Looking For New Tv

[dezy1801]

Hello,

Just wanting to know if anybody has bought a TV recently as I have been thinking of buying one. Fancy a step up from my 32" TV I did see a 51" Samsung in Bangkok for 18900 I would have bought it but no room in truck at the time. I will be in Pattaya and Bangkok in the next month so anywhere in these two places would be greatly appreciated, also anything in the price range of 15-30k baht.

Thanks

Dezy1801

[exeter]

I bought a 40" Samsung for 16000 bts in early October, I asked a friend in the UK who wroks for John Lewis TV Dept and also takes part in the Which TV tests. He has been doing those test for over 25 years. Previously he had always said get a Sony, now he says Samsung, not the same models in the UK and here ( UK ones have freeview boxes built in) but the one we have bought, we are pleased with, probably about to be be replaced now! LA40D507 not top of the range. LCD not LED.

[jamesbrock]

I bought a 40" Samsung last week, after doing lots of research on geeky forums, and am pretty rapt with it. The 51" you saw would most likely have been a Series 4 Plasma - a good enough TV for most purposes, but for various reasons, I wanted at least a Series 6. I was undecided on what screen type I wanted (Plasma, LCD, or LED), as they all have their benefits.

I ended up getting a UA40D6600WR 40" LED 3D TV, and I can honestly say I have never seen a better picture on a TV! I picked the LED over the Plasma due to the rendering of blacks, which, on the equivalent model Plasma, looked murky green as opposed to the rich pure black of the LED. I wasn't particularly interested in getting a 3D TV, but all the higher spec TV's are 3D nowadays, so if you want a Full-HD TV with 'smart' features (mine has built in Wi-Fi), you'll end up with a 3D TV anyhow.

For an indication of the different series that Samsung produces, I used the Australian Samsung site (because the Thai site doesn't have an English option, however the tech specs of the TV's are in English); as with the UK, the models are slightly different - for example, the UA40D6600 on the Australian market comes with an 'Extended PVR' and a built in Digital Tuner, whereas the one for the Thai market has neither.

I paid 37,990 baht for mine; it came with two pairs of Active 3D glasses, and they threw in a BD-D6500 3D Blu-Ray player (which retails for around 8950 baht). Now, if only I could find some Blu-Ray movies here on Samui...

[Pseudolus]

I got a Samsung from Tesco for 19k (52"). Same price in Big C Extra as well. Wish I would have bought it there actually as with the Big C card you would get a stack of coupons. Tesco got me 290 baht in coupons 5 months later. Big C should pay for a shopping trip.

[jamesbrock]

I got a Samsung from Tesco for 19k (52"). Same price in Big C Extra as well. Wish I would have bought it there actually as with the Big C card you would get a stack of coupons. Tesco got me 290 baht in coupons 5 months later. Big C should pay for a shopping trip.

Yeah, I forgot to mention: I bought mine from HomePro in Chaweng, and they also gave me 1500 baht in vouchers, a Nesco Mii Robot vacuum cleaner, and a 4' bath mat(!) - I did purchase a 6' Sealy Zenith mattress in the same trip, so they were literally throwing stuff at me!

[Pushit]

We bought an LG 42" plasma,what a nice picture, it lasted 14 months then picture disappeared, guarantee expired, repaired once paid B4,000 picture lasted 5 minutes, sent again for repair and now told repair not possible.

[Lannig]

Guys... don't fall for the marketing buzz. The so-called LED TVs *are* LCD screens. Only with LED backlighting instead of the classical neon lights. So far screens whose pixels really are made of LEDs (and therefore do not need backlighting) exist only in small sizes (for smartphones), at least out of labs. They're called AMOLED.

[thaimate]

Which model would i be able to plug a usb into and watch my downloaded progs? 26/32 inch as its for the bedroom ,any help appreciated

[lopburi3]

Most of the newer models offer the USB playback option. But you want to be able to play the format you download so probably best to load and try at store to be sure. You may also want to jot down a few model numbers and then go home to search internet for English language specs and compare with what you viewed before making up your mind.

[haveaniceday]

Guys... don't fall for the marketing buzz. The so-called LED TVs *are* LCD screens. Only with LED backlighting instead of the classical neon lights. So far screens whose pixels really are made of LEDs (and therefore do not need backlighting) exist only in small sizes (for smartphones), at least out of labs. They're called AMOLED.

So what are the advantages of a "LED" over a LCD ?

[Lannig]

Guys... don't fall for the marketing buzz. The so-called LED TVs *are* LCD screens. Only with LED backlighting instead of the classical neon lights. So far screens whose pixels really are made of LEDs (and therefore do not need backlighting) exist only in small sizes (for smartphones), at least out of labs. They're called AMOLED.

So what are the advantages of a "LED" over a LCD ?

As far as I know :

- somewhat brighter image (not a huge difference though)

- thinner screens

- more uniform backlighting (might not be true for all kinds of LED-backlit screens though, depends on the exact technology used, there are several different ones: LED bars, LED back panel etc.)

- longer lifetime for backlighting

Don't take this as authoritative though. I'm sure Google knows more about this than I do ;-)

Here's what seems to be a good summary: http://reviews.cnet.com/led-tvs-review-10-things-you-need-to-know

[lopburi3]

somewhat brighter image

Believe that equates to much better contrast and color appearance if properly done. Much lower electric draw.

[Darrel]

I bought a fairly swish Samsung 55in LED recently. List price 73K, I got it for 63K thanks to a Visa 10% off promo (just pay with your Visa ATM card and get 10% off, doesn't apply to cash purchases, where's the logic in that?) with various freebies such as 6 (!) pairs of 3D glasses, fancy QWERTY remote, a rather good Samsung digital camera.

I think the picture is significantly better than that on the regular LCDs I looked at in the shop. The ventilation grilles at the top dont even get warm in use. It also has a large number of advanced user settings with which to adjust the picture from a special test disk, which I happen to have. The end result on DVD/HD from my PC via HDMI is very good indeed.

Shame the most entertaining channel on Sophon cable is Bloomberg.

[jamesbrock]

Most of the newer models offer the USB playback option. But you want to be able to play the format you download so probably best to load and try at store to be sure. You may also want to jot down a few model numbers and then go home to search internet for English language specs and compare with what you viewed before making up your mind.

Yes, a mate bought a high-spec LG Plasma, which had multiple USB ports; however, upon setup, we discovered that it would not play back any files already on the hard drive, only files it saved to the hard drive itself (such as using the PVR function).

My Series 6 Samsung has thus far played all the file types that I have tried, including AVI's, MPEG's & MKV's. I'm not sure if the Series 4's & 5's do the same.

[jamesbrock]

Guys... don't fall for the marketing buzz. The so-called LED TVs *are* LCD screens. Only with LED backlighting instead of the classical neon lights. So far screens whose pixels really are made of LEDs (and therefore do not need backlighting) exist only in small sizes (for smartphones), at least out of labs. They're called AMOLED.

So what are the advantages of a "LED" over a LCD ?

As far as I know :

- somewhat brighter image (not a huge difference though)

- thinner screens

- more uniform backlighting (might not be true for all kinds of LED-backlit screens though, depends on the exact technology used, there are several different ones: LED bars, LED back panel etc.)

- longer lifetime for backlighting

Don't take this as authoritative though. I'm sure Google knows more about this than I do ;-)

Here's what seems to be a good summary: http://reviews.cnet....ou-need-to-know

Most of us haven't fallen for the hype, but have done research and actually gone out and compared the technologies. Perhaps you should not fall for the stuff you read on the internet, and actually go out and do the same. Have you stopped to think that "so called LED Tv's" are only called LED TV's to differentiate them from traditional non-backlit LCD screens, and not as some evil ploy to dupe consumers into thinking they're getting some improved technology - which in fact they are...

They could be called 'curved yellow fruit TV's' for all it's worth - the difference in picture between LCD and (in Samsung's case) Edge-Lit LCD LED screen actually quite huge; and, as mentioned above, the difference in blacks between so called LED screens and Plasma panels is massive.

[jamesbrock]

I bought a fairly swish Samsung 55in LED recently. List price 73K, I got it for 63K thanks to a Visa 10% off promo (just pay with your Visa ATM card and get 10% off, doesn't apply to cash purchases, where's the logic in that?) with various freebies such as 6 (!) pairs of 3D glasses, fancy QWERTY remote, a rather good Samsung digital camera.

I think the picture is significantly better than that on the regular LCDs I looked at in the shop. The ventilation grilles at the top dont even get warm in use. It also has a large number of advanced user settings with which to adjust the picture from a special test disk, which I happen to have. The end result on DVD/HD from my PC via HDMI is very good indeed.

Shame the most entertaining channel on Sophon cable is Bloomberg.

Sounds like you got a Series 8 - very swish indeed!

(Sorry about the multiple posts - I keep getting an error, when trying to do a MultiQuote, about the number of opening and closing quote tags not matching...)

[chris2004]

I've just bought a 55in LG LED TV and i must say the pictures are MUCH better than my old plasma TV and in HD or blu-ray they are stunning. I know they cost quite a bit more than a plasma or LCD (I paid 50,000 baht) but if you are replacing a TV i would say go for the best now. Over the life of the TV it doesn't amount to much extra per day.

[kkerry]

Recently bought a Samsung 32" LED UA32D5000  (series 5). I can confirm it plays .mkv, mp4, avi. files. Very nice tv with 2 USB ports so you can leave an external hard disk plugged in to one port, so not essential to have a dedicated media player. Main differences between series 5 and series 6 are there aren't as many networking features and it's 50 HZ not 200 Hz but as we don't have HD cable sports channels, on a 32" set it probably doesn't matter so much. They've come down in price recently, 16,990 at Tesco or BigC. Great set for the price.

[wpcoe]

When I was researching buying a TV a couple years ago, I found most of the USB-equipped models at the time would NOT play the .avi downloaded TV programs I had on a USB stick I carried with me.

ISTR at the time that it was suggested to buy a TV (or DVD-player) that had the ability to be updated as new codecs came along. Is that still valid advice? Are there TVs/DVD-players that can keep up with the ever-evolving codecs?

I ended up buying a Samsung LCD TV with no USB plus the cheapest DVD player I could find (~B800?) that would play my USB .avi files. Now that I have a decent LCD screen for my computer, I watch my TV shows on it.

[Darrel]

I like to use my PC for AV playback because:

1) I've already bought and paid for it, so why buy more things?

2) it is guaranteed to play every sort of file I can throw at it, and even if codec updates are needed I can download and install them very easily.

3) connected to my TV/AMP via HDMI it gives the best possible picture/sound quality.

[jamesbrock]

When I was researching buying a TV a couple years ago, I found most of the USB-equipped models at the time would NOT play the .avi downloaded TV programs I had on a USB stick I carried with me.

ISTR at the time that it was suggested to buy a TV (or DVD-player) that had the ability to be updated as new codecs came along. Is that still valid advice? Are there TVs/DVD-players that can keep up with the ever-evolving codecs?

I ended up buying a Samsung LCD TV with no USB plus the cheapest DVD player I could find (~B800?) that would play my USB .avi files. Now that I have a decent LCD screen for my computer, I watch my TV shows on it.

As I and kkerry inferred above, the current crop of Samsung TV's can play (decode) all file types. In the past week, I have tried over a hundred different files, in all formats, and my TV has played them all. It has internet connectivity, so I assume the firmware update also updates the codecs.

[dezy1801]

I've just bought a 55in LG LED TV and i must say the pictures are MUCH better than my old plasma TV and in HD or blu-ray they are stunning. I know they cost quite a bit more than a plasma or LCD (I paid 50,000 baht) but if you are replacing a TV i would say go for the best now. Over the life of the TV it doesn't amount to much extra per day.

Thanks Chris where did you buy from and what city?

[Darrel]

......the current crop of Samsung TV's can play (decode) all file types.....

Many, certainly, but not all. There is a list in the manual of what they can/cant play.

[aussiebebe]

......the current crop of Samsung TV's can play (decode) all file types.....

Many, certainly, but not all. There is a list in the manual of what they can/cant play.

Hi Darrel, thanks again for the advice you gave me last year when I couldn't connect my Samsung TV to the internet. Just thought I'd chip in because Samsung Customer Service are non-existent and you were right to challenge the 'Oh they play everything' comment.

[jamesbrock]

I have just checked the manual, and there are indeed file types, codecs, and even frame rates of otherwise compatible filetypes that aren't compatible, so I'll defer to Darrel's superior knowledge on the matter.

Maybe if I add the word 'common' to my erroneous statement above, it will stand up to scrutiny.

[kkerry]

The files most people are going to want to play on a tv are movies, tv series and YouTube videos and the ones you normally find on the internet will play on the Samsung I mentioned. The more obscure file types on the internet are rare as there isn't much point uploading something most people can't watch, unless someone is trying to get you to also download some new type of media player to play it with in which case I don't bother.

[exeter]

I am told that LED are less power hungry than and LCD although i think it probably be a long time before you go your money back, at the rate I watch tv anyway.

When I was in the UK hardly anybody was buying plasma sets and I am talking about what was then, may still be Europes largest brown goods department that I was working in.

[chris2004]

I've just bought a 55in LG LED TV and i must say the pictures are MUCH better than my old plasma TV and in HD or blu-ray they are stunning. I know they cost quite a bit more than a plasma or LCD (I paid 50,000 baht) but if you are replacing a TV i would say go for the best now. Over the life of the TV it doesn't amount to much extra per day.

Thanks Chris where did you buy from and what city?

Sorry for the late reply. I bought from Num Chai in Pattaya. Power Buy have the same TV now though for 46,000 baht. I am still blown away by the TV. Well worth paying the extra, especially for the bigger screen.

[haveaniceday]

Another cnet link that I found helpful, although 1 year old now, the prices are outdated and the particular models, but non the less, helpful to me any way so will share.

http://asia.cnet.com...85379.htm#page3

I am impressed by some of the 3D demonstrations in the stores selling these TV's, in reality, is there much actually available in 3D?

I am considering that almost everything I have bought in Thailand has a life span of only about 1/3 of what I tend to get in a 'developed' place of residence. Not sure if it is the variable and at best erratic electricity supply or just crap is sold here. So buying a 3D for the future is not on the cards.

I saw a really nice picture Samsung 45 inch, I am tempted to just go grab, but trying to avoid another mistake and consult khun Google first.

[prefabs]

Sony have a deal going on at the moment. Last week I bought a 55" LED 3D TV, bundled with a 15,900baht 3D BlueRay Home Theatre system, and 2 pairs of 3D glasses (4900 baht) all for 54,000