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[kitz]

I have to say....  I love this TV and am well pleased with it. Only downside...  "who is UMC"?

After following a UMC link from google I eventually ended-up here:-
http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/node/n/79450031/277-6481846-5161440

Is yours one of those models?

Thanks for that OF..  I did actually do a bit of looking myself (mentioned in one of my earlier posts)...  and the "who is UMC" was based on the fact that before I purchased I'd never heard of them before that.

UMC TVs are manufactured by a UK based company skymediauk

Sky Media UK LTD are the technical support and aftersales service provider for many of the UK’s best selling brands of LCD & Plasma Televisions from many of the UK’s leading retailers.

It looks like they may manufacture TVs for certain high street stores such as M&S and Tesco.. They also supply to Dixons Currys, Comet etc
They appear to have some sort of close link with Technika (same co?)  with UMC is their own branded TVs for retail to the general public.

I cant find it now, but when I looked the other day, Im pretty sure it said something about that under their different name brands they sold more TVs last year than some of the really big names.  They also make the remotes for Sky boxes.

Under the hood they seem to be a little known company to the general public but seem to be doing ok.  If so all credit to them, and its nice to hear a UK co doing well.

Forget that last bit -  their parent group is Skytec Group Luxemburg

[oldfogy]

Under the hood they seem to be a little known company to the general public but seem to be doing ok. 

If they are supplying M&S they must be pretty good.
And like you say, nice to hear it's a British company.

[kitz]

Well I've got another "irresistible bargain" on its way to double-up as a Freeview TV and widescreen PC monitor; should arrive Wednesday so I'll report back then. 

Whatcha been buying?

[roseway]

Under the hood they seem to be a little known company to the general public but seem to be doing ok.  If so all credit to them, and its nice to hear a UK co doing well.

Forget that last bit -  their parent group is Skytec Group Luxemburg

It's extremely unlikely that this company actual manufactures in any EU country. They will almost certainly be importing unbranded sets from somewhere like China or Malaysia and branding them to suit the final outlet. One of the oddities of our legislation is that a product can be described as 'Made in the EU' even if only some minor finishing process takes place here. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with these sets of course - TV manufacture is a very mature and well understood technology - but it can be difficult to know where they've really been made.

[sevenlayermuddle]

but it can be difficult to know where they've really been made.

This is very true, and even the big brands are 'at it'.  As mentioned, I bought a Sony TV a bit over a year ago.  When I wanted a HDD/DVD recorder, I decided to buy Sony again, thanks largely to excellent magazine reviews.  The HDD recorder certainly works well, but the EPG GUI is completely different from the TV's EPG, and IMHO not nearly as good as the TV's.   I found it hard to believe both came from the same 'stable' and it turns they didn't, in fact, the Sony HDD/DVD is a rebadged Pioneer.

[kitz]

>> EPG GUI is completely different from the TV's EPG,

One of the things that I have found is that gives a possible clue as to the firmware used... and its the firmware that seems to make a big difference.  When I actually went into Comet, one of the reasons why I asked for the remotes is that I wanted to check and have a look at the EPG to get a bit of an idea which firmware that they were using.

Although its not going to be a hard and fast rule..  theres a certain EPG that I now very much recognise and I wouldnt touch a TV if it has that particular firmware on it.  I wish there was an easy way of branding or naming the firmware so us as consumers have a good idea of whats going on.  All the sets which I returned had the same type of firmware and IMHO were poorly coded and unable to cope with certain things (such as the aspect ratio) properly.  With digital TVs the firmware is important.. and its perhaps something we should be able/take more note of.

Previously I tended to think of a TV as 'just a tele' and they all work more or less the same..  but advancement in technology means that LCD TVs have some sort of firmware and its now making the TV akin to more like a PC.  You can have a really good processor and lots of memory.. but if the operating system doesnt handle the data correctly and you have noddy software, then its not going to work as it should or could.

[HPsauce]

Whatcha been buying?

Well, believe it or not, the same model I bought before and sent back! A DigiMate LTV-1929WHTC.
Thing is, it's basically a 19" widescreen monitor 1440*900 (16:10) and apart from the 16:9 issue on Freeview (and DVD) had everything I wanted and more - DVD player, every conceivable input including HDMI, SCART, CVBS, S-video, etc. etc.

And the one I initially bought was a "bargain" reduced from I think £159 to £129 (plus delivery) but I decided that at over £130 it wasn't worth it to me given the "problems".

But now I have a "refurbished" one for just £62 including delivery. As it's main use will be as a monitor I can live with the 16:10 limitation at that price! 

Now to see how much of it works.......

[oldfogy]

Previously I tended to think of a TV as 'just a tele' and they all work more or less the same.. 

Yes I used to think the same, but ever on my Mom's Sony TV, to get to show subtitles, you have to go all through the user setup menu to be able to activate or de-activate them, "what a palaver"

On my LG, I just press the subs button on the remote.

[UncleUB]

@ UMC,I have seen these sets in Makro.

[HPsauce]

Now to see how much of it works.......

Well it all seems to work and BBC iPlayer HD is particularly good, and of course the correct shape.
DVD and Freeview, as before, are "tall" but I'll live with that at the price.

[HPsauce]

Just a little FYI follow-up that may help others when looking at similar devices.....
Having now tried all the options on my "bargain" it's blatantly obvious that it's an analogue widescreen PC monitor/TV updated with digital inputs (DVD, Freeview and HDMI) "bolted on" but without paying adequate attention to the firmware and integration of the digital signals.
I suspect many other models on the market are quite similar. 

The HDMI input, which I thought might be handy for a PC with DVI output, has similar limitations to Freeview and DVD and it's impossible to get a picture that has the correct aspect ratio, or even to fill the screen properly without either a small border all round or losing the edges. Furthermore in HDMI mode you cannot get an external sound signal fed to the inbuilt speakers via any available input, so you need separate speakers. This is a bit weird as both DVD & Freeview obviously do have sound. 

However, in analogue mode as a TV or PC monitor (with speakers) it works fine (also from SCART or CVBS inputs). It's actually a pretty good widescreen VGA monitor which I'm now using on my Windows 7 x64 RC1 test system. 

Also, the DVD has it's own separate configuration menu that has all the options (screen shape etc.) that you would get on an external standalone unit. So you can even set it to 4:3 (but not 16:10 of course  ).
In fact if you set the DVD to 4:3 and the main display to 4:3 you can actually watch a widescreen movie at the correct aspect ratio - on a postage stamp in the middle of the screen with a large black border. 

Hopefully this will give anyone looking at a similar system a few things to check.

[kitz]

>> As it's main use will be as a monitor I can live with the 16:10 limitation at that price!

I think I could too

>> Well it all seems to work and BBC iPlayer HD is particularly good, and of course the correct shape.
DVD and Freeview, as before, are "tall" but I'll live with that at the price.

Yep... if its main use is for PC type stuff then it should be mostly fine... The gripe I had with the ones Ive ordered is that it would seldom if ever be used with a PC.. and mostly for Digital TV with the occasional DVD, then for me the aspect ratio thing was a real PITA.

Thanks for the mini review HP

[broadstairs]

I have been having problem recently with Freeview and the tuning again. My DVD/VHS recorder purchased last August has just gone back to be repaired under warranty because it cannot handle the tuning changes when they added extra Network Information Tables and it keeps complaining that the tuning information has changed (but it has not) and this causes problems with the EPG  and you see duplicate channels in the list in the 800+ range. So I'd be wary of buying any TV, DVD/VHS or PVR which supports Freeview without testing the tuning  first to ensure that it handles these changes.

Apparently these tuning changes were in the original specs for Freeview and so anything with the Digital Tick symbol should work but it seems that all of them dont.

In fairness to Daewoo Electronics who make my recorder they sent someone out to see the machine within 2 days and then take it away to repair and will return it when fixed, so its not been a problem getting it sorted (hopefully).

[sevenlayermuddle]

Apparently these tuning changes were in the original specs for Freeview and so anything with the Digital Tick symbol should work but it seems that all of them dont.

I had reason to take an interest (OK, obsession!) in DTV specs and Broadcasting standards recently and was pretty shocked at how poorly defined they are.  And they've made no attempt to future-proof things either.  For example, they've failed to lay down any rules about how a TV should behave if it sees MPEG parameter values that are not yet defined.   That means that if they ever want to assign definitions to these values, there'd be no telling what effect it would have on equipment being sold today - even with the digital tick - some would carry on working perfectly, others would work poorly, and some might turn into pumpkins.  Any of these behaviours would still get the 'tick'.

Rant over