UK members - Digital TV, what's the sound like on

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

We're going digital in this area in March, so my wife and I had a slow trot round Comet today to see what was around and the prices. She thought she'd like a 28 inch set, but we didn't find anything between 26" and 32". 32" seems miles too big; our conventional TV is 20" which seems plenty, really

A while back, we had a geezer up to repair our existing TV and talked to him briefly about digitising. One of the things he said was that the smaller sets - anything below 28" - had poor sound which wouldn't be powerful enough to fill our lounge (about 30 ft by 15), though a 19" or even smaller would be OK in the bedroom.

Does anyone have a 26" set? And what's the sound like?

MG

[Claude]

The enclosure of flat screen TVs has much less volume than CRT TVs, therefore the sound tends to be thinner. In addition to that, most movie fans now use a home theatre sound system, therefore the manufacturers care less about the sound of the built-in speakers.

I have a 46" Sony LCD, and the sound is merely OK. I always use my hifi set for watching DVDs.

[Jazzjet]

We had the same debate when we got a flat screen digital ready TV. Personally, I would go for as big as you can for the size of room, not forgetting that a flat screen set is much less deep than a conventional set. We gained about 1.5 feet of lounge when we changed, which was of course my main selling point to my wife! As far as sound is concerned, I haven't had too many issues. I can't get away with all the extra speakers and cables that a home entertainment / surround set involves, but my Toshiba 32" set is fine for me.

We went digital last July. Good luck with all the retuning and rescanning!

[A Lark Ascending]

I bought 22 inch last week (my existing set stopped working) - I use it so rarely I can't justify anything bigger. Sound is tinny - but, as on my old set, I connect it through the headphone socket to my aufio amplifier. Sounds fine.

I have a set of second speakers connected in the kitchen to the amp. So if my cooking preparation doesn't quite complete in time for the start of a programme I can always hear it.

I do like the slimeline nature of these new TVs. The last one was like a tank even though it was 22 inch.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I do like the slimeline nature of these new TVs.

We kill our slugs - don't let 'em in to crawl over the TV.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

typing on an unfamiliar, ancient computer. typos galore.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

typing on an unfamiliar, ancient computer. typos galore.

Mine's so old, the paint's worn off several letters - e, a, s, d, c, n, m; most of v & t and half of z. So I keep hitting wrong keys. But I'm learning to type without looking, as a result - after lord knows how many years of eyes down

MG

[mikeweil]

I bought a 22 incher I integrated into the bookshelf - but knowing that I hate the tinny sound of TV sets in any case, I looked around for a DVD receiver, and found a bargain - from LG, for only € 200.00 including five speakers and a subwoofer, but sounding better than SONY sets at € 800.00!

How it sounds depends on the settings you chose, and on the mix of the soundtrack - there is one German station that always overemphasizes the treble.

Be aware that most LED screens consume more electric power than old tube tv sets - watch out for the electricity bill.

[sidewinder]

I feed the audio through an Aux socket on the hifi preamp - love it !

(having lots of trouble typing this on a French keyboard )

[jazzbo]

Get the 32" Allen. In a few months THAT will seem too small.

If you could run your tv into your stereo system, you'll be happier with the sound than the tv direct.

[sidewinder]

there is one German station that always overemphasizes the treble.

Vox?

Edited November 25, 2009 by sidewinder

[mikeweil]

Vox? Can't remember - I always switch to a different equalizer pattern when I come across this phenomenon ... feeding the sound into the HiFi is okay too, once you found the right plugs and adapters ... what I hate about TV sound is that they almost always compress the music, but never the spoken parts, or not as much, so the music is always too loud.

[sidewinder]

Vox? Can't remember - I always switch to a different equalizer pattern when I come across this phenomenon ... feeding the sound into the HiFi is okay too, once you found the right plugs and adapters ... what I hate about TV sound is that they almost always compress the music, but never the spoken parts, or not as much, so the music is always too loud.

Yeah, its a pain having to continuously adjust volume as you switch channels. The UK commercial channels are really bad in that respect. Great though for BBC4 music documentaries !

[mikeweil]

Last night I watched a crime series on ARD - they were the one over-equalizing the treble, speaking voices always hissssssssssss ...

[Claude]

ARD (on Astra) sounds fine here.

During the Christmas days, the german national stations (ARD, ZDF, and Einsfestival) will broadcast in HD (on dedicated channels), as a test before the definitive HD switch somewhere in mid-2010.

Edited November 30, 2009 by Claude