Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Thinking about getting one ( ) but I wandered into a shop in Tottenham Court Road & they had around 8 32" Sony TVs ranging in price from £800 - £1500

They all seemed roughly the same spec as in 32" FST, 100mhz. Some were "Wega" (wtf?) and there were some which were analogue/digital but there seemed to be no correlation as to price ie one of the digital ones was £900 & one of the analogue £1400.

TVs have certainly come on a bit since we last bought one in 1996, so looking for any advice as to what to get.

Only Sony please, 32" and I guess digital (cbeebies!!). Best places/prices also as I realise TCR isn't the cheapest but I was at a meeting around the corner.

TIA


(& crikey, aren't they large!! No chance your average burglar getting them out the window easily!)

corradoboy

Sony are guilty of resting on their laurels in recent years. Their products are average by comparison to the main competitors, and their customer service is awful. If you can drag yourself towards another brand then Philips Pixel Plus really lead the pack at the mo'. Closely followed by Panasonic and Toshiba. If you want real quality in CRT, go look at Loewe, but be prepared to pay.

Ask around here for knowlegable advice.

Suresh

Agree with Corradoboy -

After doing some research, I bought a Philips 32" pixel plus set (model 9528) a couple of months back and find the picture quality to be excellent and the sound pretty good too. Connectivity is good with 4x scarts of which 2 x are RGB.

On the downside, wouldn't recomend it if you sit closer than 2 metres away from the screen though as pixel plus doesn't really look good up close. Not really good for fast moving sports such as football, as the processing cannot smoothly move the ball on screen. I switch to 100hz mode when watching footy.

Sony never really came into the picture (pun intended) to be honest, as their sets were too big (> 60cm deep) for the cabinet we already had. Technology was behind the Philips and Tosh models too.

Suresh

ozzy

Puff,

I would reconsider taking the blinkers off. I was always a Sony man, but the picture quality, features and reliability has come on leaps and bounds from the other manufacturers.

I would look at Panasonic, Tosh and then Philips. I have a Pany 32" and it's fantastic. The Tosh picture was slightly better, but the cabinet was rank. Looks great in the brochures, but cheap and tacky when you see it in the flesh. Did not shout out £1500 worth of TV.

Sony expect you to pay for the name and in the past I've accepted this due to the fantastic picture, but I've heard some bad reports on their recent models and there's better TV's out there for the money.

Pany also give a 5yr warranty. John Lewis or a local Pany dealer only, don't think the net suppliers can offer this.

Have a look on the AV Forums website. Don't be put off by everyone's comments, you know what BBS's are like

Stefan

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Just looking on that AV forum & there are so many things to chose from! Opinions vary all over the spectrum :-s

Narrow down a bit...

TV is for my study (of course but it's the family TV as well). So one that is good for DVD, has built in Freeview, won't be obsolescant when analogue transmissions switched off, can take an input from a VHS, DVD player and output via a Sony AV Control Centre (surroundy soundy thing). Study is not massive & the sofa is about 2.5m away from where TV would be placed.

So watching wise, its cbeebies, DVDs of yucky things like Tweenies, news, films, m'sport, rugby etc.

mrklaw

32DX50 is good, with digital tuner built in, and reasonable price.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Wow! From £620 - £1120 in price range

Whats the difference with the 32DX50 and the 32DX50(s) and wtf is WEGA?

dba

Puff

if you want it future proofish,make sure its got 2 RGB scarts,one for the Skydish and one for the DVD player,one for a vid (non rgb)

check out Empire direct

messiah

If you want a Sony - go for one with the DRC feature - it's tremendous.

IMHO I wouldn't touch a Philips with a barge pole - I admit the picture looks pretty good, but everything Philips I've ever bought has been an unreliable pain in the ****. Ask yourself 1 question - Electronics, Japanese or Belgian?

messiah

Wega is Sony's flat screen range (you'll be hard pushed to find a non-wega set these days) and it's the only true flat screen out there - the others are curved on the back.

Takes it name from the star "Wega" (sp) it's the brightest in the sky and the luminance of all the others are compared to it as a reference point.

mark_h

The Wega tubes are totally flat. The earlier Trinitron tubes were flat in only the vertical plane - they had a slight curve to them in the horizontal plane.

The (S) suffix I think means it comes with a stand.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

DRC? Wazat?

Suresh

Philips are Dutch not Belgian and generally speaking I wouldn't buy anything of theirs either. However, after doing some research and eventually buying the thing, it seems their TVs are actually pretty good. As far as I know, a lot of the Jap kit actually uses Philips picture tubes anyway...

Suresh

mark_h

"DRC (Digital Reality Creation)
Using unique Sony algorithms DRC replicates a high definition television picture from a standard definition television signal."

Sounds like a marketing gimmic lol

messiah

DRC

it's a gizmo that quadruples the screen resolution on realtime, so the pic doesn't look stretched when the screen gets too big. it's ace.

CraigH

Sony are no more relaible than Philips nowadays - their quality isn't as bombproof as it used to be.

I narrowed choice down to philips pixel plus and sony and there was nothing the sony did better than the philips, but there was plenty the philips did better than the sony.....

If you insist on sony, you should be able to get a good price from digital direct. Theres a few "horror stories" about them but they were excellent with my order....

scoobynutta555

Just bought a 44 inch Sony tv from comet online (£999), but its not on there anymore.

Walwal

I got a Philips pixel plus 32" tv a few months back. While I'm not a tv expert, this is a good tv. Like has been said before tho, don't sit closer than 2 metres.

Got it from if my memory serves me correctly, KC Electronics, through Pricerunner.co.uk. Ordered lunch time on a Friday, delivered 8.00 a.m. Monday morning. Top notch service.

Andy.