advice on buying a lcd hd tv

doran1801 · 4 Sep 2006 at 13:03

Hi Can anyone give me some pointers on buying a new hd tv My price range is 500-800pounds minimun 32 inch. there are so many to choose from on oc but i am stuck deciding. also some advice on what resolution i need to have and what connections it needs to have would be great

doran1801 · 4 Sep 2006 at 15:38

anyone?

brakeinup · 4 Sep 2006 at 15:53

What are you going to use it primarily for?

Do you have a media centre, an Xbox 360 or Sky HD?

doran1801 · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:34

brakeinup said:
What are you going to use it primarily for?

Do you have a media centre, an Xbox 360 or Sky HD?

will be buying a 360 the same day and have a media centre now but no skyhd

Shakey_Jake33 · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:40

The LG 26LX2R at Comet is a good screen in that price range.

1360x768 resolution (better than a 1280x720 screen for PC use).

Has the usual legacy inputs like Scart, S-Video etc, as well as Component, HDMI and DVI-I. I picked up a cable in ebay to split the DVI-I into separate DVI-D and VGA ports.

I use this as my main PC screen.

Cyber-Mav · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:05

how do these hdtvs look like when hooked up to a pc for general gaming and web browsing? is it alll blurry and crappy like a crt tv is when hooked up to the pc? or is it a lot better?

thinking on getting a 32inc tft tv to double up as a monitor on my second pc.

squiffy · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:09

Cyber-Mav said:
how do these hdtvs look like when hooked up to a pc for general gaming and web browsing? is it alll blurry and crappy like a crt tv is when hooked up to the pc? or is it a lot better?

thinking on getting a 32inc tft tv to double up as a monitor on my second pc.

Exactly like a computer monitor, if sending native. Just remember they're lower in resolution. But they still look fab, and certainly readable font. Lg 32LXR

Shakey_Jake33 · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:09

Cyber-Mav said:
how do these hdtvs look like when hooked up to a pc for general gaming and web browsing? is it alll blurry and crappy like a crt tv is when hooked up to the pc? or is it a lot better?

thinking on getting a 32inc tft tv to double up as a monitor on my second pc.

LCD TV's are glorified LCD monitors with legacy inputs and a scaler tailored for TV input, and as such, look as good as any LCD monitor. I have my PC connected to the LG 26LX2R screen I mentioned in 1360x768 over HDMI and it's brilliant.

Forgot to note, but some screens only do 'TV' HDMI, which will overscan when using PC's over HDMI. Be careful of this.
The above screen I mentioned lets you select between 'TV' and 'PC' modes for both the HDMI anf DVI, so it covers your bases.

Cyber-Mav · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:43

excellent news that, im planning on sticking to my crt for general games and windows use since its a flat 21inch dell. the second pc next to mine is using a 19 inch curved crt and thats the one i want to replace. mainly the second pc is used as a ftp server and general downloading so i was planning to use a tft with vga and dvi inputs so i can hook up 2 machines to it and switch inputs when needed.

but the tv im looking to get is the Mirai DTL-532W100 32" HD Ready Widescreen LCD TV (AV-000-MR)

i can then use that tv to watch films on and play network games when other people turn up. the tv i listed above seems to be the cheapest 32 incher i can get and it says it has a vga input so it shoudl be ok for pc use but im not sure.

what do you guys suggest? is it worth me getting this tv to use as a monitor?

squiffy · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:47

Make sure you can either

Send native resolution to the panel, ie send 1366x768
Set the LCD in non stretch mode if not sending native ie 1360x768- you just lose 3 pixels either side but the set won't stretch it.

The LG's offer native over DVI, and as the bloke said above said this is great for PC use. Most lack DVI, and those with HDMI lack native and various resolution support.

Shakey_Jake33 · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:48

The VGA will be fine for PC use, though I can't comment on the quality of the set itself.

What kind of budget are you setting yourself? As I've seen some really poor LCD TV's (such as that hideous Baier one at Asda).

Shakey_Jake33 · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:52

I don't think any PC GPU can actually output 1366x768, apparently it's gotta be a multiple of 8, hence they output 1360x768.

Any decent screen will display this 1:1, which will give 3 blank lines at the top and bottom (unnoticable). Some crap ones may attempt to resize, and these should ba avoided, as above says.

EDIT - Crap, sorry for double post.

squiffy · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:55

You lose 3 either side, not top and bottom. And not all screens support native, ideally you don't want to use VGA. That's why the LG's have a niche.

I think you can use powerstrip and create a custom rez, but not worth it just for 6 pixels.

unless the screen doesn't show native as it'll then scale.

Is it pretty easy with ATI and Nvidia cards? :confused:

Shakey_Jake33 · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:57

squiffy said:
You lose 3 either side, not top and bottom.

Shows how much I noticed it =P

My mate had to create a custom res to get his PC displaying on his Baier over HDMI without overscan, he did it in CCC I think.
Any TV I buy would have to support PC input over HDMI properly.

doran1801 · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:18

it will be used for mainly 360 and some hd movies from media centre

Shakey_Jake33 · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:31

Well the 360 can go in the Component, and the PC in either the DVI or HDMI.

FrankJH · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:37

OP - Also look at the latest Samsung Hd TV;s they are worth considering alongside the LG , both should be in your price range even though from what I have heard the Samsung has been updated recently but the LG is waiting for a model refresh

doran1801 · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:38

are they any on here worth buying?

elroberto · 4 Sep 2006 at 23:06

I've seen a Sharp 32" going for £669 inc vat at a well known DVD vendor in the channel islands. (GA8E I think the model was. The current generation should drop a bit more again in the next few months as the new models get rolled out.