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42" Full HD Soniq LCD TV $399 at JB Hi-Fi!

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Just got the new JB Catalogue in the mail today, and on the front page it has a 42" Soniq FULLHD TV for only $399!
I have been looking for a new TV and this seems to be the one, provided the picture is up to scratch. Did a search online but doesn't seem to be up yet, just thought i'd give you all the heads up! Limit is 2 per customer.

On sale from Thursday 22nd September

Specs:

1920x1080 Resolution
2x HDMI & 2x Component Inputs
USB Multimedia Playback
USB Record With Timeshift
Coaxial Digital Audio Output

Related Stores

JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi

closed Comments

  • +3

    wow that's cheap… i'm tempted… but i'll wait for Sony's HD OLED Head Mount Display

    • +11

      Don't wait too long, I hear Apple is already working on an injunction!!! :p

      • what's injunction?

        • +9

          introvert extrovert doesn't it matter…

      • +3

        You mean the new Apple iNJunction 5G?

        • +2

          Lol, yep that's the one! :)

          I hear the new startup sound is actually an EMP that disables all competing devices & thus forces them to be removed from shelves worldwide! ;)

  • LED?

    • +1

      No catalogue says LCD.

      • +1

        LCD IS LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY…. LED is the back lighting and traditional LCDs are halogen lit.

        • +4

          Traditional LCDs are backlit by cold cathode fluorescent light tubes.

  • MKV support? What's the energy rating on these? How do these rate compared to 40" DSE ones that sold for $399?

    • +12

      these are 2" bigger?…

      • +5

        they go to eleven.

  • +1

    Now to wait for kogan to pull something even cheaper out of the dark :)

    • -2

      must be from their butt**** warehouse.

  • not a JV HiFi deal? no buy

  • Hey all,

    I'm interested in buying this screen to use for my computer. I'm wondering what your experiences are with normal computer use with a 42inch screen.
    Ie. web viewing, typing, all these basic things.

    Cheers

    • I used my old Soniq 42" LCD as my main monitor for about a year and thought it was fine. It is nowhere near as good as a proper display monitor, but as I was living in a small studio apt it also doubled as my TV and worked fine…even better for watching Blu Rays. Back in 2009 I paid $999 and they sold out in 10 mins.

    • +8

      I bought the Soniq 32" TV from JB last time. You can only use a computer with the VGA input. When I connect the computer via HDMI the TV's overscan cuts off the edges of the screen, so it's impossible to see the task bar, top menu bars and the left and right edges of the screen. Using it with VGA mode looks fine but I wonder if it really is showing me true pixel-for-pixel 1920x1080. If I hook up the computer via both HDMI or VGA, the TV and computer both tell me they are displaying 1920x1080 resolution, but VGA shows the entire screen and HDMI crops the image, so one of them must be lying. I can't find any options in the menus to turn off over-scan for HDMI. My LG has an option for this but the Soniq 32" doesn't. I don't know if the 42" model is the same, but often they use the same internal components and software for each generation of TV.

      BTW the PVR is rubbish, it's takes lots of button presses on the remote to navigate your way to watch a recorded TV program. It's not very useful as a media player either, because when I plug my hard drive to watch something from it, the TV takes about two minutes to scan the entire hard drive for media before displaying a list of TV shows, and they don't come up in folder view, everything from every folder is displayed. Useful only if you copy a small number of shows to a USB stick first using your computer, but not if you want to manage a large hard disk based collection. You can set a timer to schedule recording a TV show to hard disk, but it actually turns on the TV set while recording then doesn't turn it off when finished. As a test I set it to record the Formula 1 while I was away for the weekend, and the TV turned itself on Sunday night to record the race then stayed on all Monday until I arrived home later that night, so it's useless unless you're taping something while you're actually in front of the TV, plus it's single tuner so you can't watch a different channel while it's recording. You can't even switch to a different input and watch a DVD, the TV has to be actively displaying what it is recording, otherwise the recording stops.

      Again, my comments are based on the 32" Soniq model, the 42" may have better software. The above points would be an issue for a $1000 TV, but for the $299 I spent on it it was still FANTASTIC value! The only thing stopping me from replacing the 32" with this 42" model for $100 more is that I don't really watch any HD content, and low definition TV shows or YouTube clips tend to look more pixellated on a larger screen.

      • Great post Greenie - very informative - thanks. I have the 32" but haven't tried the PVR feature yet - although having it in the specs was a significant plus in my decision to go ahead and buy one.

      • +3

        I LOVE the PVR in the soniq

        my soniq has the folder structure, odd yours doesnt? maybe you need a firmware upgrade/downgrade…

        no way i'd have spent more to get a mainstream brand… would definatly buy another soniq.

        one of the better EPGs ive seen, it just overlays it on the screen and very easy to navigate.
        that said, i wish it would save them… i find every time i watch the TV all channels need an update, it either doesnt save them or only saves the days stuff.
        only other thing with it is you have to allocate space/format the HDD you want to record on., just just use whatevers left on your HDD if i understand it correctly.

        if using the screen as a monitor usually you can change the screen size though the NV/AMD control pannel

        • +1

          My 32" Soniq also displays the proper folder structure from the USB drive, and only takes around 10 secs to read the drive initially (almost full 1TB drive).

          The only niggle is that it doesn't display many characters from the filename. I just used MediaRenamer to take the show title out of the filenames and just leave the episode number/title: http://code.google.com/p/mediarenamer/

          Other problem is that videos in 2.35:1 (most good movie rips) are stretched to fill the screen rather than letterboxed, but for $299 it's a small complaint.

        • +2

          Hmm.. very weird. I just tried it again and one of my hard drives doesn't display a folder structure but the other one does. I wonder if using NTFS vs FAT32 makes a difference. Also it won't let me record to a hard disk until I reformat the hard disk, so you have to use it with a blank hard drive, or lose everything on your existing HD before you can record. It's also impossible to jump directly to a certain place in a movie, so you have to fast-forward instead of just jumping to 1 hour 15 min. When recording it places a Recording icon at the top of the screen which can't be removed. The aspect ratio of some media also doesn't play back correctly, eg some movies filmed in 2.35:1 aspect.

          My Soniq 32" also displays a logo and plays an annoying noise whenever I turn it on. Does yours do the same?

          None of my computers will allow me to change screen size, there's no option in the Display control panel or video card utility. I don't have any NVidia or AMD video cards.

          My Software Version number is: L32V11A-AU Ver 1.01
          Hardware: LYRA Ver 1.03
          Is yours the same? Maybe the TVs are from different batches. I can't find anywhere on their website offering a firmware upgrade. Also I can't find the L32V11A model listed anywhere on the Soniq site, only the L32V11B. Weird.

      • +1

        Great post. Would appreciate it if anyone has tried hooking up a soniq 42" as a monitor. Any cut off errors like greenie4242 said? Thanks in advance

        • +1

          may not be relevant but i have hooked up my laptop to my OLD 720p lg plasma, fine with rgb, cut off with hdmi.

        • +2

          Same hear. If it crops the picture it's still not worth it despite the cheap price.
          The feature wanted is called '1:1 pixel mapping' but different brands call it different things.
          Anyone know what button/feature name to look for on a Soniq?

        • +1

          Had a look-see on the soniq website, it has this listed for some specs:

          Video Features
          Video Format : PAL/SECAM/NTSC
          PC Resolution Supporting : Panel
          HDMI Port Supporting : 1080P
          Component supporting : 1080P

          The third line there seems like it might be trying to tell us about this 1:1 feature, but I'm struggling to dis-cypher it :P Here's the page if you wanted to try and figure it out.

        • I have mine setup as a monitor though VGA and it works perfectly. No cut off and as far as I can see 1:1 pixel mapping after auto aligning.

      • +2

        I connect a PC via HDMI to a Conia 32" TV (1366 x 768 or thereabouts) and adjusted the screen resolution via Catalyst software (ATI video card) to fit the output to the screen. Reasonably straight forward.

      • When I connect the computer via HDMI the TV's overscan cuts off the edges of the screen…

        Your video card might have an option to adjust overscan - my ATI does, at least.

      • +1

        Overscan is something you can turn off in your gpu's control panel (e.g Catalyst Control Center for AMD cards) and both the vga cable and hdmi cable are able to output 1080p. HDMI however is able to offer audio as well as video through the cable, depending on your computer.

        Just a heads up for anyone worried about overscan.

      • I'm not gonna lie I didn't read your whole post. I just wanted to say the overscan issue happens with almost all HDTVs. It is always configurable, in the intel or ATI display settings.

  • +1

    It annoys the fuck out of me that dirt cheap TVs like this by no name brands can afford to put in a PVR function showing that it must be dirt cheap to do and yet there are $2k TVs out their (2011 models btw) by Samsung, LG etc which don't have it.

    • +4

      Unfortunately the PVR software included in many TVs is junk, so the more expensive brands probably didn't include that feature for a reason. I do agree it should be a relatively simple thing to add, but after using or owning eight different brands of digigal set-top box and PVR recorder, most of them have various software glitches and none could be described as perfect. It's probably better to have a separate TV and PVR recorder, then if you really need a PVR feature you can buy something that suits you best.

      Some fairly expensive TVs can't even get the basic TV interface right, making it very difficult to change basic things like brightness or contrast, so I hate to think how badly their software engineers would screw up a PVR function. I tried changing the colour settings on a TV the other day and the colour adjustment menu blocks the ENTIRE TV screen, so you can't see the picture that you're adjusting! You have to make an adjustment, then exit the menu, then spent thirty seconds navigating through about eight screens to get back to the colour menu again if the adjustment wasn't quite right. The software engineers obviously never tried using the feature themself, or they were just deliberately pissing people off by making it difficult to use!

      • +3

        dont know why people think the PVRs in TVs are junk, if the soniq had network, it would be perfect for me!

        • +1

          All the TV-based ones I've tried have been horrible. I'm sure good ones exist but I've never encountered one yet. Maybe your Soniq has a newer firmware to the ones I've tried using, but the Soniq website doesn't have details on any available updates.

    • +2

      tat's weird…my 2010 sammy plasma has PVR built-in.., just plug a usb drive and way u go…

  • +1

    Hi Bro

    Can u attached the new catalogue for our reference?
    thanks.

  • Any idea on the Hz of this screen?

  • Do you think JB would sell them on the Wednesday night?
    Anyone actually use the Sonic 42", and if so, is it any good?

    • Just drop to a local JB, they already selling them. Model: L42V11A which i can't find any spec and info on the soniq website.

      • Even I can confirm this.
        Went to JB chadstone to get their latest catalog but end up buying this as they already stared selling them.
        Bought for 450(With 5years international warranty)
        It has 4 1/2* energy rating.

        Fond this manual for this tv,
        ftp://ftp.quatius.com.au/Manuals/L42V11A-AU.pdf
        it will take some time to load this PDF but it will load.

        • can't load it,the link is correct?

        • +1

          Yes link is correct. It will take some time to load so just let it load and do your other work while it is loading.

        • thanks, just open it.

        • Another link

          http://www.zshare.net/download/945110400fb4db10/

          Contrast: 1000:1

          It doesn't list response time, anyone know what it is?

        • What's the base warranty it comes with?

    • +1

      I know someone who has the 42" Soniq LED, and is very happy with it. Paid $799 a few months ago. The only thing is that the sound on them is not very good, you need to hook it up to seperate speakers. If I buy this, I will probably just put my Logitech X-530's on.

      Soniq uses Samsung panels though, so picture quality is very good from what I have seen.

      • +1

        Samsung you say? I am tempted now :o

        • +2

          The guy at JB HIFI told me that this one comes with LG panel.Not sure….

        • +1

          the other soniq 32" that everyone went crazy over did as well…(come with an LG)

        • +1

          that mention of samsung is with an LED.
          i tried to match 42" LCDs on the govt energy ratings website and there aren't any 42" samsung LCDs (not incl LED-LCDs), but there are LG (and other no names). sounds like it may well be an LG panel

      • I was told LG also

  • Can confirm that JB Melrose Park, SA are also already selling them at this price. Been using the TV for 30 minutes and can not complain. Thank you OP for alerting me to this bargain!

  • does anyone can provide some spec for this model?

    • Download above manual it has specification on page 35.
      If you want to know any specific thing just let me know.

      • thanks bro, can u kindly let us know whether this model suppoet mkv file or what kinds of file will support ?cheers

        • Nothing mentioned in manual regarding mkv but I will test it today evening and will let you know.

        • cool ,thanks a lot.

  • +2

    if anyone hooks up a 360/ps3 to it post here what the picture quality/lag is like.

    • +1

      I have played God of War 3 on PS3 over HDMI and it is AMAZING.

      • sounds good then - I am thinking I will buy this TV on the weekend. Still considering a Panasonic plasma, but this is slightly in the lead.

  • Saw this TV today. The picture looks great - very sharp. I think I will buy it once I get paid, as its a great deal. Still want to compare side by side with the Panasonic plasma I was looking at though.

  • Just dropped down to my local jbhi $399 for 42 inch so cheap regret paying $1800+ for my 46 inch sammy now could have bought 3 of these picture just as good cant find a flaw only problem has 2 hdmi only. Getting kids one for there room to play ps3 on, any confirmation on the .mkv play back at the moment? thanks

  • Here is the link the the tv on JB's website.

    http://www.jbhifi.com.au/tv-lcd-led-plasma/soniq/42-full-hd-…

    And you can buy it now in Store, JB Hi-Fi in Camberwell has heaps in stock. Below is a photo of display model.

    http://imgur.com/QIAUb

    And does any one know how much JB were selling these for before this sale?

    • As per jb guy it is new on stock and RRP is 600

  • anyone got the tv and clarify how long for the warranty,mkv support?

    • can't say anything on mkv rite now but base warranty is 1 year

      • +2

        Can confirm now that it can not play mkv from USB.
        I need to connect my laptop to tv to play mkv on laptop and put output on tv

        • +2

          is there a firmware upgrade that will let you play mkvs?

        • thanks

  • +1

    so it can't support mkv files?

  • I just wonder why this one is so cheap, when they had the $799 Soniq FULLHD 42" a few months ago, but that was LED.

  • A question for those who have this TV - how easy is the on-screen text to read? I looked at one in the Melbourne CBD store this evening but all they had was a series of very slo-mo images playing on it. I wanted to try changing channels to see the OSD size but it was not connected to digital TV signal.

    I've seen the "source" menu text in store - does the text that shows you which channel you're on appear larger/smaller/same size as that?

    The manual at ftp://ftp.quatius.com.au/Manuals/L42V11A-AU.pdf has what appears to be a screenshot on p18, but it could also be from any Soniq, perhaps not this one.

    Any feedback on text size would be appreciated. In the screenshot I've mentioned, it looks like "SBS One" is about the same size text as the "source" menu options, but the "Join host Richard Morecroft…" text appears to be tiny and far too small to read from a distance!

    Your practical experience would be appreciated!

    • The text is fine to read from any distance and is really sharp. I was quite surprised. In store, the slow motion images don't do the TV any justice. I almost didn't buy it due to that demo. The staff refused to play another source ("we aren't allowed to") however there was another TV set up at the front of the store playing a blu-ray (Toy Story 2). This convinced me to get it due to the sharpness and overall image quality.

      I actually prefer the menu system, EPG and overall ease of use to my Sony LCD.

      • Thanks hathro - I was mainly irritated by the slow motion images because one of the main problems I have with digital TV is when the action is fast moving. Any time I see a display with just slow-motion footage it makes me concerned about what "they" are trying to hide. </tinfoil>

        • I can tell you that you don't even notice it when watching TV at home. That demo is being played through so many TV's and is most likely made by "sony" or the like, tailor made to show off their TV's as being the best. It only shows them being the best under certain conditions - not TV or watching movies which is what you will use your TV for.

  • would not touch these again, i bought a 50 full hd soniq from jb and it had a faulty/dead speaker. The next 2 had the same problem. Ended up getting an LG. Probably just a bad batch but still. I guess if your using external speakers then who cares.

    • I say it wasn't actually a dead speaker, you just didn't adjust the audio settings properly. Mates one had the same problem - but I fixed it in 5 minutes. They seem to come set so they only use one speaker for some strange reason :S

      • Did it fix the bad sound quality? It is ok at low volumes, but horrible at high volumes.

        • Nope, sound is terrible on all of them. You really do need to hook them up to seperate speakers, even if they are just $50 logitechs. Im going to buy it and put my X-530's on or use it with my Sennheiser headphones.

          The picture though is very good - holds up to Samsung etc.

      • nubzy how did you fix the sound cause on my brothers soniq plasma sound comes from one side only also

      • how do you plug headphones in? it only has digital coaxial out i cant find headphone out or even rca out

        • Either thru an amp that has coaxial digital or get a converter which is what i have ordered thru dealextreme $23

  • Info regarding this tv is now available on Soniq website as well,
    http://www.soniq.com.au/LCD-TV-s/L42V11A/flypage.tpl.html

    Surprisingly specification on website says it comes with cleaning cloth but I didn't get any with mine… :)

  • Hi Nubzy, I went to JB HiFi in Brisbane this morning to check out the Soniq TV. I couldn't make much of a judgement with the picture quality. The shop had it hooked up to a DVD player running component with some slo-mo stuff. He said the DVD player was running in standard def. He told me to come back in the arvo cos he is going to reconfigure a blu ray up to it or something running high def. Sorry if that sounds vague, I don't quite fully understand the jargon.

    Anyway, I also spotted a panasonic 42" plasma (TH-P42U30A) advertised at $698 at JB Hifi. The price was crossed out and the price tab said "ask for a deal". I would prefer the panasonic just because it's a name brand and had wifi, extra HDMI port, more audio outputs.

    The soniq only had coax output :/

    Was this the same model panasonic TV you were referring to in your earlier post? If so, what do you think of it?

    I'm torn between the two screens, soniq $399 compared to Panasonic $698 (less discount). Any suggestions????

    Ahh, I forgot to add.. does anyone know if the stand is a swivel base?

    • Hey Praet,

      The Panasonic I am looking at, is the TH-P42U30A which is what you saw. I noticed that it is only $585 at seconds world, which is where I would go, unless JB can offer a better deal. I want to have a good play with the Soniq first though, because it is a great buy.

      I am just not sure if LCD or Plasma would be best for my needs - I am going to place it in my room at the end of the bed, and primary use will be gaming.

      • Hi mate, Seconds world? That's in NSW right? I don't think we have anything like that in QLD. Bugger.

        I have an old TCL plasma I bought probably 6 years ago, pffft. Piece of junk!

        I want to be able to use the TV for my xbox 360, wii and watching TV. I wish I could see what free to air TV and xbox looks like on the soniq. I also want to hook up my laptop to the TV every now and then and wondered what text looked like.

        Would you say the Soniq is up to scratch?

        Too bad you can't buy these things and return them if it's shite.

        Gah, what to do?! O_o

  • -2

    LED is best in market, and LCD is 2nd rated.

    • +4

      LCD are LED backlit!

      • some people just dont understand…. zzzz

  • What's is the energy consumption for this TV? It's 4.5 star but what is it in terms of kWh?

    • 442Kwh/annum

      • Is that good or bad? How much is that equivalent to? Around $100 ?

  • Which one would you suggest I go for:

    a) Panasonic 42" plasma (TH-P42U30A) - $698 at JB Hifi
    b) Soniq 42" LCD $399 at JB ? <— just wished this had an extra HDMI port and other audio outputs other than 1 x digital coax.

    All suggestions appreciated :)

    Incidentally, I'm looking to pick one up tomorrow. I've cleared out my SUV to make room for it already, LOL!

    errr, to cart it back home of course, haha

  • Offer Expires Friday 23rd Sep 2011 on jb website, but in the catalog it expires in 5th Oct, which one is correct?

    • The sales guy I spoke to today at JB Hifi (Enex 100, Hay St, Perth) said that the deal on this TV will only run for the first 2 weeks of the current catalogue that it's advertised in (I'm not sure what date the catalogue was released). He also mentioned that the price will go up by $100 to $499 once the sale ends.

      • ahhh well im sure there will be other TVs with more advanced features ;)

        common network media centre built in! (rj45!)

  • @praet the base does not appear to swivel.
    I had a look at these today - IPS screen looks great. I noticed they had coax hooked up with the slow motion images. Still looked ok.
    Salesman was offering 3yr wty for $69.00

    • Just for info I bought 5 yr warranty for $50, so please bargain before buying extended warranty. May be you get less than that… All the best … :)

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