digital
Buyer's guide to TVs
TV news
While flatscreen tellies get ever larger, some of their cousins, the projectors, strive for increased smallness. Now, for the first time in history, it’s possible to carry a projector around in your pocket. The new micro-projectors from OMT are heading for British shores later on this year and carry a bargain price tag of £100. They can connect to just about any video source and project a screen up to 30x20cm: perfect for watching videos from your Nano on the go.
Top tips
- Screens range from 15-inch minis to 50 inches and above. Truth be told, anything over 42 inches may be overkill unless you’re a zillionaire, or home cinema journalist.
- Plasmas deal well with fast movement, so are excellent for movies and sport, or movies about sport. LCDs have more detailed pictures generally, and work in a wider range of lighting conditions.
- Ensure the TV you select is HD-ready, not “HD-compatible”. The latter just means TVs that can receive an HD signal, but haven’t reached the industry standard for Hi-Defness.
- Pick a TV with at least two HDMI sockets so you can connect your Sky HD box and PS3 at the same time. Two Scart ports, VGA, component and S-video are also pretty essential.
#1 big HD TV
Samsung LE46F86BD
£1,400
Performance: How do you improve your gaming lair? With this 46-incher, bragging full-1080p resolution and three HDMI sockets. The black levels and judder-free motion put most LCDs to shame, while 1080p adds razor sharpness. Gaming heaven.
Love: Full-1080p resolution. Excellent black levels. Three HDMIs.
Hate: Pricey. You’ll need a fair bit of room to accommodate it.
Best of the rest - big HD TVs
Philips 32PFL9632D
£750
Performance: A superb Ambilight TV, with an all-new image processing engine, this 32-inch LCD provides some of the finest flatscreen pictures we’ve seen in HD and standard format.
Love: Handles fast motion well. Good black levels.
Hate: Expensive. Ambilight is a Marmite-esque innovation.
Toshiba 40XF355D
£1,700
Performance: A super-slim, 40-inch LCD with fine black levels and more natural colours than a naturist oil painting convention. At £1,700 it’s a tad pricey, but the excellent picture justifies it.
Love: Excellent black levels for LCD. Natural colours. Very slim.
Hate: Quite expensive. No motion-smoothing tech.
Hitachi P42T01
£700
Performance: Performance 42 inches of blur-free images and strong black levels. Plus it’s cheap.
Love: Affordable. Smooth motion with games.
Hate: No PC input. Sloth-like menus.
Pioneer PDP-5000EX
£3,500
Performance: Pricey, but image quality is outstanding. Pictures are sharp and detailed.
Love: Glorious HD and standard-def pictures.
Hate: No Scart sockets. No tuner. Expensive.
Hitachi P50T01
£1,000
Performance: A high-quality 1080p plasma, with a groovy motorised stand.
Love: Excellent contrast ratio. Loadsa features.
Hate: Some motion artefacts. No VGA input.
Panasonic TH-50PX70
£1,100
Performance: Delivering great pictures, this plasma represents outstanding VFM.
Love: Superior build. Excellent value.
Hate: It’s not full 1080p.
Smaller TVs
Toshiba 23W330D
£360
Performance: Colours are lively and, as long as you’re sitting close to the screen, Hi-Def games look sharp. It’s also nicely compact.
Love: Compact. Packed with quality.
Hate: Poor long-range colours.
Sony KDL-20S2030
£460
Performance: Digital tuner and Virtual Dolby Surround Sound go some way to explaining the wallet-battering price for this 20-inch TV.
Love: It’s heavily laden with features.
Hate: Expensive for its titchy, 20-inch size.
JVC LT-26DA8
£450
Performance: A weak contrast ratio makes the picture look grey, but smooth motion suits both standard pictures and Hi-Def nicely.
Love: Cracking sound quality.
Hate: Ugly. Poor contrast ratio.
Projectors
Panasonic PT-AX100
£1,165
Performance: Packed with the latest HD tech and a handy lens shift stick, this throws great images.
Love: Extremely bright. Easy lens shift.
Hate: Annoying green tinge to blacks.
Epson EMP-TW680
£800
Performance: Smoother than creamed corn, this is a doddle to set up and chucks a great picture.
Love: Crisp images. Excellent build. Fancy remote.
Hate: Disappointing contrast ratio. Hefty.
Optoma HD73
£1,000
Performance: A quiet fan and amazing 304-inch max image size shoot this to the top of the chart.
Love: Blistering image quality. Super-quiet.
Hate: No lens shift. Needs a really dark room.
Remote controls
Logitech Harmony 1000
£300
Performance: Control up to 15 homely devices via this universal remote’s sizeable touchscreen.
Love: Stunning looks. Easy to use.
Hate: Laborious set-up process. Expensive.
Logitech Harmony 785
£130
Performance: The Harmony remote can control 15 devices. Once set up, it’s a breeze to use.
Love: It has a USB port and it’s rechargeable.
Hate: Price. Time-consuming to configure.
One For All Kameleon URC-8308
£70
Performance: “Electro-luminescence” pad lets you control eight devices. Great if money’s tight.
Love: Stunning looks. Easy to use. Cheap.
Hate: Macros can be tricky to set up.
Virgin Media links
Related links
Search for audio visual shops
