TV Buying Guide 2014 For LCD, LED, HDTV, Smart TV

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Gone are the days when buying TV was simple: Decide whether you want a Blank & White or color TV. And then there were only few brands to buy TV, rich people go for Sony or Philips and middle classes chooses BPL, Salora Or UPTECH. We never had to find any TV Buying Guide.

But with advent technology, buying TV is a big puzzle with so many option, flat screen or LCD, LED or OLED, NO HD or HD Ready or Full HD and additional ports to choose with. And average life of a TV is 7-8 years, so be sure to buy TV which can fulfill your requirement for at least ten years.

TV Buying Guide 2014

Before we start on buying TV, here is a disclaimer: These are generalization and you have to keep your personal likes and budget in mind while buying TV. Also, we are not dwelling into audio outputs as generally with flat screen and wall mounted TVs, the in-built audio speakers are always spaced out. We suggest you choose atleast surround sound with HDTV and buy separate audio speakers/ home theatre to compensate. (we will come with how to buy home theatre guide shortly)

Here is our ready reckoner TV buying guide you can keep with you when you buy TV.

SIZE Selection:

The first thing to be decided while buying TV is size. As a hindi saying goes ‘bada he to behtar he’, bigger is better. But wait friends, a bigger TV in smaller room will give poor viewing angles. So the thumb rule is ‘your distance from TV in inches/1.6’ so if you are going to seat 6 foot from TV (i.e. standard 10/ 12 feet room), your TV should be 72/1.6 = 45. So your TV should be 42 – 46” size.

LCD or LED/ OLED or Plasma :

Very few manufacturers are manufacturing Plasma as it is really costly. The biggest advantage of Plasma is their great viewing angles and low energy consumption (electricity bills), but at present they are highly costly and brightness is less. However, LCD/ LED provide better brightness and it can be viewed with windows open or in brightly lit rooms. True LED TVs, which are again costly but energy efficient, are Back Lit or Edge Lit. Back lit is more expensive but with better picture quality and slimmer TV. Also, it must be kept in mind that most of the LCDs are now essentially LED powered as the crystals are brighten by LEDs only. However, the LCDs have less life than LEDs.

Our verdict: Choose LCDs if you are buying on a budget as it gives you similar experience in day-to-day life.

Resolution & Refresh rate:

In today’s time while buying TV, two basic option one come across is HD Ready and Full HD. HD Ready is a TV (720p/ 1366X768 pixels) without HD Tuner. In other words, it’s a car without engine. So you will need a HD tuner/ HD Output device to view HD on these TVs. On the contrary Full HD (1080p / 1920X 1080 px)can display HD from any format. So when a full HD movie is run on HD ready TV, the TV will reduce the output to 720p resolution. Also there is 4K ultra HD (3840x2160px) TV, but in India at present, very little content to watch it and its way to costly for that. Another aspect is while buying TV is refresh rate. Its rate at which images are refreshed or screened in a second. Standard refresh rate is 60 Hz and most of the TVs come with at least 120 HZ. Of late 240 and 480 HZ TVs are also available. But our verdict is for general use 120 HZ will suffice.

Our verdict: the HD tuner are lot cheaper than full HD TV as of now and a normal viewer may not be able to distinguish between 720 p and 1080p, so for smaller TV of 42 inch or less go for HD ready, but for bigger TV choose Full HD, if your budget allows . You can ignore refresh rate for normal viewing.

MOTION BLUR DUE TO REFRESH RATE

tv buying guide for led lcd smart tv motion rate

Connectivity:

gone are the days when TV’s only other use was connecting VCR/VCDs. But now, we connect from computer to digital camera to pen drive and video games. Most of the TVs comes with HDMI port. It is absolutely must to connect your laptop, game console or camera. So friends, Do not buy TV, if they don’t have a single HDMI port. More HDMI is of course more than welcome. Also, most of the TVs now offer USB ports, but read a fine print: Do they support all formats? Does it support connection with Hard Drive/ Disk ? Remember, a USB slot doesn’t guarantee it can run video files. Generally, most TVs support only AVI files where as DivX HD will support most types of files.

Smart TV:

The latest entrant in the TV market are smart TV and very few brands are making it. It comes with built-in wi-fi hot spot and Ethernet ports (to connect your bsnl or any landline broadband connection.). It also has a browser (to surf the net), youtube, facebook and other popular applications pre installed. Presently, the broadband connectivity is not that deep in India, but if you can afford and have a long term horizon you can buy TV i.e. smart TV.

Passive or active 3D:

Our verdict: go for passive 3D as most of the content (channel) are capable of that and viewing glasses are cheaper so you can buy it in bulk and view with your friends/ guest.

Remote:

Very rightly basic thing is how many features your remote gives you. It should have ease of use and cluster of menus. Some new remotes allow you to control peripheral accessories like home theatre, set top boxes, CD players etc. Always choose which have biggest options.

Most default picture and sound option: no need to say, sports, movies, songs require different picture and audio output, buying TV with varied options in these two segments will save a lot of efforts in tuning a perfect output.

Finally, few quick tips to remember in the show room and you can say your Handy TV Buying Guide:-

First and foremost, keep the two TVs side by side and feel the difference.
View TVs from all angles of show room to see if there is any distortion. The colour of hair is the finest guide to check the color sharpness.
Refresh rate/ motion blur. Watch sports channel (specially fast games like football/ car race) or straight brick lines of building/ railings in long shot to see if there is any motion blur.
Carry a pen drive/ hard drive/ blue ray disc (if you buying TV with full HD) containing all types of files you may play. And ask the salesmen to play each of them to ensure that you don’t cry after coming home.

Tips & Tricks

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11:06

Tips & Tricks

Tricks to Turn Your Old Smartphone into a Camera | Download Free Spy Camera Apps

11:04

These days changing a phone is very common amongst youngster and for all. Most of us are having at least one smartphone lying with us and with almost no use. We can smartly utilize it and turn old smartphone into a camera which will help us to monitor activities at home when we are away or at work.

How Easily Turn Old Smartphone into a Camera

Method 1: Download Free Apps to turn your smartphone into a spy camera

Though there can be lots of Free apps which will support your smart device to solve the current purpose, however I would like to suggest Free application called ‘Web of Cam’ and you may follow below steps to use it to turn your smartphone as camera.

Step 1: Download Free Application for your iPhone, iPad, Android device or Symbian

Step 2: Install this app on your old smartphone which will be acting as spy camera

Step 3: Login with Google username and password to Configure this app on your old smart device. Select “Camera” when it ask to select between “Camera” and “Viewer” options

download free apps to convert your old smartphone into a spy camera

Step 4: Find a best location to place your spy camera which should be in position to cover required area for monitoring.

Step 5: Install same application in your new smartphone or tablet which will be with you to view/monitor activities

Step 6: Use same Google credential to login and select “Viewer” option and you will find ‘available cameras’ and you may select the first (old) device as camera

You are all done. You can configure camera device tobe used for front or rear camera as well as when to put that device on stand by mode etc.

Since this app will work in background all the time, you have to make sure to get your camera phone connected with power supply all the time as battery may not last longer.

Though above method is very good to turn your old smartphone into a camera but there could be problem with your ‘camera’ phone as it will be on for 24×7 which can make your device heat up and may damage sometime. Also there will be utilization of Data/wifi connection all the time. Let me explain another method which can be used for same purpose.

Method 2: Use Skype or other video calling software to turn phone as spy camera

To avoid problems we have identified in method 1, we may use this method which will be using video calling software like skype to turn your old smart mobile phones into a spy camera.

Step 1: Install Skype on your old smartphone

Step 2: Create a new skype user and login with that.

Step 3: Goto settings and enable the option to answer the calls Automatically and to Answer calls only from the contact list.

use skype on old smartphone to turn into a camera

Step 4: Add your personal (existing) skype ID into contact list of newly created skype on old phone

Step 5: Add your new skype ID in your existing mobile

There you go!! Now, whenever you need to monitor activity at home, you may call skype on new account and since we have setup “Auto Answer” it will start a video conversation without ringing and you may able to see the other side activities.

I hope these both methods will be useful to you to turn your old smartphone into a Camera. So simply follow methods demonstrated above and protect your house, corridors, balcony etc with a smart spy.

Smartphones Reviews

Samsung Chromebook 2 review

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When Samsung announced its second Chromebook, it made my head turn. Rather than following the flock of Chromebooks with a cheap plastic bodies, Samsung opted to give it's new cloud-based laptop a leatherette finish on its lid, plus a 1080p display for the 13-inch model.

It seemed liked the most interesting Chromebook since their inception. Unfortunately, Samsung unwisely saddled the laptop with its Exynos processor, meant primarily for tablets and smartphones. With a mobile chip at the heart of the Chromebook 2, it chugged heavily whenever met with any sort of multitasking.

Now just less than five months later Samsung has given the smaller 11.6-inch Chromebook 2 an early refresh, which swaps the mobile processor for an freshly released Bay Trail Intel Celeron CPU. The refreshed notebook retains the same great styling and fanless design, so lets see if this quick fix has turned the Samsung Chromebook 2 11 into the winner it was meant to be.

Design

Cheap plastic and affordability almost come hand-in-hand when it comes to laptops and Samsung has gracefully sidestepped this problem. In fact the Chromebook 2 looks to be even more well engineered than many mid-range laptops.

The back of the laptop lid is wrapped with a leather-like finish that reminiscent to the design of Samsung Galaxy S5 down to the faux stitching. It's a nice touch that gives you a slightly soft material to grip the laptop whilst carrying it around. It's also stays crisp and clean without picking up any greasy finger prints.

The rest of the laptop's body is made of a light gray plastic, but does not flex even when you're mashing away at the keyboard. This is largely due to the laptop's metal internal frame, which extends across the entire body. Each of the corners are also reinforced with metal, which adds an extra bit of protection in case the laptop falls.

The laptop as a whole also tapers off to a very thin and light body, thanks to the laptop's fanless design. It's a super sleek design that folds into a slim 0.66-inch package. There aren't many Chromebooks or laptops in general (outside of ultrabooks) that come even close to the same level of thinness.

A cry for Helpouts

Chromebooks are lauded for their simplicity. This is what makes them perfect for young students and … let's just say less tech savvy individuals. The Samsung Chromebook 2 takes this a step further with a video call help desk called Helpouts. Similar to Amazon's Mayday service, the tool connects you with a real-life person to resolve a technical issue.

After pinging the service I was connected with an agent in less than 15 minutes, so the wait times aren't terrible compared to most customer service lines – looking at you, UPS. (Keep in mind that the service was in its beta phase at the time of testing.)

On the call, I asked the representative how to take screenshots on Chrome OS. A few beats later, the technician was able to supply me with the answer after referring to the user manual.

Although Helpouts piggy backs on Google Hangouts for video calls, it can't use many of the service's build in features. Screen sharing failed to initialize on my end during my call, but the technician was able to show me his screen. To top it off, remote desktop was not even an available option. With both of these features out, there's practically no way of simply showing the help desk person your exact problem.

Mayday, by comparison, allows an agent to see your screen, navigate to menus and literally draw arrows to point you in the right direction. The two services and devices aren't directly comparable, but Samsung and Google have a long way to go in improving Helpouts.

Smartphones Reviews

Nokia Lumia 735 review

14:07

The Nokia Lumia 735 is a phone unashamedly targeting selfie fans, the latest 'love it or hate it' craze. Nokia is by no means the only manufacturer to have noticed this trend, theHTC Desire Eye shows just how big this market has become.

Pitching up free in the UK from £13pm (about US$21, AU$24) on 24 month contracts or available on PAYG from £160 (about US$259, AU$294) and £180 (about US$291, AU$331) SIM-free, the Lumia 735 certainly doesn't break the bank.

It also means that it fights against the likes of the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, HTC Desire 610 and Samsung's Galaxy S4 Mini, as well as the go to budget handset, theMoto G 4G.

This is certainly one of the fiercest ends of the market, so what has Nokia packed in to give the Lumia 735 the edge?

The most obvious feature has to be the forward facing camera, measuring in at 5MP, more than twice the size of nigh on all front facing sensors. Coupled with a 4G connection to share those images, and it seems Nokia knows its market.

On paper the Lumia 735 certainly seems rather impressive. Nokia has fitted a quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC (system on chip) clocked at 1.2GHz backed up by 1GB RAM and an Adreno 305 GPU.

There is also 8GB of storage, backed up by 15GB of Microsoft's One Drive cloud storage and up to 128GB via a microSD card. All of this is accessed via the 4.7-inch HD screen, with the 720 x 1280 resolution giving a density of 312ppi.

As with every Lumia handset, the Nokia Lumia 735 comes in a range of colours. My review handset is a rather bright green, with an equally bright orange available, as well white or black. Unsurprisingly, this brightly coloured handset is made out of plastic rather than metal, but it doesn't detract from the feel of Lumia 735 at all.

It does seem to pick up dirt easily though, 20 minutes in my bag on a walk left dark smudges that needed to be wiped off with a damp cloth. That meant removing the back plate, which is a little difficult, although I didn't ever feel like I was in danger of snapping it.

The curved 134.7 x 68.5 x 8.9mm frame reminds me of a much slimmer iPod Mini and sits very comfortably in the hand. The volume rocker and power/lock key on the right are the only buttons to hit and it is easy enough to do so.

In terms of ports the Lumia 735 has both the standard 3.5mm headphone port and microUSB port, situated in the middle of the top and bottom respectively.

The nanoSIM and microSD slots are both located behind the back plate, accessed by removing the 2220mAh battery.

I'm a big fan of the smaller screen as I have yet to buy into the phablet phenomenon, and it certainly fits the bill for the younger teen market that the Lumia 735 is going to be aimed at.

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