32" HD LCD - Philips 32PF9830 vs Toshiba 32WLT66
 

Looking at buying a 32" HD LCD Television & before going shopping I thought i'd do my research. After reading a few web pages & What Hi Fi Sound & Vision magazine this month i've come up with my top two. I just need to narrow it down to one now :)

The Philips 32PF9830 is their product of the year for 2005. Not just in TV's but overall. The concern I have is that it retails at £1500 (which is the lowest I could find it) & i'm sure you must be paying over the odds to just have that flash backlight thingy. Another concen is that it doesn't have freeview integrated. I have Sky anyway but I just think it would be nice to have in case I decide Sky isn't for me one day & there's no longer analogue TV.

The Toshiba 32WLT66 was rated very highly this month in What Hi Fi as being the best 32" HD LCD television on a budget. They reckoned it would retail at £1100 but i've found it for £840 with free delivery online. It has built in Freeview & two HD connectors which could prove useful.

You know you get those concerns that by paying less, you're getting less? I hope i'm right in this case by saying you're not. I mean they both got 5 stars in their reviews & the Toshiba is half the price. I just wondered if anyone on here has had experience of either of these TV's or if they've heard any reviews?

The only substantial difference I could find between the two is that the Phillips has a contrast ratio of 6000:1 & the Toshiba is 1200:1. This was one of the reasons I took my third choice off the list (Loewe Concept L32) as it was 800:1.

Anyone got any comments on either of these televisions that might help me before I request a demo?

Cheers

MAFFA :)

Philips is here:

http://www.consumer.philips.com/cons...ESHQFHKFSEKI5P

Toshiba is here:

http://www.home-entertainment.toshib...6?opendocument

Cheers MAFA for posting this topic, Im in the same boat myself but I would like a 37", The Toshiba looks great but only had 2 scart inputs and only one of them is RGB.

I will be watching this thread!

i have 3 lcd tv's in my house and dell is the best one i have :D

No worries Scott. I did read that over 32" the LCD's suffer against the quality of the plasma's & as we've currectly only got a 26" widescreen tv a 32 will be plenty big enough. Maybe a 20" or something for the bedroom as anything over a 14" will be a bonus & we are on a budget :). Do you have What Hi Fi this month? If not I can take a look & see what their recommended 37" TV's are? I've never bought it before but it's very good when you're actually looking for one :)

MAFFA

Dell's don't even get a mention in What Hi Fi :wonder: . My PC monitor is a Dell TFT & my laptop is Dell but in the world of LCD TV's i'm not so sure? Might just stick with what the voters suggest & what's been highly recommended.

BTW what's RGB? Just looked it up on the Toshiba site & it states "Input that accepts computer signals broken down into Red, Green, Blue, minimising interference". Don't think this will matter to me TBH as I won't be hooking my PC up to the TV.....if that's what it means?

MAFFA

RGB are the individual colours, red green, blue, which are kept separate to improve definition/quality

composite- luma and chroma added together with sync to save on bandwidth-works reasonably well, well for the last 40 years or so

S video - luma+sync and chroma kept separate to improve quality

Then you have a variety of digital systems to pick from- the future and beyond

Andy

I've got the Toshiba and it's very very nice.
The reviews are good and comparing side by side to the other sets in the shop made me buy it. Nice picture, build and remote.

dipster

Personally I'd go for a Panny 32 lxd500.


http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-...?reviewid=6159

Chip

Toshiba
 

I have the 32wlt58 with the toshiba stand (would never buy a philips product again after an massive arguement over one of their TVs - had 4 engineers out who all agreed with me but it took a call to the md (or eqv) in the UK to sort it)

http://www.home-entertainment.toshib...8?opendocument - lower contrast than the one you are looking at but I love the design of it

Excellent screen - I have two dells (24" and 20" monitors) and it exceeds them for picture quality - freeview can be blocky but when I feed HD from my media centre via hdmi superb

One one problem with it - the sound went at 4 months old - just disappeared - two call's to toshiba and I had a new one within a couple of days ! Beats philips customer service - took me 2 months to sort theirs out !

I have a Sharp Aquos 32in fantastic T.V. 3 scart leads and HD ready all for £800.
Cheers
Colin

Hi MAFA
Are you sure about the online price of the Tosh?
There are two models with similar part numbers;-
The 32WLT66 has the built in Freeview tuner and costs around £1100.
The 32WL66 does not have the tuner and is around £840.
I just looked at both of these in Comet this morning.
Out of all the TV's on view - the Toshibas certainly seemed the best picture quality.
Cheers
Steve

steve

he is

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten...de=TOS-32WLT66

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/sound-a.../581661/prices

I got comet to price match mine from their normally high shop price ;)

Dave.

I've got the Philips 32 PF5520D/10 and find it to be more than adequate for my needs.

Ive had the Tosh 32WLT 66 about a week now , and can't rate highly enough especially for the £899 here . PQ from a Sky + box is better than the Sony CRT it replaced and DVD's look very :cool:
Just got to wait for the price of Sky HD to come down now :D

Im thinking about the 37WLT66 Toshiba however some people on avforums are waiting for this model

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=321320

I think I need at 37" as i sit 10' 6" or 3200mm away from the TV, do you think this is right size?

Scott

3X times screen size away ;)

Toshiba it is then by the sound of it. £848.98 inc. VAT & delivery from here - http://www.soundandvisiononline.com/...oduct_id=10712

Might even get the interest free credit option & pay it all off when we move house :)

MAFFA

Would you go for any of the Warranty options?

2yrs - £109
3yrs - £169
5yrs - £259

Or is the Manufacturers warranty sufficient?

MAFFA

never touched extended warrentys and I think the amount I have spent in repairs (if any) has always been lower

2 years nearly 15% of the price ? How much will a 32" lcd be worth

and if they are offering accidental damage in there check you aint already covered on the house insurance - why pay twice?

I totally agree. Just wanted to hear someone else say it :D LOL

MAFFA

:thumb:

Okay so I ordered the TV at 11pm on Tuesday evening & it arrived this morning :eek::eek::eek: That's quick!!

Old TV:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...A/TV/TVold.jpg

New TV:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../TV/TVNew1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../TV/TVNew2.jpg

Tis proper quality & i'm so glad for everyone's expertise in What Hi Fi magazine. There wouldn't have been a chance for me to have a demo on this TV anywhere prior to purchase so I went totally on their recommendation :)

The stand will be changed soon but the TV is so new the stand is only just out (this week I believe):)

http://www.leconcepts.com/plasma/tos...dt66/accsy.htm

Next on the list.....Sky HD in time for the world cup & Wimbledon ;) Then i'll need to get a sparky round to mount it on the wall above the fire, ditch the stand & hook the PC up to it etc.... ;) I love gadgets :D

MAFFA :p

p.s. ignore all the cr@p on the floor in our lounge. We're moving soon :D

MAFFA

do it yourself m8 - wont take long :D

Hi MAFFA
I also bought the Toshiba last weekend (the one without the freeview box inside!)
At the same time - we saw a demo of a HD DVD player (the Toshiba SD350).
This connects to your HD ready TV by a HDMI lead (a bit like a USB lead - but a bit bigger).
When you then play a DVD on this type of DVD player - the quality is incredible compared with a normal DVD player and a scart socket.
The HD ready DVD players upscale the digital output through the HDMI to 1080 -- so you are starting to see what HD tv is all about!
As far as I know there are 3 HD-ready players on the market.
The Toshiba SD350
Two Samsung units - one player and one player/recorder.
The players are around £99 the recorders around £200.
If you buy the Samsung player (which I did from Argos for £99) - it even comes supplied with the HDMI lead - these are £40 alone from high street shops (cheaper online).
Now you have the HD TV - I strongly recommend you get an HD ready DVD player - you wont be disappointed - it was the best £99 I spent all year!!!
Cheers!
Steve

I might have a look around as i'll need a multi regional one. Most of my DVD's are from either Australia, USA, Canada or Japan :D LOL

I'm gonna wait until we've moved house though & i'm gonna get Sky HD & an HD DVD recorder...hopefully with a hard drive.

MAFFA :)