Best Manufacturer??

Not sure what this will add to the debate but the other week, after a few too many sherberts, I came home and urinated on my Sony LCD...... A few days of funny behaviour from it followed but then it was as if it never happened, now all I gotta do is convince the wife it never happened!
 
Prof said:
I setup one of those yesterday. I`m sorry, but again, a Sony LCD failed to impress me, no matter how much I adjusted the picture settings. I remember installing a Samsung LE26R41BD a few weeks ago, it was a far better picture than the Sony, and my work colleague, who doesn`t really like LCD pictures, commented on how good the picture was - "it`s almost like HD !", and that was viewing Freeview !

Sony may be the market leader on sales, but I can`t accept that they are PQ leaders.


Based on what I've seen I can only agree with you Prof, a member of my Family also has a Samsung LE26R41BD and it looks amazing on most Freeview/Sky that is of a decent quality.

The World Cup on BBC was stunning on it and its still the best example of sports on an LCD that I've seen. I myself got a refund on a Hyundai Q321 recently when it couldn't compare to SD on the Samsung that I'd spent some time with in setting up for said Family member.

After numerous visits to Currys, Comet etc. I still can't really see myself why the Sony sets are regarded as so much better than the competition ? although to be fair this environment isn't ideal for comparing sets.

Just my 2 cents ;)
 
bluraymond said:
These are Q2 figures 2006 for LCD TV sales

http://www.displaysearch.com/press/?id=860

Briefly the Philips sold the most unit wise, Sony was Number 1 in
revenue terms.

But mainly because they (like Samsung) focus on 32 and 40". Philips and Sharp are broadline players, and do proportionally worse.

But that's not taking anything away from Sony. Gorgeous ad campaign, nice backlighting with deeper colours.

You pays your money and takes your pick. It's a pointless argument...best for what? Value? All out picture performance, money notwithstanding? reliability?

The Best Car? A Ferrari...until you want to take a family on holiday.
 
I found the Sony has much less LCD picture noise than my previous Toshiba
WLT66 or any other make from experience.


I would add that from my bitter experience, when I ignored What Hifi 5 star supertest winners I have regretted my decision. Then later bought the
5-star super test winner and was so impressed. Remember they properly calibrate Tvs, use mains conditioners and OFC mains cables, then do like by like comparison.

As long as you are happy with you purchase that's the important thing.
 
Prof said:
"SONY is the market leader by a country mile, no one else is even close.

PQ leaders once again"



I setup one of those yesterday. I`m sorry, but again, a Sony LCD failed to impress me, no matter how much I adjusted the picture settings. I remember installing a Samsung LE26R41BD a few weeks ago, it was a far better picture than the Sony, and my work colleague, who doesn`t really like LCD pictures, commented on how good the picture was - "it`s almost like HD !", and that was viewing Freeview !

Sony may be the market leader on sales, but I can`t accept that they are PQ leaders.

I'd imagine you're in the minority. My views are quite the opposite, comparing the Sony to the Samsung, the Sony picture wins hands down. Sharper, more realistic colours. The S and V series Sony Bravia's knock the Sammy's for six.

The menus on the Sony's are excellent and infinitely tweakable, much better than the Samsung's.

The worst thing for me about the Samsung's is the appalling material they use for the casing. Disgusting, horrible shiny black stuff around the screen. The plastic looks so cheap you can see ripples and indents in it if you view it from the side.

If the Samsung's were a car manufacturer they would be Skoda, if Sony were a car manufacturer they would be Mercedes! Yeah, I love cheesy analogies :D
 
rauer said:
Too much information? :D

Doesn't it state in the manual that you shouldn't do that!! :eek:
 
spice2019 said:
I'd imagine you're in the minority. My views are quite the opposite, comparing the Sony to the Samsung, the Sony picture wins hands down. Sharper, more realistic colours. The S and V series Sony Bravia's knock the Sammy's for six.

The menus on the Sony's are excellent and infinitely tweakable, much better than the Samsung's.

The worst thing for me about the Samsung's is the appalling material they use for the casing. Disgusting, horrible shiny black stuff around the screen. The plastic looks so cheap you can see ripples and indents in it if you view it from the side.

If the Samsung's were a car manufacturer they would be Skoda, if Sony were a car manufacturer they would be Mercedes! Yeah, I love cheesy analogies :D


Sounds like someone is trying to convince themselves after spending over the odds ;)

Mercedes are fairly unreliable and not that nice a drive (obviously depends on model) and skoda now use VW and Audi tech so are decent and reliable at a good price. So yes you seem to be right Sony like Mercedes is for people who want to show off a brand without realising there is better 'bang for the buck' and Samsung like Skoda uses decent tech and is reliable.
 
Blacksheep1979 said:
Sounds like someone is trying to convince themselves after spending over the odds ;)

.

Clearly from the brands don't mean anything school.

Well I've got a Samsing, Toshiba and Sony LCD, and the Sony wins in terms of absolute picture quality. Annoying to some it may be, but that's the situation, as confirmed by all the magazines. Of course it could be a conspiracy, or you've got a chip on your shoulder.

If Mercedes were rubbish, they would go bust. Some people may hate them, but there is always a reason why some companies are premium-priced, particularly given Mercedes rarely advertise. You've been listening to Jeremy Clarkson too much. :D
 
Or maybe I've driven a wide range of cars and made my mind up myself ;)
 
Ooow, I love a slightly "heated" debate !

Let me make one thing clear, I do not currently own an LCD TV, but I am in the market for one. I get to see quite a variety of LCD TVs, in a wide range of situations in customers homes. I often have to set them up, or just install an aerial to make them "work better". I have absolutely no bias towards any make or model, I just take note of which ones impress and which ones don`t. Obviously we all have different opinions as to which TV is best, and I`m sure that our eyes see things differently. If I post an opinion about a TV, say a Sony, I am just trying to give a prospective buyer a totally unbiased opinion. When I read glowing reports about certain TVs (usually from owners of those TVs) and I post less positive opinions about that particular TV, I`m not trying to upset or annoy that owner, I`m trying to add a bit of an "outsiders" opinion to help a reader who may be trying to decide which TV to buy. When people state things like "Sony make by far the best LCD TVs available", I find that might not be too helpfull to a prospective owner, as it is just a sweeping statement that may not truly represent reality.

Anyway, in the case of Sony LCDs, if I hadn`t seen so many of them, and believed some of the things I`ve read about them, I would almost certainly end up buying one. I`m sure that if I did buy one, I`d probably be reasonably happy with it. The fact is that I have seen a fair few Sonys, and I wouldn`t buy one. There again, I still haven`t made my mind up which LCD to buy, so I still need "convincing" which is best to go for. :confused:
 
spice2019 said:
I'd imagine you're in the minority. My views are quite the opposite, comparing the Sony to the Samsung, the Sony picture wins hands down. Sharper, more realistic colours. The S and V series Sony Bravia's knock the Sammy's for six.

The menus on the Sony's are excellent and infinitely tweakable, much better than the Samsung's.

The worst thing for me about the Samsung's is the appalling material they use for the casing. Disgusting, horrible shiny black stuff around the screen. The plastic looks so cheap you can see ripples and indents in it if you view it from the side.

If the Samsung's were a car manufacturer they would be Skoda, if Sony were a car manufacturer they would be Mercedes! Yeah, I love cheesy analogies :D

I agree with your point about some Samsungs (I think you have seen the newer models), the casing isn`t the prettiest. The 26" R41 model that I spoke so highly of, is a slightly older model, and the casing is OK, at least not as shiny. I will also say that I believe, but this in only based on ad-hoc research, that Sony reliability/build quality may be better than most other makes. But picture quality, which I think is the most important aspect of a TV, on a lot of Sony LCDs, does not quite live up to expectations. I can honestly say that the Samsung 26" was quite a bit better than the Sony 26" that I saw, and it wasn`t just me that had that opinion. I am just trying to say that an LCD TV with a Sony badge on it doesn`t always guarantee the best picture, full stop. That little Samsung had a cracking picture on Freeview, and the Sony`s Freeview performance wasn`t as good.

There was a time, early in my career as a TV repairer, that I compared everything to a Sony, in terms of picture quality and build quality. Over the years, Sony has pretty well kept their reputation for quality, but other manufacturers have caught up, and Sony are no longer the absolute market leaders that they where. Don`t get me wrong, they still make decent stuff, but people who religiously stick to Sony (and I meet a fair few of them) could be missing out.
 
Blacksheep1979 said:
Sounds like someone is trying to convince themselves after spending over the odds ;)

Mercedes are fairly unreliable and not that nice a drive (obviously depends on model) and skoda now use VW and Audi tech so are decent and reliable at a good price. So yes you seem to be right Sony like Mercedes is for people who want to show off a brand without realising there is better 'bang for the buck' and Samsung like Skoda uses decent tech and is reliable.

Blacksheep you just can't win with this lot(Lemming's or what). Just wait until the "sOnY timer" starts ticking in about 16 months time.:devil:
 
I'm not saying they are not decent TV's at all - in fact if someone gave me a n x series I probably wouldn't swap it but its just some people when they buy an expensive bit of kit will try to justify to others why they did it but it sometimes seems to be that they are trying to justify it to themselves as they aren't 100% happy with it.
 
Can I throw a complete red herring into this thread? I have an excellent Philips CRT but have been thinking about a big LCD. I have not been impressed PQ wise by what I have seen before on any at curryscometJLPdixons or at friends houses. However stimulated by a thread on another forum I was led to believe that one should go to a specialist dealer to get the best demo - so this afternoon I went to a recommended local TV dealer who has been in the business for over 50 years. What I saw appalled me. I got several Sony32" Bravia panels hooked up to freeview BBC1 - it was dreadful. A SD DVD film was not much better. Alongside was a Sony 32" crt, I got them to run this in parallel it was streets better but still not as good as my crt......

So far the only panel that has impressed me was the Philips 37" panel with the stroboscopic backlight system that I saw at Tescos!
 
garyjd said:
That nice to hear I was just looking at a Sony model, the Sony KDL262010U.

im just about to order the sony KDL262010U to night :D just need to go to the bank to check iv been payed. :thumbsup:
 
Sony all day for me...
 
Analogue said:
Can I throw a complete red herring into this thread? I have an excellent Philips CRT but have been thinking about a big LCD. I have not been impressed PQ wise by what I have seen before on any at curryscometJLPdixons or at friends houses. However stimulated by a thread on another forum I was led to believe that one should go to a specialist dealer to get the best demo - so this afternoon I went to a recommended local TV dealer who has been in the business for over 50 years. What I saw appalled me. I got several Sony32" Bravia panels hooked up to freeview BBC1 - it was dreadful. A SD DVD film was not much better. Alongside was a Sony 32" crt, I got them to run this in parallel it was streets better but still not as good as my crt......

So far the only panel that has impressed me was the Philips 37" panel with the stroboscopic backlight system that I saw at Tescos!

Certainly not a red herring. I went through this debate ages ago, and to a degree, I still think that LCD leaves a lot to be desired. HOWEVER, it now seems that flat panel technology is becoming "mainstream", and I must admit that some of the newer models can give decent results. I owned a Sharp "P" series for a while, and as it was "PAL Optimised" it was very good on SD material. It did take a few days to "adjust" to watching an LCD screen, but once I got used to it, I would have found it hard to go back to CRT. I did have to go back to CRT in the end, as the Sharp went faulty, and the repair was taking too long to get sorted. At first, I found CRT a bit hard to watch, but I have again got used to it, and now LCD screens seem a bit "inferior". LCDs are slowly improving, and prices are falling, so it`s only a matter of time before most of us will fall for the newer technology. In the meantime, it makes for some interesting debates/discussions, this LCD business !
 
I am also currently without an LCD, after returning a Panasonic TX-32LXD60. But comparing all the LCD's I'm set on the Sony KDL262010U. I was going to get a 32" but sitting 8 feet away is too close for my liking. After extensively comparing each screen the Sony does everything I want it to do with style.

Glad my Skoda, Mercedes analogy got people talking! :D
 
spice2019 said:
Glad my Skoda, Mercedes analogy got people talking! :D

So why are you going to waste your money on a Mercedes? Wait a few months to a year - I think we are going to see some big developments of which the Philips stroboscopic backlight (not to be confused with Ambi Light) is only I think the vanguard.
 
mrtbag said:
OK. then I'll go in with 90% Sony manufacturing know how:D.

More like Sony development Samsung manufacturing know how!!

mrtbag said:
Also, the panel is one part of the TV. All the other parts give the panel the information it needs display, and for this, Sony are ahead of Samsung.

Most of the other parts are probably made by one of the component manufacturers e.g. Philips, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, or some Taiwanese Co whose name I cant remember.
 
LCDs are getting better all the time but in my experience the out of the box settings that they are supplied with are universally awful. I don't think it is possible to get a decent demo of an LCD unless the dealer has at least gone through a setup procedure with a setup DVD. That just doesn't happen in the real world though.

For what it's worth I really like Loewe displays as they are a breeze to calibrate accurately (although they do lack memories). The new models using Sharp panels promise to be something special.

Neil
 
imo loewe are b&o wannabees

overpriced , under specced , terrible user interface and poor picture

i sent an individual back after 3 days and bought a sharp aquos instead

the sharp wipes the floor with the loewe as well as having 2 rgb scarts , not 1 and being a 1/3rd of the price
 
Flappo said:
imo loewe are b&o wannabees

overpriced , under specced , terrible user interface and poor picture

i sent an individual back after 3 days and bought a sharp aquos instead

the sharp wipes the floor with the loewe as well as having 2 rgb scarts , not 1 and being a 1/3rd of the price

I've heard good things about the Sharp Aquos range. It's the best choice for Sky broadcasts, because it's developed to run on PAL systems. Is it true however that they are not HD Ready certified?
 

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