Bargain alert! 32" HD Ready LCD TV for £399...can you get one?

theloft

AndyD_OHD wrote:

I had thought I would find some useful information on LCD Tvs on this thread. Cheers
Andy

Andy - My advice is to go for a tried and tested brand name, some of these cheapos may be good value but what components have they used ?. My Toshiba 32WLT66 is superb. Both through SKY and the built-in freeview (automatically tunes in). Then if you want to watch SKY you use the SKY remote, for freeview, switch SKY off and watch DTV (digital) and use the TV remote. I had to tweak the Colour & contrast etc. but now am really pleased with this TV which replaced a 26" CRT which was on the blink. The Tosh got rave reviews when it came out (priced £1200) and now you can buy it using vouchers, direct from Dixons for £569. See my post of 13/12 on this thread!!

ChemicalBrother_2

theloft wrote:

Andy - My advice is to go for a tried and tested brand name, some of these cheapos may be good value but what components have they used ?. My Toshiba 32WLT66 is superb.

I'm not so sure about the tried and tested brands and better components. I have a Toshiba 28" CRT and I'm happy with it but it appears to either be a rebadge of a Bush set or Toshiba let others rebadge their models. Or alternaticely, it may be the case that the Bush and Toshiba sets are rebadges of some Turkish or Chinese made model.

Meanwhile my parents' have a Bush 28" TV that's from the same family as my Beko 32" TV and it failed in just over a year. My Beko (which of course is also a cheapo make) has lasted over 5 years - which these days (even for 'good' makes) isn't too shabby.

FWIW we've also owned Hitachi and Sony makes that have lasted just a year or two. Also, thanks to MSE forums, we've just found out that if a fault can be traced back to manufacture you can chase them up over a faulty set upto 5 years after your statutory 12 months guarentee.

codger

Is it a recent trend affecting all televisions, or something specifically to do with LCD TVs, but I don't recollect in times not-so long past there was much concern about the longevity of these products.

We had a Ferguson (not a premium CRT brand) which lasted eight years and was only changed because we wanted a bigger screen. Its replacement was a Mitsubishi 'Black Diamond' which managed 14 years before the tube went and was replaced by a Sony widescreen CRT four years ago which our son has whilst we enjoy our cheapo price, though not cheapo brand, JVC CRT.

Not one of the TVs mentioned above ever gave a moment's trouble and as a family, we're still as delighted with the performance of the Sony and JVC widescreen CRTs as the day they were first switched on.

Friends and relatives similarly had (still have) CRT sets more than a decade old, and no-one sees anything remarkable about that product life-span.

Yet now there's plenty of talk of modern-day sets arriving with faults that never plagued the old CRTs and also of product life-spans which seem to suggest that the ostensibly superior stuff on offer today isn't anywhere near as dependable, or as value-for-money, as those of yesteryear.

Is it progress, or. . . ???????

sydney2002

ChemicalBrother wrote:

I take it you have Sky (a question not as silly as it sounds!)?

1) Go to Interactive (one of the four big oval buttons on the top of the Sky remote)

2) Choose 'Sky Customer Service'

3) Then choose 'Your Sky Remote' and follow the prompts

There's instructions there on how to program your remote and the codes for different makes and models of TV. If your TV isn't listed, try codes for other well known cheaper brands (Alba, Bush, Beko etc)

Your box DOESN'T need to be connected to the phone line for this service and you don't even need to be a current subscriber.

Nice oen guvnor, will check that later when home.

Any ideas why the heck the picture freezes so so so often. This is the really annoying thing about this TV, I cannot watch it now as I sit there waiting for it to freeze... I sort og get dissapointed if it doesnt freexe within 5 minutes now :-)

ANNOYING

ChemicalBrother_2

sydney2002 wrote:

Any ideas why the heck the picture freezes so so so often. This is the really annoying thing about this TV, I cannot watch it now as I sit there waiting for it to freeze... I sort og get dissapointed if it doesnt freexe within 5 minutes now :-)

I can't get my head around why the TV would be freezing the picture. I can see why a Sky box might (signal breakup, box lock up) but if it wasn't a problem with the old set (or any additional TV - via TVLink) then it would obviously have to be new the TV.

I don't know much about LCDs and Plasmas though, TBH. One thing I do know is that I still prefer the pictures a good old fashioned (and unfortunately really bulky) CRT provides. This opinion was cemented after helping choose sets for my sister and my parents. They seem happy enough though!

theloft

sydney2002 wrote:

Any ideas why the heck the picture freezes so so so often. This is the really annoying thing about this TV, ANNOYING

It is probably your signal or your SKY box that's the problem, not your TV. You can check your signal in SETUP (quality and strength).I had the same problems, pic freeze, & break-up, loss of sound etc. at different times, but especially when it was stormy. After a few arguments and threats of cancellation, SKY gave me a free engineer visit, he replaced my old Pace Box with another Pace, same problem, next visit got a Panasonic and he retuned the aerial, since then no probs. whatsoever. Toshiba 32WLT66 great!!

sydney2002

ChemicalBrother wrote:

I can't get my head around why the TV would be freezing the picture. I can see why a Sky box might (signal breakup, box lock up) but if it wasn't a problem with the old set (or any additional TV - via TVLink) then it would obviously have to be new the TV.

I don't know much about LCDs and Plasmas though, TBH. One thing I do know is that I still prefer the pictures a good old fashioned (and unfortunately really bulky) CRT provides. This opinion was cemented after helping choose sets for my sister and my parents. They seem happy enough though!

My old Tv was a 28" fat style Toshiba, big fat muther :-)
Never ever had issues with it freezing. Hence I thought it was this refresh rate, that a lot of people talk about on LCD's... and nobody knows what the rate is on these acoustics do they.
I hear 8ms and lower is ok ?

sydney2002

theloft wrote:

It is probably your signal or your SKY box that's the problem, not your TV. You can check your signal in SETUP (quality and strength).I had the same problems, pic freeze, & break-up, loss of sound etc. at different times, but especially when it was stormy. After a few arguments and threats of cancellation, SKY gave me a free engineer visit, he replaced my old Pace Box with another Pace, same problem, next visit got a Panasonic and he retuned the aerial, since then no probs. whatsoever. Toshiba 32WLT66 great!!

Rightio, I will do a signal check when I get home laters (no I wont its works xmas party tonight).
Its only about 10 months old the SKY+ I currently have, and yes it is a PACE system.

I guess if I did have an analogue arial (which I dont) I could just plug that in the back and watch 1,2,3,4,5 and see if it occurs through that ariel, but as I say nto an option.

My 16 day take back to Argos expires on the 22nd though... which is a pooper.

56cheffy

I bought the Technosonic from Woolies.....and it's absolutely BRILLIANT...superb picture quality, my son is playing his Xbox 360 on it right now...Sound and picture quality is TOP notch...I only wish I'd bought 2...

Just because it's not a Phillips, JVC or Sony doesn't meant it's not going to be any good!

RedOnRed

My mother in law has just got rid of her Bush 20" CRT after 13 years. It had never broken down in that time and still worked OK until the end but had insufficient SCART sockets for her needs.

We got her the TV 13 years ago for £50 when it came with a special offer on the first mobile phone we got.