May 07, 2009 12:18 PM
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(Updated May 07, 2009 02:31 PM)
*How we buy it
It was way back 2005, when we bought a new flat, We required another TV(we already had a Onida 21" TV in our home.) for our occasional visit to the new flat and to kill time there. Main criteria was to get a new decent TV with lowest price and obviously my expectation was to get a 14". After visiting some local consumer electronics shops I had to choose between 14" LG/Samsung or a 21" Flat TCL TV. All were of price range of about 5000. We had another 14" Onida TV whose picture tube was gone after giving a 12 years service. Shop owner was ready to give me a Rs 2000 discount on exchange only on the TCL TV. I was little confused about the quality and durability of the TCL brand and I never heard that brand at that time. But considering that I would use it seldom on some weekends so I bought it for a price tag of Rs 3000. On 2007 when we shifted to the new flat then this TV became our primary TV. The role changed between the two TV.
Features
First of all, the Picture quality audio quality is good and it is as per with other standard TV.(It is not as good as Sony wega or something like that) But you consider the price it is better than any other. Because you will not get(at least at 2005) any 21" flat clour TV for Rs 3000. Compared with my another 21' Onida the picture quality or Sound quality is not at all bad. There are number of audio and video presets for different moods. But I like to use the user difined mode.
There are some unique features which I do not find generally
It has two AV jack to connect DTH and DVD player. Earlier when I used cable TV then I did not understand/underestimate this feature, but now I have DTH and I can comfortably connect DTH in one and DVD player to another port. So very hassle free toggle between DVD player and DTH is possible.
The controls of the TV set are at the top of the TV pannel. It is problamatic because I cannot use TV Cover. Again it is good to find and operate the buttons.
It has inbuilt Notepad/Memo which is very useful to use as reminder or quick note down of anything(specially number).
Other standard features like Auto ON Off, Reminder, Alarm, Controls etc are there in the TV. But it don't has any port to head phone connect jack.
Some problamatic areas
Obviously every thing can't be good with this low price. One of the problamatic area was its tunning. When I used cable TV then by auto searching the channel, it reapeted the channels. For example if Channel 10 - Sony, 11 - Star Plus, 12 - Ajtak, 13 - CNBC, 14 - Zee then it will repeat these again to channel no 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. This occured for those channels which are in frequency range of bands' margin. That's why within the 100 channels effectively we used to get only 70 distinct channels. After shifting to DTH this problem has gone as Tunner is now on the STB and I am viewing channels on AV mode.
Another odd thing is its Remote size too is large and buttons are not of good quality though works good.
You can't swith off the Video. When I just like to listen the songs from DVD player or the WorldSpace radio from my Airtel DTH I can't switch off the Display. My Onida TV has this feature.
Overall for Rs 3000 it is a very good TV and Obviously a great value for money. For last 4 years it did not give me a sigle problem. If you are looking for a decent quality TV then you can check it once.
Note: My TV is not exactly the same model where I have written this review.
