Can you recommend a good bedroom TV to me please

[Oldboy]

Hello all,

After everyone gave me some really good choices for a new TV to suit my parents (they went with the Samsung UE40F5500) it got me thinking about chopping out my rather old and very basic bedroom TV to something more up to date, currently I have a Samsung UE32C4000PW which suffers from terrible motion blur along with a blotchy backlight. It's as basic as it comes and apart from being a 1080p screen it has no other bells and whistles so no motion processing, smart features, Wi-Fi or DLNA support and although it doesn't get an extreme amount of use it annoys the hell out of me when I watch it as the problems are obvious.

I've decided to change it and get something far better and my first stop was the Panasonic TX-L32E6B which as a like for like replacement seems ideal as it offers all the things I want such as decent black levels, good motion, Wi-Fi, DLNA support, USB playback and a good suite of smart features all at a very reasonable price (£339 price matched at John Lewis against PRC Direct).

Is there an alternative to the Panasonic that may offer even better performance without going much futher up in price or is this TV the best value 32 inch TV I can buy due to the WHF award it received? I'm also considering if I could get a good 40 inch TV and get a little extra screen size since I researched a TV for my parents but it would need to offer the same features and performance as the 32E6B and not cost more than £400-500 which is the top end of my budget. I'm really tempted with the Panasonic but after several bad experiences with their TVs I remain reticent to buy another Panasonic TV so any help or advice would be much appreciated thanks guys.

 

[simonlewis]

Whats wrong with the samsung UE40F5500 which you could get within budget.

 

[Oldboy]

Whats wrong with the samsung UE40F5500 which you could get within budget.

Simple...for the same price I can get a superior TV:

http://www.sonicdirect.co.uk/TV-DVD-Players-Blu-ray/Panasonic-TXL42E6B-42-Full-HD-1080p-Smart-LED-TV-100Hz-Freeview-HD

Having looked at the reviews this Panasonic seems to be the better TV and I would get a price match at John Lewis for the same price including a 5 year warranty, right now I'm leaning towards this one. I know it's not perfect but as a bedroom TV and for the price of it I'm finding it hard to beat, the only issue is my reticence to buy another Panasonic TV but as it's only going to be for occasional viewing and not my main TV I think I'm prepared to take the risk.

 

[ROTH AV]

I like those ones that rise up out of the end of the bed best.

Hope this helps.

 

[Oldboy]

Simply not practical I'm afraid as really don't want to replace my bed too, I prefer my TVs wall mounted as well but I can understand why it's your preference as it keeps the TV out of sight.

 

[Legacy260]

Buy the Panasonic. I am collecting mine on Monday for my study. The sound is good, the picture looks great considering the size, lots of HDMI ports and the build quality is very high. For the money I think it will be hard to beat.

 

[MrW]

My father in law has this TV and from what I've seen its very good.

As you'd expect the sound isn't great (he's currently looking at Soundbases to use with it)

Otherwise, he's had no issues with it at all

 

[Oldboy]

Are you both referring to the 32" or 42" version of the E6B? I've done some research and the 42" version offers deeper blacks than the 32" as it uses a superior panel. I've just got a price match for the 42" at John Lewis (£449) and I'm very close to pulling the trigger and going for it... :?

 

[MrW]

Father in law has the 42", but I've not spent any time watching it to appreciate the picture fully

He swears by it, and says it's a vast improvement over his old Sony

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Hello Oldboy,

I don't know enough about the various models of TV that you have been considering to comment about specifications, but I was writing only to urge you to go for a 42" screen rather than the 32" size that you originally mentioned in your first post. I now have my first flatscreen TV (Pioneer PDP428XD) which has been demoted twice from other rooms into my bedroom, and it's the minimum size that I would now consider, even for just a bedroom television. You don't want TOO much of a size difference between your new bedroom television and your celebrated 55" Samsung in the living room. If you buy a good enough and big enough television for your bedroom, you may find (as I do!) that you are content to watch the bedroom television for quite a lot of the time, even though your living-room Samsung will still be clearly better.

Will you get your bedroom television calibrated?

By the way, I don't suppose you fancied buying a 42" Panasonic plasma, ha-ha ...??? :rofl:

 

[Deleted member 2457]

What about this deal:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9159055.htm?cmpid=COJUN&catalogId=10001&_%24ja=tsid%3A11674%7Cprd%3A1546795&storeId=10151&referredURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.argos.co.uk%2Fstatic%2FProduct%2FpartNumber%2F9159055.htm&referrer=COJUN

 

[Deleted member 2457]

This one too:

http://www.tjhughes.co.uk/electricals/sound-vision/televisions/samsung-40-smart-led-tv?utm_source=Affiliate_Window&utm_medium=Affiliate_Marketing&utm_campaign=Affiliate_Window_Sale&awc=4002_1390156137_511bebb012c056f7a2f69bac66c2b1b5

 

[Oldboy]

Sorry for the late reply gel.

Thank you very much for the two links but only the Argos one works. I've looked at this TV previously for my parents and discounted then as it's quite an old model, for me it's a non starter simply because it has no smart tv features which are important to me as a bedroom TV. 3D is of no concern to me in the bedroom either and knowing the performance of the Panasonic TX-L42E6B is far superior when it comes to black levels and picture quality I am swaying heavily towards this TV.

I've had a price match through for the Panasonic from John Lewis and they will match it at £449 although I will have to pay the full £499 online price first and then claim back the price match difference, have you gone through this process before? If so is it easy to claim back the difference?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Sorry for the late reply gel.

Thank you very much for the two links but only the Argos one works. I've looked at this TV previously for my parents and discounted then as it's quite an old model, for me it's a non starter simply because it has no smart tv features which are important to me as a bedroom TV. 3D is of no concern to me in the bedroom either and knowing the performance of the Panasonic TX-L42E6B is far superior when it comes to black levels and picture quality I am swaying heavily towards this TV.

I've had a price match through for the Panasonic from John Lewis and they will match it at £449 although I will have to pay the full £499 online price first and then claim back the price match difference, have you gone through this process before? If so is it easy to claim back the difference?

Yep, it is really easy, all you have to do is fill in the online price match form and then they will sort it out for you, normally within 2 days.

 

[Oldboy]

Thanks gel will order the TV in the next few days then :cheers:

 

[Oldboy]

Ordered the TX-L42E6B from John Lewis yesterday, due for delivery on 30th of this month. Bought a bracket for wall mounting today so I'm all set for when it arrives, thanks to everyone for your input I really appreciate it.

Will report back with how it performs when it arrives, sold my Samsung 32" too so counting the days now.

 

[Oldboy]

Time for an update.

So the TX-L42E6B arrived on Thursday at about 7pm (rather late I thought but then John Lewis deliver until 9pm) so it was too late to get it out and mark up for the new wall bracket etc so I got it all up and running on Friday along with my Sony BDV-E3100 all in one surround system I purchased for the bedroom to give me better sound and extra features, the speakers for that are all wall mounted too so it looks rather stylish and sounds lovely.

After a thorough testing on Friday evening and during Saturday morning I'm sad to report that I was instantly on the phone to John Lewis to report an issue with the TV, it has a large and very noticeable white patch at the top left of the screen. This is not in the more traditional corner of the screen position either as it's more towards the centre of the screen and shows up during normal playback, strangely even dropping the backlight setting to zero has no effect on the issue either.

After a quick THX dvd calibration to make sure brightness and contrast were accurate the problem persisted and so I had a conversation with John Lewis on Saturday about the issue. They were very helpful and ran through a few things over the phone but I had already tried all of those options and told them I had calibrated the TV with a calibration disc etc, so a replacement will be with me within 7 working days and this one collected. I'm now awaiting a call to arrange both so I'm hoping the replacement arrives this week and that it fares better than this one as it's a very large part of the screen that's affected and is an issue I can't live with.

Fingers crossed the replacement doesn't have excatly the same issue ray:

 

[simonlewis]

I do feel very sorry for panasonic thet seem to have a run of bad luck recently, i hope this years models fare better now they have given up on plasma.