TV selection websites?

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wemorgan

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Does anyone know of a website where you can search for a TV by specification?

Ebay has a basic filter of size, brand, price, but I'd like to be able to drill down the criteria further and of course included more TVs other than those only for sale on Ebay.

The kind of advanced features I'd like to filter by are: fresh rate, contrast ratio, internet/media streaming etc.

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks. I never even stopped to think of the obvious :) There are some quite useful filters on that website.

With just a few filters <£1k, 200Hz, >40", HDTV there is a selection of 7.
A shame there is no contrast ratio filter. But 7 TVs is not so many to manually search.
 
You've got my buying juices running now!:doh:
 
Go go go :)

It's tough with TVs as the technology/features changes so often. 3D TV seems to be the latest gadget, which I'm not yet convinced by. You also pay a premium for being an early adopter.

But for a large TV for watching films on I think 200Hz with a decent contrast ratio should be enough. But then there's still the media stream function, to have or not to have?
 
Saw 3D at a recent trade exhibition - LG stand - superb..................but
I bet they were showing clips that showed off 3D to it's best effect and I couldn't put up with putting a pair of 3D glasses over my regular glasses which I need to watch TV.

Hope eventually they come up with a system that doesn't need the 3D glasses
 
Go to a TV shop and see them and play for yourself, once home you'll find you'll turn off the 200Hz interpolation stuff and the dynamic contrast stuff, calibrate it for natural colours and all the fancy stuff they sell in the adverts becomes less relevant. More relevant may be sound quality, size, response time etc.

Replaced most of our TVs this year, settled on LG plasma for the living room (THX certified), LG LED for our bedroom, Samsung's cheapest 32 LCD for the oldest lad's bedroom and an Asda special for the girls room (built in DVD) - other lad got the 6 yr old LG plasma from the living room (his room has the Xbox and DVD and stuff in and a sofa so they all go and vanish into there anyway). All chosen after visiting Richer Sounds and Comet and playing for a while to make sure they can do decent colour and acceptable sound.

Both the new LGs have internet and DLNA.
 
I went to my local Sony Centre today. The key conclusions for me are; 200Hz is not worth the extra money as 100Hz is good enough for my eyes. LCD vs LED looks the same to me with the only difference being LED TVs are thinner and consume less power, built in media players such as iPlayer/LoveFilm are worth having therefore a wi-fi dongle is needed as I don't want a network cable running around my floor. Sony are also doing a £150 p/x deal for your old TV. Though in reality he said they are happy not to take your old TV, so the £150 is a simple discount across the range. This basically makes their prices competitive verse internet shops.
 
Will, what size are you looking for? Most reports I've read favour plasma over LCD once you get beyond 42".
I've stuck with Panasonic. 42" plasma in lounge and 37" & 32" LCDs for bedrooms. The 42" is now 6 years old so needs replacing for a HD tv. But I'm still very impressed with it's picture in SD
 
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Will , I too went through all of this a few months ago after our two year old was starting to rock our stand mounted CRT Television backwards and forwards and I had visions of it falling on him . I had stayed with CRT technology for so long due to being underwhelmed by flat panel technology , despite fitting dozens of them in the course of my work and getting to see new models as they appear . I also still have a CRT projector which I see no reason to change as it still looks so good .

I had a look round the shops , mainly choosing on the subjective basis of which sets I was happiest with the picture quality of , then comparing on features , available inputs etc , lastly on price ( I would simply have waited until funds were available for whatever I decided was the right set ) .

In the end , I felt that the Samsung LED sets looked 'head and shoulders' above the competition in terms of being bright and dynamic enough to view in normal ambient lighting conditions , whilst still reproducing good blacks and not looking posterised or unnatural . Shopping around , the 'usual suspects' ( Comet , Currys , John Lewis ) were all within a few pounds of each other on price - although , significantly , John Lewis do offer a five year guarantee on all TVs - until a friend reminded me to check out Costco .

In the end , I got the UE46C7000 set for about £500 less than al the other stores were asking and still with the five year guarantee which Costco also give on all TVs .

I'm not saying that you should get a Samsung because I did , but do compare prices in different shops and check out Costco once you have selected the TV you fancy .

The set I got does happen to be a 3DTV , but this feature is incidental and I just leave it turned off . It does have 200Hz refresh rate , 4x HDMI plus a good range of other inputs ( but no S-Video !! ) , internet connectivity ( I use it for iPlayer and You Tube , but haven't bothered with Love Film as yet ) and , of course , has Freeview HD built in . I don't really use it for HD , other than having an Apple TV , which I hardly use , plugged into it ( even though I work with HD at work using sixty grand Sony XD cam HD cameras and a couple of hundred grand of HD editing equipment ) being more than happy with properly setup SD kit in the house - my Sony DVP-S7700 DVD player connected via component still looks superb , as do sources like Laserdisc and Low Band Umatic which are 'only' composite . Another factor was the light weight of the LED set ( about 16Kg for the 46" ) , since the way our living room is set up it was going to be wall mounted in a corner of the room ( up out of Harris' reach ) and would have to be angled round on a bracket ( I already had an articulating bracket , bought for a smaller TV some years ago but rated at 25Kg - all I had to do was make up a metal plate to adapt from the bracket's VESA 200 fixing centres up the the set's VESA 400 ones ) . Although it is too early to tell , I also feel that the low energy consumption of the LED TV is likely to go towards greater longevity ( I have already replaced a number of older Plasma screens at work , aged between five and ten years , due to burnt phosphors , and a couple due to faults - their lifespan being definitely less than CRT monitors ) . We have had no issues with LCD screens , although we only started fitting them comparatively recently when they started to catch up with Plasma on picture quality .

One drawback I have come across is that the amount of video processing that goes on in any modern digital TV delays the picture so much that lipsync goes noticeably out . having done some research on this - it is a recognised problem - the answer is the latest HDMI 1.4 which incorporates an audio return channel . I therefore need to replace my 20 year old AV amplifier with something that will accept all my current sources , upscale them to 1080p , sent them to the screen via HDMI where the audio will be delayed to sync with the picture , then returned to the amplifier .

Since I am also in the process of separating my Hi-Fi from my AV system and 'simplifying' the AV side , this won't happen until sometime next year . I have already 'gone retro' and bought a Quad 77/707 stereo amplifier to go with my Gyrodec and IMF transmission line loudspeakers and am again enjoying my record collection in a way I had not since I put away my previous Quad system for the Sony AV system in the late 1980's .

I'll now be looking for a relatively simple 'all-in-one' AV amp to replace the AV preamp/separate DSP unit and 3x power amps I have currently taking up a chunk of my equipment cabinet .

The point of all this ramble , Will , is DO look into the audio side before you jump in - otherwise you may be disappointed . I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain the lipsync issues to friends when visiting and the topic has turned to their new TV sets .
 
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Great thread, im also looking for a TV for our lounge... Keep us up to date will...

Good tip on Costco above, ill be ringing them later.
 
I am looking for a large screen, 55 inch or so, I want it to be slim. I really like the look of this KDL-55NX813 (KDL55NX813) : Overview : TV & Home Cinema : Sony

Im just going to have the TV in the room, im going to hide the sky box etc in a room just behind the TV.

That brings me onto the next question, do IR extenders actually work? The sky box etc will be in a room behind the TV, the room has no door so the remote would have a clear view of the transmitter.
 
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IR Extenders work fine, the Sky specific ones are good as they work through your antenna distribution system, the pyramid type wireless ones not as good.

When we do hideaways we normally rack up the sky boxes and media servers but add a wallmount blu-ray player.
 
As the ancient soothsayer in ancient Rome might have said to Julius Caesar " Beware the large screen edge lit LED TVs" :eek: and might have also said " use cables every time":thumb:
 
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