My 14" Sony analogue CRT telly and associated goodmans digital Freeview box are now on their last legs.

I have kept them going for the last 12 months with numerous repairs and jim-crack lash-ups in the hope that decent full HD sets would start hitting the market in quantity. But, over the last week the digital tuner has started to become really unstable and I can do nothing to fix it.

I was looking for something widescreen in the 26" screen size.

Just looking at the websites of the usual suspects ie.Comet and John Lewis, they are still knocking-out the lower resolution HD Ready cr*p at really inflated prices - presumably because they have got stuck with a whole load of increasingly unsaleable stock two years ago and now nobodies buying.

I was thinking of buying a Full HD Monitor and using its HDMI connection to link it up to a Humax digital tuner/recorder. Doing this, I'd still have change left compared with the HD ready kit being sold by Comet etc.

Anybody know of a good retailer of full HD sets ?

As an aside, I got a feeling that Comet are going to go the same way as Woolworths ! They've really gone down from the standard they set 25 years ago when they first started.

Nick

Unless you sit pretty close to your telly, I wouldn’t worry about the 26” tv being only 720 (I assume that’s what they are) as even with 20/20 vision, it’s unlikely you would notice much if any difference in the definition. Also all the upscaling of freeview will tend to look worse rather than better.

There are some great deals out there if you don’t get too sucked into the numbers game. Just look at what happened with cameras and megapixels, compact digital cameras are no better and often worse than they were a few years ago, especially if you shoot indoors, or in poor light.

You've clearly not worked in electrical retail - stock turn over is far quicker than you seem to think.

What do you class as overinflated prices for a 27" 1080p set , and what do you think they should be selling at?

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/572702/lg-m2762d-black-27-1080p-digital-lc looks ok to me

or you can get a 32" for a bit more.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/530677/lg-32lf2510-32-inch-1080p-lcd-tv-34

Or if you prefer Sony , there's plenty more offers.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/search?action=search&keywords=bravia

If you shop round there's plenty of good buys out there....

Edited 16 January, 201016 yr by Dr Zoidberg

If you have a look at avforums the great consesus is anything less then 37" is fine with 720p. I have a 32" set that is 720p and the quality is very good.

cheers guys Many thanks for the links.

Odd though . I thought 720p was fast becoming a defunct standard. That being the case, if stock turnover is so rapid why are the buyers at Comet still purchasing a soon to be phased-out standard and why would manufacturers be producing them ?

I'm looking for this purchase to last at least 10 years (Design engineering and Moore's law permitting), so would expect the set to at least able to accomodate standards that will become the de rigeur minimum in 3-5 years i.e full HD.

The widescreen computer monitor I got at the beginning of last year was full HD 1920 x 1080p (£179 Inc VAT then, and £30 cheaper now) and a Humax tuner recorder at £130 wheras the TVs are about the same price at discount outlets and twice the price in places like Comet.

And as most of the volume sales LCD TVs are computer monitors with digital tuners added on as an afterthought, why are the major electricals still knocking -out the 720p TV stuff ?

The spec on my HD Monitor says it does all it does using only 2.1 megapixels, so far less than the minimum operating level of digital cameras currently on sale.

Nick

No , 720p isn;t going anywhere.

Current games consoles mostly run at 720p , even though the hardware supports higher resolutions , and the broadcast HD services only do 1080i or 720p.

As for most LCD TVs being monitors , no they aren't.

Cheapo no-name sets were often PC panels with a tuner bolted on , but that's not the case on better kit..

cheers guys Many thanks for the links.

Odd though . I thought 720p was fast becoming a defunct standard. That being the case, if stock turnover is so rapid why are the buyers at Comet still purchasing a soon to be phased-out standard and why would manufacturers be producing them ?

I'm looking for this purchase to last at least 10 years (Design engineering and Moore's law permitting), so would expect the set to at least able to accomodate standards that will become the de rigeur minimum in 3-5 years i.e full HD.

The widescreen computer monitor I got at the beginning of last year was full HD 1920 x 1080p (£179 Inc VAT then, and £30 cheaper now) and a Humax tuner recorder at £130 wheras the TVs are about the same price at discount outlets and twice the price in places like Comet.

And as most of the volume sales LCD TVs are computer monitors with digital tuners added on as an afterthought, why are the major electricals still knocking -out the 720p TV stuff ?

The spec on my HD Monitor says it does all it does using only 2.1 megapixels, so far less than the minimum operating level of digital cameras currently on sale.

Nick

You Humax does not receive even 720p pictures if it is using Freeview, so either the telly/Humax/monitor will have to invent all the extra information to fill it’s 1080 resolution hunger. It will have to do the same for 720 too of course. As I assume you won’t be sat a mere few feet from the monitor, at the size (26â€) you are taking about, you will not see the difference between 720 and 1080. let alone 1920 x 1200 so you are spending money for something that you will not see the benefit from.

Think of a nearly bald man buying a comb with 200 tines/teeth for 25p or buying a comb with 2000 tines/teeth for 50p. Why pay the extra when it clearly isn’t going to benefit his situation.

Don't forget that Freeview HD will be along in the next couple of months so more new kit such as Humax HD to look out for which will make all the old kit redundant and cheap!

As prices go, my 720p, 32" LCD TV (Samsung R74 Series) cost £650 in Dec 06, three years ago. What are they costing now?

Still my only HD input is my Xbox360 and rather than wanting better resolution, I wanted more TV acre-age but its not worth the change. Now running an upscaling Humax 9300T but the difference is hardly noticable. In fact the current Humax problems are a PITA.

IT was from JL with their 5 yr guarentee but with a typical bathtub curve, I don't expect to need it now.

Edited 17 January, 201016 yr by daiking

As prices go, my 720p, 32" LCD TV (Samsung R74 Series) cost £650 in Dec 06, three years ago. What are they costing now?

Still my only HD input is my Xbox360 and rather than wanting better resolution, I wanted more TV acre-age but its not worth the change. Now running an upscaling Humax 9300T but the difference is hardly noticable. In fact the current Humax problems are a PITA.

IT was from JL with their 5 yr guarentee but with a typical bathtub curve, I don't expect to need it now.

Slightly OT, but I haven’t had a single issue on my Humax since I did the manual channel search last year. Still get the pop up to say new channels are available, but this is a known issue that Humax are looking at.

As for the Freeview HD boxes, they are already out there to pre-order (Superfi has them), although they aren’t’ full blown PVRs yet. They want to mile you a bit first then get you to buy another one later

It is going slightly OT but both my TV and Humax have developed a stutter and certain things are all jerky to watch

It is going slightly OT but both my TV and Humax have developed a stutter and certain things are all jerky to watch

If they are both doing it, it must be a shared item causing the problem. I am pretty sure you have ruled out the retune nonsense, but if not, I urge you to recheck the channels your local Tx is outputting (probably 6 channels in total). Have you checked the bad weather hasn’t moved or got water into your ariel system? You Humax can tell you the signal strength and the signal quality in one of the menus. Might give you a clue where to start looking.

It is going slightly OT but both my TV and Humax have developed a stutter and certain things are all jerky to watch

Possibly low signal level - have you tried to see if analoguesignal to TV is lower than before ( picture snowier ) .Analogue signal ,progressively gets worse and snowirer .Digital signal degrades to certain point then cuts off -/on etc if signal is floating about this point .

i bought one of these before xmas

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5295638/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CHome+entertainment+and+sat+nav%7C14419512/c_2/3%7C15701169%7CTelevisions%7C14419667/c_3/4%7Ccat_14419667%7C32+inch+LCD+TVs%7C14419678.htm

ok its not top flight stuff but the pic quailty is good and after all its £250 so if/when it breaks down its not going to be the end of the world..

very happy so far my only grumble is that there is no way of switching it off except at the plug