Widescreen TV

Sweeper

Hi all,
I'm looking into buying a 28" widescreen TV and I need to know what and where to look. Is widescreen worth getting if you usually just watch normal/cable TV and play playstation games? I don't need any fancy sound system in the TV, Nicam Stereo will do fine. Any product recommendations? Is D.I.D electrical the best place to shop? What about wholesalers like Musgrave, do they stock widescreen TVs? Would you order a TV from the net?

cheers
Sweeper

Kali

I'm not a great fan of Power City in general but they have decent prices on 28" Mitsubisi Black Diamond Widescreens at the moment which have a very impressive picture.
As with any widescreens though they really only come into their own with dvds or widescreen broadcasts.

Just make sure whatever tv you get that it has audio outputs on the back so if you wish in future you can hook it up to a decent sound system or amp, something we overlooked in the name of price at home and am now well ****ed off about.

I don't think I'd bother ordering something like a tv off the net, for the reasons that there isnt too many places selling them so prices aren't too attractive and that you might very well get killed on delivery (very big & heavy boxes), ebay or similar may provide a very very good deal though (has been the case with quite a few ppl i know), could be worth looking at.

beer enigma

Strangely enough - Brown Thomas are about the best for widescreen !. They'll match any price including Power City & will give you 12 months interest free as well. Think carefully about Philips, Sony & Panasonic - they are the only three that make all of their own bits - all of the others buy in stuff

gandalf

Hmm bought my Panasonic Widescreen from Totterdells they normally have some deals going on widescreens there as well.

Gandalf.

PhilipMarlowe

I bought my philips 32" widescreen in BT's 2 1/2 years ago... the tube went on it but philips replaced it for me (even though it was out of guarantee) which was just as well cause i didnt feel like forking out any more on the hoor...
I got it in the sale after christmas, got 10% off...(£160). Don't they have a one day sale sometimes... like on some bank holiday mondays?... worth looking into.
Of course, if you take the 10% sale, you cant get the 0% finance option...
...or something™

Skeptic1

How do people whatch normal format broadcasts on these things? They are getting very common in pubs but they always seem to have them set to "squashed" format - you know, where everything is short and wide looking.

Stephen

I don't know a whole lot about TV's, but my philips 32" widescreen has controls on the remote to change the format of the image on screen. It has various modes, including standard 4:3 which is just like a normal TV, with wide black bands down either side of the screen, 16:9 (normal widescreen), "superwide" where the image is stretched to fill the entire screen but retains its aspect ratio, meaning that a small bit of the top and bottom edges of the picture is cut out, 14:9 (or something similar) which is kind of a compromise, and some others. Some channels broadcast the best mode to use along with their programming so that the TV will autoselect the correct one.

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- Munch

hudson806

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Skeptic1:
How do people whatch normal format broadcasts on these things? They are getting very common in pubs but they always seem to have them set to "squashed" format - you know, where everything is short and wide looking.</font>

Looks awful, I agree. This is how I do it, anyway: I watch 4:3 broadcasts in '4:3' mode (ie with black bars on the sides), 14:9 broadcasts in 'Panorama' mode, which stretches the sides (but not the centre) a little, while zooming in slightly, giving very small bars on the side, and only slight distortion.

Anamorphic DVDs, obviously, I watch in '16:9' mode, non-anamorphic (yuk) DVDs in 'zoom' mode.

The titles of the different modes on different sets won't be the same, of course, but you get the idea.

Certainly, having had a ws TV for about a year now, I've decided that the stretchy modes are barbaric.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Think carefully about Philips, Sony & Panasonic - they are the only three that make all of their own bits - all of the others buy in stuff</font>

True enough - they're all good brands, but some of the 'bought in' brands are superb - Loewe's Aconda is exceptional (built using a Philips tube)


[This message has been edited by hudson806 (edited 29-07-2001).]

duckmusic

DID do a good one. I was in there the other day and they have a great sony for sale. I think if you good at bargaining you might be able to get it for as little as €100.:eek:

bargain

Avns1s

duckmusic wrote: »

DID do a good one. I was in there the other day and they have a great sony for sale. I think if you good at bargaining you might be able to get it for as little as €100.:eek:

bargain

You might want to look at the date of the post before yours!! :rolleyes: