Performance
A bright blue laser-like LED on the bottom of the frame
shines hard when the set is in standby and pulses as it chugs into life, taking
15 seconds to come on from standby. Setup and installation won’t trouble you,
and the onscreen menu system is everything the handset isn’t in terms of user
friendliness.
The user interface is a bold, legible blend of contemporary
fonts and icons in gold, black and white. The menu home page is a translucent
band of icons across the screen for picture, sound, settings, installation,
channel list and the media browser. No need to go searching around as
everything is logically located in the right sub-menu. It’s the sort of
graphically rich interface that puts nearly all of the AV receiver industry to
shame.
The Freeview HD EPG is similarly decorated so is equally
easy to read, but it does lose brownie points by not having a live video feed
or aural continuity with the broadcast. Calibration-wise, you can adjust
obvious parameter, such as contrast and brightness, plus the backlight, noise
reduction, dynamic contrast and colour. But there’s nothing here that a serious
TV-tinkerer will want to sink their teeth into.
The Freeview HD
EPG is similarly decorated so is equally easy to read
On the sound front, the set’s two 8W speakers are served by
five presets, plus you are invited to play with the EQ sliders between 120Hz
and 10kHz. There’s a Dynamic Bass option, which I discovered should always be
engaged and a Surround Sound option, which shouldn’t, unless you want to enjoy
what I’d call Side Sound.
The 50FME242B-T may lack a fast refresh rate and elaborate
picture processing engine, but its pictures are still eminently watchable.
There’s very little jerkiness and judder to fast-moving subjects, both with
drama (Game Of Thrones) and sport (cricket and football on Sky HD) – objects
such as balls and players moving across the screen retain their shape. Static
shots have terrific clarity and detail, and a pleasing naturalness.
The remote control
is nice and big with sensiblysized buttons. The only real downside is the small
icons saying what each button does
With my Blu-ray of Oblivion the motion resolution weakness
is apparent, but again the Finlux’s detail came to the fore. Colours,
meanwhile, although certainly not as punchy as higher-end LEDs, aren’t
glaringly off kilter either.
A key tweak with the Finlux is to nudge its backlight
setting down from default. The set’s illumination is even across the screen and
doesn’t suff er from clouding at its edges, but to get the impressive contrast
and shadow detailing that it’s capable of it needs taming. Off-axis viewing
holds up well.
DLNA networking and USB media browsing with this budget
biggie is a mixed bag. Files are listed clearly and are easy enough to scroll through
and select, and video file compatibility is excellent, but oddly the set was
rather picky about my selection of music files, rejecting WMA, WAV, some FLACs,
AIFF and M4A. MP3s were fine, which is probably all that most of this TV’s
target audience will care about.
Finlux 50FME242B-T
side view
Verdict
The 50FME242B-T is probably Finlux’s best screen yet for
picture performance. The menu system is exemplary and the Smart implementation
focuses on the key, most sought-after apps. This direct retailer is definitely
moving forward in the right direction.
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Features
·
3D: No
·
Ultra HD: No. 1,920 x1,080 Tuner: Freeview HD
·
Connections: 3x HDMI; 3.5mm AV in (composite/stereo audio); 2x
USB; Scart; VGA; digital coaxial audio output; headphones jack; Ethernet; CI
slot
·
Sound: 16W
·
Brightness: N/A
·
Contrast ratio: 1,200:1
·
Dimensions (off stand): 1,125(w) x 650(h) x 65(d)mm
·
Weight (off stand): 16kg
·
Features: DLNA; Wi-fi via USB dongle (supplied); USB media
playback (MP3, M4A, WAV, BMP, PNG, AVI, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG2 TS, MPG,
WMV, XVID); 50Hz refresh rate; internet browser; Picture modes (Natural,
Cinema, Game, Sports, Dynamic); Sound modes (Music, Movie, Speech, Flat,
Classical, User); Dynamic Bass; Surround Sound; Smart TV apps (BBC iPlayer,
Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Viewster, Dailymotion, Finlux, Joomeo,
Red Bull World, Cinetrailer, Flickr, Accu Weather, Play Jam); iOS Touchscreen
App; PVR function
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