LCD TVs
Posted by: Phil Sparks on 15 December 2003
I've been coveting one of those slim LCD TVs for the lounge. We've got a Sony HS10 projector for the big screen experience, so the idea was to have a smaller TV in the corner for newsnight and for the kids to watch without closing the curtains and getting the projector out.
My other idea was to be able to check the emails and do little bits of surfing in the lounge, so an LCD TV with VGA-in for a 2nd pc would seem to be just the ticket.
After a bit of surfing the Philips ones seem to do fairly well in the reviews (17" widescreen is £600 or so, 23" widescreen is £1350 or so). The Sony ones also do well, but crucially have no PC in.
So I wandered into the local Comet at lunchtime for a gander. As luck would have it they had the 23" Philips.
Now I know that Comet is unlikely to be the last word demo facilities, but I thought that all the LCD TVs were absolutely dreadful. Much much worse than even the £60 portable CRTs. The colours were dire, they all seemed to shimmer constantly as if the electronics couln't make up their mind quite what to display where, and all of them smudged and smeared as soon as the TV camera moved or someone moved across the screen.
Now, from what I've read there will be pros and cons with these TVs compared to CRT, but I was amazed just how bad the pictures were. Comet were charging £1800 for the Philips - in comparison to the CRTs I'd have thought it was overpriced at £150!!
Of course Comet had about 50 TVs all hanging off a very crummy looking TV splitter, with skinny aerial cable, so they were hardly doing themselves any favours - but ALL the TVs were off the same signal so were affected equally.
Does anyone have an alternative take on this. I'm prepared to pay well over the price of a CRT for the smaller size and PC connnection, but not if the picture quality is much worse than the CRT equivalent.
cheers
Phil
My other idea was to be able to check the emails and do little bits of surfing in the lounge, so an LCD TV with VGA-in for a 2nd pc would seem to be just the ticket.
After a bit of surfing the Philips ones seem to do fairly well in the reviews (17" widescreen is £600 or so, 23" widescreen is £1350 or so). The Sony ones also do well, but crucially have no PC in.
So I wandered into the local Comet at lunchtime for a gander. As luck would have it they had the 23" Philips.
Now I know that Comet is unlikely to be the last word demo facilities, but I thought that all the LCD TVs were absolutely dreadful. Much much worse than even the £60 portable CRTs. The colours were dire, they all seemed to shimmer constantly as if the electronics couln't make up their mind quite what to display where, and all of them smudged and smeared as soon as the TV camera moved or someone moved across the screen.
Now, from what I've read there will be pros and cons with these TVs compared to CRT, but I was amazed just how bad the pictures were. Comet were charging £1800 for the Philips - in comparison to the CRTs I'd have thought it was overpriced at £150!!
Of course Comet had about 50 TVs all hanging off a very crummy looking TV splitter, with skinny aerial cable, so they were hardly doing themselves any favours - but ALL the TVs were off the same signal so were affected equally.
Does anyone have an alternative take on this. I'm prepared to pay well over the price of a CRT for the smaller size and PC connnection, but not if the picture quality is much worse than the CRT equivalent.
cheers
Phil