Thinking of buying a unbranded HD TV

Hey all

I have seen a deal for a HD TV which is an unbranded one (well rebadged under a company who I have used for many years for PC parts and they have recently started going into TV's etc).

The specs are:

19" screen

16:10 ratio screen

500:1 contrast ratio

300 brightness

1440 by 900 screen resolution

HDMI, Component, VGA, scart etc are included as well for connection.

I can get this screen for 140 pounds (roughly $280 US) which is pretty cheap at the moment for the UK. I could spend more and get the Samsung 19" Pebble screen for 200 pounds ($400 US) which you can see is a big jump up for what seems to be the cheapest well known brand screen at the size I am looking at.

This company is reputable and the tv's seem fine as a friend got one in 32" and says its fantastic so I am wandering whether to take the plung and get the screen or not?

Cheers

I would want somthing bigger than 19" if I were to use it as a TV.

You can get this for £220 very good price can be used a monitor or HDTV

I am not sure a tv with 5000:1 contrast ratio will be in my price range and many big brand ones at the size I am looking at are bellow this. I have been told to look atm 1000:1 minimum really. I agree about the SD to HD as some look bad but the majority of tv's I have seen with standard tv runing on it doesnt look that good to be honest.

Sadly for you, I think you're right. Had a little look around, and the best I could find was the Samsung 19" Le19R86 which is going for around 200 quid everywhere. The contrast ratio is 2000:1. The picture should be quite nice if you stick a digital signal through it, too.

There's one very important rule I have learnt over the years:

Always pay a little more for the good brands when buying electrical goods.

The Samsung you mention sounds good, is that the one that has the variable contrast ratio (there is another word for it but I can't think of it). I heard that isn't too good to use for games, tv etc as it changes the brightness for the situation on screen so if you are moving in and out of daytime etc it changes to that and can very too much.

I understand that a big screen would be better but I don't really have the room for it and so it would look daft having a 32" or bigger screen in my room?

I have seen these offers:

LG M198WA - 160 pounds - problem may be it doesn't have HDMI?

LG 22" Flatron M228WD - 230 pounds

Samsung 19" LE19R86BDX - 230 pounds

Samsung Pebble 19" - 190 pounds

Seriously, the contrast ratio is going to be important when you buy an HDTV, or any TV for that matter. If your contrast ratio is small then you're going to get a picture that looks washed out and horrible, or too dark, and you're not going to be able to do much about it. I'd try looking for something that has AT LEAST 5000:1. There are other factors you need to look at as well, like how capable the software that changes your picture from SD to HD is. This will affect the HD picture quality and if you buy a set with busted software you're going to end up with a naff picture. For this reason, I wouldn't buy anything at the lower end of the HD market for a couple of years. The best companies to go with for a new HDTV at the moment are Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, software-wise.deadman178

if you want a good contrast ratio then get a plasma, while they do still suffer from SLIGHT burn in (if you're na idiot) it's well worth it for the superior color reproduction. samsung and panasonic make pretty good plasma tvs. if you want to go for the best get a pioneer, they cost a bit though.