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What do Distance Selling Regulations entitle me to do?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hiya. I have a PC, and was looking for a new screen for it, that would accept HDMI inputs for my xbox (instead of buying a separate TV). Then I had the idea of going the other way round, and getting a HDTV that accepts PC inputs! This has the advantage that I'd be able to get something far bigger which in terms of watching films and playing computer games, give you a better experience.

So here's my issue. I have no idea what the quality will be like on a HDTV and I may hate it. Would I be entitled under the distance selling regulations to purchase a HDTV (etailers seem much cheaper than the high street), unbox it, plug it in to my computer / xbox, have a play aroudn with it for a day or two and watch some films - to see if it suits my needs. If not, I would return it.

My housemate said as far as he knows you aren't allowed to unbox it at all if you return under DSR, and suggested I borrow a laptop and take it to curries or somewhere and see if they let me have a play on one of theirs there.

What do you guys think?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ShyBoy wrote: »

    My housemate said as far as he knows you aren't allowed to unbox it at all if you return under DSR, and suggested I borrow a laptop and take it to curries or somewhere and see if they let me have a play on one of theirs there.

    What do you guys think?

    It'd probably need to be as new to return it under the regs. But I'm not 100%.

    However, a full HD TV should look just fine. Just make sure you get one with a good response rate.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I believe mist is right but my samsung tv is perfect as a monitor.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've got an LG HD TV that's a fab monitor.

    I'd suggest you try going round to curries or somewhere similar and trying it, then ordering online.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ebuyer have a brilliant one atm £539.96 Samsung LE40B550A 40" Crystal Full HD, Brilliant reviews and even better than the sony counterparts and A lot better than most other brands

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/163828
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thankyou all for your help and advice on this.

    Hellfire, that looks nice, although a bit out of my price range. I have been looking at 32" 1080p sets including the Samsung: link at £410 but more interesting has been the LG at Amazon - link at £380.

    Obviously it's a lot of money, but I have been saving up for a while and so wanted to get something that would enable me to use my xbox and also provide a superior experience when using my pc and watching films.

    I think what I'm going to do is head down to tescos later as they have lots on display and really give them a good once over. Might see if they let me hook up a laptop to one and see if in windows the picture is ok.

    I have seen other people on the internet who have done the same and they say it's fantastic - the main caveat being you don't lean up and towards your monitor, it's much better to put the TV right back and lean back in your chair to give yourself a good 3ft+ between your eyes and the screen. This accounts for the pixels per inch in a 32" HDTV being around 70 whereas PC monitors tend to vary between 90 - 100 depending on resolution and size.

    I think it will be ok. I will have to see! Once again, thanks Mist, Hellfire and Scary Monster. I will post pictures of my set up if I do get it, so you can see what it's like :-)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The only thing I will say is that I do not personally trust LG as a brand, if I go for a TV/Monitor I normally go for Samsung, or Sony/Panasonic at a second best. my opinion though.

    That samsung set is lovely it is the same as mine but the smaller TV at 32inch instead of 40, everything else I think is identical
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I got the TV, it looks great. You need to fiddle about in settings a fair bit, because by default TVs are set up to try to post-process images themselves to make them look better (i.e. better blacks for films and the likes), which damages the picture on a computer desktop really as you want it to represent exactly what the PC is putting out. The desktop is probably the worst bit - and that's not even too bad really. It's mainly because I'm using windows 7 which has a shadow on the icon text, and the background is a mish mash of colours anyway, so you don't get a decent contrast between text + background compared to say an actual computer screen.

    Games, films, word processing (as it's black on white) is all absolutely fine though. My xbox is plugged in and I've had to scale it to 720p and let the TV do the upscaling, as I don't have a HDMI cable and doing 1080p over component makes it look a bit crap for some reason. I am happy with it, even though it was an expensive purchase, I can see myself enjoying films and games on this for some time to come :)
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