32 inch LCD, which one?

C

CHRISDOW

Guest
First post here, I have a budget of around £1200 to buy a 32 inch LCD,

Having bought various magazines, it seems the new Toshiba 32WL48 is the best at present. I am just put off with it being a "Toshiba" as in my eyes, prob wrongly, I never classed them as well as Sony or Panasonic, even Sharp.

It is important that it is HD compatible also.

It seems the new Toshiba has everything I need, and is on the net for a shade over £1200 delivered, great I thought, as i would much prefer the 32 inch over a 30 inch.

Now coming from a man with a Bush 28" widescreen at present, not even flat screen!! I know I will be impressed, there is just a little doubt in my mind at the moment regarding the "quality" of Toshibas.

Am I completely wrong in thinking this?

I prob dont have the greatest dvd, vcr and surround sound system, Sony and Philips, but the screen, being the most expensive component in my system, needs to be good so I can upgrade as money allows.

Any advice or other screens I should look at, been reading WHAT HI FI mainly, are these in any way biased towards or against certain brands.

Cheers in advance

Chris
 
I am biased away from major brands at the mo because there are some cracking tv's for 100's of pounds cheaper. I purchased a 26" Sonix (Sainsburys) £499 for my bedroom and it is as good as anything for twice as much imo. The Video7 which appears to be an identical model has a 32" version which is available from eBuyer at under £1000. Both their 26" and 32" models are reducing in price so maybe best to wait a little.

I will not bother with upgrading my 28" Sony crt until probably next year when prices should have evened out and we should have a better idea what is available for Bluray/HDDVD and will be able to see the difference for ourselves. Until then I'm happy to wait because I want my TV to last a good few years ;)
 
CHRISDOW said:
First post here, I have a budget of around £1200 to buy a 32 inch LCD,

Having bought various magazines, it seems the new Toshiba 32WL48 is the best at present. I am just put off with it being a "Toshiba" as in my eyes, prob wrongly, I never classed them as well as Sony or Panasonic, even Sharp.

It is important that it is HD compatible also.

It seems the new Toshiba has everything I need, and is on the net for a shade over £1200 delivered, great I thought, as i would much prefer the 32 inch over a 30 inch.

Now coming from a man with a Bush 28" widescreen at present, not even flat screen!! I know I will be impressed, there is just a little doubt in my mind at the moment regarding the "quality" of Toshibas.

Am I completely wrong in thinking this?

I prob dont have the greatest dvd, vcr and surround sound system, Sony and Philips, but the screen, being the most expensive component in my system, needs to be good so I can upgrade as money allows.

Any advice or other screens I should look at, been reading WHAT HI FI mainly, are these in any way biased towards or against certain brands.

Cheers in advance

Chris

CRTs should easily blow LCDs away in many ways -and for a much lower price. However they are very large and heavy for the same screen size. I went for a Tosh 32WL48 because I don't have much space.
I'm very happy though, and don't miss my old CRT, even though it was a Sony Trinitron. Not sure why you don't like the Toshiba brand? OK, this model isn't the sexiest around, but quality is probably more of an issue with the Philips models. (According to those who know.)

Toshiba has been in the forefront in technology on many occations. BTW, "Sharp" used to be seen as a bit iffy 10-15 years ago!
 
It isnt that I dont like Toshiba, just never thought of them as being as "good" as say Sony or Panasonic. But I had never heard of Cambridge Audio before a mate bought some of their equipment, so you see where I come from, not knowing al I need to.

Thats where you guys come in to advise us mortals how not to waste our money on a brand that we may think are good,

To get a 5 star rating in the magazine, beating the Sony and Panasonic with it must mean its a good set, I just probably needed a kick to say thats the one for me. I think I will be ordering it very soon.

Cheers

Chris
 
CHRISDOW said:
It isnt that I dont like Toshiba, just never thought of them as being as "good" as say Sony or Panasonic. But I had never heard of Cambridge Audio before a mate bought some of their equipment, so you see where I come from, not knowing al I need to.

Thats where you guys come in to advise us mortals how not to waste our money on a brand that we may think are good,

To get a 5 star rating in the magazine, beating the Sony and Panasonic with it must mean its a good set, I just probably needed a kick to say thats the one for me. I think I will be ordering it very soon.

Cheers

Chris

Hmmm I have heard many things regarding magazine reviews and I wont repeat them on here.......lets just say that knowing people in the past who have tested equipemnt for the press Ive noticed and been told that the big named manufacturers who advertise the most with those certain magazines or hand over more equipment for testing and 'free samples' seem to always get good reviews(allegedly!)....funny that!
Of course I havent a clue which magazines these are ;)
Consequently I use reviews as a rough guide and give my own 'ratings' once I use my eyes to make comparisons and I am sure we all do the same :)
Did I say I needed to see an optician?? ;) (kidding :p)
 
thats kind of the thing I was on about with magazines being slightly biased towards different manufacturers, just that the Toshiba is such a good price for a 32 incher, and being HD also is imporant,

Does RGB scart mean the large block connectors?

I am not too clued up, but I have 2 scarts on my poor quality Bush crt tv at the mo.

Chris
 
But my question is, is the Toshiba a good LCD tv, as apposed to the Sony KLV L32M1 and the Panasonic TX 32 LXD1 it beat in the magazine test this month

Thats all i really need to know to buy it or not

I would hate to buy it, think its great, only to read somewhere that is isnt all that great, specially as I am strecting myself buying one.

Cheers

Chris
 
Yeah same scart connectorsan you own..... RGB signal just uses more of the pins in the scart and that's all I believe.
 
CHRISDOW said:
But my question is, is the Toshiba a good LCD tv, as apposed to the Sony KLV L32M1 and the Panasonic TX 32 LXD1 it beat in the magazine test this month

Thats all i really need to know to buy it or not

I would hate to buy it, think its great, only to read somewhere that is isnt all that great, specially as I am strecting myself buying one.

Cheers

Chris

Well, I don't think there is much risk of the mags being biased towards Toshiba! The 32WL48 has been available for a while now, and the reviews are only just coming out, which seems to indicate that the magazines are not exactly falling over themselves in order to suck up to Toshiba!
 
I thought it was pretty new set, not fussed, they rated it over the 2 i was looking at - the Sony & Panasonic anyway, just have to get it ordered. Let you know how i get on when it arrives.

I also only have standard low quality cabling, does quality scart cable really make a big difference for DVD pics and sound?

I will be connecting thru my surround sound via scart also, wil it make a big difference

Cheers

Chris
 
at the min i wouldnt consider any sonys or panasonics as none of them have good enough specs yet

i'm torn between the samsung, tosh, acer, video7 & relisys displays, all between 900 and 1300 all have PROPER hdtv ability and all have a decent enough picture.

although the longer i leave it the closer i get to the next generation of displays :D
 
CHRISDOW said:
I thought it was pretty new set, not fussed, they rated it over the 2 i was looking at - the Sony & Panasonic anyway, just have to get it ordered. Let you know how i get on when it arrives.

I also only have standard low quality cabling, does quality scart cable really make a big difference for DVD pics and sound?

I will be connecting thru my surround sound via scart also, wil it make a big difference

Cheers

Chris

I think the kind of signal makes more of a difference than how expensive cables you are using. With my old TV I used composite without really bothering, but with the 32WL48 I use component output from a cheap new Toshiba DVD-player, which easily beats the RGB-output from my older Sony DVD. (I don't know why this is the case.) This Toshiba player also does progressive PAL. (I think I paid £50 or so for this player.)

From my Pioneer Freeview box I use s-video in a cheap SCART lead, and it looks pretty good. Much better than component signal.

Both with the Freeview box and with the DVD-player I had to set them to output the correct signal -and the cheap DVD player must NOT be connected to both SCART and component at the same time! (Greatly affects the picture.)
 
CHRISDOW said:
I will be connecting thru my surround sound via scart also, wil it make a big difference

Not sure what you are asking exactly?

The speakers in the Tosh are not impressive, but then I have a high-end hifi as part of my surround setup..

You probably want to use a proper surround sound system for your sound, relying on the built in speakers for news etc.
 
patrik_f said:
From my Pioneer Freeview box I use s-video in a cheap SCART lead, and it looks pretty good. Much better than component signal.
Don't you mean 'Much better than composite signal.' ? If s-video is better than true component there is something seriously wrong.
 
ianh64 said:
Don't you mean 'Much better than composite signal.' ? If s-video is better than true component there is something seriously wrong.

You are right! I meant "composite", of course!
Not the first time I got them mixed up!
Thanks for correcting the error!
 

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