It was my boyfriend's birthday this weekend and as a treat I let him buy a 32" LCD HD ready TV. I know what you're thinking "let him!" but he's been bugging me about it for months and i'd run out of excuses. We looked around all of the online stores with a maximum spending budget of £450. When we looked at Comet they had a Goodmans for that price. We needed very clear specifications which I'll go into later but the Goodmans seemed to fit. When we went to the store the Goodmans looked cheep and plasticy, as well as that the speakers came out quite far at the side and made the TV look stretched.
In a bit of a mood as Comet had no other suitable units in our price range we went to Currys. I wasn't expecting to be impressed then I saw the Orion. It was the same price as the Goodmans £449.99 but looked so much better. The
LCD screen is obviously the main focus point and it doesn't have too much of a rim around the edge. The rim is 1and a half inches wide in a matt black coulour, which is extended by 3 inches for the speakers at the bottom. Then this too is surrounded by 1cm of matt silver trim. It comes on a very attractive almost space aged silver stand in the centre of the screen.
I was seriously impressed with how the TV looked in the store and being a bargin hunter I asked the guy if he could knock anything off the price. I got the typical 17 year old Saturday worker reply "er, um, no you see, erm, no" but I pulled a "go on" face at him until he scuttled away to the manager. When he came back he said "computer says yes!" This never happens to me! He knocked £50 off taking the price to £399.99 Now I know it's only a penny under the £400 barrier but there's something psychological which makes it more managable.
So we took it then and there. When we got it home it took all of 5 minutes to set up and get running with a clear and simple "quick set up guide". Excellent. Now the specifications I was talking about. We needed 2 scart sockets for DVD player and Tivo, freeview etc. but as we have a Nintendo Wii we wanted a component cable socket to increase the picture. The Wii isn't true High Def but it would raise the pixels to 480p rather than 460i.
Now would be a good time to explain High Def (in the simplistic way my boyfriend did to me). "p" means progressive scan so when the TV refreshes the screen it does so line by line. "i" means interlaced which is when the TV refreshes all of the odd lines then all of the even lines so it has to do it less often so the picture is seen better. Now it has been "proven" that progressive scan is of a better quality because there is less of a flicker for the eye to notice. High definition televisions work at 780p or 1080i and the Orion is 780p. This picture on High Def stations is exceptionally crisp. It is a shame that Freeview is not transmitting in high def as you are unable to notice a difference on typical TV. However, we watched a regular DVD earlier and the whole picture quality was improved.
The TV comes with a very ugly looking remote in silver with all of the regular buttons and is about 20cm long, 3.5cm wide and 2cm thick.
Now I've just been back on the Currys website and they've updated the price to £399.99.
Here's the specifications etc
HD Ready for exceptional picture quality NICAM stereo sound Twin HDMI digital connectivity PC ConnectivityAuto Install Brightness 500 cd/m2 Depth (exc stand) 33 mm Fastext Teletext information services Flat Screen Headphone Socket Height (exc Stand) 60 mm No of Scarts 2 To enable you to connect to other equipment such as a DVD player, video or games console On Screen Display Picture Quality 1049088 pixels The higher the number of pixels the better the picture resolution will be Remote Control Screen Size (inches) 32 inches Size of the screen measured diagonally across the screen Sleep Timer Sound Quality NICAM Stand Included Viewing angles 176 degrees This determines the optimum viewing angle Wall Mountable Weight 19 kg Widescreen Option Width (exc stand) 82 mm
Now that's what the website said but for some reason they don't include the fact that it has the component socket with 5 plugs available for connection to items like the Nintendo Wii and HD DVD's
Just looked on the Dixons website and they've knocked £10 off the price to take it to £389.99 which I would say is an excellent price for a TV of this quality. I would highly recommend it at present as an excellent way to "future proff" your TV with 2 HDMI components to ensure that when we do "switch" to High Def this TV will be able to cope.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
No Setup - Just put your batteries in and off you go. Our remote controls are generic ... more
replacements 100% guaranteed money back if not entirely satisfied. Put-Batteries-In-And-Go (This remote has been made for this Tv / Dvd / Freeview box etc, only,so no setup required, no codes to put in) Specifically manufactured in our factory for this make/model. Every remote control is tested before it is dispatched. Our remotes are NOT universal - so you do not need to set them up or put codes into them, just put your batteries in and off you go. Each remote is generically made for the specific DVD / TV / Freeview.
Postage & Packaging:£2.00 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days......
Apr 10th, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
