TV Advice

TractorGirl327

We are looking to buy a flatscreen digital TV but neither of us know anything about them

Can someone tell me what the specificiations we should be looking at mean?

Thanks

Splend

There's a few major things that people look for: Price, specification, physical size, future-proof, etc.

First thing, check where you're thinking of putting it. Measure up so you know how big you can go and if you're wall-mounting, check that the wall can support it (otherwise you'll have to get some stand-alone supports for it).

Next consider what you're going to be hooking up to it. Do you have a separate freeview box already (in which case you'll need to make sure its got an appropriate scart connection), otherwise many new large TVs have freeview boxes already built in - so you can go digital-terrestial straight away (assuming your TV aerial can cope). Most of the current crop of TVs have multiple scart connections so you should be fine for VCRs, freeview, SKY or whichever.

HDTV is something you'll see everywhere now. HD will be coming in via freeview over the next few years and there's plenty of HD (High Definition) sources available now (Sky do a flavour of it, XBOX360's etc etc). Although it may not be a consideration right now, once you see it you'll want it. HD comes in various flavours as well, 720p, 1080i etc etc. Basically these are referring to the resolution the TVs can cope with, anything 720p upwards should be fine (even that is FAR sharper than standard TV) - there's plenty of Internet sources that'll explain them in detail (if you feel the need ).

Its a subject that can go on and on and on. Best bet is to go see a few in the major stores, get an idea of the size and HD-resolution that'll do the job...then go searching elsewhere for the cheapest. Lots of independent suppliers are doing these now. I bought mine from https://www.lowestonweb.com after using the local Sony showroom to work out roughly what I was after.

If you need some more specific advise, just pop it up here and I'm sure we'll be able to point you in the right direction.

TractorGirl327

Thanks for that great reply, and very, very helpful!! :D:D

We're not wall mounting, havent got much wall space, and we're going for a 26" to sit in the corner of the room which will appear H-U-G-E to us as we currently have an 18" screen!!

I've just cancelled our Sky subscription as almost-£50 a month for carp channels is a rip off and we dont watch it so its a waste of time. We're going to get one with Freeview already installed, the previous owners of this house had the special ariel installed for Freeview so we are assuming it'll still work as we havent done anything to it!!

Funnily enough my husband popped into Currys during his lunch hour yesterday, and I went to Currys here and we both liked the look of this one .. and that is about the price we are looking to pay as well (in store, they have a deal for the TV, glass stand and recordable DVD player for £699 which we might go for)

Is this Samsung any good? Pros and cons for a novice please!!!

Thanks for your help and advice, it is much appreciated!

CA x

Splend

On-Off buttons, or rather a 'lack of them' are pretty common on most LCDs these days. Annoyingly they tend to sit in 'stand-by' mode most of the time....which is the main reason I made sure I hooked mine up to a power extension block with it's own separate power switch that I can properly switch off - a far cheaper way of sorting this issue than looking for a more expensive TV with an integrated hard on/off switch. :cool:

The Curry's TV looks pretty sensible, especially if they're doing a deal with other bits and pieces you need anyway. There's lots of LCD TVs around 26 / 27" in size, although the vast majority of people tend to go for 32" to 47" (but then people do tend to make the mistake of getting a massive TV and then finding they can't quite fit it in without other major changes )

Reviews tend to show it should do the job: http://www.reviewstop.co.uk/samsung-le26r73bd_reviews_2841_1.html

You could probably find a cheaper deal on-line, to be honest, but the downside with that, of course, is that you've no easy way of returning should you have a problem - and seeing as they are doing a good "bundle" deal, that could be ideal.

Freeview should be fine - I think you'll be impressed with just how many good channels that's being broadcast now (and new channels appearing all the time). A friend of mine recently did the same (dumped his Sky subscription for Freeview) and finds he's watching most of the same channels as he was watching before (Bright Ideas, E4, FilmFour, More4 etc etc) - he's just not paying for the channels he never used to watch anyway :rolleyes:

Avoriaz

In my experience Currys, Dixons etc are usually expensive and poor value. If I were buying a flat screen I would check out Richer Sounds, some of the specialist on line retailers or John Lewis who will price match. You might be able to get a bargain in Tesco etc if you know exactly what you are buying but beware as a lot of what they sell is a load of cheap rubbish sometimes.

Decide which TV you want and then search for the best on line deal with

http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/

or

http://www.zencudo.co.uk/

or a similar price search site.

Richer Sounds have this 26 inch TV

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=LG-RZ26LC2R

I have no idea if it is any good or would suit you but at first glance it looks OK.

TractorGirl327

Dabs.com have the Samsung for £499 so we're going for that

Can I ask one more question?

We have the Sky TV link up in our bedroom so we can watch Sky up there .. will the TV link work with the Freeview on the TV???

A_Nice_Englishman

caroleanneclark wrote:

Dabs.com have the Samsung for £499 so we're going for that

Can I ask one more question?

We have the Sky TV link up in our bedroom so we can watch Sky up there .. will the TV link work with the Freeview on the TV???

No, but pretty much every channel available on Freeview is also available on Sky.

TractorGirl327

Sorry didnt explain m yself very well

We are cancelling the Sky so will only have Freeview

So what will we be able to do about getting channels upstairs?

A_Nice_Englishman wrote:

No, but pretty much every channel available on Freeview is also available on Sky.

A_Nice_Englishman

caroleanneclark wrote:

Sorry didnt explain m yself very well

We are cancelling the Sky so will only have Freeview

So what will we be able to do about getting channels upstairs?

I should have said "Pretty much all the channels available on Freeview are also available via a Sky box without a subscription" . You will need to leave your card in the Sky box to get Channel 4, five, five US, five Life and Sky 3 .

Coveredinbees!!!!

you can keep your sky dish and decoder and get the free channels off sky, you just need a card for the sky box. Then your link whotsit should still work. If you don't want to do that you can flog your old sky bits on ebay.

Ooops what he said^