new panasonic TV - soooo disapointed....

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#1331169 25-Jun-2015 09:53

reven: you could probably buy a graphics card for $30 off trademe with hdmi output. I have like 3 laying around the house with hdmi output.

I can't recall seeing VGA input on a tv for about 10 years 8 years now. Plenty of HDMI, usually a couple of USB and an optical in/out.

If you got a truly smart tv, you would probably stop using your HTPC for most things too :D Plex + Netflix == HTPC is barely used. NextPVR runs on LG and samsung tv's as well, so thats a PVR. With freeview plus coming soonish a PVR mightnt be needed all that much (not that they are needed now anyway...)

+1 , samsung + plex = pure magic

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keewee01

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#1331177 25-Jun-2015 10:04

I'm not surprised that it doesn't have a VGA input.

I needed to buy a flat panel tv for work 2 years ago and it had to have a VGA input - I struggled back then to find a flat panel with VGA, most manufacturers had already dropped.

Always pays to check the inputs/outputs before you buy.

robjg63

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#1331194 25-Jun-2015 10:16

robjg63: The specs do say 3 x HDMI - thats ok.
Most laptops from the last 3 years or so would use HDMI to connect to a TV - so the old VGA connector is 99% of the time unused.

Doesnt your home theatre have HDMI to connect to the TV?
You 'may' need to have the TV sound going into the home theatre via optical - but thats not unusual.

As for the headphones port - well- some do - some dont.

What is the picture like - thats the biggy! Panasonics are usually pretty good quality.

Sorry - My apologies - I mis-read your post - I saw HTPC and for some reason read that as you having a home theatre audio system.

While I sympathise with you - its annoying buying something that doesnt suit - Its not the TVs fault and you would find many people these days just want to hook it up to a Home theatre sound system - so they wouldnt care about the headphone socket. Likewise - as previously mentioned VGA is now pretty old.

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aucklander

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#1336939 4-Jul-2015 15:40

Hi all,
many thanks for the input and ideas relative to the situation. You are all perfectly right, do youyr research before buying, especially when it has to interface with existing equipment you do not plan to replace or upgrade...

some asked about picture quality. I am very happy with the picture, the HD shows look really nice (TV or from the PC). If the material is not HD then it is questionable... but that's it. I am watching this 55" TV from 4.5m away, so it is not really bad, the HD material is not really pixelated, I consider it acceptable. I am using the free trial for Netflix and there is no stutter / buffering (only when it starts)... and the picture is very nice as well, I expected fairly bad picture, as it is streamed over the internet... but it work very well.

back to the rear connections issue... The speakers I am using are active speakers (2.0) using 2x RCA which on the old TV I was getting out of the headphone jack. The huge advantage to this setup was that the TV remote was controlling the sound level. I did not need to use the speakers' remote. I am looking at getting a DAC as suggested (around $30 on tradeMe?), using the ARC HDMI on the TV into the DAC and from there out to the speakers. Question: is this setup going to allow me to control volume through the speakers from the TV remote?

another option is to use the optical and then a similar converter to analogue, but I believe the optical output "volume" from TV is not controlled by the TV remote, is this correct?

Is the DAC the best solution, and using the ARC HDMI on the TV?
Many thanks.

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JimmyH

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#1337021 4-Jul-2015 18:53

I'm somewhat astonished that anyone, doubly so a 7-year veteran denizen of GZ, would buy their living room TV without at least checking the specifications and connections to make sure that they met requirements. Particularly when they had specific and non-standard requirements about the equipment they wanted to connect.

It's as simple as looking at the back of the display model in the shop.

That's why I turned down a good price on a Panny to get a Sumsung a couple of months ago - I wanted component and composite outputs for some legacy kit, and the Samsung had both while Panny only had a daft hybrid port that let you connect one or the other, but not both.

Sound is a problem on most new TVs these days, the quest for thinness above all means that they have small tinny speakers - even the top end models. There is also a mania for skimping on inputs, even for the top-of-line models. My average Samsung from 2008 had much better input options than their flagship models do now. Which is one reason I may eventually pay to get the power supply on the one that dies repaired. On the other hand, picture quality seems to be getting better and better.......

richms

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#1337074 4-Jul-2015 20:37

I was very distressed when my 2014 television had nowhere to connect my phonograph or Edison cylinder player to. It also lacks the connections to plug in my steam turbine! Its an outrage that these commonly used legacy technologies are not accounted for with todays equipment!

Richard rich.ms

trig42

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#1337121 4-Jul-2015 22:23

You will not find a Brand name TV with a VGA input. Most of them also have the hybrid component/composite inputs too.
Veon, from the Warehouse, Soniq from JBHiFi, Konka from DSE may still have VGA, but as my main TV, if I still needed an HTPC (I use plex now) I would be replacing my video card in the HTPC to one with HDMI out, and I'd be looking for a sound bar that connects via hdmi arc. I have a cheap Sony sound bar, with 3 hdmi inputs, and it goes fine. All controlled by Harmony remote, so only the one remote - very high WAF.

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stevenz

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#1337234 5-Jul-2015 10:26

Even if you "only" have DVI, some sets (such as the Samsung unit in front of me) will have a HDMI port which will have a matched 3.5mm or 2xRCA input for the audio so you can run a DVI->HDMI cable for video and analog cable for audio.

It's about time monitor manufacturers stopped supporting VGA\RGB\D-SUB connectors as well. Ditching the usually sub-par analogue\digital conversion hardware required for the support of it is a good thing for all involved.

HDMI + CEC = much simpler setup and as mentioned above, much higher WAF.

@KnightNZ

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#1337276 5-Jul-2015 12:13

Wait Till you try and view sd content on a 4k tv

richms

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#1337285 5-Jul-2015 12:45

It's no worse than sd content on a crappy panel.

Richard rich.ms

sbiddle

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#1337292 5-Jul-2015 13:12

joker97: Wait Till you try and view sd content on a 4k tv

As I sat watching an awesome 4K demo on a 85" TV yesterday I couldn't help but wonder what a low bitrate SD Sky channel would look like!

Dunnersfella

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#1337304 5-Jul-2015 14:52

Sharp still offer VGA ports... Heck, there's typically loads of composite, component... Even RS232 for control systems...
Do not all brands are cutting back.
Having said this, the lack of inputs and poor sound of most TV's does point to one obvious solution, an AVR.

Rikkitic

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#1337311 5-Jul-2015 15:30

It is easy to fall into rants about the ‘features’ of modern consumer electronics when these seem to have been designed by monkeys. I particularly hate it when assumptions are made about what I should want or like, and these are then incorporated into devices with no possibility to make other choices. Lack of VGA options falls into this category. First, an assumption is made by some faceless simian that no-one can possibly have any use for VGA any longer, in spite of the fact that it has been an essential part of every video device made since the 1980s and compatibility is likely to be a big issue. The assumption here is that everyone is (or should be) into gaming or HD video and therefore should only aspire to the biggest and fastest hi-res display possible.

In my particular case, I use different machines for different purposes. One is in fact for HD video but I don’t need that on my browsing computers. VGA on my old Dick Smith TV offers perfectly acceptable video quality for that use. More important, it offers the flexibility to incorporate cheap and easy to find full-featured KVM switches so I can run different computers and analogue sound channels through the same screen. This is a very different matter with HDMI.

The latest and greatest is not always the best for everyone. I live in fear of the day when the DSE dies and can no longer be resurrected. Where else am I going to find a big screen with VGA input (which produces a perfectly adequate image at 1360 x 768).

Just because some things are old does not mean they are useless. Has anyone noticed that vinyl is enjoying a comeback? Oops. What happened to the phono input on my overpriced ultra-modern super-trendy hi-tech multi-media home theatre testosterone blaster?

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#1337328 5-Jul-2015 16:36

no one is going to make money off giving VGA to one or two people ... vinyl came back because people want to pay money for it and like old character sound.

i am not sure if there will be a group of loaded VGA-philes who will splash $1000 for a gold plated VGA cable

richms

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#1337337 5-Jul-2015 16:51

Vga is hard to do well at 1080 we people all have smoothed fonts on which screw up with the locking onto the signal.

4 port hdmi switches are dirt cheap. Even 5 port ones are under $20. Not sure how cheap the vga ones you have been getting are. That will deal with your audio too. I have 5+ year old dinosaur laptops with hdmi on them, older ones had dvi which is just a cable or a converter plug away from hdmi.

The only reason VGA ports have persisted on portable computers so long is businesses and their cheapass projectors. But they are gone now. Best you can do on most PCs is a passive adapter into a DVI I port if so equipped. Worse you will need a cheap hdmi to vga active adapter. Worst is an overpriced mini display port to vga one.

The plug is large. It needs analog to digital converters that will be idle allways on most displays sold. It's a much larger plug making slim screens thicker.

I am glad to see the back of vga on digital displays. Taken 10 years to many to die tho. Now if only they didn't cheap out on only 1 HDMI 2.0 on so many displays. And how about some display port too?

Richard rich.ms

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