HD on a Budget
Written: Nov 19 '06 (Updated May 17 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Picture Quality: |
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Price, good picture overall, great details, lots of inputs
Cons: No sound output, low bass (somewhat fixed in settings), too bright or dark in extremes
The Bottom Line: The perfect TV to introduce HDTV to your household. Perfect for holding out for better units to come down in price, while you get to enjoy HDTV now.
|
|
|
| nad_masters's Full Review: Norcent Technologies LT3222 LT-3222 LT3225 LT-3225... |
Impressions
Picked up for $700 with free shipping at Buy.com, I really didn't get too much to do much research. A quick scan had good praises regarding picture quality "for the price", so I decided to check it out. It was about time to get rid of our 17 year old 27" Sharp TV any ways.
After receiving it, I found that 32" wide screen is actually slightly shorter than our old 27" - just wider. This means it didn't really look bigger than our old TV. Thankfully, it was big enough for comfortable viewing.
I've noticed that LCDs are horrible in the living room - they are much brighter when whites are showing, and blacks does not have very good contrasts. I do noticed that once you adjust it, the picture is watchable, but still seem to loose a bit on details (since whites can still be blinding). It felt like I was looking into a bright florescent light. But more on that later.
Technical Details
Video
Type 32" TFT-LCD
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Signal Compatibility 480i, 480p,720p,1080i
Panel Resolution 1366 x 768
Display Area 709mm x 399mm
Pixel Pitch .52mm x .52mm
Number of Colors 16.7 million
Viewing Angle (H/V) 176° /176°
Peak Brightness (Cd/mē) 550
Contrast Ratio 1000:1
Response Time 8ms
Comb Filter 3D Digital
Built-in Tuner NTSC & ATSC
Audio
Speaker Power 10W x 2
Audio Enhancement SRS TruSurround
MTS/SAP Yes
Connections
RF Antenna Input 1
Headphone Output 1
Composite Video Input 2
Component Video Input 2
S-Video Input 2
PC Input (with audio input) 1
Audio (L/R) Inputs 4
HDMI (with HDCP) 1
General
On-Screen Menu Languages English / French / Spanish
Power Supply AC 100V-240V 50/60Hz
Wall Mount VESA 100mm x 100mm (Not Included)
Other Progressive Scan, Parental Control, Sleep Timer
Note: Despite what the manufacturer listed, I found that there was no headphone output at all. There is no way to output the sound from the TV to a reciever at all. This mean you are stuck with the built-in 10W speakers for TV and HDMI viewing.
Set up
The unit was light enough for me to hoist it up on a TV stand that stood about 4 feet tall all by my lonesome. Getting the old 27" CRT off was not as fun.
The connectors are located in a straight-up angle, which makes it difficult to connect wires to (especially F-type connectors that requires you to screw them in). Also the HDMI connector is too close to the back of the TV that may make connecting HDMI cables with a ferrite core impossible. Worse yet are HDMI to DVI converters, which tend to take up more space than your straight-up HDMI connector.
Also, the label caused much confusion since the connectors in a weird upward area.
There are two RF inputs (another descrepency on the manufacturer's listing). One is for analog TV, while the other is for Digital TV (DTV). So for a 32" LCD with a DTV tuner, it came at a nice price. It is difficult to screw int he F-type connector for the analog, since it is so much closer to the back of the unit, you will be hitting your knuckles as you try to twist it. My tip is to use a push-in connector, even though most hard-core audio-video people will be against it. After all, this TV is not exactly where you are gonna start your home theater, are you? Also, it is just for the analog tuner, which you probably don't care about (you can even leave this disconnected if you have reliable DTV in your area).
The picture needs to be adjusted from the factory. I found it too be too saturated in color, so everyone looked a bit reddish. Also, it was too bright. The on-screen menu is pretty stupid in design, in my opinion. It covers up most of the screen, so when you are adjusting the picture, you really can't judge how the picture looks without exiting the menu.
Also, any inputs to the TV (from remote or the unit's side panel buttons) lag a bit. It can be a frustrating experience.
Remote
The remote definitely looks like it belongs to a budget brand. The buttons are small, and whoever designed it did not give it any thought on where the buttons should logically be. The volume up/down and channel up/down are all exactly the same size and shape (along with all the other buttons), so you cannot find it by feel in the dark.
Oh well... you will have to live with it if you wish to enjoy this purchase (and I can't complain too much at the price).
Picture quality
I have been constantly adjusting the picture, and find that the nature of this TV (or perhaps all LCD TVs) is that whites will always be blindingly bright, while the darks will blend in with the grays. Where there is extreme darkness or brightness, there is a lot of details that can be lost. Such as wrinkles in a white shirt or a dark suit. However, everything in between (and all the other colors) looks perfect.
It probably won't distract you while watching a TV show or a movie, but when you see a commercial (that uses alot of computer generated whites), you will be blinded, I promise you. :)
Sound Quality
The sound is very lacking when I first started the TV up. It just had the laptop-speaker sound to it. Our old TV sounded much fuller than this Norcent unit! I was very worried, especially since I found out that it was not true that it had a headphone output (which I can use to output to better speakers).
Fortunately, there was a sound menu. I found that by turning the bass up all the way to 100, it sounded almost as good as my old TV. That was good enough for me, but I feel cheated, as I am at the bass setting's limit!
Though it is fine for TV viewing, it still seems inadaquate for a 32" wide screen of action. Instead, I have decided to build a high-def Media Center to do my tuning instead. This way, I also have the freedom to port the sound to any sound system I like. Although made for desktops, I ported it over to my Klipsch Promedia 2.1s, and it sounds much more fitting to what you see on the screen (especially when it comes down to high-action movies and shows).
Direct tuning of the DTV still uses the built-in speakers, and I am not oppose to them for watching sitcoms. However, Prison Break, 24, and Heroes just doesn't sound filling.
Conclusion
All in all, free HDTV is great, especially with the new network TV shows that are truly must see. Prison Break, Lost, all the CSIs, Heroes, 24, and more... who needs cable? My old Windows Media Center had to be upgraded since I just couldn't stand the standard res recordings I've made before. DVDs look better too, but actually looks worse compared to the free HDTV shows that I get in my area.
Although the whites are blinding, and the blacks blends in with the gray, I am still happy with the purchase, as it is an inexpensive unit that still looks 100 times better than my old TV. It is what I will live with.
For those who would like a better performer, you will have to look at a plasma. However, the steep price will keep me from jumping on that bandwagon for a long while.
The Norcent LT-3250 is a great introduction to free off-the-air HDTV. Even standard definition looks better, as it is being displayed in progressive mode. The analog TV tuner does no real justice to the display however. But at least if you have that one station you watch that isn't in the DTV realm, you can still tune to it with this TV.
Also, if you are a gamer like us, it's a great TV for the new generation of consoles that now have HDTV support. Our XBox 360 looks awesome with Fight Night and NBA Live 07! The PS3 is now coming out with Blu-Ray built in, and now even Microsoft released their HD-DVD add-on for their XBox 360 - it is a HDTV future.
If you use your Media Center as your PC game box, even better! World of Warcraft looks absolutely stunning, and it supports the LCD's native resolution perfectly!
Despite the minor gripes, I would still recommend the Norcent LT-3250.
Update: So it's been almost 9 months with the TV, and I must say I am still enjoying it. I've noticed I have avoided the Norcent TV remote by doing all of my tuning using my Media Center PC. The Media Center remote is so well designed! We also finally bought a PS3 and a BluRay movie (the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale). The picture quality wasn't as stunning as we would hoped for, but then again, we have been enjoying HD content already since I built the HD Media Center (all of our favorite shows are in HD already - Lost, 24, The Office, etc), so watching Casino Royale in BluRay (though it looks awesome), didn't knock our socks off as it may have if we never watched HD content on a daily basis.
Either way, though, the AVS format of Casino Royale as well as the non-compressed (or lossless) audio was a great treat. The TV rendered the picture very well, and there were no artifacts detected. Also, Casino Royale was transfered very well onto HD media as well from film (and it was in AVS not MPEG-II). H.264 one day, please!!!
With prices of HDTVs falling, I wish I could wait - there are now 42" LCDs that could be had for about the same price I paid for my 32".
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 699
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
nad_masters
|
 in Computer Hardware |
 - Top 100 |
|
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Reviews written: 548
Trusted by: 114 members
About Me:
If you mind is in the gutter, where are your hands?
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.