[ota_canuck]

Has anone tried one of these Hisense brand HDTV's ?
http://www.hisense.com.au/products/television/detailed/feature/80/181#features

They are available at CTC for about 400 bucks!

 

[dirtroad]

Saw them, reasonable price, but low contrast ratio in picture and no digital tuner.
Not the same TV as you linked to.

 

[ota_canuck]

These do have an integrated tuner. & full HD 1080p

An Integrated High Definition (HD) Digital Television ("HD IDTV") set is a television set with a built in High Definition digital tuner, (HD DVB-T). They do away with the need for a set top box and converts High Definition digital broadcasts on your television providing the best free to air picture quality.

from link provided in above post

 

[roger1818]

Has anone tried one of these Hisense brand HDTV's ?

That is an Australian model and won't work in North America (we use ATSC not DVB-T). Are you sure you are looking at the correct model number?

 

[dirtroad]

NTSC (analog only) the TV is 1080P capable. see info on this page http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/7/Electronics/TVsAccessories/TVs/PRDOVR~0452310P/Hisense%2B1080p%2BHD%2BLCD%2BTV%252C%2B42-In.jsp?locale=en
This would be fine if you use a Blue Ray player, and have cable or sat receiver, but this will require a ATSC tuner, some cable and Sat receivers have them built in.

 

[ota_canuck]

I just came from the store and it has an integrated ntsc/atsc tuner for free to air full HD.

 

[roger1818]

I just came from the store and it has an integrated ntsc/atsc tuner for free to air full HD.

You must have written down the wrong model number then as the website you provided is for an Australian one that has (as you say) a DVB-T tuner. Do you mean the LTD42V68GUS instead?

 

[dirtroad]

I guess CTC should update the information then, as they say it is NTSC. There is no information on the Hisense website about that particular model. Does your CTC have it hooked up to an antenna for OTA DTV?

 

[ota_canuck]

Nope! This is the exact number that the store has on the TV. It's also the number showing in the cat# , but they claim it has an integrated ntsc/atsc tuner for antenna use. The clerk even says they use only an antenna on the one they have at home. Maybe they've upgraded the old model with a new tuner using the same product code?

Hisense 1080p HD LCD TV, 42-In
CTC Product #45-2310-4

 

[dirtroad]

The information on Canadian Tire website may be old, and Hinsense never had any information on 42 inch TVs before so it maybe a newer model, with an ATSC tuner, or just a Typo on the website.
Were you able to see the picture, and compare it to anything else?

 

[roger1818]

This is the exact number that the store has on the TV.

Hmm. Maybe the factory swapped the 6 and the 8 when printing the label. The V86 is for Australia and the V68 is for North America. The V68 does have an ATSC tuner.

 

[ota_canuck]

Sales clerks can be idiots! Maybe I'll just have to carry in a Stealth Hawk antenna into the store and hook it up right in the store

The display demo picture looked pretty awsome even up close.

 

[dirtroad]

Hisense is a new company (2006) and Canadian Tire is first to be selling these in Canada, see http://www.hisense.com/en/news/atct_1/201011/t20101109_28942.html

Sales clerks can be idiots!

I was recently in a Winnipeg Electronics Store, and I asked if they had antenna for Digital OTA, Winnipeg only has one DTV station, and the clerk told me I had to have cable or satellite if I wanted to get HDTV that over the air is no good.

 

[ota_canuck]

It sounds like Hisense has been the sleeping giant in the TV marketplace.
http://www.hisense.com/en/news/atct/201011/t20101108_28927.html

I bought a small 19" hisense for my daughters bedroom a few years ago, It's been an awsome little TV. I recently replaced it with a 32" Samsung at Christmas, and now she wants her 19" hisense back because it has better pic & sound quality. Go figure?

 

[quickcurrent]

I've seen those TVs advertised, but know nothing about them.

CTC carries a lot of low end products and I just assumed that was one of those, but it sounds like other people here like them.

I was in a Future Shop one time looking at 42" TVs comparing brands and 720p vs 1080p, and to me it appeared that some 720p units of the better brands looked better than some of the cheaper 1080p units, which I thought was odd. So I did some reading on line and found out that there are several video processors on the market, sorry don't remember the brand names. But one is the best and it is used by the big name brands, then there are the lesser quality ones that don't deliver the same quality of picture. Additionally, there is the integration of the processor into the TV set with software. Different manufacturers use different algorithms and some do a better job than others here too. So in the end the picture should look the best to you. If I were considering buying a less known brand, I'd want to look into what processor the manufacturer uses and then visually compare the set to a brand known to use the best rated processors (I'm sure you can get that on Google pretty easily) to see how they stack up.

 

[roger1818]

I was in a Future Shop one time looking at 42" TVs comparing brands and 720p vs 1080p, and to me it appeared that some 720p units of the better brands looked better than some of the cheaper 1080p units, which I thought was odd.

There are a bunch of factors at play here. As you say the video processors and algorithms can make a difference, but the quality of the source material the store uses can also have an effect. Most stores use component (analog) video cables and split the signal many times so some TVs may be receiving a better quality image than others (it wouldn't surprise me if this is intentional at some stores to make higher margin TVs look better). The picture presets can also make a difference as the stores don't bother calibrating them.

 

[quickcurrent]

Since you brought up the component cable issue, roger1818, I have to tell this story.

I was in a Costco store and a fellow working in the TV department there told me that upconversion doesn't work on any TVs. I knew that an HDMI cable is required for upconversion to work but thought he'd better learn that for himself, it's not my job to educate the folks that should be educating the consumer, LOL. So I left without mentioning a thing to him. Of course, like you stated many stores only use component cables, and Costco is one of those.

I have to admit I did not check the cables that Future Shop was using, I just assumed that type of place to be using HDMI cables at least for 1080p sets, since component cables only go as high as 1080i. Also, if they did use component cables for everything, like Costco does, the 1080p sets should still look better than 720p sets, since 1080i displays more pixels than 720p. But, your point about other factors affecting picture quality is well taken.

 

[ota_canuck]

Has anone tried one of these Hisense brand HDTV's ?
http://www.hisense.com.au/products/television/detailed/feature/80/181#features

They are available at CTC for about 400 bucks!

Canadian Tire stores have these same 42" Hisense on sale again starting tomorrow. They still insist that these TV's have builtin ATSC tuners. Hmmm! I'm tempted to try one for a test drive.

 

[dirtroad]

Stopped by CTC yesterday, and looked at the TV mentioned.
The one on display, is Hisense Model # LCD42V68PCA, and is said to have a NTSC Tuner, 2 HDMI , 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, 2 component, and 2 composite inputs, but this model is no where to be found on the Hisense website.
ota_canuck, the TV you have the link to is on the Australian website, that unit has a built in PVR (with optional EHD) and sells for $1899, but the one at Canadian Tire is more like the 42" ones here. http://www.hisense.com/en/pds/mlmd/tv/LCD/V68/, and according to the person at Canadian Tire has a NTSC tuner which would be similar to the LCD42V68PAM, which does not have a ATSC tuner, which would allow them to sell it cheaper.
ota_canuck if you or anyone buys one, post the "true" information here.

 

[peasantview]

No ATSC tuner?

In April, after some research I advised my parents to buy the Hisense LCD19W57CDA for an economical TV/DVD Combo for their trailer. The CT web site stated ATSC tuner, so I was all go, and it was on sale to boot. This tuner claim appears to be not the case as the folks are visiting this month and we had a play with the TV.

For a test, I connected it to our Gray-Hoverman on our 40' tower with no luck. We couldn't get anything digital to show up when scanning for channels. It simply passes over the digital channels and only catches the analog ones. We all know at the end of the month Mom and Dad aren't going to be watching anything OTA in their trailer.

I have launched a complaint with CanTire and advised my parents to return it and claim it doesn't receive any digital channels. If the website stated the tuner was NTSC only I would have never got them to go for this model. Luckily they have the original box, manual and receipt so this just may work.

Here's the thing... how can a company the size of Canadian Tire even sell a TV like this knowing that the country is switching over to a new TV standard in less them 5 months from the date of purchase? CT should be liable for replacing the TVs with units that meet the standard. Perhaps if they stated "now 50% off, but won't work with an antenna in 5 months" they could have sold these things. If this was America there would be law suits flying all over the place.

Now maybe I am completely out to lunch and cannot figure out how to 'enable' the ATSC tuner... I am, after all only an electronics engineering technologist.

As was said sarlier, "Clerks can be idiots," but catalog people can be just as clueless. Caveat emptor!