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The TV Thread

Don't worry it won't be squashed looking. I play 1080i on my TV and it downscales to the native res no problem. This isn't a problem on any TV AFAIK.
 
Looks like the WLT68 is definitely the TV for us, then. :)

Did you get a chance to demo it anywhere (I still can't find it in the shops)?
 
Yep. I demoed it against the Sharp LC37XD1E and the Toshiba trumped it I think, and it was cheaper. Do you have a Costco near by? And are your parents doctors, lawyers or own a business so you can get membership there, phone up your local one to find out more. They have the 37WLT68 at £1174.98 with 3 Year Warranty.
 
Well, we're now the proud owner of a 42WLT68 (£1530 all but a few quid, including 3-year warranty), thanks to Costco (excellent idea you had there Ash, there's one just down the road!). Haven't got it up and running yet but I'll let you know when it is. :)

Quick question beforehand; if we got this DVD recorder, which doesn't come with a tuner built in, is there any way to output the channels from the TV's built in freeview tuner to the DVD recorder? Something I've never thought of...

Thanks!
 
WOW! That was quick! I tell you yesterday and you get it and report exactly 24 hours after my post. Look my post is at 6.43pm, yours at 6.43pm..... I saw the 42WLT68 at my local Costco, looked good. There goes your £1000 budget LOL! Happened to me as well, went from a 1300 budget to 2700 LOL! That Costco warranty is priceless! From what a here, if anything goes wrong, they will refund your money!

Anyway, as for the DVD recorder, I would try to get one that has built in tuner, even if it costs you more. Panasonic, Pionner and Sony is the way to go. Maybe wait for Boxing Day sales? Because no point of getting an analogue one, too much hassle outputting Freeview from your TV, and if you are watching Freeview, you can't record another channel. And as for how to do it, you can. Read the manual, sorry I can't be more helpful, but I can't remember how to do it.

Also try these settings on for size from a mate of mine:
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 70
Colour: 42
Tint: 0
Sharpness: -50
Black Stretch: Off
MPEG NR: Off
DNR: Off
Colour Temperature: Normal
Colour Management: On
Red: 0 0
Green: 0 -1
Blue: 0 -7
Yellow: 0 0
Magenta: 0 0
Cyan: 0 0
Active Backlight Control: Off
Cinema Mode: On
Active Vision M100: On

You can increase the sharpness if you want to, but it will show up more artifacts :)
 
So impressed... For the money, I really don't think there would be any way to get a better television. I've just played Gears Of War on it, and I'm thinking of selling my body to get one for my own room. And after playing Pro Evo and FIFA on it... How the hell can I go back to a non-widescreen 19" monitor? No way in the world. Motion blur during football is not at all noticeable, it really isn't - it is on faces though (if someone shakes their head quickly then you do see blur where their face should be, but that's really nitpicking to be honest). It's got a dead pixel on as well... :( But you can't see it from six foot away.

Ash, thank you very, very much. You've made our Christmas. I'd thoroughly recommend this television to everybody (although the 37" is probably more sensible than the 42")!
 
Jack Bauer said:
It's got a dead pixel on as well... :( But you can't see it from six foot away.
Click to expand...

Get a replacement! I would, Costco cutomer service is prestine. I am sure they would replace it, just tell them it is defective, not fit for purpose, give me a replacement or I want a refund in that order :)

You don't want to think few months down the line, I wish I replaced it, just that small niggle. Luckily I've owned one large LCD, and large plasma, no dead pixels yet :)
 
Well as it's a family TV I don't have much say in the matter unfortunately. Everybody has a different opinion; mum thinks it's spectacular, so do I, dad thinks the freeview picture is "blurred to buggery" and is looking at all kinds of booster boxes to fix it, despite me telling him a million times it will make fuck-all difference (as he's got older he's switched into "I know everything" mode). And as for the dead pixel, he says "you expect everything to be perfect, this is the real world, it doesn't work like that". Despite moaning about it every five fucking minutes.

You can't please some people; and seeing as I've not paid anything towards it, let them get on with it. :roll:
 
When on freeview, when the bar comes up, what is the dingal strenght? When I had Toshiba, it was 100%, now on Panasonic its 100%.

LOL, bad day at home LOL! I remember my mum when I brought the TV, why didn't you buy a bigger one LOL!
 
:lol: I know the feeling, that's exactly what it was like here (but the exact opposite - "my eyes will turn inside out looking at that, it's way too big")! :lol:

I can't find any menu that tells you the signal strength as a percentage - all I can see is "good" (and every channel is listed as "good"), so I'm presuming it's as good as it's going to get (in the manual, the screenshots all show the channels appearing as "good", so I'm presuming if there was a "great" or "smashing" or "super" they would tell you in there).

The more I see it the more I'm gobsmacked, it really is fantastic. I've even had the PS2 plugged in for a laugh, and it's brilliant. On consoles, there's little motion blur, if any. The only downside (bar the dead pixel and the sound - which I'll mention below) is that there is a very, very slight sound sync issue with everything. It's not so much that anybody notices, but I do (and that's the kind of thing that really grates with me - not so much with games, but with films). Still, for the fantastic quality of the picture, the vibrance of the colour and the fun you can have playing Gears Of War on what feels like a screen the size of a cinema screen, I'm perfectly happy. Well worth the money, I think.

We're looking at upgrading the sound on it though, because it seems that if music and speech occur at the same time, the speech sounds as if they're talking underwater. I've fiddled with all of the sound settings but it doesn't make a difference - it needs a subwoofer. The WLT66 had a subwoofer that you could buy and fit to the back, but I'm not having much luck finding one for the WLT68, which means we're going to have to buy a cinema sound system that isn't Toshiba. We can't do surround, there isn't enough room in the house (especially not now there's a 42" television and massive unit to sit it on in the corner), but we just want a subwoofer and two speakers to go either side of the television to boost it a little.

I've just come on the net to have a look around now, I barely even know where to start. :eh:

Oh by the way, Rocky, those files are EXE's - are they executable zip files or do you need something special to play them?
 
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Jack Bauer said:
Oh by the way, Rocky, those files are EXE's - are they executable zip files or do you need something special to play them?
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They are Winzip executables - double click em and they extract to C:\WMVDownloads or summat as wmv files ;)

If only Currys had the sense to do the same and use HD signals on their HDTVs - they would have sold a LOT more!
 
Mr. CTU. The WLT66 sub works on the WLT68.

As for the sound, try to turn off all the Tru XSurround BS. And for lipsync, turn of the M100 thing and see if it is better.

Try these sound settings maybe?
Bass: 0
Treble: -30
Balance: 0
SRS 3D: On
FOCUS: On
TruBass: High
Stable Sound: Off
Bass boost: On
Bass boost level: 15

Keep us updated.
 
Rocky, cheers for that - I'll give that a try when my XBOX 360 component cable arrives (I've been using the VGA cable up to now but that can stay plugged into my monitor now to save me having a host of new cables to disconnect every time I move from one room to the other - I should get a new 360 power supply as well, judging from the size of them though they probably cost £360)!

Ash, you are officially my hero. Congratulations, treat yourself to a cookie (less than £1 only) and I will Paypal you the cost. Genius!

Switching the M100 mode off has fixed the (ever-so-slight) lip sync issues. The sound is also a lot better with the settings you posted, with the exception of the "Bass Boost Level" - your 15 means you almost can't hear the bassline of a song, and Toshiba's 70 means you can hear fuck-all else!! I've set it to 50 and it seems to be a happy medium - for now...

The subwoofer looks the way to go then - are you sure it works on a WLT68? I've seen a photograph of how the subwoofer is attached to the television, but I can't see anything on the side of the WLT68 that would hold it in that way. And if it does definitely work with the WLT68, I'd still be tempted to go and get another system, purely so that we could have a subwoofer and two more speakers to go next to the built-in (and therefore not-very-good) ones.

But I really don't know at the minute, there's that many different sound systems out there and from this point on I get the feeling that everything is going to go over my head. All this for the pursuit of a telly I'm hardly ever going to be "allowed" access to, I must be mad...
 
Ermmm...I am sure there is only one sub. I'll get some pics connected to WLT68 for you.

As for sound system, you want a 5.1 setup?
 
After much thinking, I think it's best to go with just the sub for now. £70 off eBay (brand new with warranty), and it might be all that's needed... But we'll see!
 
Nope, there were a few for £100+ but I managed to get it for less than that from a smaller seller (seems decent enough). My brother-in-law reckons the difference will be massive, but I really can't see it making a huge difference. Still, we'll see!

QUICK QUESTION for you: I've been told that, as I've been helpful with picking this new telly, I can have a new telly for Christmas for my bedroom! ...Trouble is, it can only be around £300 or less. Any suggestions?
 
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Freeview, and most likely the XBOX 360.

As usual, cheers for all the help you can give! :)
 
Well, as usual, I want to be greedy...! The best I've been able to find size-wise for £300ish is 21". Which is a shite Viewsonic that's got terrible reviews. But how the folks going to afford £300 I'll never know, never mind any more.

Saying that, I've had a look around and I've found a Hitachi 26LD6600 locally for £350. Now that's 26", which is bloody good for £350, and it's HD ready, complete with component AND HDMI inputs! Sounds absolutely perfect, so I'll even bung them the extra £50. BUT, I can't find any reviews for it on the internet, and seeing as the Viewsonic they're pushing in my local Currys has absolutely God-awful reviews, I don't want to touch anything without seeing a review of it. At a whole 4-5" bigger than most of it's competitors in the price range, though, it's the front-runner so far.

Ever heard of it Ash?

(By the way, the subwoofer is bloody brilliant; the walls literally shake if I put Gears Of War on, I think I'm going to find it even more difficult to leave the house now! :D)
 
I wouldn't really want that Hitachi personally!!!
Tough one at that budget if you want a 26"..they will be crap at that budget.

Is 19" too small?

Anyway, check out your local Costco and make a note of model no. and prices that caught your eye. And I would reccomend waiting for Boxing Day sales personally :)
 
Any size will be considered, as long as it was a decent picture!

Edit: I finally found a review of that Hitachi, here at AV Forums (that place is bloody handy), and it sounds pretty good - so rather than settle for 20" or less, I've got the folks to go and get their grubby hands on the Hitachi (26") for £350. It does everything I need it to do (scart for my external digital tuner, component for the 360 and HDMI for anything futuristic), and from the reviews in that thread, it seems that the quality is excellent. The nearest comparable, in size and features, is £500+, and it's only for the bedroom, so I think it's an excellent little deal.

I'll let you know how everything goes!
 
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Smeg... been all over and I can't find anybody stocking the Sharp lc42xd1 and only one place stocking the Sony 40X --- A Sony shop-- and nowhere doing the Tosh WLT68.
Hear the Sony still has some blur and if I want the Sharp I should wait for the new D92 panel, this is supposed to be a true step forward in technology, made in their new plant and will have the fastest response time of any large LCD. LCD's hare overtaking plasma in the 32 to 46" market and the latest Sharp and Sony have both been rated as giving better brightness and blacks than Plasma screens!!
 
I doubt the Sharp and Sony have better blacks than plasmas! Firstly the Sony W series has been plauged with uneven backlighting, so basiclly some parts of the screen is darker than others.

Anyway, Nick. Try going to like the Panasonic website, and try to find your local independent dealers. Then give them a ring and as about other models.

So you still sure you want LCD? There is this very good Fujitsu Plasma, 58 series costing about 2.6k but it is very good, the best plasma on the market. And Nick, if you keep waiting for new models, OLED and SED tvs will be out soon.

Are you sure you can't find anyone stocking those? I have tons of options of places taht have two of them atleast, the 42WLT68 is new and so quite rare, the smaller ones are common.
 
From what I've read all these tech's are still a couple of years away at the larger sizes, given the working life of them at the moment though the less than 0.01ms response time does make me drool??
Maybe I need to move back to London, damn the divide!! All the info on the Sony and Sharp screens I have weened from Tech' sites and the usual literature... Don't want to hold off on the screen just want the best 40-46" screen I can get!! The only screens I have seen not running a HD source look.. well.. crap!!
I'm not planning on going back to Sky for HD anytime soon as I have a neat little box to bring me all the cable, to be honest I don't watch that much TV. But I do want a screen that will give me a glorious PES and WE experience and will be good for DVD and when the PS3 finally lands on my coffee table HD!!
 
MMmmmmmmmmm...You have completely counted out plasma? Remember, more pixels does not mean better picture. You can get very good 42"/50" Pioneer plasmas at great prices now.
 
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