SWOOPO

awaywardlad · SWOOPO

Anybody used this site or have any experience of it?

Are there genuine bargains or is it a con?

I've looked at it and it seems too good to be true and although I've registered I've not bought any vouchers or attempted to buy any goods.

PS The reason for scouting around is my television has died so I need a new one ie 37/42" lcd in a decent make - any help?

Owl of Minerva

Careful, it's a bit like a pyramid scheme. The winners (those who get a pretty cheap item) think it is great but there are many losers (those who pay to bid on, but don't get, the aforementioned item) to every winner and overall there is only really one winner. Basically it's a gambling site and it's up to you whether you want to gamble

awaywardlad

gromero

type swoopo and con into google and read the results. the site is to be avoided imo

try using www.avforums.com, the best site around for independent advice on tv's etc.

what's your budget? I wouldn't get an LCD, but that's just my preference.

Papa 3 · Re: SWOOPO

gromero

no offence papa, but that is a serious waste of £429, if you're a geek like me that is

awaywardlad

Papa 3

johnnio

I went on it for a while there, and I agree it's to be avoided. You bid on an item and there's a countdown clock and the idea is that when the clock gets to zero and you're the bidder, you win the item for that price. The problem is, every time it gets close to zero, someone comes in with another bid and the clock restarts. You buy a bundle of bids for about £14 or so (there are bigger bundles) and you use them to bid. Each time the clock restarts an extra 10p goes on the price. You can use an automatic bidder that will bid for you, but I've never been able to see the option for that. It's very frustrating, any time I've pulled out of bidding the next bid or the one after has won, which makes me think there's a bit of a con going on.

awaywardlad

SWOOPO

Not touching with a bargepole - thanks everyone.

Still need a telly though.

Papa 3

Papa 3

awaywardlad

gromero

First of all I'd always buy from John Lewis for their free 5 year warranty on all tv's. There list prices are always extortionate, but they will price match on any local stockist that has stock of the tv that you want to buy. It takes 24/48 hours or so to get the price macth confirmation.

Then I would start looking at somewhere like Richer Sounds for the cheap price.
www.richersounds.com

Personally I would always buy a plasma over an LCD. LCD has all sorts of problems, motion blur, viewing angle, lack of contrast etc etc.
Plasma gives the sharpest image in a flat panel tv, the latest ones never suffer from motion blur and have the best levels of contrast available.

Now it really depends on how much you are willing to spend and what you are actually going to be watching and how far away you are going to be sitting from the screen.
At 42" screen size, you want to be at least 8 feet away.

If you are planning on watching just standard definition tv and dvd's then you can get away with a 720p resolution screen.
something like this http://www.richersounds.com/produ...onic/viera-txp42x10/pana-txp42x10
Which is an absolute bargain at £500, these were retailing at over £1k when they were launched with a different stand 2 years ago.

If you are planning on watching HD tv and blu-rays, which I would highly recommend, then you'll need a proper 1080p resolution screen.
like this, http://www.richersounds.com/produ...nic/viera-txp42g10/pana-txp42g10b
Which I still think is good value for a stunning tv.

If you really wanted to splash the cash, then I would really recommend any Pioneer plasma for the ultimate high definition tv, but they are expensive and hard to find now.

If you wanted to go down the LCD route, then Samsung and Sony make some ok tv's, but I personally wouldn't buy them.
Don't be fooled by the marketing gimmick of samsung's LED LCD brand, it's a crude trick to try to increase the contrast by having tiny LED's in each pixel, some like it, I think it looks awful.
Check out the avforums site for good impartial advice though.

Darren

That is brilliant advice.

Well in, Gromero.

Papa 3

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?LH_...Cbx=1&_udlo=200&_udhi=300

The very best that I can do, if you have Paypal, they sort things out for you if there is any problems with the seller, to the best of my knowledge they refund.

gromero

but please please do not buy Bush, Hitachi, Sharp, LG, Beko, Logik etc etc, you will only be disappointed and I guaratee you'll be buying another tv within 12 months.

edit: cheers darren, unfortunately my geekiness doesn't stop at horse racing, I have several other embarassing geeky things to obsses about.

awaywardlad

Thanks Gromero/Papa 3

Will study although will probably not go down the unknown makes route on EBay.

Grom - food for thought with LCD v Plasma and I'm grateful for your suggestions.I like Richer Sounds as have bought from them before with no problems.

Now who has a 33/1 winner for this afternoon to pay for it!!!!

Thanks again.

Owl of Minerva

Richer Sounds: great company

geordie_racer

L.C.

We bought a new tv recently (about 3 months ago) from a website that somebody on here recommended (cant remember who).

Website was:

http://www.ebuyer.com/

This was the tv we bought:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154998

I'd never heard of Foehn and Hirsch before, but it's a great tv (so far). We chose it because it had a free 3 year warranty thrown in - i'm fairly sure we looked at Richer Sounds at the time, and you either had to pay for the warranty, or it was only 18 months free (i cant remember).

To be honest though, me and the missus are not really techno-geeks, we just liked the price - figured if we got 3 years out of it for that price (£390), then great

Cheers

LC

gromero

Agree Sony are fine, good even on some of their screens.

My brother has a Sony 40" 1080p LCD that he paid a fortune for and loves. I've watched it a fair bit and played ps3 on it, it does look fairly good, but I wouldn't swap it for my panasonic if you paid me.

Richer Sounds is a great company I agree, but like any retailer they have margins and some tv's have better margins than others, so I wouldn't listen to their sales staff. I would find out for myself and buy from them only if they are the cheapest, which they usually are.

And don't buy a £50 HDMI gold plated cable that they will push.

Once you've got your tv sorted, we can then talk amplifiers and surround sound. You should see my subwoofer in my lounge, it could knock down Big Ben with bass

lochsong

Gorg_George

I just brought a Panasonic G1042 (Plasma) and I have to say, It's too nice for words on all formats, SD, HD, Sport, Gaming, it's just bliss. Around £7-£800, I managed to get mine with a free HDMI cable worth £40 and a 5 year guarantee for £770 from a local shop, bargain. Plasma's are SOO much better than LCD's I'm surprised anyone bothers buying them.

Tagalie

gromero

Aww Tags you made my day.

Fancy an afternoon of train spotting, I can then tell you all about my stamp collection...

Machiavellian

People without hinterland are not to be trusted.

LongJ0n

gromero

foot in mouth moment. I'm glad you like your LG.
I've got a fridge made by them, which I enjoy looking at more than their tv's...

no I'm joking, ignore me

Gorg_George

It's all about the 600hz Viera technology with its 2,000,000:1 refresh rate

gromero

2,000,000:1 is the contrast ratio and 600hz is the refresh rate, but I'm with you GG, you have a stunning tv. Neopdp, I was sold before I even read the specs.

Gorg_George

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