My First HDTV: TCL LED32P11
Last weekend I finally gave in to temptation and got myself an LED TV. It's the TCL LED32P11, a 32" LED TV. If you don't know much about electronics, TCL produces cheap electronics compared to branded ones like Samsung, Sony, etc. It doesn't mean the quality is bad though. Our two "normal" TVs are TCL, and one is about 5 years old and still working, so my family trust them a bit. And since it is my first HDTV, it would seem wiser to buy something that is not that expensive, so that if I am disappointed it wouldn't hurt much.
One of the main features I liked about the TCL LED TV is that it can read movies/videos off of my USB. It recognizes a lot of format, including MKV files. No need to buy another media player just to play those kind of files. Another factor I considered was that it has an HDMI port (2 actually) which I can use to connect my laptop to. Right now I don't have an HDMI cable yet and haven't really tried if it will work, but I am positive that it will.
Some of the downside of this LED TV that wasn't too obvious when we bought it from the shop: the viewing radius is restrictive. Meaning, if you're viewing it from the side, there is some type of quality loss on the picture. If you're watching from the front it's brilliant though. I think the angle for great viewing is about 20 degrees to the left and right of center. I also discovered a possible bug. When playing video files that are over 2 hours long, the movie stops at 2 hours, 3 minutes, and something seconds. It happened to me twice now, while watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Armageddon. It couldn't be the file that has the problem if both stopped at almost the exact point in the movie, could it? Also, files encoded for small TVs don't look too good in the TCL.
Another not-so-good thing I noticed after using the TCL LED32P11 is that it's scale feature isn't smart enough. If you have a video file that has small resolution and you chose the "full" scale to play the video, it will fill the screen (1280 by 720) exactly, which means sometimes the movie will appear distorted. (Most movies are not 1280 by 720 in size). There's a way to view the movie in its original size, but if the resolution is small, it will play that movie small as well. There's no way to zoom in to make it at least bigger while retaining the video's original aspect ratio.
I haven't really tested it that much so right now I can still say I like my TV. It's not that expensive so I didn't feel I've been robbed or anything. It's sort of like a "beginner's LED TV", something you can buy if you're new to this technology and want to see what everyone's talking about.
One of the main features I liked about the TCL LED TV is that it can read movies/videos off of my USB. It recognizes a lot of format, including MKV files. No need to buy another media player just to play those kind of files. Another factor I considered was that it has an HDMI port (2 actually) which I can use to connect my laptop to. Right now I don't have an HDMI cable yet and haven't really tried if it will work, but I am positive that it will.
Some of the downside of this LED TV that wasn't too obvious when we bought it from the shop: the viewing radius is restrictive. Meaning, if you're viewing it from the side, there is some type of quality loss on the picture. If you're watching from the front it's brilliant though. I think the angle for great viewing is about 20 degrees to the left and right of center. I also discovered a possible bug. When playing video files that are over 2 hours long, the movie stops at 2 hours, 3 minutes, and something seconds. It happened to me twice now, while watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Armageddon. It couldn't be the file that has the problem if both stopped at almost the exact point in the movie, could it? Also, files encoded for small TVs don't look too good in the TCL.
Another not-so-good thing I noticed after using the TCL LED32P11 is that it's scale feature isn't smart enough. If you have a video file that has small resolution and you chose the "full" scale to play the video, it will fill the screen (1280 by 720) exactly, which means sometimes the movie will appear distorted. (Most movies are not 1280 by 720 in size). There's a way to view the movie in its original size, but if the resolution is small, it will play that movie small as well. There's no way to zoom in to make it at least bigger while retaining the video's original aspect ratio.
I haven't really tested it that much so right now I can still say I like my TV. It's not that expensive so I didn't feel I've been robbed or anything. It's sort of like a "beginner's LED TV", something you can buy if you're new to this technology and want to see what everyone's talking about.
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