LG 32LH2000 or Samsung LE32B450

[Noobie]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and was after some help and advice.

I'm basically in the market for a 32" LCD television and have narrowed it down to these two for a few reasons: 1) I need an optical output, 2) I have a budget of about £350, 3) These two models seem to be well-spoken of.

I was personally leaning towards the LG (mainly because of looks...) but I realise there's more to buying a TV than that! I can't say I know enough about LCDs to go beyond that, so that's why I'm calling on you guys to just steer me in the right direction. If possible, could I also ask that you post any links up of the cheapest place you know of for the TV? For the LG, the cheapest I've found has been on Pixmania, where it's £335 (+£13 deliver); for the Samsung, cheapest I've found is on play.com at £329.99 and I also have a 5% discount code.

Also, I know it's not really the right place to be asking this kind of advice, but just a side note, the reason I need the optical output is because I want to buy the Logitech Z-5500 speaker sytem. This was, until today, £205 at Amazon but now they've put the price up to £243 . I've since found it on Pixmania coming in at around £200 including delivery which is good, but again, I'd be grateful if anybody could find it cheaper for me!

I look forward to your advice and please also feel free to post alternatives if you think that I'd be better off going away from these two TVs. Oh and also, can I ask why the Samsung seems to have different model numbers on different sites?! It's the LE32B450 on some but the LE32B450C4W (as on John Lewis) - why??!

 

[boxrick]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and was after some help and advice.

I'm basically in the market for a 32" LCD television and have narrowed it down to these two for a few reasons: 1) I need an optical output, 2) I have a budget of about £350, 3) These two models seem to be well-spoken of.

I was personally leaning towards the LG (mainly because of looks...) but I realise there's more to buying a TV than that! I can't say I know enough about LCDs to go beyond that, so that's why I'm calling on you guys to just steer me in the right direction. If possible, could I also ask that you post any links up of the cheapest place you know of for the TV? For the LG, the cheapest I've found has been on Pixmania, where it's £335 (+£13 deliver); for the Samsung, cheapest I've found is on play.com at £329.99 and I also have a 5% discount code.

As far as these televisions go you find the lg has better freeview picture quality, better viewing angles reasonable sound quality and a pretty clear easy to use menu system.

The samsung has better black levels, worse sound and slightly better motion handling.
Out of the 2 id say the LG is the better television.

Also, I know it's not really the right place to be asking this kind of advice, but just a side note, the reason I need the optical output is because I want to buy the Logitech Z-5500 speaker sytem. This was, until today, £205 at Amazon but now they've put the price up to £243 . I've since found it on Pixmania coming in at around £200 including delivery which is good, but again, I'd be grateful if anybody could find it cheaper for me!

Id personally avoid the logitech z5500, its a reasonable system for pc speakers possibly a bit of gaming. But the sound overall is not great, they lack any real depth and the sub is much too boomy, also it lacks any possibility of future upgrades.

What id urge you to do is consider a seperate AV amplifier (receiver) and seperate speakers and sub. This gives us a few things things:

1)Possibility of choosing what speakers you want, no one manufacturor is best each have different sounds, looks. Its nice to be able to choose.

2)Amplifiers have vast amounts of inputs ranging from optical / coaxial to phono and HDMI depending on how much is spent. This allows not just for the television to be plugged in but blu ray, games consoles, sky box , virgin box, pc etc. So you hopefully should not run out of any audio connections any time soon.

3)A seperates system allows for upgrades over time, so if you wish to simply get better musical quality then upgrading the front 2 speakers is very easily done, if the amp needs changing and you wish to retain the speakers also easily done.

4)Better sound quality for the same sorts of money.. in comparison to All in one box or pc systems. With all in 1 box home theatre you often find a useless dvd player you don't even want or need, and for the same sorts of money ive always found AV to give superior sound quality. Particurly if you start to look towards second hand gear. There are *tonnes* of bargains available on slightly older high end amplifiers at bargain prices, because prices drop as new models come available.

Could probably pick up an older onkyo txsr605 or a yamaha of some description along with a set of decent tannoy or kef speakers for well within budget and the sound quality will walk all over the logitech system easily

I look forward to your advice and please also feel free to post alternatives if you think that I'd be better off going away from these two TVs. Oh and also, can I ask why the Samsung seems to have different model numbers on different sites?! It's the LE32B450 on some but the LE32B450C4W (as on John Lewis) - why??!

Those 2 are exactly the same model .

Both are amongst the best screens at that sort of budget... but don't feel restricted by optical, freeview doesn't even provide surround sound.

Hopefully i was of some help, your post stopped me going to bed! My girlfriend won't be happy!

Anyway Good luck and feel free to pm me for any more questions.

 

[Noobie]

That's brilliant mate, thanks so much for all that advice, I really appreciate it. I'll look into getting a separate amp etc now and see what I think after that; I must say though that I don't know an awful lot about this kind of thing so it might be hard!

As for the TVs, I'd been leaning towards the LG anyway. It's slightly more expensive but I don't really mind spending just a little more. However, I did a search on these forums and the general consensus seemed to be that Samsung was better. I'll have another look at all the stuff now, it helps me to procrastinate .

Thanks again.