The No-Haggle Pants-Down Guide To LCD TV Pricing At Macquarie Centre

Posted on by SpongBo

The Saturday Plan was simple: Run through Macquarie Centre with a notebook and camera, looking at the 32-40 inch LCD TVs on display (typically High Definition (HDTV) capable), and quickly rating them, with my pants down. Oh, how the simple plans are often the worst. My pants ended up staying on, to everyone’s disappointment.

Without too much further burble, here’s the current state of play for LCD TVs when shopping at Macquarie Centre.

All prices are in Aussie dollars ($AUD) and should include GST. Macquarie Centre is a shopping mall in the North Ryde/Marsfield/Epping area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Notes: The idea isn’t to work out which TV is the best or cheapest (though that would be nice) – the problem is that all the TVs are set up differently, by different people at different times, with different signals. This is a subjective test, not a scientific one. Data is inconsistent because I am too. I am not an expert. Do not listen to my opinion if you’ve already bought a TV and are happy with it. If I slag it off, it’s just because the one I saw had a problem. Price cockups are my own. OK? Personally: I’m looking for HDMI/HDCP or at worst DVI input.

Last Updated: 13th November, 2005

g: guess: model number wasn’t easily visible. NLD – no longer on display; might not be back.

Make Model Size Price Res Image Comments
Dick Smith Powerhouse Reasonable selection and price.
Trio TTH-32L 81 1599 (1799) 1366×768 4 Picture ghosted visibly in DVD playback. Dim (see comments).
Sharp AQUOS g: LC37G1XSYS 93 4293 1366×768 7 NLD. undersaturated. Big external box, darker grey than new Aquos’. Thin bezel.
Sharp AQUOS New (wide)
g: LC32GA4X		 81 3598 1366×768 8 no ext box on newer Aquos. Thin bezel. Pretty good.
Panasonic VIERA g: TX32LX1A 80.2 3599 (3498) 1280×768 8 possibly oversaturated, but good image.
JVC g: LT-Z32SX5 81 2372 1366×768 7 NLD. oversaturated, but OK
Sharp AQUOS LC32G1XSYS 81 2493 1366×768 5 NLD. Big Ext Box shockingly bad input source, but probably faithfully reproduced every horrid pixel.
Samsung g: LA32R51B 81 2798 (2987) ? 7 HDMI. undersaturated. visible artifacts around cricket score, but OK otherwise
Sony KLV-S32A10 81 2998 1366×768 7 Input source was split to 2 TVs and darkish. DVD wasn’t super-recent. Could be good.
Sony KLV-S40A10 101 5179 1366×768 4 Input source terrible, same on 4x TVs in same grid, but screen seemed pretty good. Sales guy said V series in next week.
Myer Terribly set up. I’m amazed if they sell any.
Do not buy a TV from Myer @ Mac Centre. Do not make decisions based on Myer in-store image quality. It will almost certainly be better in your home (or in just about any area of dangerous radiation)
Sharp AQUOS LC37GA4X 93 4999 1366×768 3- terrible source
Sharp AQUOS LC32GA4X 81 3499 1366×768 3- crap source
Panasonic TX-32LX500A 80 3199 1280×768 3- even worse source. Website says HDMI, though.
LG RT-32LZ50 81 2999 ? 3- pretty bloody bad source – misread as RT-32L250
Samsung LA32R51BX 81 2999 ? 3- (links to PDF) again, don’t look at the LCD TVs in Myer.
JB Hi Fi Usually pretty good prices, big range. I like JB because I had a good experience with their after-sales service when I bought a lemon of an MP3 player.
Sony WEGA KLVL-32M1 81 4499 (3999) 1366×768 7- Annoying Indirect link. Big frame, lots of wasted space. Big ugly external box too. Is it meant to be VEGA?
Sony BRAVIA KLV-S32A10 81 2998 1366×768 8 Annoying Indirect link. Good-looking thin frame. Some interlace-line flicker, minimal ghosting. I am tempted, but website shows only KLVV32A10 has HDMI…
Panasonic VIERA TX32LX1A 80 3999 (2998) 1280×768 7 (Price typo before? big jump) It looks good on paper, but then… 15:9?
Panasonic TX-32LX500A 80 2999 (3499) ? 7 SD card reader, HDMI
Sharp AQUOS LC37G1XSYS 93 4450 1366×768 6 Old model Big box. Didn’t look as good as it has before.
Sharp AQUOS LC32GA4X 81 3299 (3999) 1366×768 8 Looked good this time. Wide speaker model.
ViewPIA LC37IT11 93 2998 ? 5+ Model Typo? LC37IE11 on website. Some interference visible in darker sections – diagonal refresh lines. Pity.
Samsung LA32R51B 81 2898 (2999) 1366×768 7 undersaturated.
LG RT-32LZ50 81 2948 (3299)   6 *but haggle! ("Ask for a JB Deal!") – overbright blacks (looked purple)
JVC LT-Z32SX5 81 3299 1366×768 6 NLD. oversaturated, but OK
TEAC LCH03240 (?) 81 2298 ? 4- bad quality, dark image, ugly shell. Possibly lower res. Website acts as strange, hurtful punishment for those wanting to find out about their products.
Palsonic TFTV810 81 2899 ? 4 too dark. 16ms refresh but seemed to ghost
Big W If you’re buying an LCD TV from here, it’s because you’ve seen it elsewhere, the price is better, and when you saw it, it had been set up by someone without a serious smack problem. Think they use an analog 4:3 input and set the TVs to stretch the image.
AWA TFTD94G 94* 2784 1366×768 3 Low score due to terrible ?analog? ghosted blurry crap setup, and stretched image. Shifty said "looks crappy like a rear projection". Could actually be a good TV. Though if they have a website, it’s ranked well below my casual mention re LCD TV Prices. It’s a pity it’s set up so atrociously, because I really want to like this TV, especially at the amazing price.
AWA TFTD81 81 1998 ? 0 TV was displaying snow. Snow was stretched horizontally.
Possibly some ghosting. Snow may have been oversaturated. Do not buy to watch snow.

I’ll post some images sometime. That’s the plan, anyway.

Update: Was playing with the data in Excel, and uploaded a numbers-only copy here 29 Oct. 13th November. Gosh I’m nice.

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9 thoughts on “The No-Haggle Pants-Down Guide To LCD TV Pricing At Macquarie Centre”

  1. JUST BUY SOMETHING AND STOP PUNISHING EVERYONE AROUND YOU WITH YOUR INDECISIVENESS.

  5. I have one of those trio TTH-32L and it does have DVI, its on the side panel next to the D-SUB port. Also, the brightness of the backlight can be turned up, it is seperate to the regular brightness controll.

  7. Pingback: Pinkjoint » Pinkjoint LCD Prices Updated

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