Tellies - lcd, led, plasma... what!? I just want a white tv!

foreign_correspondent

Hi all,

Can anyone help a techie idiot please?

I need a new telly, mine is a relatives old cast off, and it buzzes/whistles... I have had a tv man look at it, but to no avail, so I think I am going to buy myself one as soon as I can afford it...

But - I didn't realise they are all flat now, and I also didn't realise that there are several different types. (LCD, LED, PLasma) I do not understand the jargon at all - I just want a TV, nothing flash, preferably with a white frame, rather than black. Not too big, either 26" or 32".... can anyone advise what sort I should be looking at?

I want to spend as little as possible without buying something that will be a dud.

Also, do I need 'HD ready'? (whatever that means!)

Anything else I need to be looking for?

DCFC79

LED tvs are expensive so maybe out of your price range

plasma i dont know much about

lcd well its liquid crystal display and the picture looks good but varies from 1 make to another

i think hd ready means its ready to accept a HD broadcast eg from a freeview hd box or sky hd box but this depends on your set up eg do you have sky,virgin or freeview

to be honest if you dont have a hd source eg sky hd box etc then theres not muc point in getting 1 with HD but you may change your mind in the future and want sky HD or freeview HD so if you get 1 with HD then you woildnt have to replace it,

Esqui

LEDs aren't that much more expensive than the equivalent LCDs these days. Plasma is out of the question, you pretty much won't find a plasma screen that small. For HD, you'll find that pretty much any TV is HD ready - I'm guessing you don't have an HD source though!

As for my advice, if you want a good quality TV, you've got a fair bit of choice. Most sets should give you a great picture. Without getting too technical, TV in standard definition has the information to fill 720 x 561 pixel dots. An HDTV has at least 1024 x 768 pixel dots. The image processor helps the TV to fill out the other pixels by "guessing" what should be in there. A 26/32" TV should be OK with pretty much any half-decent picture processor - but beware at larger sizes, where the same number of pixels are spread over a large area. We once had a very basic 40" TV, and a standard definition picture was pretty much unwatchable.*

Maybe something like this: http://www.crescentelectronics.co.uk/lg-26lu5000-26-lcd-tv.html - if you don't mind the orange


*I'm tired, this may not be entirely right, but it's near enough, I think,

VoucherMan

There are some reviews here.
You can filter by screen size and/or price.

elaka

You should go to laskys, LG 32LD320 LCD TV £299 and you could get 2% off as well with this code "TV2" got it from here:
evouchershopper.co.uk/laskys.com/
Hope this helps

elsien

I had the same problem recently - tbh I found that to just watch bogstandard tv all the techie stuff didn't make that much odds. I was changing from a knackered old analogue thingy and pretty much anything was going to look good by comparison. I went for LCD because it was cheaper at the time, and it does the job. I got the spiel from the shop assistant and it went straight over my head! I went round the shops and I couldn't see that much difference between them picture wise. Go for a reasonable make and it should be fine.
That's my inexpert non-techie opinion, anyway! ( No idea if mine's HD ready or not, but I'm not fussed about HD anyway.)

Knarf44

Here's a site you might find useful:

http://www.whitetv.co.uk/

Best advice I think is to pop down to your local Comet/Currys store and have a browse. Look especially at the screen sizes and decide in your mind what size would suit your particular living room. Watching a 19" to 26" LCD in a relatively small room would be ok but in a big room it would be like looking at a postage stamp stuck to the wall. Once you have decided which size is best, use the link above to do a price comparison and then buy your chosen set online.

HD ready is pretty standard these days, perhaps more important though to ensure the TV has a minimum of 2 HDMI connections. If you have a DVD player with an HDMI output connect it to the TV HDMI to HDMI you'll get a superior picture quality than Scart to Scart.

BillTrac

Get yourself over to AV forums.

Ask your question there. What they don't know about flat screen TVs etc ......:T

Devi

my toshiba is 22inch and has a built in dvd player and has a white frame - got it from Costco for £230 a year or so ago - might be worth checking there - or Amazon!

Esqui

elaka wrote: »

You should go to laskys, LG 32LD320 LCD TV £299 and you could get 2% off as well with this code "TV2" got it from here:
evouchershopper.co.uk/laskys.com/
Hope this helps

Or, you could actually read what the OP wanted and not spam

tr3mor

You might find that black TVs actually blend into the room better. Remember that when the TV is off you'll just have a big black rectangle surrounded by a shiny white border.

Regarding the TV, just go for the cheapest decent brand LCD you can find - EG Samsung/LG/Sony/Etc. Then go across to AV Forums to find the settings that will make it look best.