Need recommendations for new TV

maninthestreet

With the DSO happening in my area in the next few weeks, I need to replace my 21inch, 21 year old Hitachi with a new flat panel TV. My requirements are:

1) 32inch (any bigger, it would just be too big for the room).
2) 100HZ+ screen scanning frequency
3) Full HD ready (1080p)
4) Freeview HD
5) LCD with LED back-lighting
6) Good quality sound

My budget is £600 max.

Any suggestions / recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

ic

You say 32" is too big, but once you get one and realise how it fits into the room, you'll soon want bigger. I just upgraded from 40" LCD to 50" Plasma. Don't discount plasma, the picture improvement is phenomenal on what I've seen from LCD - the colours are far richer, the picture is sharper and there is no motion blur. The TV is also incredibly thin. For £600 I expect you should be able to get a very good 32". Also watch out - in store TVs are typically set to a dynamic picture setting - super bright, high colour and contrast to defeat the bright lighting used in stores and to make a TV jump out from any other nearby. You'll never use this setting at home as its just so unrealistic and you won't have the same lighting conditions.

If you want to wall mount, look on Amazon or eBay - brackets can be had for around £10 to £15 delivered - the high street stores will happily charge you ten times as much...

macman

At that very generous budget, I'd only consider a Panasonic or Sony. For much less than that you could get a very good LG or Samsung.
Start your search at Richer Sounds.

spadoosh

You make it sound like your after a top end tv (with the requirements) yet sound dissapointed at the prospect of getting rid of your old tv. If you spent £10 on a tv it would be substantially better than your existing one.

Agree with the size thing, when 32" came out everyone always said they look silly because there too big. I find i can fit a 32" tv in any room now without it looking silly/too big. If its a living room tv i would push to 37" at a minimum, would definately say our 32" in the living room is too small, yet im not sacrificing the 40" xbox tv thats in my (x)box room.

You should easily be able to find what your after, the daily deals on ebay often have a lot of your requiremnets at considerably lower prices £3-400ish in cheaper brands. but like advised earlier Sony and pansonic are the bigger brands if your planning on spending £600 would go for one of them.

Jaynne

Personally I say the opposite, 32" is perfect I don't want anything bigger in the living room as the focus in the room isn't meant to be the TV. If you still have a 21" CRT then I'm guessing TV isn't the be all and end all of your life.

Your specs aren't at all hard to meet with a lot of budget to spare. The link below from Richer Sounds fits your criteria. One thing I would say is that as TVs have sought to be slimmer the sound quality has become rubbish. If sound quality is important to you spend the rest of your budget on a surround sound system or simply a decent speaker such as a sound bar which sits below the TV.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/led-tv/lg/32lv355u/lg-32lv355u

Norman_Castle

With the DSO happening in my area in the next few weeks, I need to replace my 21inch, 21 year old Hitachi with a new flat panel TV.

You don't need to replace your TV. It will work with a freeview box.

Hintza

If you have a bit if time keep an eye on Amazon Warehouse prices you can if lucky get some cracking deals. I am a fan of Sony TV's but you can run in to DRM problems (cough).

Try and get one that has USB or 2/3, decent number of HDMI and internet connectivity. Forget about 3D in my view (Read Mark Kermode's views on 3D).

You can do your head in reading too many of the very technical user reviews.

My short list would be (in no particular order but you tend to get a lot for your money with Samsung and LG):-

Samsung
LG
Sony
Panasonic
Toshiba

maninthestreet

Norman_Castle wrote: »

You don't need to replace your TV. It will work with a freeview box.

I have a Freeview PVR already, but I want to be able to view HD broadcasts, so a new TV it has to be (and probably a PVR as well if I want to record HD programs).

maryjane01

Don't get sucked in by internet enabled TVs. We recently got a Sony internet TV and the interface is so bad I don't think we will use it. They were also pushing the fact you could use Skype on it, which did appeal to us as we have relatives abroad and young children, however this was also a bit of a con because you can only use the Sony camera which cost an extra £80. As a tv it is fine though.

£600 seems more than adequate as a budget. TV are probably relatively cheaper than when you last bought one (but whatever brand you buy I would be very surprised if it lasts as long).

cyclonebri1

Your proposed tv is pretty small by todays standards. I'd buck the trend and say simply go with the deal that gives the best aftersales.

To qualify, at that size you will not detect the nth degree of clarity/definition. Even 3 years ago most tv's were 1080p/hd ready so no issue, but you can get a 5 year waranty included in the deal foc.,

Jnelhams

For those not so demanding here's a good telly...

http://www.ebuyer.com/275999-hannspree-40in-edge-led-tv-sl-series-freeview-usb-pvr-sl40umnb