Which make for poor signal reception

[sandholme]

I'm looking for a 32" but live on the South Cast with poor signal reception (2 amplifiers and 14 element Yagi on the chimney) and no freeview or C5. (I don't want to pay for sky and there is no cable).

Given the dire things they do to the signals in places like Comet or Currys are these actually the best places to review sets as they are probably most representative of my home situation. The problem then is a lot of my viewing (but not the wife's) is DVD so that has to be top notchas well.

So far Sony sets seem to cope best with bad signals in the stores but a review I read of a 32" gave the Sony lower marks for not coping as well with poor signals. Thus this goes directly against my first hand viewing.

Is there something else that affects the signals in the large shops that makes the Sony sets appear better or is it just coincidence ?

How well do different manufacturer's cope with low signal strength in the real world ?

 

[hornydragon]

I would direct you to your nearest B&O dealer then try Philips as they cope quite well with noise poor signal, also suggest you try asking neighbours see what they have and what they look like.

 

[sandholme]

I'd not considered B&O as they seem to be style over substance and I'm not that impressed with their style; besides which they seem designed for a city pad rather than a country house. I will go and have look at their tv's though I as I'd only noticed hi-fi & telephones before whilst passing the shop window.

Whenever I see a Philips pixel plus set all I notice is the overt digitally processed picture. The pictures don't look real and I find them unwatchable.

Living in the country we only have 6 neighbours within 1/2 mile and we're on the wrong side of hill compared to the transmitter Reception degrades rapidly as you go down the hill and we're near the bottom. If I'm lucky next door which is only about 10' above us one of them may have a widescreen so it's worth a try, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Kahless725]

Whats your budget?

Personally for the best tv picture in your situation, I would knock money off the budget for the tv and get skys cheapest package for a year (£120?) then dont re subscribe in a year and just get the free channels.

Any particular reason why you don't want sky?

 

[sandholme]

Budget until this morning was about £1200 though flexible, I'd have gone to £1500 for a 36" but from my preferred viewing distance of 5' this would probbaly be too big. Currently I have a 29" Sony 4:3 and a 36" will give me the same height picture on 4:3 and bigger on all other ratios. 32" is bigger on everything from 14:9 upwards and the diffference in price is substantial so that's what I've currently set asa my goal.

This morning though I got rear shunted and pushed into the car in front, the chassis looks bent so the car may be written off which will mean a lot of money going towards a new car as I'll replace the 12 year old Cavalier with a 3 year old car.

I don't like sky as there seems to be little worth watching, most of my tv viewing is BBC2 / BBC1 ( I hate adverts so avoid ITV where possible and adverts on Sky are almost as frequent as on American tv).

My serious viewing is DVDs for which the picture quality is important (sound I don't care about as that goes through the external amplifier), however I do need to ensure that the tv is good enough so that the other half doesn't complain about the picture quality when watching ER or Midsomer Murders.

100Hz is a must as I am susceptible to flicker on any tv of 32" or larger (3:2 pulldown also bothers me on some region 1 discs)

 

[rct]

Originally posted by sandholme
II don't want to pay for sky

Surely the price of a 2nd hand Sky box, a dish, lNB and some cable would be worth it? There are a number of FTA channels on the Sky platform with FTV channels such as itv and itv2 available if you pay around £25 (one-off fee) for a viewing card.

 

[hornydragon]

B&O have the best PQ of any CRT and hence any TV (honest they are) but B&O dealers know there stuff, not cheap! but they are superb! Bvis3 32" is the optimum for your requirements, today i did a direct comparison between a YUV fed JVC 26" LCD and and an RGB fed B&O 28" CRT difference well same price for DVD Rand TV from JVC and B&O TV & DVD and the detail in B&O was much better, to my eyes and the customer concerned!!!