WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,352
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Post by WDB on Jun 19, 2020 14:02:43 GMT
Good. You’ll have something to hide behind when the TV inspector comes up the drive.
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WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,352
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Post by WDB on Jun 19, 2020 14:08:16 GMT
Is 49in socially OK now? Ours is only 40, but it’s ten years old (more, as we moved house with it) and has the hefty cabinet and bezels of an earlier age, so it looks bulkier. I’d been thinking of replacing it — OLED appeals — but all the offers seem to be on LG sets and T&E has put me right off them now.
I also wonder, is there any point in looking for a silver-finish TV in the hope that it will blend better than a black one into our pale blue walls? Or do you mostly notice the big, black screen anyway when it’s switched off?
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Post by Alanović on Jun 19, 2020 14:10:55 GMT
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Post by Humph on Jun 19, 2020 14:32:00 GMT
We have a big telly in the sitting room, well, not that big, in fact I didn't think I'd actually "know" anyone with one that big, but but anyway, I rarely watch that one. It's sort of "her's" but y'know, she's from Cheshire and, well, there are certain things I'll never quite understand, and it's not her fault is it, accident of birth and all that.
If I do watch tv it tends to be the tiny little one in the kitchen, while I'm cooking, or at least pretending to cook while quenching my thirst so to speak... 😉
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Post by tyrednexited on Jun 19, 2020 14:38:55 GMT
Is 49in socially OK now? Ours is only 40, but it’s ten years old (more, as we moved house with it) and has the hefty cabinet and bezels of an earlier age, so it looks bulkier. I’d been thinking of replacing it — OLED appeals — but all the offers seem to be on LG sets and T&E has put me right off them now. I also wonder, is there any point in looking for a silver-finish TV in the hope that it will blend better than a black one into our pale blue walls? Or do you mostly notice the big, black screen anyway when it’s switched off? The 49" replaced a 42" Panasonic Plasma (picture still goodish, "smart" facilities now crap). The Panasonic had less "screen surround" than its predecessor (a trusty Hitachi plasma) but the new 49" Samsung is not (very) noticeably more obtrusive, due to even less (very little) bezel. I can't put it side-by-side with an OLED set, but as I say, the "critics" say there is good and better in both. I'm certainly impressed with the QLED picture (played some 4K off Youtube last night, which was stunning, even though I think the quality might have been dialled-down a bit for the pandemic. It's also very good with blu-ray and digital photos played off the NAS as a slideshow). For this year's TVs, the offers actually seem to me to be on Samsung. Currently QLED TVs attract a (large) cashback. With that taken into account, the one I've bought was £450 cheaper than the one I cancelled. (£200 cheaper price - though I could have blown that on the next one up that looked much the same in spec but simply with an anti-reflective screen - and £250 cashback from Samsung themselves, which has already been verified and authorised). The clincher was, of course, the verified availability of catch-up, and, once configured to personal satisfaction, the Samsung makes that all very easy and responsive to use. As a bonus, one of the remotes is configurable to also control the attached devices (PVR and Blu-Ray), and does that excellently (in fact, the best implementation I've seen yet), despite them being of different manufacture. As for the big black screen, there is little but screen visible, and there is an "ambient" mode that allows you to use it for all sorts of background - if you were careful, you could take a picture of the wall/whatever behind the TV, and display that, making it very chameleon-like.
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Post by tyrednexited on Jun 19, 2020 14:44:42 GMT
...50" and above is chav-territory....
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Post by Alanović on Jun 19, 2020 14:48:42 GMT
Away with the pair of you. Council/immigrants we may be, chavs we are not. How very dare.
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WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,352
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Post by WDB on Jun 19, 2020 14:51:36 GMT
I see. MrsB1 likes the idea of Samsung’s ‘The Frame’ screens, and it looks like we could have a 50in one for a shade over £1000. (When we first looked at them they were £2000 and upwards.) That is 13cm wider and no taller than the old 40in Sony, and would intrude a lot less on the room. Might have to investigate further.
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Post by Humph on Jun 19, 2020 15:24:32 GMT
Dear God...
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Post by tyrednexited on Jul 18, 2020 15:18:53 GMT
The shortcomings were potentially to be overcome via a Humax set-top box, bought last year largely for its recording capability, but it has most of the "smart" services built in. Unfortunately, some of those services now fail to work, and the box is slower than a slow thing on holiday on the remaining ones. The web is full of complaints about the box, acknowledgement of the issues and promises to resolve, but nothing has materialised in months. ..just coming back on this. The last firmware for the Humax box was issued about 14 months ago. It was considered pretty deficient by users even then, and has gone downhill a lot since. (The box functions as a recorder, with the odd hiccough, but almost all of the other functions, of which there are quite a few advertised, are simply unusable, for one reason or another). People have been actively complaining to the manufacturer ever since that last firmware, to no avail. Anyway, last week, despite the Humax website showing no updates, a very small number of people started reporting that their box had mysteriously updated itself with a new firmware, and that things were now much improved. After searching on a couple of subsequent days, I was also delivered the new firmware (and it appears that most other people still haven't seen it). What testing I've done shows a significant improvement, both in things now working that didn't, and the responsiveness of those things that did work, but very slowly. It's only taken 14 months, and many have given up on the box.
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Post by Alanović on Aug 26, 2020 10:16:48 GMT
I got one of them thar blueteeth receivers for my hifi yesterday, and have repurposed an unused smartphone as a dedicated Spotify/music device. It is all well good innit. Listening to The Verve whilst I WFH right now. Can control it all without getting up from my desk. Yesssss.
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Post by EspadaIII on Aug 26, 2020 14:36:56 GMT
What's the quality of the sound like? Does it work seamlessly with a traditional HiFi amplifier? Have thought of getting something similar but I am never a first adopter on these sort of things. My HiFi knowledge is about 30 years out of date.
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Post by Alanović on Aug 26, 2020 14:47:06 GMT
Yes just plugs in to my amp with those red and white connector fellows, the cable was supplied with the unit. You just press the button on the device and it bongs through the speakers to let you know its on, then you pair it to your phone and play your sounds. Sound quality is fine by my estimation, but I am notoriously cloth eared, tin eared, and a bit deif as they say in Glesga. You have to charge it, but I have left it plugged in to the power. I bought this one off of of Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00O8GASEA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Post by EspadaIII on Aug 28, 2020 9:21:23 GMT
Not expensive either!
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Post by Alanović on Aug 28, 2020 9:25:19 GMT
It comes with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack cable too, so you can plug it into an AUX IN socket in a car and bingo, blueteeth through the car stereo.
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