humax 20.1 tft lcd tv price

It"s a common refrain: consumer electronics are too complicated and cumbersome for the average user. And even if you"re a "power user" who enjoys the latest and greatest tech gear, you"ve still got to deal with the inevitable rat"s nest of cables and wires that invades your living space once you connect two--let alone more--devices together. It"s those two problems--complexity and cable clutter--that the Humax LD2060 aims to eliminate. This 20-inch flat-panel LCD TV includes a built-in DirecTV satellite TV tuner, so subscribers can receive hundreds of channels of programming without the need for an external receiver.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the LD2060 looks similar to any other LCD flat-panel you"ll see--which is to say, pretty nice. The screen is ringed by a black border, while the stand and nonremoveable side-mounted stereo speakers are silver. Controls are split along the top and bottom edges: nine satellite control keys on the top side, five TV controls--volume, input, power, and settings menu--below. Of course, you"ll never have to touch those controls, thanks to the Humax"s unified remote. The well-designed clicker puts all the satellite and TV controls within reach. A slider on the remote toggles its controls between the built-in satellite receiver (such as scrolling through DirecTV"s onscreen programming guide) and the TV itself (picture and sound adjustments and so forth); it can also be programmed to control two other A/V devices, such as a DVD player or VCR.

Getting the Humax LD2060 up and running on DirecTV was about as easy and straightforward as we could hope. Because CNET"s New York office has an existing DirecTV subscription, we just popped the RF coaxial cable off our existing box and screwed it into the back of the Humax TV. After sliding the included access card into the slot on the side, a quick call to DirecTV customer service had us up and running in less than five minutes. (You"ll be charged the same for using the LD2060 as you would for adding a standard DirecTV box to your account--so if you"re replacing an existing box, it"s a wash.) All in all, the LD2060 delivers an experience that"s all but identical to a standard DirecTV receiver--you have access to the same onscreen guide and basic functionality that you"d get with a standard satellite receiver, as well as access to all of the same channels in your package--excluding any high-def ones, that is.

The Humax isn"t going to compete with larger and more expensive TVs in terms of picture quality, but it does offer a basic complement of picture controls, including four picture modes (dynamic, mild, standard, and movie) and five color-temperature presets (two warm and cool settings each, plus a baseline "normal"). We didn"t bother with a full calibration, opting instead to eyeball the basic picture-control settings (tint, contrast, color, sharpness, and brightness) on the Warm 2 preset. As to be expected with an LCD, black levels were lacking. We also noted a bit of red push, but edge enhancement wasn"t overly pumped up, and off-angle viewing was better than average for an LCD. In other words, picture quality was resoundingly fine on DirecTV programming and DVDs--the same that we"d expect from other non-HD LCD panels of this size and native resolution--640x480.

The LD2060 also offers a "="" rel="follow">vertical compression mode, so you can see the full resolution of anamorphic DVDs at their proper aspect ratio. What was annoying, however, was the lack of independent input memories: if you customize the settings for watching DVDs or video games, for instance, you"ll need to readjust them when you return to the DirecTV programming.

If you want to use the LD2060 to watch only satellite TV, just two wires need to be connected: the power cord and the satellite line. (Add a standard telephone wire to the equation if you want to take advantage of any of DirecTV"s pay-per-view offerings.) Thankfully, though, the Humax isn"t a one-trick pony: It has three other A/V inputs--one component and two composite--so you can connect as many as three other video sources. While that will certainly introduce more of the wire clutter that the integrated satellite receiver is designed to avoid, the flexibility to add, say, a DVD player, a VCR, and a game system will certainly be welcome for anyone building a mini-entertainment center. A single set of A/V outputs lets you record your DirecTV shows to a VCR or a DVD recorder, though anybody used to a TiVo or other DVR will lament the dearth of a built-in hard drive. Furthermore, if you buy the LD2060 and subsequently decide to dump DirecTV, the additional inputs guarantee that you"ll always have a usable flat-panel monitor--you can hook up a cable box or even a Dish Network receiver to any of those inputs. Interestingly, the component inputs accept 480p and 720p/1080i high-def sources. But given that they"re all scaled to the LD2060"s 640x480 native resolution--and the fact that it"s a small 20.1-inch screen to begin with--there"s no big advantage to using HD video sources. Likewise, you won"t find any DVI or VGA inputs on the LD2060, but the low-res screen wouldn"t be conducive to doubling as a PC monitor anyway.

While there"s a lot to like about the Humax LD2060, it"s worth remembering that it"s designed to appeal to a fairly small segment of the market: DirecTV viewers looking for a small, no-fuss, flat-panel television. At its original $700 price tag, the lack of wide-screen aspect ratio, high-definition display, PC monitor support, and a built-in DVR were all the more glaring.) By comparison, 20-inch LCD TVs from no-name and top-tier manufacturers are readily available for less than $400.) But Humax has since dropped the list price of the LD2060 to $600--with online pricing coming closer to $549. That makes this TV a much more palatable buy, and it"s a big reason we"re not grading it more harshly.

If you like the idea the of the LD2060 but want to hold out for an HD version, stay tuned: Humax is planning to release a 32-inch wide-screen LCD flat-panel HDTV with a built-in high-def DirecTV tuner in the fall, though pricing has yet to be set. In the meantime, if you"re a DirecTV viewer looking for a no-hassle second television--and you can find it at a discount--the Humax LD2060 is certainly worth your consideration.

HUMAX LEU-20A 20.1" TFT-LCD TV. HUMAX LEU-20A 20.1" TFT-LCD TV. Condition is "Used". Fully working and in good condition. TV does not have built-in freeview. Remote control is not included.

Condition: Used, Brand: Humax, Display Technology: LCD, Screen Size: 21.1, Model: LEU-20A, Energy Efficiency Rating: A+, Maximum Resolution: 768p, Unit Type: Unit, Features: Built-in Speakers, Flat Screen, Refresh Rate: 50 Hz, Smart TV Features: Not Supported, EC Range: A – G, Colour: Silver, Custom Bundle: No, Audio/Video Inputs: HDMI, Unit Quantity: 1, 3D Technology: .., MPN: LEU-20A

•Subscription to DirecTV and satellite installation required •20.1-inch, 4x3 aspect LCD screen, 640 x 480 resolution •Inputs: Composite A/V x2, Component A/V x1; Outputs: Composite A/V •Includes tabletop stand •Faroudja DCDi deinterlacing and scaling •Price: $699 A while back, I tested the Samsung SL10D10, a 10-inch DirecTV/LCD combo model with a small swiveling screen that was cute as a button, though awfully small for most applications. But 20 inches is about the perfect screen size for most secondary rooms in the home: kitchen, bathroom, office, etc. It"s large enough to read news headlines, stock quotes, or sports scores from a good distance away, but small enough that it doesn"t dominate the room.

LCD TVs are known for bright images, and the Humax LD2060 is no exception. This will be a big plus where the set will compete with lots of ambient light. I did detect that the LD2060"s screen is prone to brightness and color shifting when viewed from off-angle, which, though not uncommon on LCD sets, was more noticeable here than on others I"ve used. If you"re wall-mounting the TV, I"d recommend using an articulating arm so the set can be angled to face the viewing position head-on.

Humax wisely licensed Faroudja"s deinterlacing and scaling technology for converting different signal formats to the TV"s native resolution. This produced generally jaggie-free images whether I watched movies or video. I still don"t "get" soccer, but the LD2060 was adept at keeping everything in focus as I watched players maniacally race up and down the pitch during the World Cup. It couldn"t make the games any less boring, however.

A diminutive 3-watt stereo amp powers the tiny speakers, which nonetheless delivered enough umpf! to overcome competing noise. They won"t deliver the full richness of the free XM music stations included in your DirecTV subscription, but you won"t feel cheated either.

DirecTV receivers can be sluggish responding to channel and menu changes. Although the LD2060 didn"t keep up with my cable box, it was far quicker than the standalone HD-DSS receiver I had on hand.

BOTTOM LINE Humax"s tagline is "Easy Digital," and the company"s goal is to make people"s lives easier by simplifying technology. For DirecTV subscribers, that"s exactly what the Humax LD2060 does. Enjoy digital satellite on a flat-panel digital TV in any room without wondering where to put the satellite receiver or how to hide the wiring. Just plug this set in, connect to your dish, and enjoy! This is definitely the right tool for that job!

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Usually when you’ve got a 32in TV going for just £390, you’re talking about some no-name model you can pick up from the shelves of your local supermarket. But today that paltry sum can bag you the LGB-32DST from Humax, a brand which, while hardly premium, is certainly generally considered to sit at a slightly higher level than the Bushes, Goodmans, Prolines and Fergusons of the AV world. So here’s hoping the 32DST turns out to be as big a bargain as it initially appears.

The 32DST’s connections are a touch disappointing in one sense, as they only include two HDMIs when we like to find three these days. The reality, though, is that the two HDMI situation is pretty much par for the course at the Humax 32DST’s price point. And you do at least get some pretty reasonable accompaniment in the form of the de rigueur component video port, a D-sub PC jack, and a digital audio output – among other things.

On a bigger TV this would be a serious crime. But we guess we can live with it on a 32in TV, where the extra finesse of 1080p/24 is harder to appreciate anyway. It’s also worth considering that had such a budget TV tried handling progressive signals and, especially, 24Hz feeds, it might actually have ended up making a royal mess of things. So perhaps the 32DST’s decision to top out at 1080i playback is merely the action of a TV prepared to accept its limitations.

It’s imperative that we point out here, too, that the 32DST is not a Full HD TV, boasting instead a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels. This is only to be expected of such a cheap set, and obviously makes 1080p/24 compatibility less of an issue as there’s going to have to be image scaling to translate a 1080-line source to the TV’s 768 lines of pixels anyway.

Humax claims a contrast ratio of 1,000:1 for the 32DST – hardly one of the highest around. However, in a move typical of the LCD market, this ‘native’ figure can be boosted (to an unspecified level) by a dynamic backlight arrangement that adjusts the picture’s brightness in accordance with an assessment of the image content. As in, the darker the image content, the lower the backlight output, to improve black level response. You can adjust the backlight to any of three ‘manual’ levels too if you don’t fancy the auto setting – an important touch for reasons we’ll come to later.

The 32DST’s reasonably tidy onscreen menus have one or two surprising tricks up their sleeve given its price. You can, for instance, call up picture-in-picture functions, and adjust the way the set delivers skin tones. Plus there’s a multi-level noise reduction facility, and SRS TruSurround XT to deliver a pseudo surround sound effect using just the TV’s speakers.

Happily the 32DST has more success with its pictures. With HD sources, for instance, the picture is considerably sharper than might be expected given the set’s 1,366 x 768 resolution and lowly price tag. There’s precious little of the general softness and lack of detail that afflicts many cut-price rivals, and even better, there’s nowhere near as much LCD motion blur to contend with as we would have expected.

At this point I’d normally expect to have to bang on about how severely the budget Humax’s picture quality drops off with standard definition. But actually, while there’s certainly a small increase in motion blur, and obviously not as much fine detail in evidence, the picture is nothing like as noisy and indistinct as with some, nay many other (especially budget) LCD TVs we’ve seen.

I also like the way you can watch the 32DST from a really quite acute angle before the contrast and colour response start to drop off to any large extent – we still see some quite expensive TVs still struggle with this problem.

Also, if you use the ‘Auto’ backlight mode that on paper should give you the most effective contrast throughout a film or TV show, the screen sometimes adjusts its brightness so frenetically that the picture almost seems to be flickering.

Does Humax’s LGB-32DST set new standards of picture and sound prowess? Of course not. But does it nonetheless perform markedly better than you might expect of a 32in TV costing south of £400? Definitely.

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Humax is expanding its IDTV lineup once again, offering a less expensive alternative to its fairly similar LP32-TDR1and LGB-40TPVR options, except this flavor loses the built-in PVR functionality. This HD-ready LU32-TD1 boasts a sleek, black finish, 32-inch panel, 1,024 x 768 resolution, 1200:1 contrast ratio, 450cd/m2 brightness, integrated Freeview tuner for catching those gratis UK terrestrial broadcasts, and an eight-day electronic program guide to boot. While details are far and few between concerning the port assortment, we do know the LCD TV sports one HDMI port, a VGA connector, audio in / out, composite, S-Video, and component AV inputs. The LP32-TDR1 should satisfy those ultrathin DVT-B (sans PVR) desires for £749 ($1,429) when it hits the European market real soon.

It"s quite interesting how we"ve become accustomed to ever larger screens. To review this product I replaced our existing 32" LCD set while the kids were out. When they returned I had complaints along the lines of "have we got to watch Skating on Ice on that? It"s so small". Two days later though they had adjusted to the smaller display and were quite happy.

Both analogue and digital tuners are integrated into the product. With my rather ancient external TV aerial the digital tuner managed to find 44 television channels and a host of digital radio stations. With digital television you get all the usual benefits of electronic programme guide (EPG) and programme information. You can also search the guide for a particular programme.

In answer to the traditionally tinny sound most "second TVs" provide, Humax have gone to great lengths to provide good quality audio. The stand includes twin 8W speakers providing stereo output and they have licensed SRS TruSurroundXT - a surround-sound technology that actually works remarkably well. The quality of the sound is exceptional given the size of the unit - bass reproduction is very good and volume more than adequate with no real distortion at higher settings. The price you pay for this quality of sound is the depth of the stand that could be an issue for those wanting to wall mount - this isn"t going to be as flush with the wall as others. For those wishing not to disturb others a 3.5mm headphone socket is provided.

Humax have catered for a variety of external connections to facilitate most peoples requirements. Apart from obviously operating as a standalone digital TV, there are also SCART, HDMI, S-Video, Component and Composite inputs. Finally there is are standard VGA and audio-in for operation with a computer. The manual includes very clear instructions on how to connect to a variety of external devices.

For the second part of this review the Humax was removed from the living room to the study and in this case connected to my computers second video output. The computer had no problems automatically identifying the new screen and correctly selecting the appropriate resolution (1360x768 at 60Hz). I"m unclear however why the computer resolution is less than the 1440x900 native screen resolution.

Playback of computer video was very good - both playing a traditional DVD but also more interestingly playback using the BBC iPlayer and channel 4 "on demand". Pairing a product like this with a media capable PC makes an ideal entertainment solution. The unit is however primarily a TV - not a monitor and is optimised as such. Text is not as sharp as a dedicated monitor and the lack of ability to tilt the screen means most people are not going to be comfortable working in front of it for a long time. The resolution is also somewhat lower than I"d preferably like for a full time monitor. For the occasional computer user or for browsing the web it is more than adequate.

In digital radio mode the LCD panel is switched off after a short delay reducing power consumption. In this mode a separate dot-matrix "Vacuum Fluorescent Display" in the stand shows the current station.

If you have a digital signal then you can use an alarm feature - allowing you to wake to either your choice of TV or radio station. Unfortunately the alarm function is only available if you have digital TV - there"s no option to manually set the clock. For most people this shouldn"t be much of a limitation.

For those that want a smaller screen TV without sacrificing features, functionality or quality this Humax is ideal, either as a smaller screen primary set or as secondary set.