HDTV buying advice template

[adder]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

^With a budget of around 25k and a viewing distance of 6feet get a 32'' .
The 26'' panels may be of unknown make and possibly of inferior tech.It won't be much of a upgrade say from a 21" crt.

You can get a realy good 32'' EX400 from grey market,i hear its available for as low as 26.5k in calcutta.
In the showroom you can go with samsung c530.

 

[anfjavid]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Guys, plz dont think i am hijacking this thread.

Will i have to pay 35% customs duty on the exceeding amount ?. Is there any way to evade duty ?. I am planning to get a ex600 from singapore which costs around 29k when calculated in INR. The same costs 45k (as per ezone website in chennai). So 45-25 = 20k. So 35% @ 20k = 7k . So altogether it comes to 36k.
(I dont know the exact MRP in Chennai)

I think the same ex600 retails in the grey market for 36k.

In this case which one is advisable guys ?. If i can bring it from singapore by paying just 2k or 3k, then no issues. But will they accept this duty ?. I dont know how strict the customs officers are going to be with LED tvs guys. Plz advice - whether to buy it here in the grey market or get it from singapore...

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

^Where are you located? There must be a grey market somewhere around if you bothered to search. Sony's panels retails for pretty awesome prices in the grey. Can avoid all those duties and shipping hassles. A 32incher can be lurked through the cabin baggage with some effort and can be safely kept in front of the front seats where there's plenty of space. So shipping isn't a concern. Paying additional duties are!

 

[medpal]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

@switch : one Dish will not work with another providers STB afaik. You have to have complete set.

And akaik bot TS and DISH are beamed from different satellites. You can keep the dish on your balcony or side wall where it will not hamper others.

IBF is not very much appreciative of DISH HD service.

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

^Doc, just in case you missed it, Switch has already got himself a LA40C650 from his dealer friends. This is Renegade.

 

[Switch]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Doc it's Ren with the queries not me . And my fusion gave me a call yesterday. He has kept two dish hd dth connections for me. But I am looking for a Tatasky hd service with dvr.

 

[delhiboy1000]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

I plan to buy a 32" LCD for my folks' bedroom. It will be used with TataSky & good SD content PQ is most important than the other things.

I have a 3yr old Samsung LA32R81B in my room & am satisfied with it. Is there a equivalent model/series currently ? "HD-ready" will do just fine, no need for FHD.

Anything that you guys can suggest within the 20k approx range? would prefer B & W.

 

[buBleZ]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Hi All,

My preferences below. Please recommend me a couple which I can go and audition in showrooms.

1. Budget. - 60K

2. Viewing distance - My room is 16 feet in length. But sofa would be @ 10-12 feet.

3. Sources/inputs such as HD DTH/consoles/stand-alone media players etc. - PS3, (PC, laptop through HDMI), HD DTH, Cablewalla settopbox

4. Preference for plasma TV/LCD TV/LED-LCD TV - LCD

5. Preference for brands - Samsung, LG, Sony

6. Willing to purchase it from the grey market? - No

7. Ambient lighting conditions of the room - Rooms will be mostly dark with moderate light coming in @ day times.

8. Any other feature you are looking for such as 3D support on the HDTV, DLNA capabilities etc. - DLNA, optical out, LAN, USB ports. The TV should be smoothly able to communicate with PC or other wireless devices through a wireless router.

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Hi All,
My preferences below. Please recommend me a couple which I can go and audition in showrooms.

1. Budget. - 60K

2. Viewing distance - My room is 16 feet in length. But sofa would be @ 10-12 feet.

3. Sources/inputs such as HD DTH/consoles/stand-alone media players etc. - PS3, (PC, laptop through HDMI), HD DTH, Cablewalla settopbox

4. Preference for plasma TV/LCD TV/LED-LCD TV - LCD

5. Preference for brands - Samsung, LG, Sony

6. Willing to purchase it from the grey market? - No

7. Ambient lighting conditions of the room - Rooms will be mostly dark with moderate light coming in @ day times.

8. Any other feature you are looking for such as 3D support on the HDTV, DLNA capabilities etc. - DLNA, The TV should be smoothly able to communicate with PC through a wireless router.

Samsung LA40C630, Sony 40EX400. If you are willing to buy a plasma panel which will definitely have a better PQ over the present gen. LCD and LED backlit TVs, do consider the Panasonic VIERA TH-P42V20D. JFYI, all those previous issues which were haunting the plasma panels (such as phosphor burn, screen burns, shorter life spans et al) are a thing of the past now.

The panel retails for ~62k last I checked at the outlets.

 

[buBleZ]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Samsung LA40C630, Sony 40EX400. If you are willing to buy a plasma panel which will definitely have a better PQ over the present gen. LCD and LED backlit TVs, do consider the Panasonic VIERA TH-P42V20D. JFYI, all those previous issues which were haunting the plasma panels (such as phosphor burn, screen burns, shorter life spans et al) are a thing of the past now.

The panel retails for ~62k last I checked at the outlets.

Thanks for the quick response. THe issues you mentioned are some that made me stay away from Plasmas. Are you sure they are past us now? What will be the trade off when compared with a LCD. Also is the difference between C550 and C630 is the 100hz tech?

Also I believe you chose a C630 LCD over a plasma with similar requirements. Can you shed light as to why?

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

^Power consumption, heat and the glare from the glossy screen. But you can live with these I believe.

Yes the difference between the C550 & the C630 is primarily the 100Hz. motion interpolation tech & the bezel differences. The contrast ratio is also slightly higher for the C630 which is not a biggie.

In my case, I had no AC in my room (until now i.e. I'm shortly investing in one later this month-end) which used to get heated up during the summers - not to mention the panel will add to the agony. Besides, my partner medpal who was also hunting for a display, was interested in the same LCD. So we got a good deal on the same panels - SPVA. Which is why we went for the C630.

 

[Renegade]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Well thanks to the thread. I finally have a 40C530 AA02 panel and quite happy with the fact that I now have a TV. Will be getting a tata sky HD connection by tomorrow.

Was tempted to buy a LED 40U5000 but the 14K difference wasn't worth it for me. Would rather buy a X360 for that much.

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Well thanks to the thread. I finally have a 40C530 AA02 panel and quite happy with the fact that I now have a TV. Will be getting a tata sky HD connection by tomorrow.

Was tempted to buy a LED 40U5000 but the 14K difference wasn't worth it for me. Would rather buy a X360 for that much.

Finally! Congrats. Plug and play your hard drives loaded with all those hd rips to glory!

 

[adder]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Also I believe you chose a C630 LCD over a plasma with similar requirements. Can you shed light as to why?

Lcd/led from samsung and Sony have high picture quality.The contrast ratios of these tvs are quite high,they achieve this by showing deep blacks as well as bright whites.
In a plasma such as the panasonic V20 and samsung plasma there black levels vary with APL(average picture level) tests from HDTVtest.co.uk prove that and all plasma have different brightness with different APL usually there brightness takes a hit starting at around 30% to 40% if the screen showing a white image.
So the ANSI contrast of lcds from samsung/sony which have SPVA or UV2A panels are around the same as best plasmas like the panasonic VT20.Further more lcd with matte screen and glossy lcds with special coatings have deeper perceived blacks under ambient light hitting the screen.

 

[Renegade]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Finally! Congrats. Plug and play your hard drives loaded with all those hd rips to glory!

Unfortunately I have none as of now, except one movie which I got from Switch. Though I did plug in my phone to the USB port this morning to play the music album loaded on the SD card.

 

[techcheat]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

^Power consumption, heat and the glare from the glossy screen. But you can live with these I believe.

Yes the difference between the C550 & the C630 is primarily the 100Hz. motion interpolation tech & the bezel differences. The contrast ratio is also slightly higher for the C630 which is not a biggie.

In my case, I had no AC in my room (until now i.e. I'm shortly investing in one later this month-end) which used to get heated up during the summers - not to mention the panel will add to the agony. Besides, my partner medpal who was also hunting for a display, was interested in the same LCD. So we got a good deal on the same panels - SPVA. Which is why we went for the C630.

Respectfully disagree, there is much more than meets the eye when it comes to difference between Sammy C630 and Sammy C550. The one important point you missed is the limited DNLA support in C550. It can just stream divx movies over DNLA that too is not intutive. On the other hand C630 offers much better support for DNLA and net content. So essetially C530 becomes a better buy than C550 if you are on a budget, but if you got the moolah to spare, go for the C630.

 

[buBleZ]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Lcd/led from samsung and Sony have high picture quality.The contrast ratios of these tvs are quite high,they achieve this by showing deep blacks as well as bright whites.

In a plasma such as the panasonic V20 and samsung plasma there black levels vary with APL(average picture level) tests from HDTVtest.co.uk prove that and all plasma have different brightness with different APL usually there brightness takes a hit starting at around 30% to 40% if the screen showing a white image.

So the ANSI contrast of lcds from samsung/sony which have SPVA or UV2A panels are around the same as best plasmas like the panasonic VT20.Further more lcd with matte screen and glossy lcds with special coatings have deeper perceived blacks under ambient light hitting the screen.

So If I understand you correct the blacks are richer in LCDs and you are recommending LCDs over Plasmas?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

8. Any other feature you are looking for such as 3D support on the HDTV, DLNA capabilities etc. - DLNA, optical out, LAN, USB ports. The TV should be smoothly able to communicate with PC or other wireless devices through a wireless router.

@Gannu and Techcheat: For this request, out of C550/C630 which one fares better?

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

The one important point you missed is the limited DNLA support in C550. On the other hand C630 offers much better support for DNLA and net content.

Care to elaborate what DLNA functions are present on the C630 which is missing on the C550?

As far as I know, both the panels have the ethernet port at the back (which enables connectivity with a NAS), supports the same set of audio-video formats, supports AllShare and Anynet+.

It can just stream divx movies over DNLA that too is not intutive.

Completely incorrect. Refer the C550's user setup guide here to find out what formats can this panel read when a portable drive is connected to the USB port or a NAS through the ethernet port.

And do a page-to-page comparison with the user manual for the C630.

@bublez: If the motion interpolation tech. is not important (i.e. you do not watch much of the sports channels and can live with the occasional blur), you can safely invest in the C550.

FTR, I have done my share of research on the Samsung and Sony panels for an entire year before I had invested in the LA40C630. At the cost of sounding a bit complacent here, I am sure what I meant before is 100% correct.

 

[Switch]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Primary difference which is there is that Samsung Series 5 has a dull panel while Series 6 has a ultra clear panel. I have just bought a C650 and i am pretty happy with it. Thats the only difference worth noting as for everything else there is another way around. I have a HTPC connected with the LCD so all the DLNA and Lan port and usb playing capability is of essentially no use.

 

[Gannu]

Re: HDTV buying advice thread

Primary difference which is there is that Samsung Series 5 has a dull panel while Series 6 has a ultra clear panel.

Wrong! Not all the Series 6 panels are glossy. You have invested in the C650 which has the UCP or the glossy panel. The C630 panel (notice the difference between 3 and 5 there!) has a matte panel. Then again, there are the other differences which I had mentioned before applicable as well here.