TV experts please - best 50-55" LED?

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richms

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#566753 10-Jan-2012 09:23

Agreed on the lack of disabling the tuner as a source. Mum always gets freaked out when she uses the wrong remote and gets snow etc.

Richard rich.ms

surfisup1000

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#566762 10-Jan-2012 09:42

Jaxson:
There are often other codes in the harmony database that are not on the actual TV remote control. If you can find a discrete ON command then you can send this at the start of your sequence to always try to turn the TV on, in case it's been turned off. Otherwise you'll need to educate your kids

Thanks for the info re. Panasonic/Samsung sets. Good to know such features are being introduced.

The TV is powered off after pressing the on/off switch on the TV. That is the issue, discrete codes cannot help when the tv is off (as opposed to standby).The kids use the tv power button rather than the remote, no matter how many times I tell them he he.

My point is that given the wonders of technology, why can't manufacturers make sets idiot proof? I also connect via a av receiver, same issues. Why can't the AV receiver talk to the tv and vice versa? They do have HDMI control set to on, but, that often does not work as expected.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents worth for now.

Jaxson

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#566778 10-Jan-2012 10:14

surfisup1000: why can't manufacturers make sets idiot proof?

It's a field I'm really interested in actually, User Interface Design and the associated psychology of it all.
I love hearing parents say how smart their child is because they can use and iPad when in actual fact the interface and technological designers are the smart ones, to create something so simple a normal 3 year old can work it.

So TV wise you want lots of features, but you want it to behave like a very old CRT TV that only had one on button and 4 channel buttons.... And you want a physical on off switch that doesn't work when kids press it etc.

You've also mentioned the HDMI control system that often doesn't work as expected. Problem really is that there are lots of ways of using and connecting these devices and what assumptions are made to simplify this for one user often cause problems for the next user with different requirements.

I agree though, it would be nice to hide the analogue TV input and I guess we may see this completely removed in future sets after the analogue switch off? Despite the advertising there are still many people unaware that a freeview equipped new TV will not work with a satellite dish. Despite being around for many years now, freeview and digital TV is still new a great many people.

timmmay

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#566786 10-Jan-2012 10:35

surfisup1000: why can't manufacturers make sets idiot proof?

As the old joke goes, because idiots are so ingenious. You never know what kind of unguessable, illogical, stupid stuff they're going to try to do.

richms

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#567205 11-Jan-2012 08:38

Lack of disabling inputs on a HT reciever was a reason I returned it ages ago, it had a rotary knob to change inputs, and one of them was the FM tuner, which I had no use for so it had no antenna, so if I stopped on that input I would get a really loud blast of static as it didnt even mute it when there was no signal.

TV is the same. Bump any of the number buttons and it will flip over to the inbuilt tuner, which will at least mute it after a second or so of static but because the TV is loud and its turned down on the sky box, means that is is a really loud second or 2

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nakedian

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#567706 12-Jan-2012 08:08

Hello Kcng, and GREAT question! I too am in the market for a TV of this size. I am known, by my friends and MANY acquaintances to be the "research" guy for purchases. True to form I have been researching diligently for the last four month or so. Here is what I have found:

1) As others have mentioned here... based on picture quality alone, nothing beats plasma. There are some very high tech exceptions to this including OLED and Laser technology.

2) The two most commonly mentioned Plasma TV's (in the $1000-$2500 range) at the top are the Panasonic P55VT30 and the Samsung PN51D8000.

3) The best time of year to buy a TV is actually AFTER the Superbowl at the beginning of Spring when the new models come out.

4) CES is happening right NOW (1/11/12) and the new models are being announced.

5) Although you are very unlikely to see what was once referred to as "screen-burn" on a plasma there is still something called image retention that I have seen in the stores (LED LCD's do not have this problem). This bothers me a little and it may bother you also.

Personally I've always been a Samsung guy and I like that their 3D glasses are in the $30 vs. $100 range. Also the Samsung is less expensive and it's smaller (I'm not sure the wife will appreciate 55"). That being said however, I have to admit I was blown away by the quality of the P55vt30. And, although CNET rates the Samsung above the Panasonic overall, for picture quality alone the P55 wins out.

NOW (and I mean RIGHT now). Panasonic and Samsung have just announced their new models for 2012. Samsung is taking the primary path of making the TV smarter and more a part of the internet (the new E8000 series even has FACE recognition). Panasonic is still primarily focusing on making even better picture quality. Again I am speaking personally when I say I don't think my TV needs to be any more internet savvy. But here is the real deal in my opinion. I'm not sure if it's about money for you, but money is an issue for me. My wife put a $1400 limit on my TV budget. If the old top of the line Panasonic VT30 (as opposed to the new VT50) drops below that, I'm going to get it... if not, I'll probably get the older pn51D8000 (as opposed to the E8000 series) and save a ton of money for blu-rays. Also, it may be that the new P55GT50 is as good as or better than the old VT series...ugh.

kendog

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#568098 12-Jan-2012 20:22

nakedian:I'm not sure if it's about money for you, but money is an issue for me. My wife put a $1400 limit on my TV budget. If the old top of the line Panasonic VT30 (as opposed to the new VT50) drops below that, I'm going to get it... if not, I'll probably get the older pn51D8000 (as opposed to the E8000 series) and save a ton of money for blu-rays. Also, it may be that the new P55GT50 is as good as or better than the old VT series...ugh.

The GT could be another option for you, very nice tv for a bit less money than the VT series.

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jbmoocs

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#569357 16-Jan-2012 10:32

I purchased the Sammy led lcd series 6 D6600 meant to be one of the top quality TVs. Here are my finding so far.

It's sexy thin when you can get it mounted on the wall using a low profile bracket. Make note it is ridiculously hard if you use a generic mounting kit as the bolts are not long enough for the screw holes on the back of the tv. I had to get some M8, 25 bolts from Bunnings in order to get it fixed to the brackets! Compared to a all other TVs Samsung made the screw mounts a xxxxx pain.

Network connection is a breeze and connecting bluray 3d player to it was the same. Wireless lan capabilities are stellar. Although trying to watch any AVI file from my network folders results in "File format not recognized". But the same file overs a USB stick work flawlessly no sure what causes that, anyone?

Picture quality is very good but too bright at night, I had to tone it down. The 400hz motion is too much for my eyes as well at times which got fatiguing, I need to figure out how to tone that down; especially on low quality AVi's the movement is overly corrected/smoothed, on I watching 'Falling Skies' (Alien TV series) it was hard to watch the fast moving scenes.

Connecting a PC to it was easy but the picture is ok at 1080p but text seemed a bit strained. Gaming seemed really good played Battlefield with jaw dropping cinematic realism loved it.

Blu ray & 3d is where this panel shines I cannot fault the picture it is light years away from anything I have seen before. When you have an AV amplifier setup cranking 5.1 sound plus the picture it becomes a very engaging immersive experience well worth the purchase.

CutCutCut

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#579281 9-Feb-2012 13:47

I'm interested to hear what the OP got and their thoughts on it.

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