I purchased this TV last time it was $497. I'm using it in my bedroom, its heaps better than my 4-5 year old 50" Panasonic Plasma I have in the living room. Let me know if you have any questions about it, if I wasn't so poor I'd buy another one.
The Dick Smith 46" Full High Definition LED LCD TV comes packed with all the features you'll need. Features include integrated HD tuner, 2 x HDMI inputs and Slimline LED backlit LCD screen - to cater for all your entertainment needs!
1 x USB Port
does it have a built in media player ?
It does, I only used it briefly and it seemed very average. I'm using it via a laptop with media centre I wouldn't count on the built in player. I can post the pages in the manual about the media player if that's helpful.
it might be useful to others to know what formats it can play… thanks…
Specs: http://upload.ozbargain.com/2012/12/18/10154_img_20121218_18… (yes its 50/60Hz).
This is the only page that talks about the media player: http://upload.ozbargain.com/2012/12/18/10156_img_20121218_18…
If it is like their other branded TV's, they can play very little:
"Video support format: MPEG1 / MPEG2 and AVI"
pretty good price for direct LED. most of the cheap models are edge lit only. still prefer my plasma for gaming
A week ago you could've bought a Sony 46" LED TV for only $201 more.. Regardless it's a decent price for a LED of this size for someone who doesn't care about brandname.
I am genuinely curious as to WHY someone would prefer a Sony TV. 20 years ago, I'll agree Sony made quality equipment, but then they started making a "professional" range and a "consumer" range of everything. In my experience, the quality of the "consumer" range is no better than any other brand name.
In some ways Sony are worse than other brands: Sony WON'T sell you a repair manual or circuit diagram, unless you are a "Sony-approved" repairman, and pay Sony thouands of dollars per year to stay "Sony approved". That is why repairs to Sony equipment are much more expensive than getting other brands of equipment repaired.
So, what is the attraction of Sony equipment over other brands like Panasonic, Sharp, Sanyo, and so on?
In my experience, the quality of the "consumer" range is no better than any other brand name.
The "consumer" range was made in Malaysia and the "professional" range was made in Japan.
I compared the picture between a Samsung, LG and Sony in my price range. I MUCH preferred the Sony despite really wanting the Samsung due to 3D and bigger screen size. I saw the Dick Smith model but looked past it simply due to unknown reliability.
In 2012 US failure rates Sony was still slightly more reliable than Samsung and LG and so it ticked all the boxes for me.
My comment isn't Pro-Sony. As mentioned above I would also consider Samsung and LG but if everything was equal i.e. features, size, price etc I would choose Sony or Panasonic over the other brands.. I have been told that Samsung and LG are the bees knees now but until Sony or Panasonic fail on me I will continue to prefer them over the brands which I have experienced failures with in the past i.e. Samsung & LG.
Sony sold Samsung/Sony S-LCD venture to Samsung. All other large LCD panels used in Sony TVs are produced primarily by SDP Corp (Japan) and CMO Corp (Taiwan. Found in some Kogan TVs). Sony does not produce its own panels anymore. Also note that Sony is one of Samsung's biggest customers.
I'm aware that Sony don't produce their own panels. I actually only commented about what TV I preferred for picture quality in-store. I'm not stating that there is anything wrong with Samsung. If there was I wouldn't have considered purchasing a Samsung TV. I simply said in my original comment that you could purchase a Sony for $201 more than the DSE. Sony vs DSE not Sony vs Samsung…
i am not a big fan of sony.. in my opinioin they are bit overrated.. however i recently bought a sony tv.. after comparing with samsungs, lgs… it took me some time to finalise but i am happy with it..the picture quality is outstanding..some people have stated that sony doesn't make panels ..but how does it matter its the finished product that should matter..same as i phone screen made by samsung/sharp..
I was in store yesterday having a look at the tvs. The dick smith one was clearly the worst, the blacks were no where near as dark as the Sony, Samsung etc. The best ones were all Sony or Samsung
I am guessing there will be some pretty good deals on TV's after Xmas if you can wait.
That's more dependent on the Aussie dollar than Jesus's birthday…
If I knew what the input lag for this was, and it was less than 30ms, then I would be all over this deal.
What's direct LED.
To my understanding, the backlight LED's are further away from the screen. This makes it cheaper to build as there are less LED's required to illuminate the same amount of screen space. Therefore contrast is ratio is less? And the screen is thicker
From google: direct led is a cheap version of full array backlighting.
"Direct-lit LED backlights are an offshoot of full-array backlighting, in that they use LEDs spread across the entire back panel of the TV. (The TV's spec page may just refer to these TVs as having a full-array backlight.) However, there are a few key differences compared to the more expensive full-array LED sets we've tested previously. One is that they use significantly fewer LEDs across the back of the panel. Another is that these sets lack the local dimming feature.
In addition, these TVs are much deeper than previous LED-backlit models, especially the ultra-thin edge LED sets. In fact, they more closely resemble LCD TVs with CCFL backlights. The reason: Because fewer LEDs are used, they have to be moved farther away from the screen to provide adequate light coverage across the panel, much the way the beam of a flashlight gets wider as you move it away from an object.
But the primary reason we're seeing direct-lit LED backlights is price. Though they do cost a bit more than CCFL models, they're less expensive than edge LED models, since they don't require the lightguide plates. And in a tough economy, this lets manufacturers offer less-expensive models without having to forgo what has become perceived as a key LCD feature—an LED backlight. Although direct-lit LED backlights are no slimmer than CCFL-based LCD TVs, they do offer an advantage over models with fluorescent lights: better energy efficiency."
I've not heard the term "Direct LED" before, but there are two types of LED-illuminated LCD TV.
One type, "Edge Lit", has a row of LEDs at the top or bottom edge of the screen. A shaped plastic diffuser spreads this light across the entire height of the screen, and often the light spread is not perfectly even. This is often easy to see on a completely black image, where you will see the black is more like a dark grey on one edge of the screen.
The other type has an array of LEDs a short distance behind the screen, so the diffuser has a much easier job. Such screens have much more even illumination, but are substantially thicker.
In the early days of LED illumination, it was also planned that images which had bright and dark areas could have their contrast improved, by turning off just the LEDs behind the dark areas. LCDs nowadays have much improved contrast, so this isn't necessary.
You have a 46" tv in your bedroom? Crikey!
It's above the bed…
It is the bed.
Nice and warm
Yep. I should have gone for the 50" tho…
A prodigious energy consumer, no doubt, since they don't reveal any figures.
Thanks. That's not too bad. Wonder why it hasn't got a star rating.
http://reg.energyrating.gov.au/comparator/product_types/32/s…
Haha look buddy, everything's online, you just gotta pay more attention.
Energy Star Rating of 6
http://reg.energyrating.gov.au/comparator/product_types/32/s…
Relevant Information on Page 24
https://reg.energyrating.gov.au/media/user_manuals/tv9S5knye…
By my calculations, watching the TV for 3hrs a day every single day will use about 107kwh/year. Although…the standards seem to think it'll use 344kwh a year. Wonder how they calculate that.
Based on 10 hrs a day.
Bought one of the 42" versions of this a few months back - for $446, have to say it's not a bad tv for the price - I did actually take the first one back and swap it only to find the second one had the same 'feature'.
Really not sure if this one has the same issues, but just an FYI to anyone planning on connecting the VGA - I had problems getting the TV to auto detect anything in 1080 res. (at 720 output on the pc display works fine on everything I've tested). And just as a background I have a 31.5" DickSmith Full HD Edge LED which is ok too, and 1080 auto detect works fine with everything I tried on this one.
I was at dicksmith today, looked at the same model. The picture was comparable to the sanyos LCDs. It apparently is not badged? No DSE logo on the front of the tv, which I found very odd. And it wasn't the only DSE 'branded' tv there, the rest of the similar looking DSE tvs (smaller in size) were not badged either…hmm.
Up to the end of 2011 I used to deal with a company on http://www.globalsources.com importing some electronic gear for motorhomes.
There are plenty of them there on that site that make LED TV's.
Anyway to get a unit badged was an extra $14 per unit. The first lot we ordered were unbadged to save money and came in plain brown boxes, plain black and white manual and the item had no markings on the front at all.
The second order we had badged. The boxes then were are nice light blue and white, the manuals had the badged name on the front and through out and the units had the badged name on the front as well. When I had a look on ebay I could see the same item from several different sellers all with different badges on them. I would guess that most electronic items like the above mentioned tv's will be sold with different badges around the world and there are probably several sellers on ebay that are selling the same tv with different or no badges.
Link to previous $497 deal: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/82675