New televisions from China or Taiwan

On 25/07/2010 13:41, john hamilton wrote:
Have now given up on the idea of having our old crt television set repaired,
and am looking at the televisions listed in Argos etc, the sheer choice
seems a bit daunting.

We thought we would go for a new 40 or 42" LCD flat screen. Sometime in the
future we would get a FreeSat digital box, so I guess that means we would
benefit from the 1080p resolution spec on the set to take advantage of
future high definition broadcasts.

Am I right in thinking that most of these sets, whatever the brand name are
probably manufactured in China or Taiwan? If so I guess its not worth paying
extra for a Japanese name?

Grateful for any advice on what you might think is a good buy of reasonable
quality around at the moment, bearing in mind I would prefer to keep the
price down if possible. Many thanks for any advice.



looking for the 'made in' label can be like the bran tub. you just do
not know, and these days it can be anywhere at all. one thing though,
each manufacturer, whilst using foreign labour and expertise to
assemble, have their own specifications. chances are that the components
all come from the same source. I should think that it is as it always
has been with these things, each Brand has it's own quality, some better
than others

"mike" wrote in message
...
On Jul 25, 2:25 pm, "js.b1" wrote:

If you are used to CRT, no LCD is a perfect replacement

- Given that, until a few years ago, we were all used to CRT, how come
- so many have gone over to LCD and CRT are now impossible to buy new?

Flat panels are that much cheaper and more convenient to ship, warehouse and
display in the showroom. Certainly for the equivalent size screen, The same
may go for manufacturing costs. And so any "benefits" are pushed to the exclusion
of everything else.
Exactly the same applies with portable computers. 20 years ago anyone with any
knowledge of ergonomics would have explained that the relative position
of the keyboard and screen in laptops means that anyone using one for extended
periods could expect serious neck problems after about 10 years of use.
For executives travelling on planes or trains that was no problem.
But now they're the preferred choice of home computer for almost everyone.
Simply because they take up that much lesss space in a container, warehouse or
showroom. So they're promoted to the exclusion of almost everything else



- We still have a CRT. I hope it keeps going because all the LCDs I've
- seen have been pretty poor in comparison.

Indeed. The only incontestable benefit of all flat panels is however the much
smaller footprint. To fit an equivalent size of CRT to the larger flat panels
into many smaller modern rooms, would mean almost having the viewers knees
touching the screen. So its often more a case of never mind the quality feel
the width.


michael adams

....

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , geoff
scribeth thus
In message
,
js.b1 writes
CRT TVs were invariably repairable.
A CRT TV has a lot of discrete components. A component failure did not
write-off the TV despite a bit of labour involved particularly having
to resolder everything in sight.

It does in most cases - all the TV repair shops around here have gone.
Unless you know what you are doing, TV repair is becoming a thing of the
past



Don't think its knowing what your doing, its just Joe Publicke doesn't
want to pay anything to have anything repaired any longer...

--
Tony Sayer


Not always true.

I took my Makita drill in for repair. The final repair bill was more than
the cost of a new drill. I told them to keep the drill and walked out of the
shop. I did get a letter threatening me with court action over non payment
but nothing ever happened.
I suspect that the repairer was working on a "lets see if swapping this part
will fix it" basis instead of finding the fault and swapping the faulty
part.

When one of my computer monitors packed in I found it cheaper to buy a
bigger and better second hand one from ebay for less than a repair would
have cost.

Cheers

Adam

CRT are gone due to component count, assembly cycle time, profit
margins. CRT are still made for a lot of the rest-of-world, but
quality is someway down (or rather calibration is someway down).

LCD are winning due to economy of scale, particularly "sweet spot
size", driving down cost & maintaining profit margins. A case of a
cash-cow replacing cash-dog where CRT are concerned.

On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:41:35 +0100, john hamilton wrote:

We thought we would go for a new 40 or 42" LCD flat screen.

I wouldn't touch an LCD panel with a barge pole. They aren't as a bad
as they where for smearing on movement but they still aren't good.
The crystals take a finite time to move, they just can't colour
change fast enough. Then there is the lack of decent black and the
viewing angle restrictions.

Sometime in the future we would get a FreeSat digital box, so I guess
that means we would benefit from the 1080p resolution spec on the set to
take advantage of future high definition broadcasts.

Definitely, make sure the native panel resolution is at least 1920 x
1080. I'm not sure that the "Full HD 1080p" marketing sticker means
that. The "HD Ready" one isn't worth the paper it's printed on...

See if the makers have the user manual on their website, it's always
worth a read before you buy both for the proper specs and to see what
features the marketing has missed out.

Am I right in thinking that most of these sets, whatever the brand name
are probably manufactured in China or Taiwan? If so I guess its not
worth paying extra for a Japanese name?

We have a Pansonic plasma Full HD 1080p 1920 x 1080 native resolution
and HD stuff does look like an open window (even off air, Blu-ray is
even better). The label on the back says assembled in the Czech
Republic.
This set is a 42" plasma but it doesn't have any fans, most of the
300W odd of waste heat seems to come out the front...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:41:35 +0100, john hamilton wrote:

We thought we would go for a new 40 or 42" LCD flat screen.

I wouldn't touch an LCD panel with a barge pole. They aren't as a bad
as they where for smearing on movement but they still aren't good.
The crystals take a finite time to move, they just can't colour
change fast enough. Then there is the lack of decent black and the
viewing angle restrictions.

Sometime in the future we would get a FreeSat digital box, so I guess
that means we would benefit from the 1080p resolution spec on the set to
take advantage of future high definition broadcasts.

Definitely, make sure the native panel resolution is at least 1920 x
1080. I'm not sure that the "Full HD 1080p" marketing sticker means
that. The "HD Ready" one isn't worth the paper it's printed on...

See if the makers have the user manual on their website, it's always
worth a read before you buy both for the proper specs and to see what
features the marketing has missed out.

Am I right in thinking that most of these sets, whatever the brand name
are probably manufactured in China or Taiwan? If so I guess its not
worth paying extra for a Japanese name?

We have a Pansonic plasma Full HD 1080p 1920 x 1080 native resolution
and HD stuff does look like an open window (even off air, Blu-ray is
even better). The label on the back says assembled in the Czech
Republic.
This set is a 42" plasma but it doesn't have any fans, most of the
300W odd of waste heat seems to come out the front...

--
Cheers
Dave.

"geoff" wrote in message
:

You might be surprised to know that even central heating boilers are
expected to only have a 5-7- year life now

I'm not that surprised. Mine has been running for 20 years, and I'm
resisting all attempts to persuade me to change it until it goes
altogether. On something as low-tech and yet as highly priced as a
boiler it's a disgrace that the expected life is so short.


Regards,

Bob

In message , Adrian
writes
Having a built in tuner doesn't prevent you from having an external
box, or boxes.
My experience with 4 Freeview boxes and a Sony TV and Sony recorder
might be relevant.

The bunch of no-marks who "planned" the digital changeover have stuck
Welsh TV onto a mast designed to face the opposite way and provide the
sheltered-from-Winter Hill, Mersey shores of Liverpool with English TV.
This mast is now pointing Welsh at the mainly English speaking Welsh
banks of the Dee and in the process has made reception in this part of
Cheshire pretty weird. Polarisation and channels of these backward
facing Welsh are virtually the same as WH, so this is a real test of the
logic of tuner set up procedures.
The 2 Sony devices have different channel setup logic, one set itself up
automatically, the other needed simple human input.
All 4 Freeview boxes are different and all are almost impossible to set
up. We eventually gave up on my sis-in-law's unit and I wrote out a
small chart saying things like BBC1 = 57, BBC2 = 73 (numbers made up,
but similar, as I can't remember). My PVR from Maplin can and has been
set up, but it involved many passes through the set up procedure and I
can't be bothered going beyond Channel 5. One other didn't work at all
(money back after 2 samples tried). The final one is in a box in the
loft and I can't remember the problem, but it was something to do with
channel allocations. All these were dubious makes, badged things like
Nikkai.

The moral is.... Buy a known make and make sure you can return it.
--
Bill

On Sunday, July 25th, 2010 16:10:49 +0100, Bill explained:

so this is a real test of the logic of tuner set up procedures.

If you have a digital converter box which allows you to reposition
the LCN of stations on the EPG such as the Sony VTX-D800U, then
any such problem of receiving stations from multiple transmitters
can readily be solved, except for the annoyance of when having
to do the regular re-scan for changes to the EPG.

This allows you for example to ensure the Channel 4 is on 4,
and instead of having a duplicate Channel 4 on 8, you can put
S4C there and continue to enjoy Pobol y Cwm each weeknight at
20:00h (with English sub-titles).

"Pobol y Cwm has beaten off competition from EastEnders and Doctors
to win a Mental Health in the Media Award in the soaps and continuing
drama category."

On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:56:39 +0100, michael adams wrote:

Indeed. The only incontestable benefit of all flat panels is however the
much smaller footprint. To fit an equivalent size of CRT to the larger
flat panels into many smaller modern rooms, would mean almost having the
viewers knees touching the screen.

If you have the TV in the middle of a wall and not, like most people,
in a corner. A flat panel across a corner takes just as much room
space as a CRT.

--
Cheers
Dave.