Gert big tellies - advice please O/T

[shrimper]

Looking to invest in a gert big telly next month, want it mounted on a wall bracket in a corner of my front room.

I'll need someone to fix it up there as well.

Any advice, things to think about, warnings, recommendations (of tellies and/or of people to fix up all the brackets and connections etc) gratefully received.

Want one about 42ins.

[Blackpool Shrimp]

I work at white cross in lancaster and there is a very good company called robinsons electrical on there get in touch with them they will sort you out

[Plain Peter]

It ain't natural to stare at a fixed point above the horizontal for extended periods.
Before getting the telly stuck on the wall have a think about the possibilities of neck pain.

[wonder shrimp]

what will you be watching on it? i ask becuase that should be a guide in terms of how much to spend on the quality of the screen.

anyway why don't you save money, and buy a smaller screen, but sit nearer to it

[shrimper]

I have Sky. I don't play video games and don't want to. I may want to run a laptop through it.

Cheers

[wonder shrimp]

sky HD? it does seem like everybody is moving over to HD (even on freeview in the not too distant future)

if so then i think you need to be aware of the gubbins about HD ready, full HD and i think there is even some sort of super HD or something. my tv is only HD ready, so doesn't have the full 1024-768, but then i've literally never run anything HD through it yet, so it doesn't really matter!

[bill ding]

Having just recently hung my 40" tv on the wall i thought i might be able to give you a bit of usefull advice.
Shop around for wall brackets , the ones priced from high street shops were around £90-100 for the type of bracket i wanted ,but a look on EBAY soon halved the price.
The other thing you need to be aware of is your wall construction. If your wall is brick is or concrete block then large rawl plugs and screws/bolts should be ok. But if they are thermal block internal walls like mine then a more specialised fixing is needed, cant remember make of the stuff but can find out if you need it.

[Christies Child]

Looking to invest in a gert big telly next month, want it mounted on a wall bracket in a corner of my front room.

I'll need someone to fix it up there as well.

Any advice, things to think about, warnings, recommendations (of tellies and/or of people to fix up all the brackets and connections etc) gratefully received.

Want one about 42ins.

Have to say that whenever I've been in a room with a wall mounted TV I came away with a stiff neck from constantly looking up at the screen. Also the size I always feel should be governed by the size of the room.

Personally I would get a make that has a reputation for reliability and therefore Sony, Panasonic and the like would be my choice as it was when we bought our new TV 2008. Obviously the cost is a factor but from those I know who purchased a cheap model they've had to replace it within 2 to 3 years. I'm a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for'.

I along with my mother and mother in law all have Panasonic whilst my brother in laws both have Sony and none of us have had any problems. However, my niece bought an LG and has had to have it replaced twice in 6 months under the manufacturers guarantee.

[Fallowfield Shrimp]

Hi Shrimper,
Just a couple of points to make.
There is a danger that you can hang a TV too high and end up with a stiff neck (although you will get used to the new viewing angle), so bear that in mind when you are deciding the location oo the TV. The rule of thumb I was told when I was hanging mine was to stand in front of where you want to hang it and put the top of the TV slightly lower than eye level. I find it very comfortable.

As for brands, Sony and Panasonic are good, but Samsung are also very nice too, and marginally cheaper than the other brands.

If you watch a lot of football (or other sports for that matter- which I assume you do) one things I would bear in mind is the refresh rate of the TV. Some newer TV's have refresh rates of up to 600Mhz. "Normal" TV has a refresh rate of 50-60Mhz. The higher the refresh rate the less likely you are to experience refresh glitches or motion blur, that you sometimes get when watching things move around the screen quickly (Football being a prime example). The higher refresh rates tend to be found on the plasmas rather than LCD though (if that has any bearing on your decision). I would be happy with 200Mhz refresh rate.

Also, something to consider if you are to hang your TV in the corner of a room. If its huge then it will eat into a good proportion of your room, but if its flat against the wall it will eat into virtually none of your room. Thus enabling you to get a nice big one, whilst saving a bit of space. My living room is roughly 4m x 3m and, if I'm honest (or if the wife ever reads this) my 32 incher is just that little bit too small. I'd be looking at a 37 or 42 incher.

If you are looking for a decent supplier for a wall braket and don't feel comfortable using ebay then try http://www.tv-wall-brackets.co.uk. I've used them in the past a couple of times. I rang them up and the staff were excellent. They are very good at recommending the right type of wall braket for your TV and the delivery time was also excellent (I think it was free next day courier, but don't quote me on that). They can't sell you the bolts that you will need for legal reasons (different wall types require different bolts and rawl plugs, as someone mentioned before).

As for getting someone to fix it up to the wall for you. I did mine myself and 3 years later, its still there. I'm sure if I can do it, anybody can.

Hope you found some of that slightly useful.

Good luck.

[shrimper]

I'm being drawn towards this one

Philips 42PFL7404

[morecambe mick]

I'm being drawn towards this one

Philips 42PFL7404

These people seem quite happy with it overall, I didn't read all the reviews, mind!

http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-led- ... l7404.html

[USA Shrimp]

Just want to echo the "careful of how high you have the telly" comment. We had ours raised only a little bit (maybe two feet higher than eye level when sitting down) and it was less than comfortable. After rearranging the room and setting it back on an eye level table we were much happier.

[greenshrimp]

Would agree with the advice re: Sony or Panasonic (although Sony actually use screens supplied by Samsung so may be worth a gander too). Would suggest visiting John Lewis though so you can view the screens in the shop (you'll notice the difference on qual;ity of the higher quality brands when they are next to each other) and JL also chuck in a free extended warranty.

Make sure there are plenty of HDMI sockets to futureproof and if your connecting to a laptop without an HDMI cable, make sure it has a PC socket on it (can't remember the correct name).


GS

[captain sparkle]

I find that copious amounts of beer, followed by many, many pies each and every day and no exercise at all........wassat?
O! ...............Telly.......
Sorry.

[bill ding]

I agree with fallowfield shrimp, if you put a large LCD TV in the corner of a room it takes up a lot of floor space .
I have wall mounted my TV halfway down my living room wall about 30" from the floor (to the bottom of TV) mounted on a "swivel cantilever arm bracket" similar to one in link below.
This means i can swivel the TV through 180 degrees so i can watch at either end of room or even sat outside .
I can also push TV flat to the wall when not in use to make more space.
Just giving an alternative idea to sticking your TV in a corner
My TV is an LG but not had it long enough to give a fair review but it seems ok

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SWIVEL-CANTILEVER ... 2c50239b75

[Keith]

the bigger the telly, the bigger the box... the more polystyrene inside...

I like the picture on Samsung HD. Playing a Blue Ray through the Playstation the image is fantastic. If you can, take the same DVD to view and try and get a salesman to set up so you can play it on different sets, move back as far as you can to view it. You are removing some variables then. As mentioned before, football is particularly poor on some sets, so a DVD of a cup final for example, would be worth taking along.

[Curly]

Had our 50" LG 720p For 3 years now, no problems.
HD is just that, Definition is amazing, watching football in HD you'll never go back.
Remember the Telly's picture is only as good as the source,
Sky HD is in 720p, if you buy a 1080p full HD Telly, you'd only see the benefit of the slight
improvement if you get a blu-ray DVD Player which outputs 1080p.
Sky only do the live matches in HD too, match choice is in standard quality, which can look a bit grainy on a huge set.
Sky HD also has a £10 per month premium charge, before you've paid for channels, like SKY +
used to have when it was the top level of SKY.
Would listen to the other posters too, about wall mounting and bad necks, you need a very
big room to watch a high wall mounted telly without doing your neck in.
It would need mounting away from and definitely NOT above a heat source,
they (plasmas) pump out a far bit of heat too.
If I was going to buy another HD Telly, I'd seriously look at Panasonics Viera range.
My neighbour has one and it truly is the dogs nads, 1080p, 50", from John Lewis, delivered,
with change from a grand, you could get a Viera 42" full HD for £700+ if you shop about.
Happy with LG though, ask Matty,Freez,T. They've all been round for a drool OJ
Bought mine from Currys in Blandcaster, good deal at the time, chucked in a better stand
for nowt, when I stuck my neck out like a giraffe and said I'll buy it now if you cut us a good deal.
If you want the best, think Pioneer still the Daddies but a different price league.
LED will probably be the future of TV's one day, but now they're early days and too dear.
Stick to plasma mate
We used to get SKY promos all the time offering HD boxes to friends cheap, maybe they
still do that. Worth looking into.

[marky No.1]

Looking to invest in a gert big telly next month,

Won't be long before the flat screen tv's wil be flat and not have to project 6" away from the wall. as someone has said if you put the tv in a corner it will take up an awful lot of "floor" space. Those that hide behind a mirror or a wall picture are really quite cool as well

Personally i like the Philips ambilight which increases the "viewing" area by some distance and is really quite effective