I need a new TV for Wii!

[Kazzahdrane]

Hey all - here's my problemo. The only TV I own right now is a little 14" in my room that doesn't even have a SCART socket so I can only play my PS2 on it with an RF connector. Plus it's no way going to be big enough to really enjoy playing awesome Wii games on it. My flatmate has a 20" 4:3 that we have in the lounge and is used for the gamecube etc but he will likely move it back into his room after the summer.

 

So! I want to buy a new TV. I was planning on waiting for the Wii and maybe picking up a TV in the after-Xmas sales, but my dad reckons now would be a better time to get one since he thinks with LCD sets becoming very popular I might be able to pick up a cheap CRT now.

 

What I want:

 

28" or 32" widescreen (never had a widescreen before but games just look the sex in it) - CRT or LCD but I'd imagine it will have to be CRT to meet my budget. It has to be able to display at 60Hz(or more), otherwise I might have to miss out on games that are on their way and I'd like it to be future-proof in case I end up getting a PS3 or 360 (already some 360 and Gamecube games will only display at 60Hz).

 

HD-Ready? That'd be a nice bonus but since the Wii won't support HD it wouldn't be used for at least a couple of years until the PS3 has dropped a lot in price and I think about maybe getting one.

 

I've had a look online and in shops in town but all the shops are just selling expensive LCDs (I haven't checked any superstore-type shops yet) and any that have sets I'd like within my budget are all 50Hz-only.

 

My budget: £200-£300, which I realise isn't much but I could stretch over that if it was a really really good deal.

 

Any ideas, folks?

[Ginger_Chris]

I got a cheap tv from asda, 28" non-widescreen. £140. CRT, non HD, 60Htz. They had some 28" widescreens for the same price. Anyway, most of the tv shops are pushing people to spend £500+ on a tv, when really a good old fashioned (and in someways still superior) CRT would suit people to the ground. Check you local supermarkets, both tesco and asda do cheap electronics nowadays.

[Charlie]

I need/want a new TV as well.

 

Widescreen, no bigger than 20" as I'm going to use it for my monitor. £150 max. I doubt I'll find a flat-paneled one for less than that but if anyone sees one

[DCK]

If you can afford it, go for this one. It's a CRT TV much thinner than a usual one, completely flat, 100 Hz, it has a diagonal of 82 cm (32" right?) and it has some new technology for better picture (maybe marketing BS). Problem is it costs about 350 pounds without shipping. But it looks damn gorgeous :shock:

 

A version of it could do HD but I don't think it's this one.

[Dante]

I want to get a HD telly but I heard that HDTV's makes GC games look awful. :/

[rokhed00]

If you can afford it, go for this one. It's a CRT TV much thinner than a usual one, completely flat, 100 Hz, it has a diagonal of 82 cm (32" right?) and it has some new technology for better picture (maybe marketing BS). Problem is it costs about 350 pounds without shipping. But it looks damn gorgeous :shock:

 

A version of it could do HD but I don't think it's this one.

 

Yeah, Samsung are doing CRT HDTVs, don't think they're much more than the non HD ones either.

Sure I've seen a 32" CRT HDTV for £380.

[Konfucius]

We've got a Philips Cineos CRT 32" with Pixel Plus 2 for 900€.

Not too cheap but Pixel Plus is great for games. Adds 1/3 more scanlines and that makes games look much clearer and sharper.

[RedShell]

I want to get a new TV soon too.

 

I want to get a HD telly but I heard that HDTV's makes GC games look awful. :/

I've also heard this and if GCN looks bad, that'll mean Wii would probably look bad also. Can anyone with a HD set confirm this one way or another?

 

I would like to know more about the TV's Nintendo were using to showcase Wii at E3 as they looked really good from the various screenshots / videos. I know they're SHARP Aquos but that's about it, anyone know exactly what they were, i.e. model number?

 

Here's a pic:

 

[Cubechris]

I just got a nice HD Samsung TV, and I am using it for my monitor aswell. It's in the argos book, £299 19" Widescreen.

[arab_freak]

http://www.revo-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7058

 

It's beautiful, and Sanyo is known for having affordable prices.

[conzer16]

@RedShell

 

I did a little research, and it seems they were Sharp Aquos LC-37P50E (or from the P-50 series)

 

http://www.sightandsound.ie/pdf/p50e.pdf

 

Edit:

Pretty expensive too...

http://audiovisual.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/sbs/100311823/14777639.html

[Kazzahdrane]

I wandered up to the local Currys superstore and was very disappointed with their selection They didn't have a single non-HD TV set that would display at 60Hz - I even asked and the guy checked with the manager.

 

Anyone know the if the £200 28" tv sets Tesco sell can display at 60Hz?

 

At this rate I suspect I'll end up waiting until the end of the year and trying to get a bargain on a decent 28"/32" HD set.

[Mr_Odwin]

My cheapo £100 28" TV from Argos can display 60Hz - most TVs these days can. Don't believe the dumbasses at Currys. Take your Gamecube along with a 60Hz game and ask if you can plug it in.

[Guest Stefkov]

I've also heard this and if GCN looks bad, that'll mean Wii would probably look bad also. Can anyone with a HD set confirm this one way or another?

I can say that when sat up close (3/4 feet) with cube games running on my 26" Samsung they have wierd lines and dont look that good, however when i sit back, when playing smash bros or madden, or fifa, (not tried battalion wars yet....) about 8/9 feet away they look as good as they did on my old crt 17" one. it looks beter on my PIP as its really small and has it all packed into that little space so it looks really sharp and clean.

compared to when i sit close to my t when playing my 360 and my cube you can see the difference but when sat back it hthe cbe, it looks fine for me.

also i got my TV not for £799 but for £495, bargain. sure second hand, and they gave me the wrong screws for screwing it to the stand, too big, but it works fine, with my pc, 360, cube and DVD player hooked up. i have the dvd player because my 360 cant play burnt dvd's.

I wouldnt say the Wii will look bad. I m not that great on techy stuff but im sure that they would have changed stuff in it, to compensate for both owners of 50" LCD HD tvs and those with 10" black and white crt tvs. (over exagerated i know)

[Cube]

Anyone know the if the £200 28" tv sets Tesco sell can display at 60Hz?

 

Most TVs in the last 10 years can display 60Hz, so the chances are very high (I'd say 99.99-100% of TV's sold now can do 60Hz). Even my 12-year-old TV I've got in my room can do 60Hz.

[RedShell]

@RedShell

 

I did a little research, and it seems they were Sharp Aquos LC-37P50E (or from the P-50 series)

 

http://www.sightandsound.ie/pdf/p50e.pdf

 

Edit:

Pretty expensive too...

http://audiovisual.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/sbs/100311823/14777639.html

Cheers conzer16.

 

Looks like a great TV but it certainly is pretty expensive, mind you that's for a 37" model.

I'm probably going to get 26" or 32" max, not got the space / cash for anything bigger than that.

 

I wouldnt say the Wii will look bad. I m not that great on techy stuff but im sure that they would have changed stuff in it, to compensate for both owners of 50" LCD HD tvs and those with 10" black and white crt tvs. (over exagerated i know)

I was thinking more along the lines of that the GCN is Standard Def and so is Wii, therefore they'd have a similar picture quality on a HD set. But I'm not great with all the tech stuff either. I'd imagine you're right though about Nintendo sorting out Wii for different TV types.

[Kazzahdrane]

Most TVs in the last 10 years can display 60Hz, so the chances are very high (I'd say 99.99-100% of TV's sold now can do 60Hz). Even my 12-year-old TV I've got in my room can do 60Hz.

 

This is the thing that I've never quite understood. My flatmate's TV can play 60Hz-only cube games so I'd assume it can display in 60Hz. However, PS2 games that let you select between 50 and 60Hz always display in black and white on it - very strange.

 

And looking at stuff like the Currys website where it tells you the frequency each TV can display at there are a lot that say "50Hz" and only a couple that say "60Hz".

[Dcubed]

Ahhh I know these TVs! these are the ones Sharp released recently that were optimised for a PAL resolution. They would be better for the Wii than a HDTV but obviously they wont be HDTV ready. Also they still wouldn't match the Wii's resolution perfectly as they are designed for a PAL 50 image.

 

If you decide to play in 60hz it drops the resolution from 720-576 (PAL 50 in 4-3) to 640-480 (NTSC and Pal 60) This means that the only type of LCD or Plasma screen that will display the Wii in it's native resolution is one optimised for 480p (640-480 progressive, all LCDs and Plasmas run in progressive scan natively) and you'll only get those in NTSC regions.

 

The only way you can play the Wii in it's proper 480p PAL image is if you get a Progressive scan enabled CRT TV and those aren't common in Europe unfortuantly (Though I haven't checked up on this for a while, they might be more common now :p)

 

If you really want to go the HDTV flat screen route (Which you will have to do eventually) I would recommend going for a Plasma screen. They scale a lot better than LCDs and I hear that SD content looks almost as good as it does on a normal TV with some models. That being said, Plasmas do tend to be a lot more expensive than LCDs but they give a better picture with SD.

 

I feel all of your pain, I want a new TV too (I'm currently using my GCN on a 32" CRT TV with RGB scart and on a small 14" CRT with RGB when I change rooms) I'm tired of looking at interlaced images and I want to play my Wii in 480p and it's not a flat tube so straight lines can bend a little at the edges of the screen. This really pisses me off! (The 14" TV kicks arse though, wouldn't change it for the world )

[Charlie]

Odwin, is your £100 TV a widescreen?

 

I looked on kelkoo and some other websites and none of the TV's which said they supported 60 hz mode were widescreen or they were HD....

[Mr_Odwin]

No, it's just a regular 4:3 TV, unfortunately.

[RedShell]

Ahhh I know these TVs! these are the ones Sharp released recently that were optimised for a PAL resolution. They would be better for the Wii than a HDTV but obviously they wont be HDTV ready. Also they still wouldn't match the Wii's resolution perfectly as they are designed for a PAL 50 image.

But if that's the case, why would Nintendo use them to showcase Wii at E3?

You'd think they would use the best possible TV's.

 

Anyway, won't the European Wii's be adjusted to PAL resolution?

 

I'm tired of looking at interlaced images and I want to play my Wii in 480p and it's not a flat tube so straight lines can bend a little at the edges of the screen.

Yeah, same here.

Resident Evil has some really bad interlacing on 60hz mode, made me want to play it on 50hz most of the time. I also have that corner distortion thing on my current TV too, really annoying when there’s a straight line going across the screen and it suddenly bends on the edge.

[Dcubed]

Yeah the Wii will run at the proper PAL resolution, what I'm saying is that the TV is designed for PAL 50, not PAL 60. PAL 60 runs at 640-480 whereas PAL 50 runs at 720-576.

 

What I'm not sure about is that these TVs were designed for PAL, I don't remember Sharp releasing an LCD designed for NTSC so it wouldn't make sense for Ninty to use this TV for Wii demonstration. This can't be the TV they used.

 

It'll look better than a HDTV for the Wii, but it still won't be quite perfect. BTW I just emailed NOA asking them what TV they used at E3 and they don't know (Or at least they don't remember ) Oh well, my quest continues!

 

Update

 

Hey, Red Shell I'm not sure if this is ideal for you but I've found a native 480p projector for less than £400 here http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=3ZB3

 

It can't do HD but it wont matter if you're primerally using it for the Wii. Seems to have gotten some farily decent reviews as well http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=378445 and 5 out of 5 in What Video Widescreen TV (Nov 2004) give it a look!

[RedShell]

Hey, Red Shell I'm not sure if this is ideal for you but I've found a native 480p projector for less than £400 here http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=3ZB3

 

It can't do HD but it wont matter if you're primerally using it for the Wii. Seems to have gotten some farily decent reviews as well http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=378445 and 5 out of 5 in What Video Widescreen TV (Nov 2004) give it a look!

I'd never even considered a projector before, but at that price and with all of the positive feedback I may have to re-think it.

Even so I'm pretty sure I'd be better off with a new TV as I've not got much space and I assume I'd need to buy a lot of extra stuff for a projector setup like a screen, ceiling mount, blinds ect... Plus I was reading through that forum and they don't seem to have a very long lifespan. The pics of it in action looked absolutely fantastic though:

 

 

 

Cheers Dcubed, you seem to be very much in the know when it comes to all this stuff. Perhaps I'll just wait until you buy your new TV and then follow suit!

[Dcubed]

Actually, I only just found this today and was thinking of picking this up for myself lol! (If I can get the money that is)

 

I haven't got the money for a decent HDTV and most of them make SD content look shite, which... is bad since I'd be primerally using it for the Wii!

 

I think projector bulbs for this one retail for about £200 and at playing for 8 hours a day/7 days a week it would last for about 2/3 - 1 whole year. It's a fair bit to pay but you get a way bigger screen than any Lcd or Plasma at the perfect picture resolution, for the Wii, for a fraction of the cost for a decent one (even taking into account the cost of the bracket and the screen) But the bulb changing may get annoying and you've gotta make sure it doesn't get too dusty, it's a killer if you don't clean it often (Usually recommended every 2 weeks or a month depending on how dusty the room is)

 

Check out this site and see how big you could make the screen in your room

 

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Toshiba_TACP-TDP-MT200-projection-calculator-pro.htm

 

It's a bit complicated to use though but hopefully you'll get something out of it.

 

That's the best choice I can think of if you want to play your Wii games with the best possible quality. No one is interested in bringing out HD CRT TVs in Europe and the Samsung Slimfit is a pile of shit, don't go anywhere near it. LCDs are shit for SD and Plasmas are too expensive, sorry if I make it sound a bit bleak

 

If anything else I hope I've helped someone out there!

[RedShell]

Actually, I only just found this today and was thinking of picking this up for myself lol! (If I can get the money that is)

Oh.

I really did like the look of that projector, but it's just too OTT really for my requirements. The fact that you have to maintain it and replace the bulbs and stuff like that really puts me off, I'm too lazy for all that so I just want something simple.

 

That's the best choice I can think of if you want to play your Wii games with the best possible quality. No one is interested in bringing out HD CRT TVs in Europe and the Samsung Slimfit is a pile of shit, don't go anywhere near it. LCDs are shit for SD and Plasmas are too expensive, sorry if I make it sound a bit bleak

 

If anything else I hope I've helped someone out there!

It is a very bleak picture, and I still don't get why Nintendo would use LCD TV's to display Wii if they make SD look so bad. Anyway, I'm now pretty confused as to what I should do but I reckon that if I get a new TV for Wii it'll be CRT. As almost everything points in their favour:

 

Better picture quality

No risk of image burn

Much better lifespan

Loads cheaper

 

In fact, the only downside of CRT is the size / weight of the things.

 

It's basically the only alternative to that projector, but finding a good one now is probably going to be difficult.

 

Did a quick search yesterday and came up with this:

 

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/products/details/index~modelcode~SAM-WS32Z408D8X.htm

 

Not sure if this is on Pre-Order because it's new or if it's just out of stock. But it appears to be PAL HD CRT TV. (the kind you mentioned were uncommon in Europe right?) There is no description though and I can't find any more info for it, its not one of those Slimfit TV's is it?

 

Damn, buying a TV is hard work.