Advice on buying new TV

hansonwa

Hello could you offer me some advice on what to look for when buying a tv these days, I still have a Huge Box type.

I have saved £250.00 for a Lounge TV, I'm thinking no smaller then 32/37 inch but all this LED, LCD, Plasma, HD, HD Ready, HDMI, stuff is beyond me lol We use it for the Wii & kids Vtech games machine, Sky & DVD. It Would be great if it had a DVD unit in it (one less box and wires)

Any ideas on a best buy at the mo?

Or any you think I should avoid?

What are the Must have's?



Many Thanks

aliEnRIK

250 quid isnt a lot of money (Especially for a 37")
I would definitely not even consider one with a built in dvd player as the quality would be awful. Plus, when the dvd player dies (Which it probably will), you wouldnt have enough inputs to connect one up. ie - new tv required
This 32" samsung maybe -
http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd-tv/samsung/le32b450/sams-le32b450

make sure whatever you buy has enough inputs. The samsung only has one scart for example, but has 3 HDMI inputs (Digital input for HD viewing)

hansonwa

Thanks aliEnRIK and for the link. I put another £100 to it but that would be the maximum £350.00.
Thanks again Much appreciated :beer:

debitcardmayhem

:mad: I would check that the colour suits too, I just bought a Humax HDR for my lounge. Got it out of box, the quote was "It's Black" , sold within 30 minutes, to a neighbour who saw me with it, without plugging in for £200 (paid 225) putting the £200 towards a divorce lawyer As an aside my PVR has packed up so OH can whistle for me recording strictly tonight.

hansonwa

http://www.richersounds.com/product/led-tv/lg/32le3300/lg-32le3300

What do you think of this one??

spakkker

Only one scart , ... not full hd-not end of world, paying for led tech - your call.

hansonwa

Thanks spakkker any you would suggest?

spakkker

I have just ,3 wks ago, bought a tv from richer sounds as their prices aren't bad , their rep isn't bad and the 10% cost for warranty to 5yrs is v.good , cash-and-carry or a del. charge.

edit - It's as much personal taste- I prefer a brighter lcd rather than a plasma pic and I don't like the v. reflective screens. Try and get to see some tvs in a store and work out if your going to watch blu-ray all the time, game much or mainly standard def tv mostly. Even the stores don't set tvs up well- they seem determined to show the expensive sets as being better!
I got a tv with only 2 hdmi connects which is a bit of a bind , - if you get one without enough connects it is a pain, but livable-with. I bought on price - but also read as many reviews as I could.

aliEnRIK

Tvs are very technical. Remember the basics - your paying for SIZE, QUALITY and FEATURES

Average Plasma - low input lag (Meaning when you turn LEFT for example in a game, the tv responds very quickly). very low pixel response (Time taken for a pixel to turn from black to white and back to black again). Energy hungry compared to LCDs. Usually have reflective screens, but at least theyre glass. Low white output. very low blacks. Quite thick for a flatscreen

Average LCD - High input lag (50ms is common). High pixel response (50ms is common, which can create 'smearing' onscreen in certain conditions). Fairly economical to run. Unreflective screens. High white output. Decent LCDs tend to have blacks very close to plasma these days

Average LED - True LED tvs still tend not to exist. So theyre basically an LCD with LED lights round the outside of the frame. Expensive when compared with similar plasma/LCD. Can be very thin. very efficient to run.

Aside from the above (Which most people wouldnt care about, all they want is a tv that 'works')
You require a decent 'scaler'. When the tv is fed an SD (Standard Definiton) signal, or 720P, it needs to 'expand' to fit the screen to 1080P (Or shrink if not 1080P).
Nearly all flatscreens have bad sound
Dont be taken in by 'contrast ratios'. Its all marketing BS
Make sure it has enough inputs for now AND the future (HDMI)
Look for av forums and the like for any tv your interested in. ALL tvs have faults of some description - smearing, ghosting, crosstalk, black crawl etc etc etc
NEVER compare tvs in a shop as theyre never set up correctly (Whatever you buy, at the very least you should calibrate brightness and contrast and switch off all the 'processing modes' that arnt required)

knightstyle

We bought a Toshiba 32inch for £190 from this guy ctelectronic_uk on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. It was refurbished with a few marks on the stand but works fine and we really like it.
Plenty similar for sale from people with good feedback so have a look.

rdpro

My current 32" LCD is 5 years old and is packing up fast, so I've been looking for a cheap 42" replacement - I'm currently watching the prices for these two:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/181201 (AOC, £360)

and:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225692 (Hannspree, £389)

Both have excellent feedback and the prices are good, especially as the AOC has a 3-year warranty (although the Hannspree has more HDMI ports). Just a few quid over your budget, but maybe worth it.