Television set deals in Galway

Amik

Anyone seen any good deals on televisions in Galway lately? I'm in the market for a Full HD TV, minimum of 32".

Saw a nice 40" at N17 for around 500 EUR but it was some unknown brand. Had a fantastic picture though.

Amik

The brand was "Hannspree". Anyone have any experience with their TVs?

apoeiguq3094y

Amik wrote: »

Anyone seen any good deals on televisions in Galway lately? I'm in the market for a Full HD TV, minimum of 32".

Saw a nice 40" at N17 for around 500 EUR but it was some unknown brand. Had a fantastic picture though.

Bought a HANSPREE 32" FullHD for €369. The picture quality looked the best for any 32" under €600, so i'm very happy with it. The contrast was way better than a similarly priced Samsung or LG.

The benefit of FullHD isn't really noticeable at 32", although the only HD input I use is the PS3.

DID have it, and I heard xtravision are selling it too maybe?

Amik

Nice! All the Hannsprees on display had terrific pictures. I'll take a closer look at them on the weekend. Seems to be a company from Taiwan.

biko

Have you seen the Bargain Alerts forum? Could be worth keeping an eye on.

bildo

Go to harvey norman 15 mins before closing at the weekend and offer them silly money for something, you'll walk out with a bargain.

apoeiguq3094y

The sales woman in DID told me "she had one at home and it was great" but I'm sure she says that to all the boys . She also said that it contained a lot of components made for JVC, but I'd take that with a grain of salt.

The contrast was great on it, the only minor problem it has is that in very dark scenes the blacks are a bit grey. All LCDs have this trouble though, so unless you splash out for a plasma its unavoidable. Its a 31.5" tv as well - they sneakily round it off to 32", but thats not a deal breaker really. It also has a really solid feeling remote, which is surprisingly reassuring.

The had another one out there for closer to 300 but think it was only HDready, and they didn't have it turned on, which made me suspicious. It was some brand call ALLtv or something similar.

dolphin city

don't laugh but can anyone explain - I know HD means high definition. I was thinking of buying a plasma flat screen - if I purchase a HD, do I have to purchase something else as well before the HD works (i.e. what does HD ready mean). Can I just go out and buy a flat screen plasma with HD and just plug it in and it works, like the old fashioned tv or is there something else special i need to do - forgive the ignorence - I'm an old fashioned gal.

death1234567

dolphin city wrote: »

don't laugh but can anyone explain - I know HD means high definition. I was thinking of buying a plasma flat screen - if I purchase a HD, do I have to purchase something else as well before the HD works (i.e. what does HD ready mean). Can I just go out and buy a flat screen plasma with HD and just plug it in and it works, like the old fashioned tv or is there something else special i need to do - forgive the ignorence - I'm an old fashioned gal.

Your HD ready TV will display pictures only in HD if you have something attached to your TV that is capable of transmitting a HD image. For Example if you have a PS3 or blu ray player this will show a HD picture on your TV. If you have a normal UPC or Sky box the picture on your TV will not be HD, it will just be the normal "Soft Definition" that you get on a non HD telly. You'll need a special HD box from UPC/SKY, a HD subscription, and be watching a TV channel that is being broadcast in HD, eg. SkyOneHD before you get a HD picture on your telly. Its all unnecessarily confusing

fergpie

dolphin city wrote: »

don't laugh but can anyone explain - I know HD means high definition. I was thinking of buying a plasma flat screen - if I purchase a HD, do I have to purchase something else as well before the HD works (i.e. what does HD ready mean). Can I just go out and buy a flat screen plasma with HD and just plug it in and it works, like the old fashioned tv or is there something else special i need to do - forgive the ignorence - I'm an old fashioned gal.

You'll need to subscribe to either Sky HD or UPC HD TV package to get the full high definition picture. However only certain channels have HD capabilities. Im sure some other satalite packages have HD as well. Im not well informed on them tho...

s_carnage

dolphin city wrote: »

don't laugh but can anyone explain - I know HD means high definition. I was thinking of buying a plasma flat screen - if I purchase a HD, do I have to purchase something else as well before the HD works (i.e. what does HD ready mean). Can I just go out and buy a flat screen plasma with HD and just plug it in and it works, like the old fashioned tv or is there something else special i need to do - forgive the ignorence - I'm an old fashioned gal.

Ya to get the full impact of HD you would need something like a blu ray player or a sky HD box plugged into it. Some HD TV's though don't handle SD (standard definition) pictures aswell as others so this would want to be looked at if you don't have sky HD. I'd imagine most TVs now handle SD just fine but it's definitely worth checking. There is no problem plugging anything into a HD TV like you would with your normal run of the mill TV.

I bought a TV on pixmania.ie a couple of years back and made a big saving instead of purchasing it in a store here but with all the offers in the past two years I would imagine the savings to have decreased.

steo2009

hi guys check currys store out i know there is a deal on a samsung 32 inch full hd tv, we got a load of samsung tvs in during the week. i think the package is the tv a serano stand and a samsung dvd rose player, but im not 100% on the package contents.

dolphin city

thanks guys - you have all been very very helpful. I think I might go for one - a nice plasma HD, now that I know what I have to do. At the minute the one I have is taking over half my sitting room with the size of the back on it - it could double up as a nice coffee table. :D

Sponge Bob

Currys Samsungs will pick up Irish Digital TV ( DTT) ...which is live in Galway for ages..... where Hannspree probably won't. Make sure you are not sold a pup that will only work in England.

Thargor

The 32" Hanspree in N17 will pick up Irish digital, I know because I bought it. I couldnt be happier with it either, the 360 is insanely good looking on it, same with hd content sent from my laptop.

apoeiguq3094y

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Currys Samsungs will pick up Irish Digital TV ( DTT) ...which is live in Galway for ages..... where Hannspree probably won't. Make sure you are not sold a pup that will only work in England.

Hey that kind of scaremongering isn't doing anyone any good. Did you even check? Just because it doesn't have a major brand doesn't mean it won't work here.

Thargor wrote: »

The 32" Hanspree in N17 will pick up Irish digital, I know because I bought it. I couldnt be happier with it either, the 360 is insanely good looking on it, same with hd content sent from my laptop.

Yeah the Hanspree in DID will also pick up the Irish (mpeg4) signal. Do you have a HD out from your laptop? or is there a way of converting from the digital output for DVB on laptops to HDMI?

Discodog

The picture that you see in a shop will often be a specially generated image & enhanced. Because of all the variations in room lighting, aerials, receotion etc it is very difficult to compare sets. I prefer to rely on reviews by the experts who view them every day of the week. Make a shortlist & then go here & ask John at Richer Sounds for a boardie deal.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1105

Tv reviews are here :

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Hannspree-ST321/

Sponge Bob

Discodog wrote: »

The picture that you see in a shop will often be a specially generated image & enhanced.

Exactly, you are not watching an over the air picture. But if the Hannspree model is confirmed as working with Irish DTT then go ahead and buy by all means. Does it show the RTE HD Test Channel as well ????

Aldi and Lidl both have specials over the next few days. NEITHER will work with Irish Digital TV so don't even think of them ( Tevion and Silvercrest brands)

cranky bollix

Irish Digital TV ( DTT)

excuse my ignorance - what does this mean?

Sponge Bob

cranky bollix wrote: »

Irish Digital TV ( DTT)

excuse my ignorance - what does this mean?

It means you can now pick up Digital Telly in Galway ( nice crisp picture widescreen) as well as Analogue Telly (what we have had for 50 years ) on a proper modern telly. The analogue will stop working in two years anyway.

Many shops , most notoriously Lidl and Aldi , import UK Digital TVs with the wrong software for Irish Digital TV....meaning they cannot show a broadcast digital picture and are therefore not televisions although they could sell them as expensive PC Monitors I suppose

The digital signal is available in all of the City and East Galway, in parts of West Connemara ...not yet. Only east of a line from Oughterard to Ros a Mhíl pier.

RTE are already broadcasting HD Digital Tests IF you have the right telly. It is a proper 1080i picture not that 720p cack that is passed off as HD sometimes.

Thargor

apoeiguq3094y wrote: »

Hey that kind of scaremongering isn't doing anyone any good. Did you even check? Just because it doesn't have a major brand doesn't mean it won't work here.



Yeah the Hanspree in DID will also pick up the Irish (mpeg4) signal. Do you have a HD out from your laptop? or is there a way of converting from the digital output for DVB on laptops to HDMI?

I have a HDMI port on my laptop so I just use that, every new laptop has HDMI these days, dont know about any other way to do video out, sorry.

apoeiguq3094y

Discodog wrote: »

The picture that you see in a shop will often be a specially generated image & enhanced. Because of all the variations in room lighting, aerials, receotion etc it is very difficult to compare sets. I prefer to rely on reviews by the experts who view them every day of the week. Make a shortlist & then go here & ask John at Richer Sounds for a boardie deal.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1105

Tv reviews are here :

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Hannspree-ST321/

Its a relatively unknown brand, and because of the large number of models in every brand, (often with only a slight difference in the #) i often find it hard to find a specific review.

Yeah I'm usually wary of a special image being shown that may hide a problem with a given TV.. In DID they had sky news on so I was fairly happy with that. With the Hanspree the weather actually looked a lot better (the picture not the forecast ), i.e. some of the blue/white shades were not being shown clearly on the others, whereas it looked very clear on the HANSPREE.

There was also a 3 year warranty, so that somewhat allayed my fears about buying a lesser known brand. For the < 500 range it was the best 32" I could find. Obviously you'll get better TV's if you can find one on sale or something.

The whathifi review is for a completely different model to teh one I have, its a SJ32DMBB so i wouldn't take anything from that review.

Sponge Bob

That model will show SD Irish Digital TV for sure, can you see the HD channel too ( the one called RTENL2 below TG4)

darrenh

How do you connect your HD tv to free view digital?

_Whimsical_

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The digital signal is available in all of the City and East Galway, in parts of West Connemara ...not yet. Only east of a line from Oughterard to Ros a Mhíl pier.

RTE are already broadcasting HD Digital Tests IF you have the right telly. It is a proper 1080i picture not that 720p cack that is passed off as HD sometimes.

is that channel now TV3? Or should there be another channel there?
I have a samsung le26c450 that was bought in DID and guaranteed to work here but below TG4 I only have TV3.

Amik

This one looks interesting:

http://www.did.ie/Product/SAMSUNG-40andquot-1080P-LCD-TV-LE40C530F1WXX/18010/317

Sponge Bob

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

is that channel now TV3? Or should there be another channel there?

The channel is named RTENL, the question is whether you see any pictures on it.

pdiddy

i know this prob isnt much help but was in power city in drogeda during the week and they had a 50 inch samsung hd ready tv for 599 though it was a pretty gud deal

zero19

This is a great tv, full 1080p HD,i bought one myself recently. Cheaper in argos than powercity or DID.

http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=30001&catalogId=1500002451&langId=-1&searchTerms=le32c530

_Whimsical_

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The channel is named RTENL2, the question is whether you see any pictures on it.

I don't have any channel by that name. I only have rtenl . Does the channel that you're talking about broadcast scenic footage of Dublin and Galway and sometimes just a test card of colored bars with Ath Cliath written on it?

Sponge Bob

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Does the channel that you're talking about broadcast scenic footage of Dublin and Galway and sometimes just a test card of colored bars with Ath Cliath written on it?

Yep that is the one and you have HD .

My yoke probably needs a rescan since TV3 launched this week, still has the old names stored.