My 22″ UA22ES5000 Samsung TV bit the bullet recently and so I managed to raise some funds to replace it with a 32″ Veon from the Warehouse at the princely cost of $269 (compared to $399 full price – $199 actually paid in a sale, for the smaller but sharper original). Whereas the Samsung had a resolution of 1920×1080, full HD, the Veon only has 1366×768.
The main difference is the Veon has three HDMI inputs instead of just one and it also has analogue AV outputs in addition to the input sockets. Whether these work with just analogue signals or digital inputs isn’t clear. The headphone socket is usable the same as with the Samsung, meaning I have one of the HDMI inputs connected to the satellite receiver, then external speakers plugged into the headphone socket give decent quality sound without having to externally split the sound out of the HDMI signal. This is done so I can use both of the dedicated sound outputs from the satellite receiver for other purposes, and use the remote control of the TV to adjust the sound level from the external speakers.
Veon’s product also has a built in PVR which can record TV programming from a digital TV channel to a USB stick. The Veon remote control is much less cluttered than the Samsung one and unlike the latter I have yet to hit the wrong button, particularly with the placement of the Mute button which is well away from other controls. Another plus is that unlike the Samsung, the channel up/down buttons do nothing when an external input is selected
It is a little annoying that some models of Veon (and the almost identical JVC) TV are fitted with an external power switch under the front edge. This adds another level of technical support issues when people turn these unnecessary switches off and the next person is not aware of how to turn them on.
The best thing about the Veon is its light weight, meaning it can be installed on the same swing arm bracket as a 22″ monitor or TV. Therefore, I didn’t need to buy a new bracket to mount it above the desk where the Samsung used to sit. This is quite a contrast with the pair of 32″ Sony monitors I have which are that heavy that they need a proper bracket. I have however purchased another of the same cheap ($8 ex GST wholesale) lightweight bracket that I used for the Sonys, because it can hold the TV flat against the wall instead of sticking out as the arm will do, and also keep it level and square easily. This bracket was a bit big as it was designed for 400×400 VESA and this TV only has 100×200, so I cut down the bracket and then bolted it up above the monitor for the media computer, so the bracket is still able to do VESA with a maximum height of 200 and width up to 400 if it gets used for something else in the future. All the sockets on the TV I need to access are accessible from the left side which just happens to be where I can walk right alongside the desk to plug things in, not that I will be plugging or unplugging anything 99% of the time. So anyway with the bracket bolted into place and then bolted together so it can’t jump off. And I got a 3 metre HDMI cable so it can be used as a second monitor for the Windows 10 PC. If I wanted to I could also cable it up to be the third monitor for the main PC, well I will think about this but for now I will leave it disconnected.
The PVR was a little tricky to set up because the internal firmware doesn’t deal very well with a pen drive that isn’t in the right format. To solve this problem, I put the pen drive into a Windows computer and ran Diskpart, cleaned the old partitions off, created a partition and formatted it as FAT32, and then the TV was fine with it. The other thing is the PVR menu is only accessible when a DTV channel is being viewed. I only watch Shine TV on the DTV and then hardly ever very often so I expect not to use this feature very often.
The loss of quality with the lower resolution is noticeable but that’s just life. These TVs are pretty cheap compared to the price the old Samsung normally sold for (I got it for half price in a boxing day sale). As it happens PB Tech were selling a 24″ LG TV at 1920×1080 for a little more money, normally you won’t get a 32″ TV with 1920×1080 resolution at anything less than $400 so why pay more than the $269 I paid for this one. Because having it at 32″ is much better in my living room.