First TV in 10 years. Should I get LED or LCD? Or projector? Or home cinema.

D

Drakon

Registered User
Messages
851
The last time I lived in a house with a television was 2005.
I've watched some streaming TV in that time, but not on a daily or even weekly basis.

However, it's time to move on, it's time to get a television (or similar) for the following reasons:
  • Firstly, we've just bought a new house with a large lounge
  • Secondly, we've two children that we don't want to deprive of TV
  • And most importantly, we'll get no babysitter without a TV

As you can imagine, I'm out of touch with the world of TV sets.
Apparently plasma is long gone and it's between LED and LCD. What are the pros and cons?
Given that I'm in my 40ies and I've never bought a TV or a TV licence, I can afford the luxury of splashing out a bit. Should I go with home cinema? Is this just a surround sound system?

Is a projector a runner? It sounds like a good idea, but I've read a few cons. It seems to be something that should be in a dedicated room. Not a living area where there are windows, lamps and people passing thru'.

I'm sure budget is a factor. I'm not willing to pay thousands, but maybe if I got the following covered for the €3,000 mark:
screen, sound, DVD/BluRay player.

Thanks.


Oh yeah, and where to test/buy in the Cork/Kerry/Limerick area.
 
Projector is too noisy, expensive to run and the cost of bulb replacement.
A Samsung 50-52" LED Backlit TV for less than a thousand euro is an impressive piece of TV. Something like this for 850 euro: [broken link removed] in DID in Cork.
 
With that budget I would look at getting an LED TV 40-50" depending on size of your room. A soundbar with subwoofer (unless you want 5.1 speaker package and are happy to set up speakers around the room).

Don't know much about DVD/Bluray players these days. If you have a decent internet connection, would you consider using something like an Apple TV/Chromecast instead? You could stream netflix movies and youtube on it.
Or maybe a decent smart TV would offer those services within it...

You should be able to stay well within budget for what you want. I'd shop around Currys/DID/Powercity and look for best price once you've picked what you like. And don't pay silly money for HDMI cables. The ones you can get online for <5e are just as good as the ones they will try to flog you for >20e in those shops. Spend your money instead on a good surge protected plug board.
 
Drakon said:
I'm sure budget is a factor. I'm not willing to pay thousands, but maybe if I got the following covered for the €3,000 mark:
screen, sound, DVD/BluRay player.

.
Click to expand...

I think that's an outrageous amount of money to spend on a TV, you don't need anything close to taht We have an excellent flat screen TV, very large, and it cost a lot less than 1K. It has HD is all I know and works perfectly, Phillips. And of course they is a new HD called something else but no idea how that could be any better and I saw a curved TV in a shop recently. It's like teabags, they keep changing the shame but it still does the job. Or like those alloy wheels on cars gimmick.

We have netflix for shows now and don't need a recorder but I think we have that too in the TV but cannot be sure.
 
TV is on it's last legs! I bought a new one two years ago and it never made it out of the box, it's still sitting in the garage.... I even got shot of the old one and no one has noticed!

In the space of a few weeks the kids plus wife seem to just flip over to watching TV on their laptop, IPad or whatever. I never was much of a tele watcher myself, but YouTube seems to be the new TV in our house. All I got to do now is figure out what to put in the hole where the TV was....
 
Don't buy a smart TV. I did and it's a waste of money. Just get Apple TV or Chromecast or something like that.
 
Bronte said:
I think that's an outrageous amount of money to spend on a TV, you don't need anything close to taht We have an excellent flat screen TV, very large, and it cost a lot less than 1K. It has HD is all I know and works perfectly, Phillips. And of course they is a new HD called something else but no idea how that could be any better and I saw a curved TV in a shop recently.
Click to expand...

One person's outrageous is another's cheap as chips. All depends what you want to use it for. If it's just Fair City and the like, then any old TV will do the job, but if you watch a lot of movies or sport, then many will appreciate a better picture quality. I consider paying €1400 for one of the last Panasonic plasmas off the line a great deal, but that's just me, and I wouldn't touch any recent Phillips, as their quality has gone downhill since they outsourced all the manufacturing.
 
I'd have no problem investing in a good TV setup but again it depends on what you want to watch. For sport, action movies and fast action I would go for the TV with the best refresh rate, typically a 400Hz will usually be less good than 1000Hz. We actively look for all the HD channels now of which there are lots on Sky and Netflix but also on a FreeSAT. There are also 4K TVs but little content at the moment even if there is a certain amount of up-scaling of content possible. It's really a personal decision, but my advice go for the biggest you can afford if you have a large room and want to have a cinema experience and look for high refresh rate (I think they also refer to it as Motion rate).
I'd not buy a Philips these days as quality has certainly dropped. Personally I like Samsung (features), Sony (picture) but people also rate LG (not my experience) and Panasonic (never had one).
Any of the good TVs have a build in FreeSAT and Saorview inputs so they cover you for almost all the free stuff out there. Do connect to internet if you can, the TV apps tend to be insipid but some have decent Netflix, RTEPlayer and 3Player, if you Sky HD or Xbox or ChomeCast or AppleTV that will also do. Personally I find easiest to use is Sky but the the least restrictive option is to have a small entertainment PC box connected via HDMI which works with full RTE Player, SkyGo, Netflix and lots more. If you are into Blueray you seem to want to have a movie experience but remember not all other content will be delivered to that quality.
As advised earlier go to Harvey Norman or Currys PC World (they are in Kerry, Limerick and Cork) and get the one that appeals to you and your family (do bring along someone to bounce ideas around). I have always found Harvey Norman excellent, great advice and am usually impressed at their knowledge and willingness to do a deal.
Oh, another good idea is to measure the TVs you plan to buy and cut out a piece of cardboard with the TV dimensions to put in on the wall or where ever to see what a big TV might look like. The screen size is measured diagonally, but you can find measurements on the manufacturers sites. We were going to buy a 46" and ended up with a 56" which actually ended up having less of a size impact that our old TV because the screen now takes up all the face of the TV without a huge border, also our new TV is much more eco friendly, the old LG we had was like having a heater on in the room at times.
 
Purple said:
Don't buy a smart TV. I did and it's a waste of money. Just get Apple TV or Chromecast or something like that.
Click to expand...

Which reminds me, ours is a so called Smart TV, whatever that is, we don't use it. But it's one of those things that sells things to men.
 
Last edited:
Leo said:
One person's outrageous is another's cheap as chips. All depends what you want to use it for. If it's just Fair City and the like, then any old TV will do the job, but if you watch a lot of movies or sport, then many will appreciate a better picture quality. I consider paying €1400 for one of the last Panasonic plasmas off the line a great deal, but that's just me, and I wouldn't touch any recent Phillips, as their quality has gone downhill since they outsourced all the manufacturing.
Click to expand...

We watch movies and series like Breaking bad, and anything that involves a ball or horse my OH watches. It's Led, cost 499 Euro and is 42 inches and anything bigger is not going in my living room, I've been to one house where the TV was nearly the size of a full wall, and it heated the entire apartment as it couldn't be turned off, plus it got damaged in a corner but was too big to bring and get repaired. Another house the TV was so big it looked ridiculous.

Don't see how spending more money gets you anything better.

The other brilliant thing about it is that Phillips have a remote control so simple I am able to do the following;

Volume
Channels
And switch to the sky box by using two buttons. Called 'source' and then Hdm1.
 
Agree with Bronte here. We got a quality 39" Toshiba TV (Toshiba 39L4357 – Full HD 39” LED Saorview ready TV) from Richer Sounds up North, delivered to the door for just €285. Add in an acceptable soundbar (Boston) for under €200 and a Blu-Ray for under €100 and you have a decent setup for less than €600. I see no need to spend thousands, especially if you haven't even had a tv for the past 10 years! You say you're getting it for the kids, baby sitter and to finish off the lounge so it doesn't sound like you're looking for anything special here so why spend thousands when you can get something perfectly acceptable for hundreds!
 
Last edited:
You are able to purchase on Amazon.co.uk using parcelmotel.com - often cheaper & better spec

We have 2 samsung smart LED TVs - a 60 inch and a 48 inch. Both appeared fine until the cable guy came in to look at our connections and noticed we were using factory setting. He fiddled with them and the improvement was huge. No matter what one you buy, fix the settings (i have no idea how to do this though). Also, the 60 inch is way to big in my opinion and not needed at all - I'll not be buying one like that again.

I didn't think we'd use the smart TV function that much when we bought it but we now use netflix, HBO & youtube on it almost every night (and its nice to have it all inside the TV with no need for separate boxes)
 
Andy reminds me, my OH gets Netflix on his iPod to the TV, pay 9 euro a month, downloads it and with cable it connects to TV, something about a splitter too. And you can use RTE player for stuff too.
 
Bronte said:
Don't see how spending more money gets you anything better.
Click to expand...

That's like saying buying a BMW gets you nothing better than a Dacia.

Bronte said:
It's Led
Click to expand...
Your LED is actually a LED backlit LCD. Plasma was a far superior technology, just more expensive to manufacture, so didn't survive the drive towards bigger/ cheaper.

Bronte said:
The other brilliant thing about it is that Phillips have a remote control so simple I am able to do the following;

Volume
Channels
And switch to the sky box by using two buttons. Called 'source' and then Hdm1.
Click to expand...

What you really want so is a Harmony remote, one button press turns on my amplifier, changes it's input to the digital audio feed from the Sky box, selects HDMI1 and mutes the TV. :D
 
With that sort of money I would buy top of the range philips 9 series
I have a 9 series from 2010, picture is superb. It is LCD with backlit LED.
Most of the LCD tv's now are side lit which causes blooming effects. This appears like white clouding on dark parts of a program.
I work in the movie industry and look at professional tv monitors all day long. The philips have the best picture but maybe not the best apps.

When viewing tv's in a shop, ask to see fast moving images or football games as that is where you see the quality on the better tv's.
Don't let the salemen play animated movies as they look good on almost all tv's.
Also, just because a tv is thin doesn't mean its better, who watches a tv from the side anyhow?
The sound quality is generally worse on the thin tv's as the speakers are smaller.
 
Thanks for the replies, very informative and helpful.

I suppose there are a few details I left out, most importantly the size of the room. It's 6.7m x 7.3m. Consequently a big TV is required (proportion and all that), 48-55 inches. Also, from what I've read a soundbar is only appropriate in a small or medium sized room so I'll need a surround sound system, 5.1, or similar.
As mentioned my budget is €3,000. To emphasise, this is a budget, not a target. And it covers the lot, not just the screen. I assume with the economic recovery that rock-bottom prices are a thing of the past and prices will probably be on the up again?
Internet connection is rural, only 3.5 meg. I wouldn't be relying totally on YouTube, etc.
Have been using the laptop and iPhone for occasional viewing, but these really are personal devices and not appropriate for more that a couple of viewers.

Definitely won't be buying a Philips. I've been stung by them many times in the fast, both for entertainment and for appliances. Their light bulbs and steam irons are great, but that's about it.

I'm leading towards Samsung or Panasonic, in DID. Going shopping tomorrow, all going well.

Thanks again for the replies.
 
Take a look in Power City as well. You could try play one against the other to get a better deal.
 
Best of luck with the purchase.
Drakon said:
Internet connection is rural, only 3.5 meg. I wouldn't be relying totally on YouTube, etc.
Have been using the laptop and iPhone for occasional viewing, but these really are personal devices and not appropriate for more that a couple of viewers.
Click to expand...
We have a home in the sticks a similar situation but the 3Mb connection and it is fine for Netflix, YouTube and Xbox Video. SkyGo and RTE player can be a bit ropey at times for streaming and the download of rental movies is pretty slow so you have to plan an hour or so ahead to download HD movie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top