Recommended 28" or 32" sets?

[andrewfee]

I have owned a Panasonic TX28DT40 for about four months now, and recently used DVE on it. I was shocked at how poor the set is calibrated. (I had noticed it wasn't great, but didn't expect it to be this bad)

I am probably able to get store credit for the set (£550) and am willing to pay up to £1000 for a new tv now, although something in the £600-700 price range would be preferred, as it would take me a few months to save up £1000. My primary concern is geometry though, and preferably a set that has good geometry, not one that can be fixed via the service menu without too much trouble.

Here are some pictures showing how bad some of the problems are.

Horrible geometry/overscan/positioning:

Seems to have a very weak power supply meaning that bright images cause massive distortion:

(note: brightness/contrast are turned up higher to take the picture - camera is very poor in low light conditions.) Red line added for reference.

Terrible convergence, and horizontal interference regardless of input/cable:

(the interference causes all vertical lines to constantly "wave" left and right)

Bright line down the middle of the set (was hard to take a picture of at all)

Preferably the set would be an iDTV - I am looking at the Sony KD32DX200. I'm not keen on the blurring associated with 100Hz sets, but the flicker of a 50Hz set is much worse in my opinion. (not much blur on this set anyway - one of the few good things about it)

If the set is not an iDTV, I would need ~£100 left over to buy a freeview box.

What sets would you recommend? The only features I would need are 100Hz and preferably a digital tuner built in. My old set has picture-in-picture etc, which is nice, but not something I use often enough that it would deter me from buying a set without this feature.

[bonzobanana]

Looks pretty good on the first picture. I've seen far, far worse. Second picture is pretty bad and as you say shows the psu isn't very good at regulating itself between varying amounts of current demand. This is a common problem across a lot of brands. Third picture is the type of test that catches out a lot of sets but doesn't mean theres a problem with real world tv images. Its the high contrast between total black and total white that the tv can't handle. Unless you watch some sort of arthouse hungarian animation from the 1950s you shouldn't have a problem with it.

the final image is the annoying one to me. My vision seems to get drawn to these sorts of things. Geometry and even colour purity I can overlook sometimes but stupid thin lines going completely across the screen I find damn annoying.

I suggest you find yourself an old stock model of a 28" or 32" 50hz set discounted somewhere. Perhaps a Thomson. Flicker shouldn't be a problem on a 28" set unless your very sensitive to it. Perhaps a Dixons store is closing near you and you will be able to get a good deal on a display model which you can also thoroughly examine for picture problems.