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Hyundai HLT-3270 32 inch HD Ready TV – Some Feedback
Lt. Dang
Posts: 292 Forum Member
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This forum and the people who contribute to it has been very helpful to me over the past few months and I thought I would try to repay all your help by giving some feedback on the above set which I recently bought, I know a few people have been asking questions about it and I thought I would give some first-hand information.
Ok, saw this TV on display in the dreaded Powerhouse showroom. It was specified as HD Ready and was on sale for the princely sum of £699.99 in total. I was of course dubious given the price and the “varied” reputation of Powerhouse itself.
So I hit the internet and tried to find a review of this model and found zilch. I then tried to find a manufacturers specification as Powerhouse “did not have a manual handy” !! This was also difficult and I was about to give up on the whole idea until I found www.hyundai-world.com. At last! Someone who actually admits to making this model! There the specs. given were average but it did confirm HD resolution and that the LCD panel was of LG Phillips manufacture. (The Powerhouse web site incorrectly states that this panel is not HD Ready) This company is not the same as HyundiQ who make their own panels. This is the Hyundai Corporation who take the lego brick approach of buying components from various sources and building a complete package. However, lots of reputable manufacturers do this and therefore this did not put me off. The specs they posted were as follows:
- LG PHILIPS TFT LCD Panel
- HDTV ready (720p, 1080i)
- 16 : 9 Wide screen
- 1366 x 768 Resolution
- 1,200:1 Contrast ( dynamic )
- 600cd/m2 Brightness
- PIP ( AV / AV ) / Super Zoom
- 4H Digital Comb Filter
- Full + Half SCART
- Multi TV Channel Scan
- Image Quality DCTI/DLTI
For a £700 set this sounded ok so I thought I would take a chance and buy one.
It turned up a day later than promised. Yes, Powerhouse are a bit shonky in the service department! When delivered, the packaging looked “basic”, a cardboard box, 2 end slabs of shaped polystyrene and a covering of that poly-wrap for the set itself. Things were not looking promising. But at least the box had “HD Ready” splashed across it! However, once unpacked, the panel itself looked fine with no damage sustained during transit. I dug out the manual first which, again, is basic but gives a reasonable overview of the set’s operation. Connections on the back of the panel are described in the manual as follows:-
1. DVI (DVI-I) which accepts a TMDS or HDCP signal
2. PC RGB (D-Sub 15 pin)
3. SCART (full)
4. SCART (half)
5. S-VHS
6. Component Input (Y, Pb, Pr) 480, 480p, 720p, 1080
7. Component Audio (L, R) – RCA inputs
8. PC Audio Input (3.5 mm jack socket)
9. Headphone Audio Output (3.5 mm jack socket)
10. Tuner (RF Antenna input)
11. AC Input (3 Pin Euro Connector)
So, plenty of inputs there and express confirmation of HDCP compatibility for the DVI input. So I was pretty happy with that! So I plugged it in and tried it out. My signal via RF aerial is poor anyway and I did not expect the panel to perform well there and it did not let me down. The auto tuning was not very successful and gave me 5 poorly tuned channels. But since I use Sky+ I was not too worried and did not even try a manual re-tune.
My main interest was with Sky itself, I have a Pace version 2 Sky+ box with RGB out to a Pioneer DVR-630H DVD recorder which passes this signal through to the LCD panel via scart. Pictures from Sky were clean and crisp with good colour tone balance. There was some slight evidence of moiré and “edginess” and this was somewhat cured by reducing the sharpness a little. Other than that the picture was fine and perfectly acceptable. My previous TV had been a wide screen 26” JVC which always gave an excellent picture and the Hyundai, whilst not at exactly the same standard as a CRT, it did compare very favourably.
Experimenting a little more, I tried out the component video outputs on my DVR-630H in progressive video mode and was rewarded with an additional increase in crispness and clarity of picture along with a more “natural” feel for the overall picture. This improvement in picture was even noticeable in RGB pass through mode, with RGB output from the Sky box passed to the Pioneer and then input to the TV via progressive component video. I don’t know why but I was not expecting this approach to give a better picture than just RGB all the way through, but it did, Only problem with this is that the component video output ceases when the Pioneer goes into standby mode, unlike the RGB which is passed on no matter what state the Pioneer is in.
As a final acid test I bought a 5 metre D-sub monitor cable and plugged it into a Toshiba laptop via the D-sub socket on the LCD panel, The Toshiba is set to 1024x768 using 32 bit colour. The image on the Hyundai was correctly scaled across the full width of the panel which surprised me as I naively thought there would be some black bands to compensate for the difference in horizontal resolution. Put that down to my technical ignorance which must be obvious by now, Colours on the panel were bright and vibrant with a stable, rock-steady image. If anything the panel image was cleaner and more rich than the Toshiba’s own LCD display. Trying a few games showed that the panel does not suffer from any ghosting or trails from pixel refresh lag with fast moving graphics handled easily. Using the marquee screen saver I selected background colours of red, then green, then blue to see if I could spot any dead pixels and could not see any at all. This had been a worry of mine, given the cheapness of the TV and the second-sourcing of the panel itself but there were no problems there. Display of text was crisp with no blurring or shadowing of the characters. My next goal is to source a HD video cable for my son’s Xbox 360 to see how that looks. I will let you know how I get on. I also tried an 800x600 image which the TV again displayed correctly. One of the menu options is a useful auto-adjust feature which as its name implies automatically adjusts the scaling, position and colour balance of the image whenever required.
The overall menu system itself is not exactly intuitive but it is comprehensive providing plenty of adjustment and settings for both AV and PC sourced signal input.
I thought I would provide this feedback because I know that some people have had problems with budget LCD panels and in this instance I thought it would be useful to report back on a budget piece of kit which actually performs quite well. It even looks reasonably well styled in the design stakes too!
If anyone has any queries about this panel I will try my best to answer them.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
Ok, saw this TV on display in the dreaded Powerhouse showroom. It was specified as HD Ready and was on sale for the princely sum of £699.99 in total. I was of course dubious given the price and the “varied” reputation of Powerhouse itself.
So I hit the internet and tried to find a review of this model and found zilch. I then tried to find a manufacturers specification as Powerhouse “did not have a manual handy” !! This was also difficult and I was about to give up on the whole idea until I found www.hyundai-world.com. At last! Someone who actually admits to making this model! There the specs. given were average but it did confirm HD resolution and that the LCD panel was of LG Phillips manufacture. (The Powerhouse web site incorrectly states that this panel is not HD Ready) This company is not the same as HyundiQ who make their own panels. This is the Hyundai Corporation who take the lego brick approach of buying components from various sources and building a complete package. However, lots of reputable manufacturers do this and therefore this did not put me off. The specs they posted were as follows:
- LG PHILIPS TFT LCD Panel
- HDTV ready (720p, 1080i)
- 16 : 9 Wide screen
- 1366 x 768 Resolution
- 1,200:1 Contrast ( dynamic )
- 600cd/m2 Brightness
- PIP ( AV / AV ) / Super Zoom
- 4H Digital Comb Filter
- Full + Half SCART
- Multi TV Channel Scan
- Image Quality DCTI/DLTI
For a £700 set this sounded ok so I thought I would take a chance and buy one.
It turned up a day later than promised. Yes, Powerhouse are a bit shonky in the service department! When delivered, the packaging looked “basic”, a cardboard box, 2 end slabs of shaped polystyrene and a covering of that poly-wrap for the set itself. Things were not looking promising. But at least the box had “HD Ready” splashed across it! However, once unpacked, the panel itself looked fine with no damage sustained during transit. I dug out the manual first which, again, is basic but gives a reasonable overview of the set’s operation. Connections on the back of the panel are described in the manual as follows:-
1. DVI (DVI-I) which accepts a TMDS or HDCP signal
2. PC RGB (D-Sub 15 pin)
3. SCART (full)
4. SCART (half)
5. S-VHS
6. Component Input (Y, Pb, Pr) 480, 480p, 720p, 1080
7. Component Audio (L, R) – RCA inputs
8. PC Audio Input (3.5 mm jack socket)
9. Headphone Audio Output (3.5 mm jack socket)
10. Tuner (RF Antenna input)
11. AC Input (3 Pin Euro Connector)
So, plenty of inputs there and express confirmation of HDCP compatibility for the DVI input. So I was pretty happy with that! So I plugged it in and tried it out. My signal via RF aerial is poor anyway and I did not expect the panel to perform well there and it did not let me down. The auto tuning was not very successful and gave me 5 poorly tuned channels. But since I use Sky+ I was not too worried and did not even try a manual re-tune.
My main interest was with Sky itself, I have a Pace version 2 Sky+ box with RGB out to a Pioneer DVR-630H DVD recorder which passes this signal through to the LCD panel via scart. Pictures from Sky were clean and crisp with good colour tone balance. There was some slight evidence of moiré and “edginess” and this was somewhat cured by reducing the sharpness a little. Other than that the picture was fine and perfectly acceptable. My previous TV had been a wide screen 26” JVC which always gave an excellent picture and the Hyundai, whilst not at exactly the same standard as a CRT, it did compare very favourably.
Experimenting a little more, I tried out the component video outputs on my DVR-630H in progressive video mode and was rewarded with an additional increase in crispness and clarity of picture along with a more “natural” feel for the overall picture. This improvement in picture was even noticeable in RGB pass through mode, with RGB output from the Sky box passed to the Pioneer and then input to the TV via progressive component video. I don’t know why but I was not expecting this approach to give a better picture than just RGB all the way through, but it did, Only problem with this is that the component video output ceases when the Pioneer goes into standby mode, unlike the RGB which is passed on no matter what state the Pioneer is in.
As a final acid test I bought a 5 metre D-sub monitor cable and plugged it into a Toshiba laptop via the D-sub socket on the LCD panel, The Toshiba is set to 1024x768 using 32 bit colour. The image on the Hyundai was correctly scaled across the full width of the panel which surprised me as I naively thought there would be some black bands to compensate for the difference in horizontal resolution. Put that down to my technical ignorance which must be obvious by now, Colours on the panel were bright and vibrant with a stable, rock-steady image. If anything the panel image was cleaner and more rich than the Toshiba’s own LCD display. Trying a few games showed that the panel does not suffer from any ghosting or trails from pixel refresh lag with fast moving graphics handled easily. Using the marquee screen saver I selected background colours of red, then green, then blue to see if I could spot any dead pixels and could not see any at all. This had been a worry of mine, given the cheapness of the TV and the second-sourcing of the panel itself but there were no problems there. Display of text was crisp with no blurring or shadowing of the characters. My next goal is to source a HD video cable for my son’s Xbox 360 to see how that looks. I will let you know how I get on. I also tried an 800x600 image which the TV again displayed correctly. One of the menu options is a useful auto-adjust feature which as its name implies automatically adjusts the scaling, position and colour balance of the image whenever required.
The overall menu system itself is not exactly intuitive but it is comprehensive providing plenty of adjustment and settings for both AV and PC sourced signal input.
I thought I would provide this feedback because I know that some people have had problems with budget LCD panels and in this instance I thought it would be useful to report back on a budget piece of kit which actually performs quite well. It even looks reasonably well styled in the design stakes too!
If anyone has any queries about this panel I will try my best to answer them.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
0
Comments
Have you tried any HD video via the laptops output?
Can I use the D-Sub input for this?
And if so, where can I get some HD video from?
Regards,
Lt. Dang
Regards
I'll take a look.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
I'm considering one and would like to know if you are still as happy with it having had it for a couple of weeks.
Have you tried any HD video yet?
Which other panels did you consider (if any) and if so how did this compare in terms of PQ (picture quality) for non and HD panels?
On a scale 1(much worse)- 5(exactly the same) how does the PQ compare with your previous CRT using your best input?
What is the response rate...is it 8m/s?
Have you wall mounted it, if so how?
Does it get hot after being on for a while?
Did Powerhouse charge for delivery, if so how much?
Would it have been possible to collect?
Regards,
Frank
Only just had a chance to answer your queries as follows:-
Yes I have tried HD video via the D-Sub monitor input - very crisp and clear, really clean compared to Sky SD output.
I did do some comparisons with the Sharp, and to be honest I didn't really see any real difference in PQ.
With regard to CRT PQ vs. LCD PQ there is a discernable difference between them for SD broadcasts. I would rate the LCD as a 4 or 4.5 in comparison to the CRT, so still very close to the CRT in terms of overall PQ. Also, poor broadcast quality is more obvious on the larger LCD panel.
Haven't a clue regarding the response rate. Neither the Hyundai website, the Powerhouse website or the manual quotes it. However, I have played PC games on it, watched sports it etc and I have not noticed any ghosting or trails etc. For my part, if I cannot see any effects of pixel lag then the figure for the response rate is probably a bit moot.
I have not wall mounted the panel. I have it on one of those glass rack-things so I can put my AV amp and DVD recorder underneath it.
The TV does heat up after a couple of hours, but not excessively so, I can put my hand on the air vents on the top and leave it there without getting burnt! Also, there is no internal fan, as far as I can hear anyway!
And yes, Powerhouse did charge for delivery, £20 payable on delivery, which I was not chuffed about but did not think it too excessive/
I also note that Powerhouse have updated the spec and the price on their website. It has now DROPPED to £649.99 and it accurately quotes it as HD Ready with the correct contrast ratio of 1,200:1.
By the way, did I mention that the sound on the internal speakers is pretty good too?
When I get a chance I will add a few pics. to this thread, of the screen, maybe a close up using the macro lens on a PC display so you can check out the accuracy for text/graphic display. Also I will add a picture of the remote so you can see what you think.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
Yes I saw the drop in price but Powerhouse on-line have no stock.
So I went to my local store (Manchester) and saw demo in store displaying HD DVD and was impressed and also saw a 42" plasma by Hyundai for £999 which was even more impressive but beyond my budget. They had an order of 300 due for the LCD panel (originally this week but unconfirmed) with some 260 waiting customers so I put down a deposit and now wait to see if I get lucky. Even the store demo was labelled as sold.
Found a German site with a reference to 8 m/s response time:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/a172184.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DHyundai%2BHLT-3270%2BLCD%2BTV%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN
Will post any progress.
Once again thanks.
Frank
Rang my local store on Saturday (21/01/06) and asked if they had them in stock because there was stock at their on-line store but they said they would be in store on Wednesday next. So hopefully I shall go to collect on Wednesday. Just checked their website again and now they have no stock. Either they are selling very fast or there is something strange going on.
Regards
Frank
How come it is only 699 9but a Sony / or Jvc ones with HD ready are actually £1,399.
I want to get one, and just want to know do you think there is some sort of hidden difference rather than just brand?
With regard to the difference between the Hyundai and the Sony I wouldn't know.
All I know is that the picture and functions on the Hyundai are fine - even with laptop input via the D-sub.
See my review at the beginning of the post.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
The problem that i have is with the picture turning green and looking slightly polarized. This does not happen all the time but usually when the tv is turned on after being off for a period of time but can happen on other occasions.
I tried all inputs TV, AV and PC to see if it maybe the signal I'm receiving but the fault happens in all modes even when playing a DVD.
As the set is only weeks old I will not be accepting any repair on this product, only a replacement will be acceptable to me.
I'am now about to phone the Powerhouse service dept (08700 606900) to inform them of this matter regarding my new Hyundai TV.
Lets see what happens.......
Spoke to various departments explaining the problem that I had with my new Hyundai LCD TV, this was due to the fact as soon as I mentioned I would only accept a replacement they transferred me elsewhere.
Eventually when I got through to Powerhouse UK customer services Iwas told that I would have to contact Hyundai UK customer services for the matter to be resolved.
I was given by Powerhouse a direct number to contact Hyundai which I did and after expaining the problem for the 4th time to Hyundai customer services dept I was told the following....
Yes the problem you describe would warrant a replacemet TV and we will contact Powerhouse to inform them of this. Please accept our appologies and we hope to have this resolved by the end of the week....
Although I'am pleased with the outcome, I'am slightly disappointed that the TV failed after only a couple of weeks use. This makes me wonder if the new TV promised by Hyundai will last the test of time the way CRT's of old did so I think once the 1yrs warranty is up I will purchase an extended guarantee for this product.
The problem aside my thoughts on this product from Hyundai is that it is a good TV for the money, plenty of connectivity and looks the part for only £699.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
The button on my remote above the "PIP" is the picture button.
Changes the TV image to.....
Standard
Movie
Vivid
User
Hope this helps....
Sorry if this sounds confusing but I am new to this game and would really appreciate the help.
1. No set up problems
2. No dead pixels
3. Box stated assembled in Germany
4. TV tuner (analogue) found as acceptable as previous CRT TV(but I have a poor reception)
5. Worked fine with scart connections to: Liteon DVD/HDD recorder/player; philips DVD player; Goodmans GDB2 digibox; and VHS recorder/player.
6. Worked well with Sony laptop (analogue monitor cable)
7. Played HD video via DVI from PC perfectly well..in fact gobsmackingly well.
8. Inbuilt speakers sounded reasonable (better than on Goodmans badged Toshiba that it is replacing) but not as good as stereo Hi Fi which I use.
Physically the connectors seem rigid, not simply soldered on to the motherboard, the screen does what it says. The manual is very basic but it is obvious how to change settings.
As expected it is necessary to sit facing about 3 metres to appreciate analogue tuner reception but with HD from PC only 1 metre was acceptable. I will be at worst using freeview digibox for reception. As expected it works best in a lit rather than a dark room, but the menu allows for settings to be adjusted easily.
So far I can't fault it and at £650 it's a bargain compared to other 32" LCDs that I have researched on the internet and in the high street (e.g. LG, Philips, Pansonic, etc) in terms of Picture Quality and Price.
My only concerns are: will it stand the test of time (my 21" CRT has lasted 20 years) but my Sony laptop had to have a replacement backlight after 2 years!
I don't know the answers to Yan816's questions as all my equipment has both scart and svideo connections and having previously used scart I simply replaced the previous CRT TV with the LCD TV.
I will keep you posted of any problems or developments.
Regards
Frank
They don't even want to check the fault, they took me at my word.
WELL DONE HYUNDAI......
Regards,
Lt. Dang
Thanks for the reply, My DVD uses RGB scart. Does the Scart on the Hyundia accept only RGB? Or should I spend the £20 and get an RGB scart to Component lead and plug the component leads into the TV.
Failing all that Would I notice a difference If I just bought a decent scart to scart? If so what make would you reccomend?
I asked the delivery chap from Powerhouse how many of these Hyundai LCD TV's he has had to return in recent weeks.
His answer was only 2 including mine so looks like I was just unlucky with the one I purchased.
Powerhouse/Hyundai.....10/10 for customer service.
Sorry, I didn't know that you could get an RGB Scart to component cable. Is it possible that you are confusing RGB output with component video which is a different type of signal?
With regard to scart cables themselves I use a QED Squart ribbon-format cable which did make a perceptible difference to the picture quality. Only about £25.
Regards,
Lt. Dang
Here is a link to the RGB scart to Component cable. I know RGB and component are two very different signals, so am confused.
http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/PGV372.html?id=jyhzB5LW
I turned down the expensive extended warranty from Powerhouse, so who might you take it out with after the 1 year warranty?
Has anyone else noticed poor lip sync when watching the inbuilt tuner?
I have also noticed very minor lip sync on other SD inputs (e.g. DVD, digital receiver) and guess this is due to upscaling but the lip sync on the inbuilt tuner is pretty bad..it seems to get worse over a few seconds and then suddenly sync and then drift out of sync and jump back. ..very irritating.
Just what is the difference between the two AV scarts (one is stated full and the other half)? My Liteon DVD/HDD player-recorder goes to AV1 and my digibox goes to both the Liteon and AV2 to allow me to watch and record from my digibox or the tuner in the Liteon. My other DVD player only has scart output and I would like to connect this to the TV so I am looking for a way to connect scart to either the Svideo or component inputs on the TV so I can watch DVD whilst recording. So Yan816 have you bought the scart to component cable and does it work?
Regards
Frank
To be honest I would have thought that to do with the TV signal rather than the TV itself but I'm no TV expert.
What I do know about is PC's and when I connect the HLT3270 to my laptop as a monitor for surfing and DVD playback it's a top quality picture. As for games I have not tried it yet to see if the response time is quick enough to prevent shadowing but I'm sure it will be OK.
BTW...Thinking of putting a mini media center together to connect permanately to the TV for surfing and gaming.
I have attached to the TV
1: Scart 1 for satellitte (AV1)
2: Scart 2 for cable TV (AV2)
3: Antenna for normal TV
Changing channels on one and two (Scart 1 and 2) is fine as this is done with the satellite and cable remote controls.
The problem is when I change channels with the Hyundai remote and the TV in ‘TV’ mode. Every time I change channels it makes a noise like it is trying to find reception. It’s the sound a TV makes when there is no picture (Sort of the sound when you clear your throat) and it lasts for one or two seconds.
This is very annoying and I wondered if it was a known problem or is there anything that can be done??