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Group test: Freeview HD TVs AUGUST 2010
LG 47LE8900
Samsung LE40C650
Panasonic TX-P42G20
Sharp LC-40CT2E
Sony KDL-46NX703
Toshiba 40RV735B
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Test freeview HD TVs LG 47LE8900
Samsung LE40C650
Panasonic TX-P42G20
Sharp LC-40CT2E
Sony KDL-46NX703
Toshiba 40RV735B
Freeview HD TVs Freeview HD tuners feature in pretty much every TV range this year. We put six sets head-to-head to find the best deal Freeview HD currently covers about 50 per cent of the UK. One way to get Freeview HD is to buy a standalone receiver and plug it into your TV. But if you don’t want another black box cluttering up your AV cabinet and need to upgrade your TV anyway, a set with integrated Freeview HD might be just the ticket. These come in many shapes and sizes, but the thing that unites them all is the inclusion of a DVB-T2 tuner, which is able to decode the MPEG-4 broadcasts used by Freeview HD channels. However, all TVs featured here will also receive standard-definition DVB-T channels. But with the latest generation of flat-panel TVs,
Freeview HD is often just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the latest models from big-name manufacturers offer features such as wireless media streaming from PCs, access to internet sites and a number of high-powered picture processing modes that aim to turn those built-in Freeview HD pictures into things of razor-sharp beauty. This group test brings together six of the latest TVs across the gamut of display technologies – plasma, CCFL (cathode fluorescent lamp) LCD, Edge LED and Full LED – in a bid to discover which one offers the best overall performance with Freeview HD, as well as assessing their ease of use, features and value for money.
Buying tips n:Before buying, check that Freeview HD is available in your area using Freeview’s postcode checker service at www.freeview.co.uk/ availability/main/indexhd/ n:Want to add ESPN? All IDTVs including those sold here are sold with a CI slot, which allows you to insert a smart card and CAM and add subscription channels to the Freeview line-up n:If you want Freeview HD recording we recommend investing in a Freeview HD PVR. The Panasonic set does allow single-tuner recording to external USB drives
n www.lge.co.uk n 0844 847 5454 n £2,100
LG 47LE8900
Ratings PLUS
n Gorgeous design n Extensive format support n Deep blacks, vivid colours
Minus
n Limited NetCast content n SD pictures n Thin sound
Build Ease of use Performance Features Value
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84%
The 47LE8900 is a Full LED TV set that uses LED-backlighting right across the screen alongside local dimming to deliver better black performance than regular CCFL LCD sets. It also means this set is as slim as an after-dinner mint. There’s no separate bezel – instead the screen and its surrounding frame are merged into one flat, seamless piece of plastic, with a row of illuminated touch-sensitive controls embedded into the bottom side. Stunning. There’s a decent array of sockets on the back. Among them are four HDMI inputs and two USB ports that allow you to play files from memory devices and external HDDs, including DivX HD, AVI, MP3, WMA and JPEG. Connect the set to a router via Ethernet and you can access content through NetCast. At present it’s limited to YouTube, AccuWeather.com and Picasa. There’s a considerable amount of processing horsepower on board too, the highlight of which is TruMotion 200Hz, using a scanning backlight to eliminate motion blur and flicker. Onscreen, the prognosis is positive. The Freeview EPG is terrific and LG’s menus are an explosion of stylish, imaginative graphics that make navigation a breeze – as does the tidily arranged remote. Picture quality is excellent, although naturally it’s more at home with a nice, crisp hi-def source. Pictures from Blu-rays and Freeview HD look mesmerising.
Wimbledon coverage on BBC HD saw the set at the top of its game, rendering the smallest details with eyepopping sharpness, while TruMotion tracks the zipping ball without a trace of motion blur. The clean, noise-free edges also help enhance the clarity of the image. Blacks are astoundingly deep while local dimming makes bright objects in dark surroundings look nice and crisp. That said, there’s still a little mistiness in dark areas, stopping short of the profound blacks offered by the latest plasmas. Standard-def material is less satisfying, with smudgy noise and soft detail sullying the image. The LG’s weakest point is audio. The ‘invisible’ speakers produce thin, weedy sound that is particularly noticeable with TV theme tunes. Speech is fine, but anything a little livelier is almost devoid of bass.
n www.panasonic.co.uk n 0844 844 3852 n £1,250
Panasonic TX-P42G20
Ratings PLUS
n Exceptional picture quality n Freesat and Freeview HD
tuners
n USB recording
Minus
n Looks n Not as bright as some LED sets
Build Ease of use Performance Features Value
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88%
The only plasma TV in this group test is one of Panasonic’s all-singing, all-dancing Viera NeoPDP sets with self-illuminating pixels and other innovations designed to deliver deep blacks, and high contrast and smooth movement. It’s the only set here to offer both Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners. The full feature list is too vast to cover in detail. One highlight is Viera Cast web content, which includes Skype and Twitter as well as YouTube, Picasa and Bloomberg. This can be accessed through the Ethernet port or via Wi-Fi if you add an optional USB dongle. You can play music, photos and video from USB storage devices, SD cards and DLNA-ready networked PCs/drives and record (one channel at a time) and timeshift by adding a USB hard drive. Sadly, the Panasonic can’t match its rivals on looks, though the glossy bezel adds some allure. Operating the TV is easy. The large rubbery keys on the remote are intuitively arranged, while the onscreen menus are quite jazzy in places but the setup menu is basic compared with Sony, LG and Samsung’s GUIs. Shows like The Graham Norton Show and Junior Apprentice were displayed with simply outstanding HD image quality. Blacks are luxuriously deep with no traces of misty greyness, and while colours are mesmerisingly vibrant they’re also consistently natural. Excellent contrast makes dark scenes look wonderfully clear. The 600Hz processing allows motion and camera pans
to look smooth and graceful, and the ultra-fast response time means no visible motion blur. However, the picture isn’t quite as intensely sharp and bright as the LED and LCD sets we’ve tested – although some viewers might actually prefer this more natural look – while SD pictures can suffer from common artefacts even with tweaking. Sound-wise, there’s a distinct lack of oomph when it plays raucous movie scenes. But in most respects the P42G20B is a brilliant TV for a surprisingly affordable price if you shop around online.
Test freeview HD TVs n www.samsung.com/uk n 0845 726 786 n £1,000
Samsung LE40C650 This ‘Series 6’ LCD TV sports a fetching Crystal design, with a gently tinted gloss-black bezel and translucent trim that oozes style and sophistication. A discreet row of touch-sensitive controls is found on the bottom edge of the bezel. Being a straight-up LCD set, it’s not as slim as the LED screens it’s up against, but its 80mm depth is far from obese. That generous feature list includes access to Samsung’s Internet@TV service (including BBC iPlayer and LoveFilm), media streaming from PCs over Ethernet or with an optional USB Wi-Fi dongle and a pair of USB ports on the side offering extensive multimedia support (including MKV and AVI). The Hyper Real Engine carries out picture processing duties, enhancing detail sharpness, contrast and colour fidelity. Samsung has come up with an operating system that’s simultaneously stylish and intuitive. The graphics are crisp and colourful, menu scrolling is smooth and the EPG looks clear and uncluttered. We’re also big fans of the remote, which nails the button layout and sports a gorgeous brushed aluminium and silver finish. As for picture quality, what jumps out first is the sheer brightness and crispness of the hi-def image. With both Blu-ray and Freeview HD you get dazzling colours and aggressively sharp detail reproduction. Sets like the Panasonic offer a flatter but more solid picture, better
Ratings PLUS
suited to movie viewing, whereas Samsung’s bright, perky pictures perhaps make it more at home with TV material. Blacks are better than expected, looking deep and solid, although they never reach the inky levels of a good full LED set. Colours aren’t quite as convincing as we’d hoped, giving skin tones a slightly orange hue, and during dark scenes some of the shadow detail goes AWOL among the murky blackness. Standard definition pictures showed some shimmering around moving objects and a slightly gauzy effect, but they’re perfectly watchable. Sound quality is also decent, with clear, audible speech and a surprising amount of bass underpinning TV theme tunes, but we’d still recommend pairing it with a sound system.
n Onscreen design and remote n Bright, snappy hi-def pictures n Sound
Minus
n Black level n Standard-def pictures
Build Ease of use Performance Features Value
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80%
n www.sharp.co.uk n 0800 262 958 n £650
Sharp LC-40CT2E The second-cheapest TV in this group test is light on features, but it’s been designed with value in mind. The budget price and use of traditional CCFL LCD technology means the design lacks the ultra-slim ‘Wow’ factor of its LED rivals, but it’s still attractive. The glossy black bezel makes it snazzy, and there’s a couple of nice touches like the silver strip running perpendicular to the screen and tapered top and bottom edges. Another indication of the budget status is the inclusion of three HDMI inputs; the other models here sport four. You’ll also find an Ethernet port whose only application is for future IPTV services as and when they come to Freeview. Given that Toshiba added media streaming for £100 less, this is a shame. A side-mounted USB port allows for MP3 and JPEG playback from USB drives and a second is used for manual software updates. A handy subwoofer output and coaxial digital output are also welcome inclusions. The poor operating system harks back to the days when LCDs were just computer monitors. The main menu is a small box in the middle of the screen, with tiny text and slow scrolling. There’s a separate set of menus for digital TV. The remote is arranged in a nice, simple layout, but we’re not too keen on the clicky buttons. Despite the absence of powerful processing or cutting-edge LED tech, the LC-40CT2E delivers surprisingly crisp and assured images. They may not
Ratings PLUS
n Good pictures for the money n USB ports
possess the same detail intensity or black depth as the Sony or Panasonic, but they are terrific for the money. Freeview HD pictures are detailed and pleasingly crisp. BBC HD’s glorious super-slow-mo shots at Wimbledon were mesmerising, showing every last bead of players’ sweat. Radiant colour reproduction brings the picture to life and does a fine job of rendering skin tones. Contrast and black level are also better than we expected – some mistiness remains in places but generally the set gets closer to a ‘true’ black than most sets of this price. There’s a little judder and motion blur with camera pans and SD Freeview pictures are marred by digital artefacts. Beggars can’t be choosers at this price and the impressive HD picture quality just about makes the LC-40CT2E feel like good value for money.
Minus
n Dated menu system n Budget looks n SD pictures
Build Ease of use Performance Features Value
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74%
n www.sony.co.uk n 0845 6000 124 n £1,700
Sony KDL-46NX703
Ratings PLUS
n Operating system n Impressive HD and SD pictures n Sound
Minus
n Underwhelming shadow detail n Sound lacks ‘Oomph’
Build Ease of use Performance Features Value
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82%
Like LG’s TV, the Edge LED 46NX703 uses a flush screen surface with no separate bezel, part of Sony’s ‘Monolithic’ design idea. It’s used to devastating effect too, particularly on the snazzy black version, although our sample’s white finish with silver trim looks is almost as fetching. It can be slotted into the optional SU-46NX1 stand, which allows the set to tilt backwards for maximum coolness. It’s teeming with features – extensive networking capabilities, including Sony’s Bravia Internet Video (encompassing YouTube, Demand Five, Eurosport, LoveFilm to name but a few) – all courtesy of the built-in Wi-Fi receiver. There’s also media playback from USB storage devices. The operating system is a delight, presenting its wide range of options using the intuitive Xross Media Bar system. There are a lot of features to wade through and it can get confusing at times, plus there are some annoying pauses when you select certain options, but basically it’s a terrific GUI. The large remote is also easy to use, except that the central menu controls make it too easy to hit the wrong key. The EPG is crisply and logically presented, showing live TV in the corner of the screen. There’s an arsenal of picture-processing tech on board, among them MotionFlow 100Hz, Bravia Engine 3 and Live Colour, all of which aim to produce the smoothest, sharpest and most accurately coloured pictures possible.
Freeview HD pictures are striking, owing to the 1080p panel’s clean, punchy presentation of the hi-def detail, but even more impressive is the bright, natural colour tones and black level, which is deeper and inkier than we would have imagined from an edge LED set. Dark scenes look solid, although shots of black jackets reveal underwhelming shadow detail, that makes some objects look like amorphous black blobs. But the overall vibrancy and solidity of the picture makes it seem a minor niggle. SD pictures look cleaner and sharper than the LG’s, and it turns in a half-decent sonic performance too. There’s some attempt at bass reproduction and dialogue is crystal clear, although it’s not quite the commanding presence with film material as we hoped. Despite this, this TV is still highly recommended.
n www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk n 0844 856 0730 n £550
Toshiba 40RV735B
Ratings PLUS
n Solid pictures n Resolution+ for HD n Decent sound
Minus
n Uninspired design n SD pictures n DLNA only works
with Windows 7 Build Ease of use Performance Features Value
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76%
Toshiba’s RV series is a strictly CCFL LCD affair and the cheapest TV here, but that doesn’t make it a slouch in the features department. DLNA media-streaming through the Ethernet port is an incredible feature to find on a £550 set. Initial setup is easy, though it wasn’t able to find files on our Vista laptop (it’s primarily designed to work with Windows 7 PCs). You’ll need an optional USB dongle for Wi-Fi. At the heart of the set is the Meta Brain chip, which governs various types of picture processing including Active Vision, an improved version of Resolution+ (which aims to sharpen SD to ‘near HD’ quality) and Dolby Volume, which keeps sound at a consistent level. Connectivity is excellent. Four HDMIs cater for your HD sources – one of which offers the Audio Return Channel feature – while two USB ports provide an additional means of playing back your digital files. The remote is terrific apart from the buried ‘Menu’ key. The menu system is nothing fancy, using a basic black box with simple icons and straightforward lists. The EPG’s programme grid fills the screen, which makes it easy to follow, but it’s slow to populate and scrolling is sluggish. Inside the setup menu you’ll find a wide range of picture adjustments, covering everything from the basics (colour, contrast) to advanced settings – including the ability to set individual levels of red, green and blue. Without the black-level benefits of LED technology to rely on, the 40RV735B’s pictures don’t reach the same
eye-popping levels of richness and depth as the Sony, LG or Panasonic sets. But it still does a great job with Freeview HD broadcasts and Blu-ray. BBC HD and ITV1 HD look crisp with little noise, and movement is handled surprisingly smoothly. Black objects are deep and solid with some evidence of shadow detailing within them and, with adjustments, colours look natural. Sadly, SD Freeview looks smudgy, and ironically Resolution+ makes it look worse, exaggerating artefacts like block and mosquito noise (HD material fares much better). Sound is given a leg up by the Bass Boost feature and sounds powerful when cranked up loud.
Test freeview HD TVs
And the winner is...
The Panny is superb value for money
Verdict
Sony 46NX703 comes out on top overall. LG’s 47LE8900 is a superb Full LED screen, offering sensational HD pictures, catwalk looks and cutting-edge networking features, but Sony edges it on all-round picture quality with HD and SD, and the range of content available through its Bravia Internet Video service makes LG’s NetCast look sorely limited n Danny Phillips Panel resolution
Tuners
Speakers
HDMIs
Scarts
S-video
Digital audio output
PC input
Media streaming
Internet applications
Power usage (in operation)
Power usage (in standby)
Rating (%)
47in
Full LED
1,920 x 1080
9,000,000:1
Freeview HD
2x 10W
4
1
-
l
D-Sub
DivX HD, MP3, WMA, JPEG
l
NetCast
N/A
N/A
84
£1,250
42in
Neo PDP
1,920 x 1080
5,000,000:1
Freeview HD/ Freesat HD
2x 10W
4
2
-
l
D-Sub
DivX HD, MP3, AVCHD, AAC, JPEG
l
VieraCast
143W
0.4W
88
£1,000
40in
CCFL LCD
1,920 x 1080
N/A
Freeview HD
2x 10W
4
2
-
l
D-Sub
DivX, MKV, AVI, ASF, WMV, MP4, MP3, WMA, JPEG
l
Internet@ TV
N/A
Under 0.3W
80
£650
40in
CCFL LCD
1,920 x 1080
20,000:1 (Dynamic)
Freeview HD
2x 8W
3
2
l
l
DVI
MP3, JPEG
-
-
N/A
N/A
74
£1,700
46in
Edge LED
1,920 x 1080
N/A
Freeview HD
2x 10W
4
1
-
l
D-Sub
MP3, JPEG, MPEG-2, AVCHD, MPEG-4,
l
Bravia Internet Video & Widgets
96W
0.23W
82
£550
40in
CCFL LCD
1,920 x 1080
50,000:1
Freeview HD
2x 10W
4
2
-
l
D-Sub
MP3, JPEG, DivX
l
-
114.4 W
N/A
76
Panasonic TX-P42G20B
Samsung LC40C650
Sharp LC-40CT2E
Sony KDL-46NX703
Toshiba 40RV735B
Multimedia playback
Display technology
£2,100
LG 47LE8900
Contrast ratio
Screen size
The overall champion has to be Panasonic’s TX-P42G20B, which combines a wealth of features with the best picture quality of the bunch, all for a much lower price than the LG and Sony (although admittedly the screen size is smaller and it’s nowhere near as sexy).
Price
Make and model
The great news is that Freeview HD TVs are not all super-duper high-end sets – as Sharp and Toshiba have shown. What this group test has also shown us is that Freeview HD pictures can look fantastic no matter what type of display technology is being used. Sharp and Toshiba’s 40in CCFL sets, for example, do a great job of bringing out the intricate detail and vibrant colours of Freeview HD broadcasts, despite the lack of fancy LED backlighting technology. Granted, you don’t get the same inky blacks or picture depth, but hi-def is all about extra detail and on that score these two sets don’t disappoint, making them great value if HD forms the bulk of your viewing diet. Inevitably though, the LC-40CT2E and 40RV735B’s budget prices throw up other limitations. Both sets’ SD pictures are poor and their operating systems just don’t live up to the slickness of their pricier rivals. Limitations aside, the inclusion of DLNA streaming on Toshiba’s £550 TV is a nice surprise, making it the best of the budget options. The Samsung’s HD picture quality is crisp and bright and it looks chic on the outside. But what lifts it above its cheaper rivals is the wonderful array of multimedia features, including Internet@ TV and versatile All Share media streaming. In the tussle between the two LED sets the