Apr 23, 2007 05:41 PM
15127 Views
I bought a Samsung LA40R7 40" LCD TV last year and was impressed with its features. What I didn't like about it (and also quite a few other LCD/plasma TVs of various brands at the showroom) is that with regular cable TV input, the images tend to look quite digitized and blocky, especially when there is movement in the picture. This happens with or without the DNie feature turned on. This should be discernible to anyone who has just replaced his/her CRT TV. It should be blamed on the poor ADC converters used in these TVs.
I improved the picture quality dramatically by buying an external tuner box for Rs 2000, and connecting its output to the VGA input of the TV. This bypasses the internal digitizer and the blockiness is no longer that obvious. I tried both Acer and AverMedia, both were equally good, I went ahead with the latter because of its 16:9 aspect handling capacity (which is not present in India anyway, so really not needed). The advantage is that the remote of the tuner can actually power up and power down the TV (the TV shuts off in the absence of the VGA signal, much like a computer monitor).
And channel surfing is also faster than with the native TV remote. Unless you watch DVDs, you don't need the TV's remote at all. The tuner also has PIP facility.
The only disadvantage is the picture zoom function of the TV wouldn't work, and you cannot change the aspect ratio either. But with HDTV programming in India so far away, this is hardly an issue.
If you are planning on spending a lakh or so on a LCD/plasma TV, this additional 2000-3000 Rs is well worth it.
And for the same reason, invest in a DVD player with a HDMI output to improve the picture quality. I found the Philips DVP5965 really satisfying. It is about Rs 5000. But you would have to also buy a HDMI cable which can cost about Rs 2000, but the improvement is certainly worth it.
