[vipul_singh]

50 inches is quite suitable for a typical urban flat type of room for HD Channels.

I would like to share my experience with Micromax 50" LED TV. Have been using this for about 4 months now. Paid INR 39000 for it at Croma, including a Philips soundbar thrown in for "free". Prices on the internet were in the region of INR 34K (excluding the "free" soundbar).

Have been quite satisfied with the product. The best part being that even for such an inexpensive product, it is still able to play high bandwidth Full HD movies without any problems (limited to 30 fps, though). The biggest file I have played on it was 9 GB mkv for a 2 hr 30 mins movie (2001 A Space Odyssey, in case you are wondering why I wanted a large file) and it ran smoothly. It is also able to recognize .srt subtitle files.

The TV also performs well in terms of colour saturation, lighting uniformity etc. I have not tested input lag yet, however.

Downsides? Well the remote looks basic and the menu is not full HD, leading to jaggies. Oh and almost all SD channels look awful in that screen size

Would I recommend it? Absolutely! I am thinking of buying another one, actually.

On a separate note, it turns out that even the best HD channels in India are broadcasting at approximately half the bandwidth recommended by Adobe for h.264 encoding. That is why I could not notice the difference between an INR 1.5 lakh Sony / Samsung and the 34K Micromax in the showroom. The signal itself is crap. The best ones are NatGeo HD and Discovery HD running at around 12 Mbps, if the internetz is to be believed. Adobe recommends over 20 Mbps. That is why on any HDTV, no matter how expensive, you would be able to see compression artifacts from up close.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by vipul_singh

50 inches is quite suitable for a typical urban flat type of room for HD Channels.

I would like to share my experience with Micromax 50" LED TV. Have been using this for about 4 months now. Paid INR 39000 for it at Croma, including a Philips soundbar thrown in for "free". Prices on the internet were in the region of INR 34K (excluding the "free" soundbar).

Have been quite satisfied with the product. The best part being that even for such an inexpensive product, it is still able to play high bandwidth Full HD movies without any problems (limited to 30 fps, though). The biggest file I have played on it was 9 GB mkv for a 2 hr 30 mins movie (2001 A Space Odyssey, in case you are wondering why I wanted a large file) and it ran smoothly. It is also able to recognize .srt subtitle files.

The TV also performs well in terms of colour saturation, lighting uniformity etc. I have not tested input lag yet, however.

Downsides? Well the remote looks basic and the menu is not full HD, leading to jaggies. Oh and almost all SD channels look awful in that screen size

Would I recommend it? Absolutely! I am thinking of buying another one, actually.

On a separate note, it turns out that even the best HD channels in India are broadcasting at approximately half the bandwidth recommended by Adobe for h.264 encoding. That is why I could not notice the difference between an INR 1.5 lakh Sony / Samsung and the 34K Micromax in the showroom. The signal itself is crap. The best ones are NatGeo HD and Discovery HD running at around 12 Mbps, if the internetz is to be believed. Adobe recommends over 20 Mbps. That is why on any HDTV, no matter how expensive, you would be able to see compression artifacts from up close.

Many thanks. This is very timely. I have two questions:
a. What about Vu 55"? It seems to be around 55k or so. It has decent FK reviews as well.
b. Our worry is kids' channels. Will they look terrible on the 50" screen since they are all in SD right now. Our son is our heaviest TV consumer!

[y448]

My friend is looking for a 32" tv within 25k, what are his options? Would like to ignore really cheap brands (sansui etc). How good are Onida and Toshiba, also what price do they come by?

[vipul_singh]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Many thanks. This is very timely. I have two questions:
a. What about Vu 55"? It seems to be around 55k or so. It has decent FK reviews as well.
b. Our worry is kids' channels. Will they look terrible on the 50" screen since they are all in SD right now. Our son is our heaviest TV consumer!

For SD Channels, I would recommend a CRT TV of around 29" size, which should cost no more than INR 10K these days. Else, go for 32" LCD. SD channels up close on a big LCD TV set look baaaaddd if you are a discerning viewer and that is primarily down to how faithfully LCD TVs reproduce compression artifacts (which CRT TVs smooth out). I still have a CRT in another room, BTW.

I don't have specific feedback on Vu, although I know they are a much smaller organization than Micromax. I bought the Micromax TV on a whim after going through online ratings and seeing negligible / no difference in picture reproduction compared to big brands at the TV store.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by vipul_singh

For SD Channels, I would recommend a CRT TV of around 29" size, which should cost no more than INR 10K these days. Else, go for 32" LCD. SD channels up close on a big LCD TV set look baaaaddd if you are a discerning viewer and that is primarily down to how faithfully LCD TVs reproduce compression artifacts (which CRT TVs smooth out). I still have a CRT in another room, BTW.

I don't have specific feedback on Vu, although I know they are a much smaller organization than Micromax. I bought the Micromax TV on a whim after going through online ratings and seeing negligible / no difference in picture reproduction compared to big brands at the TV store.

Thanks we already have an awesome Panasonic 29" TV with outstanding sound quality. We're planning on changing it ..... because everyone and their dog owns a LCD TV these days.

I want a 50/55" after watching some awesome FHD content at a friend's place in HK recently. 32" TVs aren't anywhere as fun - but I have to keep my son in mind, hence the doubt.

Guess we're back to square one then!

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Thanks we already have an awesome Panasonic 29" TV with outstanding sound quality. We're planning on changing it ..... because everyone and their dog owns a LCD TV these days.

I want a 50/55" after watching some awesome FHD content at a friend's place in HK recently. 32" TVs aren't anywhere as fun - but I have to keep my son in mind, hence the doubt.

Guess we're back to square one then!

If 42" is OK for you then you can look at the 4KTV from LG 42UB820T. It is an outstanding product and total value for money. We got it recently for about 68k. 50" 4K might command price upwards of 1Lac. So depending on your budget you can consider one of the two.

As for content, you can always stream FHD content. Anyways the number of FHD channels is growing very fast and in no time you should have all your favorite channels in FHD.

[Nicky]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Thanks we already have an awesome Panasonic 29" TV with outstanding sound quality. We're planning on changing it ..... because everyone and their dog owns a LCD TV these days.

I want a 50/55" after watching some awesome FHD content at a friend's place in HK recently. 32" TVs aren't anywhere as fun - but I have to keep my son in mind, hence the doubt.

Guess we're back to square one then!

I came back from abroad recently and settled in Pune.
After lots of research i decided to go for 55 inch minimum as my viewing distance is 14 feet.
I was earlier using 28 inch samsung LCD bought in 2005 but sold it off before i went abroad.

I finalized Samsung 55H6400 / 55H7000, Sony 55W950B and LG 49UB850T.
I searched these models for 3 days in different shops and compared (Croma, Reliance digital and Vijay Sales).

After lots of side by side comparison, i finalized Samsung 55H6400.
This model is replaced with new J series model in 2015 but mostly curved models. I didn't want to go for curved ones. normal 55 inch was only available in J7000 series which was quite costly in comparison to H6400.
H6400 made sense quality and money wise.

i finally bought 55H6400 for 1.2 Lakhs from samsung exclusive store (negotiated from 1.3 Lakhs). This same model was also available in Croma as display piece which they were ready to give at 95k but this piece had 3240 running hours which translates in around 9 months (considering 12 hours per day running in showroom).

I also got 3.5k INR worth of points to use with bookmyshow and others.
I also had offer for 10k off on purchase of any samsung soundbar. as sound quality was not good, i took this offer and bought samsung soundbar HW-F450 (original cost 20k negotiated lil bit + 10k off. final cost came to 8k. Sound quality is much improved.

I didn't like LG 49UB850T as the picture was quite soft even after having latest firmware and adjusting picture settings, i couldn't get the sharpness compared to samsung. but magic remote and webOS was fantastic.

Sony had too much saturated colors and bit soft colors in comparison to Samsung.

Samsung had very good sharpness and picture details. Colors were more natural than Sony.

I specifically watched SAB channel on this tv in shop and quality was good for SD channel.

I only regret my decision of not going with 60 inch.

[libranof1987]

I have a 42" Samsung LED HDTV; what are the best sound settings for the TV. The TV is at its default settings at the moment and I find the sound to be sub-par; the voice isn't clear at low volumes and then it suddenly gets too loud.

[jaaz]

Sony has finally launched TV's with Android Software. Does it make any impact apart from integration with our Android Devices? Are we missing anything compared to the Old Software ?

Does the Triluminos feature make any difference in Picture quality for a 43 inch TV ? I'm looking at W950 or W800.

[S_U_N]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Thanks we already have an awesome Panasonic 29" TV with outstanding sound quality. We're planning on changing it ..... because everyone and their dog owns a LCD TV these days.

I want a 50/55" after watching some awesome FHD content at a friend's place in HK recently. 32" TVs aren't anywhere as fun - but I have to keep my son in mind, hence the doubt.

Guess we're back to square one then!

Some DTH providers and some TV's are known to do better upscaling.
However, the problem with kids is that they come too close to watch the TV.

My son likes to sleep on the floor (around 6 feet diagonally) in front ofthe TV.
I have to remind him again every 15 minutes to get back.

At that distance, SD is generally not watchable on a 50" TV. I have a ST60 plasma from Panasonic.

So, in my opinion, it does NOT matter at all what quality the signal is, kids will still become zombies.

Save your money and buy something else for the kids.

We stopped DTH more than a year ago. I just arrange for movies and let him watch those.

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

I want a 50/55" after watching some awesome FHD content at a friend's place in HK recently. 32" TVs aren't anywhere as fun - but I have to keep my son in mind, hence the doubt.

Guess we're back to square one then!

Phamilyman (or is it Hitanshu), when we watch channels for grown ups, the difference is huge between SD feed and HD feed. The reason is amount of details (is it depth of field, what you call in photography) captured in the respective resolution. But when it comes to kids programs, especially, the animated series, I don't think it contains a lot of details in the pictures. So even if it is broadcast in HD, it will not improve quality drastically barring let's say the aspect ratio which would change from stretched 4:3 to true 16:9.

So my suggestion, you can go for bigger screen without worrying about the quality of kids channels.

[adg_andy]

Originally Posted by y448

My friend is looking for a 32" tv within 25k, what are his options? Would like to ignore really cheap brands (sansui etc). How good are Onida and Toshiba, also what price do they come by?

Stretch it by about 2000 and go for the Onida 40 inch LED on Flipkart. I have got one recently.

[vdm]

Today my old sony 29" crt went kaput. I am in a dilemma which one to buy. There are good offers on plasma, but wondering whether to buy that or go for the LED. Kindly suggest if anyone is an expert in this area of gadgets.

[devilwearsprada]

Originally Posted by vdm

Today my old sony 29" crt went kaput. I am in a dilemma which one to buy. There are good offers on plasma, but wondering whether to buy that or go for the LED. Kindly suggest if anyone is an expert in this area of gadgets.

Plasma is an out of date technology, so recommend you to not go for it.
For the LED's, the options are Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic.
I have a Samsung LED, and the panel got damaged twice and replaced under warranty. Although the service is good but I am worried what will happen when it goes out of warranty.

If I was in your place, I would pick a Panasonic or Sony.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by vdm

Today my old sony 29" crt went kaput. I am in a dilemma which one to buy. There are good offers on plasma, but wondering whether to buy that or go for the LED. Kindly suggest if anyone is an expert in this area of gadgets.

Picture Quality in plasma is superb. Also the viewing angle is great. Major con is more consumption of electricity. For instance, my 42' Samsung plasma takes 200w electricity where as in my father's 40' Samsung led consumes just 80w. However, whenever I will upgrade will get another plasma just cos of PQ which any day is better than a Led.

For plasma and Led go with SAMSUNG, LG or Panasonic. Don't get Sony. They fail a lot and After warranty period if it fails the expense is so much you will rather buy a new one.