Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Does size really matters?

When you flipped through the paper, there are times you will come across news such as this country is building the tallest building, biggest airport, having the biggest pizza, tallest firecrackers, biggest TV and etc. When it comes to TV, is it the bigger the better? My family first TV is a 14 inches black & white, then 24 inches black & white, 21 inches color and 29 inches color.

My house in Malaysia, have 4 TVs’. A 29 inches in the living room, a 21 inches in my bedroom, a 14 inches in my sister room and a 14 inches in the room my dad used to stay. Most of the time, there will be only me and my sister in the house, why the heck do we need 4 CRT TVs’, I guess it’s because we have 4 eyes, hahaha. I think nowadays TV’s has become a necessity in most family.

If you are on the lookout in buying a new TV, what size and type will you look for? 21, 29, 32, 37, 40, 42, 50, 60 or ? Will you buy a normal CRT TV, plasma, LCD, projection TV or a projector? There is a lot of promotion now as this coming July is the world cup month, hence if half of the football fan decided to buy a new TV, I believe the manufacturer could actually rest for a year. Is it the bigger the better?

Basically the difference between all this technologies is the quality of the pictures. However most of the buyer has actually forgotten about the source of the picture. Does the source itself come in digital format or analog format? If your house only uses normal basic TV antenna and most of the devices output only composite video, does it makes any difference if you buy the latest, greatest and the biggest TV? The answer is NO. For example a 60 inches LCD TV having such input, the result is that you could see patches or squares in most images.

If you do intend to buy a good and big TV, you will need to ensure that the source such as DVD player, cable or satellite TV, notebook, video camera, player and etc support it. The latest input source is high definition multi media interface (HDMI). Hence for most of us if you look at the back of your current DVD player, ASTRO box (in Malaysia) and other devices most likely you could only see the yellow head (for video) together with the white and red head (for audio) which is actually the composite video. For some you could see the S-Video which is pure black connector or for some component video which is the green, blue and red head connector.

My house in Bangkok now has 4 TVs’ after the new addition that was added on last Saturday. A 42 inches 3 LCD projection TV from Sony which was on sale for 59,900 baht, I have since upgraded most of the input sources. I have changed my composite video cable in my home theater to component video and my satellite TV (UBC) composite video to S-video cable. That is the best I could do, although the TV accepts HDMI input sources. The verdict so far, this is the best projection TV I have seen but it’s still a bit behind the quality of a LCD TV and also the life span of the bulb is 8,000 hours as compare with 50,000 to 60,000 of LCD TV.

Let’s wait until all my video devices are capable to generate 1080i resolution then I might change it to a 40 inches LCD TV. It the mean time, I am looking at a true to life size images of animals from the animal planet channel. Actually I am very close to buying the 5th TV for my house in Malaysia, it might be a LCD TV as my DVD player is on the way to "heaven" and I am looking at replacing it with a HDMI modal…..

15 comments:

edina monsoon said...

Woa...that's a really really nice telly. Now I'm swamped with thoughts of owning just such a gadget. Dang...:)

Wuching said...

wuah! i want one too!

SooHK said...

edina, buy one..buy one...

wuching, you also buy one too..

Unknown said...

Pak, FYI, CCTV in China is broadcasting the coming world cup in HD format...kekekeke really tempting to get a LCD TV there...

i saw on TCL 32" that support HD..only RMB6,999 which is about RM3,400 :)

Anonymous said...

HDMI? Soo, you are so far ahead of the technological curve. HD-DVD just debuted in the US and Blu-ray won't be out for months yet. And who knows when we will be receiving digital tv transmission in Malaysia. Still, I feel envious that you have a tv that can accept direct hi-def digital signals. But you know it's going to be a long wait before you can utilize the full capability of your tv. It'll be like an itch that you won't be able to scratch.

SooHK said...

LeeCS, you receiver can receive HD and output HD or not...as it makes a lot differrent. TCL made in China? Over here in KL, those made in China LCD TV is selling around RM4K...

Chee Meng, DVD player which got HDMI output is in the market already. As for TV signal I believe it could be a long wait.......a very long wait...

Chan Kok Kuen said...

I have a 34" CRT TV.. no money yet to change to a LCD 42". Furthermore, you are right the input to the terminal are the most important thing.. GIGA. I have my old 29" in my room and that's all the TV I have other than 2 units of 17" LCD computer monitor and my Dell 15.4" LCD screen.

c o n s u e l a said...

I'm envious! I missed a chance on a SONY 42" HDTV that was on sale 2 weeks ago for under USD$1400; by the time we got there...it was all sold out! :(

crossing fingers & hoping for a "next time"

anjali* said...

I damn jeles wei...

PhotoCrazy said...

Was crazy about LCD or plasma.. wife didn't give me the green light cause the prize is damn f**king high..

k.t.x said...

gosh, u R real updated technologically. wait up!

Selba said...

WOW...... I want a big plasma TV!!!

Lrong Lim said...

No TV for me since I moved to the outskirts six months ago... radio is now my friend...

letti said...

i know what you mean!! We have 3 tellys in the house - a 56" Samsung DLP in the living room, a 14 inch in the kitchen ( for me to watch when i cook..LOL ) and a nother 14 inch in my room next to my computer. David uses a thingy to broadcast the satellite onto his humongous widescreen computer LCD so we're just as bad, if not worse..i hate it, but we're such TV crazies.

SooHK said...

Kok Kuen, wow you also has a lot of TVs..

Consuela, sure got a next time ....maybe with a better offer ...

Anjali, no need to jealous, go out and buy one...mine its installment free for 6 months.

Photocrazy, the price is coming down...soon it will be the same as the old CRT TV..

Keatix, not really, its the net that gives me all this information hahaha

Selba, oh you are into Plasma TV...

Lrong, wow you are really a nature guy....

Letti, hahaha ya TV crazies....come June football crazy...

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