Some while ago, there was a discussion on here about them. Can't find it. Are the 100Hz tellies good or just as good to stick with 50Hz and get as big as I can afford???

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Answers

I remember advising against 100Mhz. They are great for a static image but of you like watching moving images.... e.g. footy... then I'd stick with a 50Mhz one.

Go round a shop and look at them side by side and chose the one you like best. I went for A JVC which is perfect for me. I'm sure a TV snob will say that 100MHz gives a better image but at least I don't get white trails following the ball!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

See I need a new telly (non footie) under the Non footy; techie stuff category

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Thanks Geordie. I wonder why I didn't look under the "non footy" category :-(

I've seen a 32" JVC which looks canny. 50MHz is a lot cheaper than similar 100MHz. Also wonderin' 'boot sound (yes, aah knaa ye need it). As I play all my TV thru the Digital Sat (which I think is stereo), would NICAM, surround and aal that cr@p be worth the extra? I'm not a great movie watcher so don't think emulating the Essoldo in my lounge will be necessary.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

My Sony 32", 'flicker-free' 100mHz, c/w Nicam stereo, is excellent - wouldn't go back to 50Mhz for all the trophies at Old Trafford.

Being objective, 50mHz is fine until you get used to watching a 100mHz picture - going back is impossible. Having recently bought one for the cottage just to save a few bob, I speak from bitter experience!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

So long as you can swich it to lower frequency for sport!

nee wonder you've been defending Shearer all these years when you've been watching him twice as fast as we have! ;-))

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Sceach... also see Non Footie: 100Hz Televisions in the uncatagorised section!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Geordie - Happy New Year marra. Seriously, I have no problem with sport on my Sony. Except that is, a minor problem on the ppv footy channel that I believe is ITV Sports digital channel - and I understand this is a common transmission problem that has nowt to do with the telly frequency.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

If you're going to watch the terrestrial digital channels you need a decent aerial.

I struggled by with signals dropping occasionally and the change when I got the new aerial was awesome.

Its a 50mHz 28inch widescreen coz that's all I could afford (Sony). I'd have got the switchable 50/100 Sony if I'd had the dosh.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Thanks for the experiences folks. I'm tempted to go with 50MHz 32" 'cos the piccie quality is pretty good (better than I've got) and I never use the arial for terrestrial except BBC North East. Even Tyne Tees comes thru the dish now. Quite how they know where wor hoose is amazes me. I guess it must be the postcode/tele number. So, unless I was to drop Sky, then I reckon I'm digital all the way - right???

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

I swear by the 100Hz sets, we've got a 36 incher downstairs - for football it is fine for me, but the movement thing is apparent. However this can be fixed with a "flicker reduction" option which solves the problem instantly.

As for surround sound, if you haven't got a DVD player then don't bother. If you have got a DVD player then it's practically essential - especially for action films. However, it will cost a bit, don't be tempted by those tiny all in one things which sound awful in a room bigger than cupboard. If you need any advice on surround sound and all that I can point you in the right direction.

However, as for the telly, 100Hz is the way to go, especially if you're going for a bigger model. 28" is too small for most living rooms and the flicker on a 32" or bigger is annoying after you've watched a 100Hz. You will in time buy a DVD player, and 100Hz makes DVD's look very nice indeed.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

If you want all regions of ITV (London, Channel Islands, Anglia etc) then let me know.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

Paul - can you get all ITV regions on Sky Digital? I live in the Carlton area but would prefer to watch Tyne Tees.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

http://www.bknown.co.uk/digital-tv/skydigital_files/transponder.htm

I'm about to go for a curry so have a look on there, I might post more later

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

Sorry, that page shows nowt at all that's any use.

I'll try to find out the information for them as I've got them all working on our box.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

Anyone tell me how to lose ITV altogether?

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

http://www.lyngsat.com/dig/skyuk.shtml

This page shows you how to add the other regions (as well as a few other channels like Fox News and Sky News Ireland!

You have to go into the Services menu and find add channels.

10891 H SR 22000 FEC 5/6

The above numbers (for ITV Tyne Tees) will seem obvious once you find the add channels screen.

These new channels will then be available under "Other Channels" They won't have a channel number or anything, you'll have to go into the menu and select them, but they are still perfectly usable.

The link has virtually every channel listed.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

We have Telewest cable. I was channel hopping a couple of weeks ago and was flabbergasted to find the "Man U TV" channel. Fortunately it's disappeared now.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

That Man U TV channel is literally the worst channel for Sports.

A mate of mine (Sunderland fan) bought it for a month so he could watch the full game of them versus Manure, and our game with them fell in the same month or something like that.

Anyway, the commentary wasn't just biased it was bliddy infuriatingly bad. United this, United that, oh aren't we great, we're the Champions, look at Roy Keane isn't he brilliant, oh there's Shearer the tosser!

I really wanted not to watch it, but I wanted to hear their reactions when we got the winner. It was so predictable - "How unlucky can United be?" "On another day United would have won 10-0"

Stupid tossers (used under copyright)

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002

It was me that started all the fuss originally Screacher. I couldn't make me mind up what to buy and eventually went for a Phillips 9616 32 inch 100 hz job. It had been voted European telly of the year and was reckoned to have solved the high speed movement problem with summat called Digital Natural Motion.

Had it delivered in the middle of June. It was OK but not brilliant - not as good as I had hoped but much better than the old steam drive model we'd had. Anyway, we stuck with it for a couple of months then the footie season started. The picture for live football was dreadful. We contacted the retailers and said could they send a technician - they said it was a common problem with 100 hz tellies and they probably wouldn't be able to do anything. The bloke said he fielded 5 or 6 calls a week with the same problem!

I got a bit excited about this on the phone - bearing in mind we'd told the salesman we were football fans. They offered to swap the telly for an alterantive and refund any difference - bearing in mind our TV was 2 months old we thought this was a good deal. We went back to the shop and at first, we looked at a dual 50 / 100hz Sony. The techie blokes told us they had had similar concerns from customers with that. We eventually settled on a Panasonic 50Hz 32 inch and got £300 back! The telly is excellent.

I know what Clarky is saying about not going back to older technology but until they get this footie thing sorted out I'll stick with 50hz.

By the way - go to your nearest John Lewis store (where we bought ours). They will price match any deal you show them (they price matched an internet price for us as long as the company has it in stock). You get a free 5 year warranty on televisions and they deliver free within 50 miles. I was very impressed with the service despite the initial probs.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

If we are talking specifically about watching football here, then I am sure Screacher knows, better than most, that this is best watched from the Leazes, Milburn, Gallowgate or Popular side without intervention, let or hindrance of any audio-visual shenanigans of any kind.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

Yeh but if you're wanting to see highlights of Baggies stuffing Makems you have to crane you neck a hell of a lot from there.

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2002

Well, I've almost decided! And it's nowt to do with the piddly litle things you lot have been going on about. A very nice man in John Lewis in the Metro Centre spent a lot of time with me this evening (no, he wasn't that type of nice man) after I'd been tempted by a very reasonable bargain at Hi-Spek in the mags. What's more, in two separate reviews, it got tremendous reviews.

I think I'm about to opt for a Toshiba 42WH18B Widescreen jobbie. 100Hz, Dolby Digital, optional rear speakers/stands, matching glass cabinet and 5yr Warranty included in the price. Oh - I almost forgot - they'll throw in a Toshiba DVD player as well (not top spec but better than nowt).

I checked out the footy and it looked fine to me. You can change the picture from the 100Hz mode to "natural" and it looked canny good to me. Anybody got experience of (ahem) rear projection?

All I need now is a house to put it in :-(

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

That's a big bugger Screacher!

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

If it's not out of turn Screach how much is that costing. I'm thinking about a new telly meself.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Andy - a lot less than list (which is £2100 for the basic box without all the gubbins). House of Fraser say they will price-match anybody on this box. The salesman even pointed me at the Hi-Spek add in the mag I'd seen the review in (I'd also seen the ad). Hi-spek are offering it at £1750 with all the bits I said. The DVD isn't a top-performer (SD110E) and isn't multi-region, but as I don't have one right now, better than nowt! The DVD is a Toshiba offer that all dealers are doing right now but I think may come to an end this weekend (probably getting rid of end of line).

Next question - "Does anybody know where to get a DVD player chipped and how much??"

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

>>Next question - "Does anybody know where to get a DVD player chipped and how much??"

Depends...do you want batter with that?

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

I could drop kick it across the room for free. I've chipped plenty of cameras that way, don't see why it wouldn't work on a DVD. ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Thanks folks. The degree of help on this BBS never ceases to amaze me :-(

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Screach, I don't know of any DIY hacks for this player. Wouldn't the company you're buying from do it? if not there are literally hundreds of places you can send it away to get it done at....check out techtronics....

http://www.techtronics.com/uk/shop/512-dvd-player-upgrade-service-uk.h tml

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Techtronics has has a LOT of problems with aftersales service. They are apparently a small company with a well designed web site that makes them look bigger.

I got our first DVD player from there last year and although I've had no problems I've heard some horror stories.

I know for a fact that you can get multi-region mods done fairly cheaply, www.multi-region.co.uk is about £50 I think. I have about half and half foreign discs and British. One Australian and the rest American/Canadian and European.

Screacher, can I just recommend that with a 42" telly with a DVD player worth over £2k in total, that you look into proper surround sound gear, it'll make a real difference. If you're not into films much then it doesn't matter so much, but a film fan will appreciate it.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Paul - can you recommend a surround-sound system. I want to add one to my 32" Sony digital without spending an arm & a leg, but find the salesmen for these gizmos are bloody useless.

Some of the newer models and the speakers/s.w. are very compact - but are they any good?

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Depends how big your room is. I personally hate the little speakers as they have virtually no depth to them (in terms of sound), but if your room is no bigger than a toilet cubicle then they might sound ok.

You can get some fairly small, discrete speakers for a canny price. They are real speakers that cover all the frequencies though. The set we have are about 10 inches high I think.

After that you will need an amplifier to plug it all into and possibly a subwoofer depending on how good the speakers are.

Tell me your price range and I can recommend some bits for you. Minimum is probably about £500 if you want something that will be good although you could get away with last year's models and still have a decent set-up.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Paul - you seem to be well into this. I'm just a novice. To be honest I think the additional cost for a separate cinema surround sound would probably be wasted. I'm more into big screen and that's what appealed with this Toshie RPTV. However, I'm a bit concerned over the on-going maintenance. I've heard stories that the bulbs cost an arm and a leg and need regular replacement and I'm beginning to have second (or maybe third) thoughts. Maybe I should get a good quality TV - either 32" or 36" if I can afford it - with probably only Nicam or Dolby Prologic. Then, if I'm happy with that, I can always add one of those cinema jobbies Clarky's asking about - especially if he does the donkey-work and finds a good one at cheap price ;-) Tho of course, if I'm not over-bothered with top quality sound, some of the new Dolby Digitals seem pretty good and my do the trick. Aarrrggggh!

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

A good quality 32 or 36" TV will be better for everyone to watch in a group than a rear projection. You've probably realised already, but watching them at certain angles of elevation (ie height) makes the picture lose its contrast. A traditional TV doesn't have this problem.

With regard to the sound, in built Dolby Digital is all well and good but you can never get real surround sound when the front three speakers are all built into the TV set. In a medium sized room the speakers should be about 2 metres apart at the front.

Can't say I know too much about rear projection with regard to bulbs so I can't really comment on that.

However, sound is pretty much personal opinion. If you are happy with the standard sound, then there is absolutely no reason to spend money on something that you don't really need. I personally love the surround sound, but without DVD it would be basically useless. We use it for the odd film on Sky and very occasionally an old video with Pro Logic, but to be honest it's for DVDs only.

We bought our surround kit about a year ago - the amplifier was £280, the speakers (5 plus a subwoofer) were £230 (although this was a misprice, should have been £330), speaker cable £20, other cables for connecting up the DVD player came to about £30. So in total it was about £550 for the surround kit. The TV at the time was £2500 but we got a price match in Bainbridge's from a mail order firm to get it to £2000.

Basically, it's obvious you don't really need the surround sound at this time, so it's not worth paying extra for it. If a basic form of it is built in to the telly then fair enough. Even a cheap kit can be had for about £100 if you wanted something like that, although you get what you pay for. I would say pick the telly that you want on the picture quality, not whether it's got surroind sound or not. And if this bulb niggle is serious then you'll have to consider that as well.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2002

Paul - I don't think I'd want to pay more than about £600 for the s/sound system. Our living room is about 15' x 30' - actually an awkward shape for such a system, given that the tv is located in a corner.

Any advice would we appreciated.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

The corner is never the best place for the telly in such a system, but most people have their telies in the corner - as we do, it is fairly easy to fit a few speakers in the right places.

For £600 you could get a pretty good kit. I'm not sure which of the new amplifiers and speakers are the best, but the one place I could recommend is Richer Sounds on Clayton Streer in Newcastle. They sell some pretty decent 5 speaker kits for £200 or less. They are pretty good for customer service as well, and will knock £10 off any price that you can find cheaper.

With our setup, we had to pull up a few floorboards and attach the speaker cable to a long curtain pole and poke it through to the other side of the room (couldn't take all the carpet up). This was because the speaker cable is quite thick and couldn't fit under the carpet.

Basically, I would just say get yourself along to Richer Sounds and ask them what the best setup you can buy for £600 is. Tell them the size of your room, they know their stuff. Also buy a magazine, probably What-Hifi, so you can find out if what you might buy is any good.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

Cheers Paul - I'll give Richer a try. The staff in Fenwicks and Bainbridges just aren't clued up technically, and are simply pushing the package systems offered by Sony, Panasonic etc.

In a highly unusual display of pre-planning, I did try to lay in cables with connectors on the skirting boards before our new carpet went down, anticipating as best I could where they would need to go. However, you've got me worried now!

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

The thing is with the cables, you need them fairly thick to get a bit of depth to the sound with decent speakers. I was amazed at the difference good cables made with my normal stereo amp and speakers compared with bell wire which was being used as a makeshift. If you buy decent speakers you should really buy decent cable, it's like buying a Ferrari and never going above 20mph in it - you will never find out the best it can do.

Obviously there is no need to go over the top and buy some ridiculously expensive cable for £3000 a metre, the stuff we got was about 99p a metre but makes a big difference. We ended up going back for more as I wrongly estimated the length we needed, trying to save a bit money.

What I would do is wait until you have your speakers and amp before you get the cables. If you already have some laid you can try them. Richer Sounds will let you borrow a box of cables to try at home for a refundable deposit, so if you can't tell the difference then there is no point in paying for "better" cables.

Finally, you will probably need a DVD player to get the most out of your surround sound. There are a few hi-fi shops around Richer Sounds' area that sell multi-region players. All of these will price match mail order. You have to get multi region, for the simple fact that you can order from Australia and Canada for discs that are either out months before they are here (sometimes before they're out at the cinema here) or they are cheaper.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

As an example of what sort of stuff you should be looking for, I've taken two examples from Richer Sound's website (www.richer-sounds.co.uk)

The Eltax Liberty System This is £250 down from £450

and a Yamaha RXV520RDS Receiver (£250 down from £350). This would also serve as a normal amplifier which you can play your CD's through, as well as having a radio tuner built in. This would sound about 10 times better than a mini speaker all in one kit, which struggle at higher volumes. Obviously if you live in a semi-detached then you will have to be careful when you have the bass rumbling through the floor during a car chase scene, or a bullet flying over your head during a gunfight.

These are just examples though, Richer Sounds have demo rooms which you can listen to the speakers / amp together in so you can compare them properly.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

By the way, those speakers in the above post have fabric front covers, the picture is showing them with the grills removed for people who care.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

Thanks for the help Paul - the cable thing is a real p*sser though.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

As I said before, leave it to the last minute for cables, you might be fine on the cables that are in now.

You can buy flat cable as well, which is about twice the price for a similar quality wire.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002

In the USA you can get wireless digital speakers with dolby etc, however due to licensing laws in the uk we cant have them for speakers - can for headphones though!! anyone know if this will change I need some better speakers for my telly but am not gonna P about with cables.

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2002