New Telly

J_B

We currently have a Samsung UE40H5500 TV purchased a few years back.

It does most of what we want but considering an upgrade to something a bit bigger (43/45?) and better

We mainly watch terrestrial TV (live and catch up) with occasional Netflix/Prime

Our aerial signal is not brilliant despite fitting a booster and occasionally  the HD channels say 'no signal'

We have a SkyHD box with a 'freesat from sky' card in it which gets better reception.

We also use a Firestick for a streaming 'service' that we use and also to get C5 catch up which the current TV doesn't have!

Q1 - could we simply plug the sky cable (there are two, presumably for something 'better' than currently have) into a new freesat enabled TV and away to go, or would the dish need realigning? (that would make one less remote control to use!)

Q2 - we have VCR and DVD players which use scart - are scart to HDMI converters available and reliable?

Q3 - which TV for sub £400?

PS - we don't really want a soundbar/speakers

Neil49

The LG 50UP81006LR or 43UP81006LR may suit you and are both less than £400 at John Lewis amongst others. They have 3 hdmi connections, freeview play plus a freesat tuner should you have a satellite dish. 

Sound quality is said to be reasonable given that it's a slim TV.

You can get scart to hdmi converters but be aware that you need a power supply to run these.

tempus_fugit

To answer the other part of your Q1, OP, you can plug one of the satellite cables into satellite connector on the TV and you should not need to get the dish realigned. We use ours on our Samsung TV and works fine as a backup and for when we want to watch regional TV from another region.

J_B

Neil49 said:

The LG 50UP81006LR or 43UP81006LR may suit you and are both less than £400 at John Lewis amongst others.

Hmm - both the same price at Richer Sounds.

Sadly SWMBO is suggesting that the bigger one is too big  ... how to persuade her otherwise?

Neil49

J_B said:

Neil49 said:

The LG 50UP81006LR or 43UP81006LR may suit you and are both less than £400 at John Lewis amongst others.

Hmm - both the same price at Richer Sounds.

Sadly SWMBO is suggesting that the bigger one is too big  ... how to persuade her otherwise?

We recently bought a new tv when our ancient 42 inch samsung developed a fault. To convince my wife to go for a 50 inch screen I made a cardboard surround to show the larger size. Surprisingly it was only around an extra 3 inches or so larger diagonally either side compared to the 42 inch screen and wasn't overwhelming.

Best of luck! 

getmore4less

TV shrink once you get them in place.

43" won't feel like an upgrade it's only 15% bigger area

How far away are you sitting
At 2m  55" is not too big

We are moving a lot of our viewing to the firestick it has a good selection of apps and can do other things.

J_B

getmore4less said:

How far away are you sitting

Tape measure says 12'

J_B

Neil49 said:

We recently bought a new tv when our ancient 42 inch samsung developed a fault. To convince my wife to go for a 50 inch screen I made a cardboard surround to show the larger size. Surprisingly it was only around an extra 3 inches or so larger diagonally either side compared to the 42 inch screen and wasn't overwhelming.

Best of luck! 

Excellent idea - will try that!

cx6

You might want to consider how much power they consume in standby, and even only go for one that has a proper had on/off switch so they use zero power when off. Electricity rates are skyrocketing.

Neil_Jones

cx6 said:

You might want to consider how much power they consume in standby, and even only go for one that has a proper had on/off switch so they use zero power when off. Electricity rates are skyrocketing.

Very few (if any) TVs have physical on/off switches these days.

It is claimed modern TVs use only about 30p of electricity a year if left in standby (and that they use overnight to update themselves - which you can usually do yourself at a more sociable hour)

But of course that depends on the TV and the side effects of not powering off for a while.

TV I have after its lived in standby for a while decides when served with 4k to present it like somebody's slapped paint across the screen, and will also not play any sound on Freeview HD channels.  Both issues can be fixed via Factory Reset.  Which is fine the first time, but irksome after the third...

Martin_the_Unjust

J_B said:

Neil49 said:

The LG 50UP81006LR or 43UP81006LR may suit you and are both less than £400 at John Lewis amongst others.

Sadly SWMBO is suggesting that the bigger one is too big  ... how to persuade her otherwise?

You start looking at 65” TV’s and then compromise on a 55” one.