Sanyo CE32LD81-B 32in LCD TV Review
November 5th, 2007 | by Fitri |
We do not know about you, but we have to admit that we had almost forgotten Sanyo AV as a trademark. He was once one of the greatest players in the UK, but these days it seems to have lost under a deluge of games Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony and others. So some of us who still loves the underdog is pleased as punch today to get our hands on a new Sanyo LCD TV in the form of the 32in CE32LD81-B.
By CE32LD81 catchy name is not, but this kind of catchy by nature. Take price, for example. Less than £ 430 for a 32in LCD TV is really not good at all, taking Sanyo dangerously close to the kind of territory usually reserved for dedicated budget brands like Goodmans and Bush. Television is also a fairly attractive looker in his small, shiny black bezel and unusually bold blue neon light. If you are thinking of hanging-wall it, even though, just bear in mind that it is very fragmented from behind.
Connectivity is perfectly acceptable for such a cheap 32in TV. Twin HDMIs jack and a video component HD video get the ball rolling, there is a D-sub PC input so that the TV can double up a computer screen, a slot for adding CAM services ’subscription to a built-in digital tuner Freeview, and even a digital audio output so you can pass to a receiver AV any information carried in the audio via HDMIs.
We should probably say for the sake of completeness that the CE32LD81’s HDMI inputs are cases v1.2, v1.3, and not, and also that they do not take 1080p signals, instead lining to the 1080i. But then, it is unrealistic to expect HDMI v1.3 on a TV as affordable as this, and 1080p is really not very important at all on a package as small as 32in, which identify the differences between 1080i and 1080p is almost impossible.
The CE32LD81 HD Ready is a collection rather than a full HD, ie its native resolution comes at 1366 x 768. This is once again perfectly fine for a 32in TV. More alarming is a so-called contrast ratio of 1200:1 that looks rather underwhelming when you consider that LCD TVs are now out of contrast ratios greater than 8000:1. The potential strength that we can find in this apparent weakness is that it means that there is no backlight, adjusting the contrast dynamic in the game system and that we will not have to worry about the sort of ‘brilliance’ intensification ‘, which can affect dynamic contrast TVs.
We would not expect to find many elements of fantasy on a TV as cheap as the CE32LD81, and it does not let us down! After a thorough analysis of the trawl dated appearance on screen menus, anything that is worth mentioning noise reduction is a routine and a movie mode to stimulate motion during the handling of the films. And with that, we find ourselves trapped in obtaining the performance part of this review we rather sooner than usual. Just as well, then, that there’s plenty to talk about, most of which is not very nice, unfortunately.
Things are starting to evil, when it turns out that our CE32LD81 is not really work properly with our Sky HD receiver. To explain it, we settled our receiver on his’ Auto ‘output - probably the one that everyone should use to get the best picture quality of all the different resolutions available - meaning that it moves automatically between 576p and 1080i output as the source material is selected HD or standard def.
Normally, the box switch from one to a high standard def def channel simply resulted in a momentary cutting of the TV screen as it adjusts its production from the standard HD def. But with the HD CE32LD81 image displayed without sound, which takes nearly a minute to get the picture suddenly. Bizarre.
The situation is even worse if you switch to a standard def channel of high def, as it invariably leads to the TV “crash”, requiring you to shut it down and the new one. Nuts.
The grumpiness naturally raised by this debacle Sky HD is hardly mitigated by the first impression of CE32LD81 image quality. To begin with, the black levels are about as low as we had feared from the claim with a contrast ratio of 1200:1. There is clear evidence of the witness darker grey areas that still characterizes televisions contrasts with the problems, both do some Halo 3’s dark very difficult to see - not what you want, when you decided make stupidly Legendary On the campaign level. There is also a lack of information detailing in subtle dark parts of the image, leaving them look hollow and dislocated from the rest of the image.