Need advice on 25" or 29" TV

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juggy_25
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#1 erstellt: 31. Jan 2007, 20:06

Hi

I am planning to buy a 25" or 29" Flat CRT for my parents.
Need your advice on which brand to opt for.

Specs: Simple, easy to operate - especially remote, problem free (based on experience), clear quality sound (no surround, no huge bass, imaging, soundstage etc etc...not at all a factor), and ofcourse no LCD and no Plasma.

They mainly watch the Cable TV channels - Regional and Sports.

I am confused whether to go for Philips or Sony. I heard the low-end Sonys have a low quality.

Need recommendations.

(Currently have a Videocon (21") which when turned on shows a hazy picture and takes about 5-8 min to heat up and get clear)

Thanks
Juggy

Amp_Nut
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#2 erstellt: 01. Feb 2007, 04:02

While I personally hate the SONY colours ( too vivid, and Indian skin looks either Orange or like wood

) I bought the SONY for my folks since the SONY colours appeared better to my parents... who had relatively failing eyesight.

abhi.pani
Inventar

#3 erstellt: 01. Feb 2007, 05:13

If you are going for the 100hz TV then Sony is a better choice else if you want to go for the entry level 29" TVs, then its only Philips. For 25" as well Philips is much better. Sony excels either at the extreme entry level 21" TVs 9-10k(compared to other TVs in the same range) or at higher end 100 hz Progressive scan TVs 30k+. In between its Philips. I have recently bought a TV for my family so did some research on this...Just my two cents...

juggy_25
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#4 erstellt: 01. Feb 2007, 14:06

Thanx guyz
So I will have to decide on Sony or Philips.
Coz the salesman cud recommend Onida, BPL etc. How r these prodcts compared to a Sony or Philips?

abhi.pani
Inventar

#5 erstellt: 01. Feb 2007, 14:09

Crap...

Kamal
Stammgast

#6 erstellt: 01. Feb 2007, 17:54

Juggy, I second Abhi's suggestion re Philips at least-I havent been terribly impressed by Sony.
Go in for the Philips 29 incher CRT model- 29PT2204;approx Rs 19to 20K ( at least in Delhi).
A truly great TV at this price point.
However, LCD/Plasma prices are crashing; if you can hold on for 2-3 months, you might be able to pick up at least a 26" LCD of a good brand at around 25K. Would'nt that be better?
Kamal

juggy_25
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#7 erstellt: 02. Feb 2007, 02:52

I read a lot of reviews and opinions and it seems the CRT color and picture quality is better than the LCD/Plasma with our cable TV reception.

for a high-end TV for myself, I am planning on a HD ready CRT, rather than a LCD or Plasma.

Any opinions?

Savyasaachi
Inventar

#8 erstellt: 02. Feb 2007, 06:22

A CRT will always be better(may come back to bite me in the near future though).

I would definitely suggest the Phillips over the Sony in the entry level section.
As i have mentioned in this forum before, there is one Sony CRT whic costs like 80k which is just simply out of this world.
The entry level models of Sony are not worth it IMHO.

I have had a Phillips for over two years now and they are simply super..THeir customer service too is simply great. Very dependable.

Kamal
Stammgast

#9 erstellt: 02. Feb 2007, 20:15

Juggy, technology has progressed!
Now go see a comparison bet CRT/LCD/plasma for yourself-you'll be surprised.
I maintain- if you can wait for a coupla months , wait and get a 26" LCD-else ,the Philips model I mentioned is your best bet-I have seen a comparative performance & Philips stood out.
Kamal

srikarkav
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#10 erstellt: 08. Feb 2007, 13:04

Hi,

I would strongly recomend Panasonic Tau 29 which i own and when u watch it along with the other brands u can surely see the diffrence.
cheers
sri

reignofchaos
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#11 erstellt: 08. Feb 2007, 18:49

There's only one TV to buy in the entry level CRT segment... the Philips Pixel Plus.

paj4x4
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#12 erstellt: 09. Feb 2007, 10:12

Kamal schrieb:

Agree on this one. You'd be better off if you can hold the purchase for a couple of months. LCD/Plasma prices should go down quite significantly.

gbharani
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#13 erstellt: 14. Feb 2007, 07:04

i second sri's choice.. i have the same panasonic and has amazing picture quality with lively colors.... you can pick up one for around 17K

Agreed... LCD and Plasma are closing the gap... but i sometimes feel that the source being 4:3 and the lcd/plasma being widescreen... the picture is artificially streched (my opinion).... if its going to be enjoying DVD primarily then going in for a LCD or Plasma is the choice..

abhi.pani
Inventar

#14 erstellt: 14. Feb 2007, 07:47

You are right gbharani...the picture is artificially stretched and it looks horrible to say the least. Thats one reason I am staying away from LCD

Kamal
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#15 erstellt: 14. Feb 2007, 10:09

Have'nt really found it so, Abhi-am using Tata Sky as the source.The broadcasts look fine, and with an upscaling DVD Player, DVD's look really great!

paj4x4
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#16 erstellt: 15. Feb 2007, 04:11

Same here...I don't find the picture "stretched" either on a plasma or LCD screen. By the way I'm also using a set top box (STB) from Tata Sky.

Although I must say I am looking forward to the day when DTH companies such as Tata Sky and DishTV are able to provide STB's which can be hooked up via component or HDMI - currently only an analog connection (not even S Video) is available.

gbharani
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#17 erstellt: 16. Feb 2007, 09:22

guys...

thats why i said.... in my opinion... i am sure one day i would migrate to Hi-def too... but only when i am sure that the source i get is hi-def too.....

juggy_25
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#18 erstellt: 26. Feb 2007, 20:02

Hi guyz

next week I will be at my hometown for a couple of dayz, and I will have to buy the 29" CRT during that time.

Will be deciding between Philips and Panasonic. (90% will be the Philips, coz i doubt the avalability of the panasonic)

Just making sure i can avoid the LG, Samsung and the likes, right?

juggy

gbharani
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#19 erstellt: 27. Feb 2007, 06:00

no idea where you live...

but if its south india...panasonic is available everywhere. Try and play a dvd across both tv's and then compare and buy.

Kamal
Stammgast

#20 erstellt: 27. Feb 2007, 19:20

Right, but make sure that its a good Qlty DVD-a recent western movie one will be fine ;unfortunately, most of the bollywood DVDs are of average quality.
Many Tvs have high levels of contrast/brightness as a default setting-to make the picture more striking & vivid-get the salesman to reset them to a reasonable level.
The best visual test is the naturalness of the skin tones- a TV which reproduces skin tones well will usually do a good job with other colours
Check for black level details and color smearing.
Happy Hunting!

srikarkav
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#21 erstellt: 28. Feb 2007, 14:37

Hi juggy,

u have decided to go for philips right? I think its because
reignofchaos has recommended philips pixel plus.There is one small thing to be clarified here. The pixelplus IMHO is not an entry lelvel CRT. I think it costs around 28000 bucks.whereas the Panny Tau costs only around 17000.If ur budget allows u can go for philips pixelplus by allmeans. If u buy panny allow some burn period. may be a couple of weeks. u will find it to be a delight, particularly with hollywood dvd's.

cheers,
shri

[Beitrag von srikarkav am 28. Feb 2007, 14:43 bearbeitet]

juggy_25
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#22 erstellt: 28. Feb 2007, 19:35

i didnt know TVs required a "burn period." Shri, what exactly is that?
Does the "Pixel Plus" technology actually make a difference in the picture?

Kamal
Stammgast

#23 erstellt: 28. Feb 2007, 20:59

I've not heard of TVs requiring burn or break ins, unlike speakers.
Pixel plus is definitely better than ordinary CRT TVs, they give a significantly better picture but is more expensive-the ordinary Philips model I mentioned in one of my earlier posts would cost around 18-19K

abhi.pani
Inventar

#24 erstellt: 01. Mrz 2007, 04:04

Does the "Pixel Plus" technology actually make a difference in the picture?

A huge improvement.....
When you compare two TVs, one with pixel plus and other without it..you would know what a 100hz TV looks like. They dont look as sharp and high-def as LCD but they are certainly a step towards high-def from the entry-level CRT

Kamal
Stammgast

#25 erstellt: 01. Mrz 2007, 21:10

But, IMHO, rather than plonk down the money for Pixel Plus, I would rather chuck in some more & go in for an LCD.
Hence, for the moment, straightforward CRTs should be the target.

srikarkav
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#26 erstellt: 02. Mrz 2007, 14:05

Hi juggy,

Honestly even I dont know wheather a TV requires a burn in period. But I said it because, I was satisfied with only the DVD pics on the panny first and not so with the TV pictures.
But as the days went by even the TV pics improved by leaps and bounds and its a pleasure to watch the Tau now.When u watch it along with the likes of samsung,LG etc u can immediately see the difference in the colour tones.The colours on the other TVs looked garish to me.so much for the Panny.

Now coming to the philips pixel plus I think its a very good
choice, provided u want to spend some more bucks.I think the pixelplus can take advantage of proggressive scan of ur DVD player if ur player has it. whereas the Panny dosent have progscan.
I think spending 28000 bucks on a CRT is a bit too much, but that is only my opinion.

cheers,
shri

[Beitrag von srikarkav am 02. Mrz 2007, 14:21 bearbeitet]

reignofchaos
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#27 erstellt: 03. Mrz 2007, 15:22

The 29" Pixel Plus was 22.5-23k last I checked.... that too without much bargaining. In that price range, its definitely a budget CRT. For the peepz who are drumrolling about an LCD, do remember that they look absolutely atrocious with the 480i signal we get in India. Its one big blurry mess. I'd not get an LCD TV until proper 480p/576p/720p transmission is launched.

abhi.pani
Inventar

#28 erstellt: 04. Mrz 2007, 17:02

reignofchaos schrieb:

For the peepz who are drumrolling about an LCD, do remember that they look absolutely atrocious with the 480i signal we get in India. Its one big blurry mess. I'd not get an LCD TV until proper 480p/576p/720p transmission is launched.

Exactly....even with Tata Sky, LCDs look just okay...Good CRTs look far far better for any cable TV transmission currently available in India IMO. For the money you plunge into an entry level LCD, you can actually get a high-defination CRT TV which will not only blow away an LCD while watching cable TV but also come really close to them while watching DVD.

Kamal
Stammgast

#29 erstellt: 04. Mrz 2007, 19:57

....even with Tata Sky, LCDs look just okay...

Not really-with Tata Sky, Broadcast channels look sensational on LCDs-seeing is believing.

[Beitrag von Kamal am 04. Mrz 2007, 19:58 bearbeitet]

abhi.pani
Inventar

#30 erstellt: 05. Mrz 2007, 04:35

KamalJi,
Actually I did go around for few week looking out for TVs, I spent quite a lot of time on LCDs and fortunately here almost all the showrooms either use Tata Sky or dish TV...LCDs looked only okay to me when connected to Tata Sky....infact as I have already mentioned, the images were stretched to fit the 16:9 screen of the LCD TVs. Only when DVDs were connected I found them really good to watch

On another side there was a Sony High-Def CRT TV (around 40k) and WOW!!! they were superb with any signal you feed...you would be amazed with the way they projected cable TV signals...it could have been an ideal buy for me but budget was the constraint.

Kamal
Stammgast

#31 erstellt: 05. Mrz 2007, 19:39

Abhi, when I went around looking at various brands of LCDs,the final choice was narrowed down to Sony Brevia V series & Samsung Bordeaux. In a side by side demo with DVDs of Shakespeare in Love & Gladiator, the Samsung won convincingly.
The Tata Sky came in later & I must state that the picture dimensions look quite natural, not stretched-then the faces would look too broad!Perhaps the TV does some tricks to digitally convert the 4:3 to 16:9 ?
And the picture quality of the broadcasts? OK, its not HDTV for sure, but much sharper than your avg CRTs.
I'm quite sure that spending 40k for a CRT only because the cable TV looks V. good on it may not be prudent. After all, how can it compare with a good LCD when you use an Upscaling DVD player for watching DVDs, with Blu Ray waiting around the corner? What happens when we get HDTV broadcasts( they may not be very far away).
One should buy with an eye on the future.

reignofchaos
Stammgast

#32 erstellt: 09. Mrz 2007, 20:34

Kamal schrieb:

Same samsung S-PVA panel, different control electronics. Having seen both, I'm not certain how "convincing" the convincing was.

The Tata Sky came in later & I must state that the picture dimensions look quite natural, not stretched-then the faces would look too broad!Perhaps the TV does some tricks to digitally convert the 4:3 to 16:9 ?

4:3 stretched to 16:9 is definitely not natural. Its just that your eyes have gotten used to the stretched aspect ratio. Also did you know that all made in india DVDs are not anamorphic but rather 4:3? There's no benefit of such dvds on widescreen.

And the picture quality of the broadcasts? OK, its not HDTV for sure, but much sharper than your avg CRTs.

There's no chance that the picture quality would be even remotely close to a high end CRT/rear projection/plasma.

I'm quite sure that spending 40k for a CRT only because the cable TV looks V. good on it may not be prudent. After all, how can it compare with a good LCD when you use an Upscaling DVD player for watching DVDs, with Blu Ray waiting around the corner? What happens when we get HDTV broadcasts( they may not be very far away).
One should buy with an eye on the future.

Frankly, spending 65k in India on a bordeaux LCD which can't be used effectively makes no sense whatsoever. The same panel is roughly ~850$ here and prices are dropping fast. First of all there is a complete lack of HD sources other than a handful of bluray/hd dvd titles. (Other than BT'ed 720p/1080p movies) Upsampled DVD doesn't qualify as an HD source. Even here, I'm sitting in front of a samsung full mosel hd panel in my hotel room (bordeaux is the budget panel, full mosel hd is their high end panel) and I can hardly find 4-5 HD channels in the cable TV bouquet. The majority of the channels still are ugly 480i. So getting everything in HD is still far far away here in the US, forget in India. Looking at all this, I'd rather get a 100Hz CRT now for 23k than spend 65k on an LCD which is not even 1080p. By the time HDTV makes its way to India, the same panel will be down to 20k and one would get a 1080p panel for 30k.