High Def LCD TV/Monitor

jesus_thats_gre

Hi Lads,

Am in the market for a new LCD Monitor and was considering the 24" Widescreen Monitor from Dell. This monitor has a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 - this is important. I am also considering buying a 32" LCD High Def TV but wouldn't mind to combine the 2 into 1 unit..

So, is there any High Def TVs that retail at less than €2,000 and offer very high resolutions. I think 1080p offers native resolutions that high, no?

Thanks

robindch

When considering an LCD panel for telly, you need to consider five variables: the size, the resolution, the contrast ratio, the viewing angle and any extras. I assume that you know that you should buy one which is High-Definition (HD) ready, which discounts many of the ones on sale in Dublin at the moment. Frankly, anything over 32" needs too big a room, so you should limit yourself to 32" and underneath. In telly-mode, the resolution isn't quite as important as you think, because almost nothing is transmitted in 1900x1200 or whatever, and I'd recommend that you go for something less extravagant (all you'll achieve is seeing your jaggies in greater precision). The contrast ratio codes for how black the blacks appear on the telly. 600:1 is common, though not brilliant. The Philips (below) has the best CR. Viewing angle - should be as large as possible. One of the Beko units in Power City has an unbelievable VA of around 45 degrees -- this should be near 150 degrees!

Anyhow, I've been looking around recently and the best one I've seen is the Panasonic TX32LXD500, a 32 inch LCD panel, although this tops out at a Wide-XGA resolution of 1366 x 768. This unit is available from Komplett.ie at EUR1999, but won't be available til January. The very similar TC32LX52 is available to view in Peats on Parnell Street, but this won't take a PC video lead and isn't HD ready.

Other models you might like to investigate are the Philips 32PF9830 (1920x1080, but this unit is expensive and apparently has software bugs; you can see one out in Power City in Sallynoggin), and the Sony KDL{26,32,40}A{10,12} (you can see something similar in the Sony shop in the Jervix street center).

You should visit the UK AV forums at http://www.avforums.com where most of the above issues are discussed in painful detail.

Enjoy.

Sparky

ive a Sammy 32" hd lcd and its HD ready and has a PC input.
I browsed boards through it when i took this pic.
http://images.sparky-s.com/Samsung32/DSCF1334.JPG
It handles the HD pictures grand, and as youll see the pc picture is good too.
Now thats at 1280x768
my tv is rated at 1366x768, but there is no setting on my videocard for that. more pics of the tv are here if you need a gander of it, inc SDTV and HDTV.
http://images.sparky-s.com/sp_index.php?dir=./Samsung32

jesus_thats_gre

I have gotten used to 1920 x 1200 both on my laptop and in work.. The 24 inch widescreen offers the same res.. It would you be used to watch high def content (xbox 360 for example) and used a Monitor. Very little terrestrial TV will be viewed on it..

My mates has the same TV as you Sparky. Its deadly but you have to sit far back from it because of the res.

eoinf

robindch wrote:

The very similar TC32LX52 is available to view in Peats on Parnell Street, but this won't take a PC video lead and isn't HD ready.

the 32lx52 is hd ready it has a HDMI input and handles 1080i, its available in 32" and 26". the LX500 is not uhf/vhf and wont tune into rte tv3 ect.

Sparky

true jesus you do have to stand back a bit but only on SDTV, i viewed 1080i and 720p content on it and you can stant 2 ft away and it looks great.
anyways having a hi-res screen maybe good, but HDTV broadcasts are heading towards 720p, so most HD panels now are 720p, any higher of a res and your into mega bucks.