February 15th, 2008Review of Videocon Integra 32C
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I had enclosed the let go of this manufactured goods in the Indian market, and assured to do a review the following week. It’s been over a week now, so my apologies for the tall claim; but you know the old saying: better late than never! This is the first creation from Videocon that’s come to our steady, since the inception of their crazy advert. If I had my way I would just talk about that ad for the full scope of this review – and just to allow you know, it gets a filled five stars from me!
But I don’t get paid to review ads; so I’ll have to put that on hold. Yet, the new Integra upgraded range seems very attractive, and one thing I’ve noticed about Videocon TVs is that they always offer value for money, with presentation that can satisfy and on juncture even pleasantly revelation.
The model we received was the 32 incher from the new Integra series, which comes with a cool speaker panel. The company had stated in the press release that the USP of this TV lies in the sound, and the fact that the number of proprietary features it boasts can stand up to East Asian counterparts. Well, we shall see…
Design and Features
The bezel is finished entirely in glossy black, with a good level of electiveness on the surface. This is fixed on opaque black plastic for the back panel; usual stuff. Besides being a fingerprint magnet, the finishes are quite attractive. The stand comes factory fixed, but it can be removed for wall-mounting applications. It’s a essential rectangular sturdy stand that adheres to the overall color scheme and gloss.
There were a couple of ugly stickers, so I peeled them off. (If anyone from Videocon is reading this, don’t worry, they are carefully in the box.) The company Logo is located centrally below the screen, while the Integra logo is a bit more eye-catching, on the top left. The speaker is a horizontal bar-type structure that wants to be wired in. honestly the aesthetics of this don’t match up to the frame, though it looks retro on its own, what with its cloth grill and hard case.
This TFT LCD is a 32 incher with 16:9 aspect ratios, and the native resolution is 1366 x 768. The contrast ratio is rated quite high at 10000:1, though this is dynamic, so we’ll have to see what the TV can do. Intensity is 450 cd/m2 (where have I seen these values before? I deduction OEMs are minting money…) while response time is rated at 6.5 ms which is on the lower side. (Note: in this case, low is better.)
Connection-wise, all the usual suspects are present: 2 HDMIs, one component, one S video, and a puzzling array of audio outs. The audio output is 20W RMS. The speaker has a pair of tweeters, midrange woofers, and a lonely lower range woofer. A technology called DCTi claims to make transition scenes more precise, but we’ll soon decide designed for ourselves.
Performance
I first stop the TV into our PS3, and put in a couple of demos: games and movie trailers, all in 720p via HDMI. My first impression was that of fear (at the color, to be precise). The colors were rich and vibrant, with a striking saturation level. The reply time also was decent, with passable ghosting levels.
After that I slid in DVE test disc on a Denon DVD player, which revealed a bit more than I bargained for. The contrast and intensity levels needed to be calibrated in, as the first levels were all over the place; though once set they were satisfying, tending towards good though not spectacular. I can say this though – the superiority is at par with mid-end foreign brand TVs. But there was one sore thing in the image: noise. It was copious, unluckily. Even minute feature was an issue, as borders get a bit distorted. If you reduce sharpness they get blurry. Relic was present around image borders.
The speaker took time to fire up, as getting the right connections and setting it on the remote is quite a task. But once on, it sounds much improved than your regular TV speakers. It’s nowhere near audiophile quality, but low is quite okay, along with the rest of the sound. At Rs 49,990, the TV falls happily in the middle of the price range. The expressively significant sub-50K level is achieved, and the TV does have some good points. However, there are also some bad points, so I’ll have to rest on this one firmly in the middle.
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