or even a subwoofer of any description, so I think a soundbar would possibly not be the best choice for me. I'll probably route the sound through the hi-fi. Luckily (in a sense anyway) I have a Yamaha amp that can drive two sets of speakers independently. One set can therefore be positioned optimally for music, the other set by the TV. This is good in my mind as it maximises the use of the amp - I hate redundant facilities.

Another oddity is that virtually all our viewing (apart from movies, none of them modern) is of programs made in the 70's and 80's. Think 'The Sweeney', 'The Professionals', 'Hammer House of Horror' etc and you get the idea. Now these were all produced at a time when the average home TV was perhaps around 21" or so. These programs just look wrong to me when viewed on a large screen. They were intended to be viewed on the small screens of the day. So I think we may have to limit screen size to 37" maximum, and perhaps even 32". A bigger screen would obviously serve movies far better, but you can't have it both ways.

The Swami