Samsung LE40C650
The C650 is an inexpensive, mass market proposition with CCFL rather than LED backlighting. Actually, this is no bad thing as illumination is refreshingly uniform. You can manage power consumption through a five-setting Eco mode which dims the backlight, or turns the screen off altogether, but keeps audio. Freeview HD picture quality is crisp, blacks are deep and the screen offers reasonable motion resolution. 100Hz Motion Plus processing is provided to combat Blur and Judder.
Multimedia playback is generally good. While I couldn’t get MKVs to play from a Nas, all key file formats were supported when accessed from a USB drive. Samsung’s Internet@TV online content portal has a wide variety of streaming video and entertainment apps, including YouTube, iPlayer and Daily Motion. This model is soon to be replaced by the UE40C6505, a slimmer LED-backlit upgrade.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £550
More Info Samsung
Sony Bravia KDL-40EX43B
The 40EX4 may be a tad more expensive than some similarly sized screens here, but then it does conceal an integrated Blu-ray player. This will appeal if convenience and space saving are premium requirements. However the EX43 is not suitable as the front-end of a Blu-ray home theatre, as the there’s no way to listen to lossless audio from BD movies.
IPTV access is the set’s secondary key attraction. Sony’s Bravia Internet Video portal offers YouTube, Daily Motion and LoveFilm, and there’s catch-up TV support from the BBC iPlayer and Demand Five. Network video streaming is limited to AVCHD files, although you’ll find broad support from USB, including MKV and AVI playback. Image quality is average. The set lacks MotionFlow picture processing and motion resolution is poor – however, this is balanced by smooth, artefact free movement.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £919
More Info Sony
Next page: Sony Bravia KDL-40NX713
COMMENTS
Expensive
That's a large price premium for network (non)connectivity.
Find a larger, or cheaper TV without worrying about network connectivity and pick up a Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player. Then, in 2 years when it's obsolete, ditch it and buy a newer one. Loads cheaper than just ditching your TV and buying a newer one....
Run things for a long time here
I replace every 9 to 10 years as well. I have had 3 large TVs so far in my life and I am nearly 50.
I am also an early adopter.
I ran a first generation Wega IDTV until I got a HDTV.
My HDTV doesn't do Freesat or Freeview HD, just normal Freeview.
My current 46" better last that extra 7 to 8 years!
Only thing I am missing is 3D but I get headaches from that.
I spend a lot rarely rather than less more frequently.
As to Betamax - the only working VCRs I have, happen to have that printed on them, mind you they have only been used for PC video capture since we got our first digital terrestrial PVR (pre Freeview).
Just make sure you have plenty of HDMI ports.
Re: Poor investment (Longevity)
In the case of a pair of tellies I bought from a certain Korean manufacturer (LE40A656, T220HD) my longevity estimate would be around about 24 months.
For the record the warranty doesn't extend that far, whatever the EU, Trading Standards et al, or indeed my receipt says about it (according to the manufacturer).
As it turns out the root cause was down to some bulging electrolytic caps in the PSUs. I replaced the caps myself rather than pay someone £200 a shot replace the PSU boards with identically broken PSU boards which would fail < 2 years down the line again.
Strangely the T220HD's faulty caps appeared to have already been replaced (judging by the messy joints and burn marks on the board), and the failed caps were a different brand from the others on the board.
Sony Wins !
No Chance, they are on my blacklist. Do not trust them to throw some sort of DRM in your lap at later date.
All you laptop buyers - Sony disables record stereo mix function (the old record what U hear) on all their Vaio's so if you want this function look else where.
Plasma + Backlit = Divide By Zero
I didn't think plasma display needed a backlit source since each set of pixels produce their own light, or am I missing something about the CCFL bit.
