I'm considering purchasing an Aconda 9381. The press reviews have
generally been very good and its regard in this forum is also very
good. However, after viewing it in a number of show rooms I have some
reservations, so I'd be very interested to hear feedback from real owners.
I'm no expert on TVs, but I think I know a good picture when I see one.
However, I'm moving up from a 4:3 18" TV to a 16:9 32" TV. Maybe my
expectations are a bit high.

The main use of my new TV will be analogue terestial TV, and later digital
terestial TV (when free-to-air STBs are available to buy). My viewing
material will be pretty mixed, but will included a fair amount of
sport. I'm not likely to be interested in DVD initially.

My first concern is regarding the colour setup. I've found it very hard to
get a satisfactory colour on the TVs I've demoed. The colour really is too
vivid, it doesn't look natural. I've tried the settings suggested by BB
(col=25, bri=25, con=40), but its still too vivid. The whites also seem
too bright, and so lacking detail. This has been very noticable while
watching sport where there are great swathes of colour (rugby pitches,
tennis courts, bowling carpets).

Secondly, I've found the skin-tone complexions to be quite unnatural, too
pale, too pink. In addition faces appear more like masks, than faces;
there is a lack of detail, a lack of character. People just look so
unreal, semi-animated.

Thirdly, the picture looks very soft, sometimes to the point of
blurry. The picture is just not as 'crisp' as what I'm used to. Also
objects seem to come in and out of 'focus'. Actually I suspect this is due
to the camera auto-focus being picked out by the TV. Is that possible ?
And sometimes the depth of focus seems quite shallow. Again, is that the
TV being extremely 'honest' with the input signal ?

Fourthly, I've noticed some judder. Twice with a fairly light object
moving across a white background. And also with the ball while watching
tennis. The effect can be reduced by turning off DMI, but then the picture
stability is slightly reduced.

Sometimes the demo TVs have had a poor analogue signal (standard
department store setup) but other demos (in smaller showrooms) seem to
have a very reasonable signal.

Is this TV well suited for handling broadcast signals ? How much do you
think my observations might be down to signal strength ? Is the
performance with a digital broadcast signal better than an analogue
broadcast signal ? Does anyone turn off the DMI processing with broadcast
signals ? Any suggestions on picture setup to improve the colour
'balance' ?


Ian.

[Gerry]

If I had demoed a t.v. with all the issues you describe I would not want to buy it but did you compare the showroom picture to other W/S tv's in the shop. However I have an Aconda and I do not recognise my set from the above descriptions. I too moved up from a 4.3 set to a W/S and it did take some adjusting but having set it up to my personal preferences I am extremely happy with it and could never go back. Not using it for DVD playback would be loosing out on arguably its best feature. As for signal reception you are right a bad signal will not give you a good picture on an Aconda or any other tv. I have an analogue reception which can be affected by weather conditions so as is normal 1 or 2 stations are not as good as the rest and consequently the picture suffers. I especially find ch4 to suffer from "red face" syndrome especially from news readers situations and such but this does not transfer to the other stations and DVD playback is as perfect as I have seen. As I do not recieve digital broadcasts I can't really comment on it only to say it would suprise me if the picture was not even better with digital broadast. It is generally taken that on the factory settings on the Aconda contrast for instance is way to high but it is an easy matter to key in your own personal settings that will suit your room lighting ect.
Good luck with your purchase.

[Banjaxe]

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when I went to look at the Aconda and Vitros in John Lewis in Glasgow.

The 32" Aconda (9381) seemed to have really poor focus in one of the corners. It was showing Sky News and the white text against the red background was badly out of focus.

The 32" Vitros beside it was suffering from a definite blue tinge to it's whites.

It doesn't seem outrageous to me when buying a TV over £1500 to expect the picture to be in focus and the colour to be well adjusted.

Ronnie

[brattle]

I found I was slightly disappointed with the image from my Aconda until I had a play around. Disabling all of the digital processing options improved the picture greatly and now I am at stage where I feel it is near enough perfect.

However, I have seen various Acondas in various showrooms and they all have disappointing pictures that are far worse than my model. Imo the Aconda needs some time spent on it to get the best quality picture. I noticed in John Lewis most of the sets were connected to a standard RF cable that all fed into a box, which probably didn’t help at all.

I’ve learnt not to trust any pictures in showrooms and just use them as a guide to aesthetics only.

[Silva]

I wont get technical but what I will say is that coming from a Toshiba 36ZP18P to an Aconda 9281 I have never been happier. The picture is so much cleaner and crisper, the colours are more vibrant, the black IS BLACK. I am so glad I decided to change and at home after a little playing around with the options (of which they are many) I have the best picture I have seen in 3 months of looking around at replacement tvs. Its not 100% perfect (slight geometry problems) but it is very close. DVD playback is AMAZING. I currently going through my DVD collection (still small) and watching them again because they look so much better than on the Tosh. Believe me pay a little extra and buy this set if you can...

Cheers

The Loewe Aconda is a blinding TV.
If you use some good cabling, and spend some time having a little tweak with the picture (Factory setting has contrast way-to-high), then a cracking picture is almost innevitable......
Sky + digital offers great pics.
DVD is sensational.
How many TV's do you know that have a component signal on
the SCART (AV3)?...My Meridian 596 looks totally cinematic......
Buy & enjoy......

I saw the aconda in the l/spa house of frazer and it looked prity cool.
My wife said I could have one because there was a piece of felt below the screen that would pick up dust and bits of fluff. I must admit that the model in the show room did look a bit dirty. Is there a model that does not have the felt on it.

Breezer

I saw the aconda in the l/spa house of frazer and it looked prity cool.
My wife said I could have not one because there was a piece of felt below the screen that would pick up dust and bits of fluff. I must admit that the model in the show room did look a bit dirty. Is there a model that does not have the felt on it.

Breezer

[AV Geeza]

Breezer,
The Aconda Select has a metal mesh type speaker cover.
The Aconda Living range has the so called "felt" cover but in light grey not black, so they are likely to look ok after a year or so. Anyway, you can clean it ya know!!!

[Gerry]

breezer! Get out the hoover or stickey tape- ye lazy git

[brattle]

My silver 9281 living has a "dust free" plastic cover for the speakers.

Just a quick question. I am about to receive a Vitros 6381zw on Friday and I believe it can accept component input on one of the scarts. I have a Tosh 210E with component out. Does anyone use the component connection on their Loewe and if so what type of cable do they use, and where from? And finally is it worth it?

Cheers

It is much better, I use SCART to SCART with the Arcam, you will have to get a component to SCART made...

[AV Geeza]

Just got my Aconda today and all I can say is so far so good!
The picture was great straight out of the box. Im in the process of adjusting the various settings to optimise the picture, but it really seems to be one "hellova" tv set.

Hi,

I received my Vitros on Friday and it is a vast improvement on my previous set (Sony FQ75!!).

Just one question,

I have my DVD connected to AV3 as advised. In the menus it asks for type of connection. If I set it to RGB (Which the DVD player is outputing), when I use the optomizer on Star Wars Ep1 I can't see some of the grey levels on the sharpness test card. If however, if I set it to auto I can see them fine. Anyone know why this is? Is auto the best setting?

Thanks to those who posted relevent responses to my query.

I finally I decided to go for the Aconda 9381. I've had it 2 weeks now and I thought I'd share my impressions. I'm using it to receive analogue terestial TV.

Most of my original concerns have proved unfounded.

I've found the picture settings that I'm happiest with (con=37,col=30,bri=27,sha=2), giving good colour balance. No complaints here.

Picture detail does depend very much on the quality of the broadcast, it is generally very good, can be outstanding, and can be less so. No complaints here.

However, I do notice picture judder at times. This is worse during panning shots. This is particularly noticeable watching football. Turning on DMI digital processing does aleviate this a bit, but does not eliminate, and DMI processing does make the movement of the ball more jerky. Does anyone notice the panning problem with DVD, DVB-S DVB-T as the source ?

I've also had some more serious problems; with the tube (colour distortion down the left hand side) and with the speakers (distortion on the right hand channel). However, when my dealer confirmed the problems they contacted Loewe, and Loewe said they would send out a replacement immediately. No complaints here; as anyone who reads the forum knows, all manufacturers ship some duff sets. The differentiator is how often this happens and how they respond to the event.

To summarise I'd say this TV is excellent in many ways, backed up with good service, but I'd have to say the judder problem does make it far from perfect. I would be very interested to know if this problem is seen with digital sources.

ian.

[Nick23]

Hi Ianw2

I'm considering swapping my duff (aren't they all) sony for the set you have, however one particular feature of the sony i did like was the ability to watch 2 tv channels/DVD/VCR at the same time. Does that set have similar functions?

[Garrett]

Yes, Side by side or Picture in Picture. And no mute sigh when listening through the hi-fi only.

Have you noticed this on DVD playback also?

I read a review of this set recently and this was noted on DVD playback - apparently, turning off the processing completely greatly improves this problem, though I haven't tested it myself.

Ian, have you tried this?

(Currently awaiting delivery of Aconda)

I don't have a DVD. I've only viewed terestial analogue TV, which is why I was interested to hear from owners with digital sources.

I saw the review of the Aconda 9281 in Home Entertainment Jan-02 which did mention jerky movement. I even saw it on some in-store demo TVs, but I was hoping that was down to poor signal.

None of the following reviews mention this characteristic,

Aconda 9581, What Video and TV, Mar-02
Vitros 6381, What Video and TV, Mar-01
Aconda 9381, Essential Home Cinema, WSTV of Year 2001

And no one has mentioned this characteristic in this forum either.
This is my first WS 100 hz TV. I'm just wondering if this is just considered acceptable by other people, or it is an analogue thing, or I've just got poor signal stength.

ian.

[AV Geeza]

Ian,
I have noticed the judder effect on the odd occasion, but never during football. It has happened when there has been very little movement on screen, as in a profile shot with minimal head movement. DVD seems to be as near perfect as Ive seen.
I have a few geometry issues which will be sorted out hopefully when an engineer comes round. Otherwise Im very happy with this set. I watched Blade the other day and the image depth and clarity was stunning!

[mo]

i dont know what you guys are paying for your acconda's but you can get the articos for £1900 without the stand.
if you can afford this you'll find its better than the acconda in every way & looks great too.

Does anybody have a picture of the Articos, Do you know where I can look at one and who where I can get one from for £1900

Thanks

Si

Just found an article, strange it's not on the Loewe site. Just need to go and see one now

Si

AVG,

Are you watching footie on Sky, ITV-digital, or good ol' analogue ?

ian.

[AV Geeza]

Ian,
Ive watched footie on ITVD & good ole analogue! No probs with either.

Si,
If youve not already done so, check the Loewe web site under press releases for info on the Articos.