Technika LCD22-208
Grr! Stop dumbing down technology! - Technika LCD22-208 LCD TV

Product Type: Technika 3D LCD TV

Newest Review: ... was very please he could not watch tv instead of reading newspapers all day. Technika ldc22-208 is a 22 inch tv. Black glossy plastic... more

Grr! Stop dumbing down technology!
Technika LCD22-208

bored_at_home

Member Name: bored_at_home

Product:

Technika LCD22-208

Date: 08/02/11, updated on 08/02/11 (214 review reads)

Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: Too many to list

I'll be honest, this is more of a rant than a review but ill try to be as helpful as possible.

Technika is tescos own brand (remember Logik and Matsui?) apparently outsourced to Samsung. I don't know where to start really. They are TVs, they are correct in providing the features that people have been told they should look for in a TV. Normally they are 1080p (Blu-Ray, this particular model is below 1080p in some strange twilight zone of resolutions), you get 22 inches of screen size (21.6), it will play dvds and show freeview channels.

Here's a technical explanation of why Technika TVs will never meet my standards and the standards of a lot of people, here are the metrics some people *should* look for in a TV:
*response time: This is the speed at which the TVs computer changes frame, a HIGH response time causes screen tearing on even the slowest of scenes, even the opening sequence of coronation street may look blurry. Technika TVs don't even list their response times which suggests to me that they're too aweful to even publish to the public. For the same price you can buy a TV from anywhere else and compare response times.
*refresh rate / hz / frequency: This is the number of times that the TV produces a new image for your eyes, your eyes see at 25hz, less than 75hz will give a lot of people headaches or make their eyes feel tired. Computer screens are never less than 75hz, Technika TVs are 50hz, for £100 more you can get a 100hz TV that will be much easier on the eyes.
*contrast ratio: this is a rough numerical indication of how many different colours the TV can display at once. Technica 208s render 700:1 contrast ratio, this is the worst I've ever seen. It's commonly accepted that 50,000+ is good and below is noticeably bad. Colours won't look right especially on anything particularly colourful like nature shows. Again, for £100 more you can get a 50,000+ TV and not have these types of problems.

Also I should note that the build quality on Samsungs in a similar price range is very poor (I own one), cheap plastics, missing features, tinny speakers not even pointing forward. So if these are manufactured by Samsung then I would expect a very low build quality.

In short: If you sit down with your family and try to watch James Bond, the poor picture quality will be the elephant in the room. If you want a TV for the kids room then Technika may suit.

Summary: Pay more for any sort of quality

Processing/Quality:    Processing/Quality
Reliability:    Reliability
Ease of use:    Ease of use
Installation:    Installation
Sound quality:    Sound quality
Features:    Features