Save £200 on LCD DVD TV

[Vernon B]

Terry if you're still following this thread I'd like to thank you once again for your original tip.

 

I've now got hold of and installed a LVD 1580WD in the 'van and thought I'd add some further user comments.

 

First of all an observation on the changing world in which we live. I bought our Pilote G270 new in May 2003 - not that long ago really. The layout included a dedicated locker for, at that time, a conventional cathode ray tube TV. It's a pretty clever design comprising both an inner sliding cabinet and a sliding mount. This means the TV can be lowered to eye level, slide to and fro, and swivelled left and right. So to take full advantage of this arrangement I proceeded to purchase a "state of the art" Panasonic TX-G10 multi-standard set - for the princely sum of £275.

 

Although that TV has worked admirably you will know that it was obselete as soon as it was put in that cleverly designed cabinet. Not only that the cabinet became pretty obselete as well - or so I thought.

 

Having cast around for something that give us access to multi-media entertainment at a sensible price you're recommendation seemed to offer the way forward - analogue/digital TV, DVD, CD, etc etc - and all for £75 less than that purchase 4 plus years ago!

 

But here's the real pay off. By a stroke of luck the dimensions of the Proline have meant that I can fit this multi-media marvel under that cleverly designed gizmo. By raising the bottom of the sliding compartment by 10 cm the Proline fits like a glove and is completely out of sight when not in use. And there are other benfits of course - namely that we've saved a few useful grams and have another locker available for odds and sods.

 

So suffice to say you have one very happy bunny.

 

As far as performance is concerned; early days but I'm pretty impressed. May be local conditions but I'm getting significantly better picture quality on digital channels than anologue using my Status 530 aerial. Compared with the Panasonic the larger screen and improved audio quality are a marked improvement which come into their own when running DVD's. Operation and menus seem very straight forward even for someone like me.

 

I've only come across one minor worry. The stud diameters used for attaching the VESA mount appear to be a tad small - so I hope they will take the strain.

 

Keeps us posted on any other tips like this

 

Vernon

 

 

[Terrytraveller]

Hi Vernon - pleased you got sorted and are happy. The Proline has a really good picture, mostly due to the screen 100hz rather than 50 hz screen rate as most other TV's. What do we do with all those state of the art yesteryear Panasonic multistandard TX-G10 though?, looks like a boot sale is needed.

 

We didn't have the Status 513 fitted on this MH, we use a free standing Magic Circle aerial on either DTV or TV instead, when not using Satellite with the analog RF input, its nice we have so many choices when using the £199 Proline.

 

Incidently, if you have ghosting on analog or sync problems on DTV possibly due to the ghosting effect (signal reflections from trees etc...), try shielding the Status 513 with some kitchen foil on one side of the saucer type dish.

 

Edit PS - I was thinking of the Status 315 omnidirectional aerial for above remark, the 513 is directional I believe and should minimize any ghosting effects.

 

You mention "I've only come across one minor worry. The stud diameters used for attaching the VESA mount appear to be a tad small - so I hope they will take the strain. "

 

Have you thought about attaching self sticking velcro strips or a velcro pad between the VESA mount and the rear of the TV, before bolting down? Will spread the load and reduce the possibilty of screws shaking out.

 

Regards Terry

[Keith T]

Terrytraveller - 2007-11-07 7:29 PM

Have you thought about attaching self sticking velcro strips or a velcro pad between the VESA mount and the rear of the TV, before bolting down? Will spread the load and reduce the possibilty of screws shaking out.

 

Regards Terry

 

Although I've not yet put ours into the motorhome as yet, I have 'prepared' it, and fitted the Vesa mount from the 'Media pole' in the Burstner on. It fits 100%, and I've actually packed some of the non-slip matting between the back of the TV and the mounting frame, more to absorbs bumps than anything else.

I've also tuned it in the house, using the main TV aerial, and the picture is great, with one annoying exception - it seems that almost every time we change a channel I have to manually correct the'size' to stretch the picture.....can't decide quite why even when set to 'auto' it makes everybody look very thin! The default setting somehow seems wrong and oncapable of permanent resetting.

[Terrytraveller]

Hi Keith,

 

I don’t think you have to worry about transit knocks and bumps, the sets have survived shipping over in containers, being bumped from warehouse to warehouse and then the shop or home delivery truck, have you seen the state of some packaging? go for the TV with the damaged packaging, if it still works it will have past the bump test!

 

Besides - the flow solder construction these days on printed circuit boards, large scale integration of electronics (one chip instead of hundreds of leaky separate ones) , clip in secured plugs and sockets (rarely used now), no glass valves or crt screens with fragile filaments and high mortality rates, make the sets less fragile and will last longer than most of us!

 

Regarding the picture aspect ratio there are only two modes Stretch and Auto, the default is always auto, hitting the size button does not display the current mode but switches into the next mode, switching on or switching channels will always display the picture in auto. I am glad you mentioned that everybody was looking a bit thin on the auto mode, I was afraid I was putting on weight. :-)

 

Regards Terry

[Randonneur]

Keith T - 2007-11-02 6:53 PM. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of any other source for it as it's a COmet 'own' product otherewise I would have gone elsewhere. Interesting the shop floor and interenet price are the same on this one..

 

Just as a matter of interest, we bought a Proline TV for the house from Darty the electrical people here in France. Whether they are connected with comet I don't know. The TV we bought is "Multi-standard", which means it can be used in different European Countries.

[Keith T]

Randonneur - 2007-11-08 11:03 AM

 

 

Just as a matter of interest, we bought a Proline TV for the house from Darty the electrical people here in France. Whether they are connected with comet I don't know. The TV we bought is "Multi-standard", which means it can be used in different European Countries.

 

Hi - yes, I'm pretty sure they are all part of the same group. Ours is also the multi standard set, + freeview which Iperhaps is only UK as present? Do you get this in france...We travel there for about 6-8 weeks per year, and often the analogue signal is fair to poor depening on where we are in france! If you get Freeview, does it work ok on the Proline model?

[Vernon B]

Terrytraveller - 2007-11-07 7:29 PM

 

 

You mention "I've only come across one minor worry. The stud diameters used for attaching the VESA mount appear to be a tad small - so I hope they will take the strain. "

 

Have you thought about attaching self sticking velcro strips or a velcro pad between the VESA mount and the rear of the TV, before bolting down? Will spread the load and reduce the possibilty of screws shaking out.

 

Regards Terry

 

Yes I had and I think that's a very good idea. What would we do without that stuff?

 

Anyway I have another question for you. Having installed the TV I'm now looking to buy some type of hard drive storage unit so that I can down load movies for long stays abroad. There appears to be a massive and confusing range of these things on the market. I'm looking for something compact, simply to operate but capable, with a decent storage capacity, that comes with a remote control and is easy to connect to the Proline.

 

As for that latter point I see most of these devices use a USB connection and as the Proline doesn't have one of these I wonder if you can buy an adaptor to access the HDMI port? I'd prefer to avoid using the Scart socket if possible because for some reason these appear to need a cable the thickness of a power supply for a small town and hence will put additional strain on that VESA mounting.

 

Sorry about the woffle but do you have any suggestions? Ideally I'd like to get a fair amount of change out of £100.

 

Vernon

 

 

 

[Dave Newell]

Hi Vernon, regarding your desire for a stand alone multi media player why not have a look at this

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221340&criteria=multi%20media%20player&doy=8m11

Its a bit more than you perhaps want to pay but it does offer a lot for your money.

 

D.

 

In edit you can use the composite output from this unit and feed it in to your Proline via the AV IN phono jacks. USB2 is only for connecting it to your PC/laptop.

[Basil]

Vernon B - 2007-11-08 11:18 AM

 

Sorry about the woffle but do you have any suggestions? Ideally I'd like to get a fair amount of change out of £100.

 

Vernon

 

Have you considered a normal DVD player that is DivX compatable? They are available from around £19.99 and will play all the movies you like off DVD which can contain 6 or 8 full movies burned on your computer. That is the only problem buying TV's with built in DVD they don't play all the available formats.

Just a thought.

 

Bas

 

P.S. Just cross posted with Daves find, that seems a good unit if not a little pricey. The DivX DVD players play all the same formats as that it is just the media that is different i.e. hard drive against DVD.

[Vernon B]

Hi Dave yes that's just the sort of thing I'm looking for and I do get 1p change out of £100. I can't help feeling these things are a bit over-priced at present, but it's certainly worth me taking a look around Maplins.

 

Cheers

 

V

[Dave Newell]

Yes its worth a look at Maplin website, they have several variations on this, some that you have to add a HDD to and some with one built in. One advantage of these drives is you can also use them as a backup platform for your PC/laptop.

 

D.

[Terrytraveller]

Hi Vernon,

 

I see Dave and Basil have given you some good advice, I have been that route, bought a 350Gb hard drive, used DVD Dycrypter to copy off my expensive DVD's onto the portable hard drive. Its a long tedious road, you might be better advised to save the coupons from the daily papers and build up a cheap assortment of entertainment and copying any favourite DVD films onto DVD blanks.

 

If your DVD's are older than 12 months you should be able to remove the copy protection with DVD Dycrypter or the like. If you are backing up your own DVD's then they can't put you away for it, and if they do - you will find the copied DVD's really useful, as DVD's will be the new currency, now smoking tobacco in public places has been banned. :D

 

Regards Terry

 

[Guest JudgeMental]

My son has a 60 gb Archos. its the size of 2 packs of cigarettes and an excellent bit of kit. downloads DVDs and TV to it and watches on the move. it is a MP3 player and a hard drive for storing digital camera images as well audio books whatever.....

 

not cheap but small and brilliant I have just dropped it and damaged the screen *-) so buying him a new one at Christmas at Dixons heathrow duty free. new one 80 gb and wifi as well so no need to take laptop for surfing..

 

original one was £350 (duty free) 3 years ago. new better spec model is just over £200

 

http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/

 

 

[Terrytraveller]

Hi Eddie,

 

Your Archos looks interesting - another way to record directly from the DVD, TV, radio etc... for your own use of course is as link http://tinyurl.com/2aq757 .

 

You do need a PC, but the created DVD's can be played back on all modern DVD players including the £199 Proline TV. The recording is made in real time through the USB port on the PC and the Red/White/Yellow TV or DVD phono connectors, then burn't onto a blank DVD.

 

Pinnacle software is provided and I have found it all works very well, around Xmas the package is usually discounted to £29.99

 

Regards Terry

 

Nearly forgot - I transfered all Walt Disney video tapes to DVD format for the Grandchildren, made backup copies onto the portable 350Gb drive, so now can replace the DVD's as sticky fingers damage the copies.

[b6x]

Did anyone work out how to "un-region" this TV's DVD player?

 

Ta,

Steve

 

[Guest JudgeMental]

b6x - 2007-11-22 2:20 PMDid anyone work out how to "un-region" this TV's DVD player?

 

Ta,

Steve

Terry sent me some info and a link to site where I have requested a hack for this model but nothing yet....the new Archos has wi-fi! ( Bernie aka dethleff has got one already)

[Terrytraveller]

Hi All,

 

I didn’t expect this simple posting to attract so much interest, I expect it’s the scrooge in us which wants to save so much money. I’m at the head of the queue already !

 

A simple excuse/reason to why you may want to replace your old analogue TV for a digital one, such as the PROLINE LVD1580WD I have recommended, is explained on link http://tinyurl.com/23742j

 

It also seems likely that the ghosting we have found on our old analogue TV caused by our location and/or the status omni-directional S3315, may in fact be an advantage when receiving the same signal with a digital TV. The late or early signal reflections that cause viewing misery on the old analogue TV system, actually add value to what has already been received by the digital TV digestive system, the signals add to those already received and are sorted and included, via the maelstrom of internal workings of the TV digital logic circuits – phew!

 

Interested in another Bargain - a combined Personal DAB radio, FM radio and MP3 player for around £40 ? you can pay £150 for a similar device.

 

Have a look at http://tinyurl.com/yr5x4w . I have bought one of these little beauties, the DAB and FM reception is extremely good and the integrated MP3 player accepts a 2 Gb SD card, enough for around 500 mp3 tracks., several talking books or pre-recorded shows from the BBC or wherever.

 

I use Freecorder http://applian.com/freecorder/support/user_guide2.php to download programmes from the BBC listen again schedules http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/wednesday/ and play them at a later time on the MP3 player. Useful when you are relaxing in the sun on a far off shore or in the recovery room of the local or foreign hospital :D

 

 

Regards Terry

 

[Randonneur]

Keith T - 2007-11-08 12:16 PM

 

 

Hi - yes, I'm pretty sure they are all part of the same group. Ours is also the multi standard set, + freeview which Iperhaps is only UK as present? Do you get this in france...We travel there for about 6-8 weeks per year, and often the analogue signal is fair to poor depening on where we are in france! If you get Freeview, does it work ok on the Proline model?

 

Yes, we have Freeview now in France but I don't know whether it is compatable with UK Freeview. I don't know enough about Freeview only that there are quite a lot of receivers on the market here now and very cheap. We use a Skybox with a minidish in the house. Sorry can't be of anymore help.