Looking for 32" LCD, mainly for SD

[NigelPD]

Hi all,

I've read through the forums, but most of the people are interested in HD use - mainly for games consoles.

I'm not a big gamer, and I have a PC for messing around on, so that use seems unlikely. That said, I quite like my gadgets, and will probably get around to getting both Sky/Virgin HD and a BluRay video player sometime [not necessarily soon].

My current living room is too small for anything larger then [possibly even as large as] a 32" widescreen telly, as in the current living room the sofa is only just 6" from the screen. That said, we've plans to move house within a year or so, and do not plan on buying another nice telly then, so we want a bit of extra size to allow for having a larger space to put the telly in!

I have set myself a budget of around £500 max, but can go higher if the price difference is worth it [absolute max - £750]. I would also rather pay a bit extra for a good [read reliable/high quality] make.


The only criteria I've really got for the telly is that it must have at least 2 scart sockets [for existing equipment].

What do people recommend?

All helpful suggestions welcome!

[Yemeth]

Either the Sony D3000 or the Panasonic 32LXD70, both excellent for SD and the best 32" tvs money can buy at the moment. They have 2 scart sockets IIRC, one rgb enabled, one standard.

[NigelPD]

Am definitely thinking about going for the D3000 - looks great - prefer not to have that silver surround!

Done a few price-comparison runs and best price, with reasonable service, seems to be Digitechelectronics.com at £577.40. Do you know if anyone has any experience [good or bad!] with them? Or whether there's somewhere else on the forum I should look to find that out?

Cheers for the advice!

[Yemeth]

You can get it from Digital Direct for £575.

I havent heard about digitechelectronics.com, but digital direct are well known.

http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/products_moreinfo3/index.asp?product_id=13323

[NigelPD]

I'm a little confused now - the panasonic seems to be billed as 1080p, and the Sony only 1080i, but I thought I read on Sony's site that the Sony D3000 is 1080p??

Or is the Panasonic also only 1080i?

As described in the original post, it's not really important to me, but I like to know what I'm "supposed" to be getting! :confused:

Looking at the specs, both are listed as 1366x768 resolution which I understand to mean it can only ever be 1080i? Is that right?

[Yemeth]

IIRC, both will accept a 1080p input resolution, but they naturally have to downscale it to 1366x768, so its not true 1080p resolution. It'll end up looking just like a screen that doesnt accept 1080p.

[Hurders]

Either the Sony D3000 or the Panasonic 32LXD70, both excellent for SD and the best 32" tvs money can buy at the moment. They have 2 scart sockets IIRC, one rgb enabled, one standard.

The 32LXD70 definitely has both scart sockets RGB enabled.

[Yemeth]

The 32LXD70 definitely has both scart sockets RGB enabled.

I had a hunch that was the case. Shouldve written at least one in my other post. :grin:

Thanks.

[NigelPD]

You can get it from Digital Direct for £575.

I havent heard about digitechelectronics.com, but digital direct are well known.

http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/products_moreinfo3/index.asp?product_id=13323
I think I'm back to digitechelectronics - I know the LCD TV industry is fast-paced, but this is ridiculous - digitaldirect.co.uk have now never heard of a d3000???

Are Sony just about to launch a replacement or something? I can't see anything obvious on their website, but then I'm not sure that's where they'd mention it anyway.

[Yemeth]

I think I'm back to digitechelectronics - I know the LCD TV industry is fast-paced, but this is ridiculous - digitaldirect.co.uk have now never heard of a d3000???

Are Sony just about to launch a replacement or something? I can't see anything obvious on their website, but then I'm not sure that's where they'd mention it anyway.

The 40" D3000 is discontinued, but I cant recall hearing that the 32" version is too?!

Sony are gonna launch a whole new range of tvs very soon, the 4000 series across all their models, so maybe thats why they dont have it anymore.

[NigelPD]

Doesn't matter now - I've done it! :thumbsup:

With my luck, I'd probably wait for the new Sony to come out, only to find that it only had 1xScart socket!

Items Ordered
1 of: Sony KDL32D3000 - 32'' Widescreen Bravia HD Ready LCD TV - With Freeview (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000OQ7S46) [Electronics]


Thanks for the advice people.
:arty:

[Brainboy]

interested in this thread cause my 2.5 year old son has scartched my screen and will undoubtedly break it soon - please post on how the D3000 is with SD and epecially football?

[NigelPD]

Well - with SD, I must say, I'm superbly impressed - my sofa is literally 6' from the 32" screen, and yet the picture still looks pretty good with just a standard SD signal [via scart from a standard virginmedia digibox].

I'm not a big footy fan, so haven't watched any, but my guess would be that the features of the sony make it a reasonable choice if you're limited to LCD screens [for size/price reasons], due to the "motion-flow" (or whatever they call it) technology.

Certainly for the programs that I watch [which is not many, but includes enjoying the odd fast-paced action flick - Jackie Chan and Jet Li are gods!] the response seems pretty good.

[note: I've just had (for interest's sake) a quick look at "Sellick TV", and the footy looks ok... I'd say it looks good, but football's not my thing, so I'd be lying! :grin:]