HD Ready LCD Television??

kiwichick

Hi All,

Am hoping you are able to help me out.

This month has been horrendous, first the washing machine went bang, then the DVD player, then the Fridge and now the flippin TV!!!!!!

Husband is dead set on having a TV that works, cant imagine life without it etc etc. So, a dilemma.

TV that has gone bang is 7 years old, a goodmans, 36 inch. Do I call someone to come and take a look at it or plum for a new one?

If a new one we would prefer to go for an HD ready LCD type thing as our front room is tiny and we need all the space we can get.

I dont know anything about brands or spec or cost etc. Is anyone able to give me an idea of how much we would be looking to spend for one in a similar size? (I think ours is too big so am not bothered by a smaller one).

Thanks Guys,
Allison.

rdpro

Find a TV repair shop that gives free quotes before repairing, or if not workable, I've been pleasantly surprised by the Technika kit at Tesco's, it sometimes has much better spec than 'big brand' gear and full electrical warranties etc.

something like this: http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-8977.aspx

phatbear

good morning,

personally if my telly went bang I would replace it, after checking the fuse of course.

the best thing to do is work out how much you can afford to spend and work your way forward from there, i would also go to a tv shop which is showing the same source material and compare and contrast, after all one person sees certain things which another wont.

i recently had call to pop into richersounds in romford, they are national though, and i was very impressed with their set up as they had multiple tvs on the wall all showing the same hd broadcast and side by side it was very easy to discount the cheaper tv i had gone to look at.

also you mention you want an hd ready tv, why is that have you got sky hd or a ps3? if not it wont be much use to you. you also have to be aware that unless you have a high def or digitial source coming into the tv the picture will never be as good as your old crt telly.

another point is there are hd ready tv's and hd tv's personally if you have a ps3 etc i would go for a hd tv not an hd ready tv, also ensure you have at least 2 hdmi ports etc.

hope this helps a tad.

all the best

the bear

rdpro

just to add, true HD is 1080p (progressive), HD Ready is normally 1080i(interlaced) - a slightly lower quality.

oldMcDonald

Don't touch the Wharfdale ones in Argos - thats all I can advise!

Took the third one back that has broken within the last year last night, placed it on the counter whilst waiting to be served, turned around and the people behind me were carrying the same one! This was their second one that had broken, again within the year.

May have been a bad batch (if you can have such a thing with TVs?), but I wouldn't recommend going there to buy one.

kiwichick

Blimey Guys, thanks for the advice, though I am now realising just how little I know about what we need!

No idea what HDMI whatsits are or what the 1800 stuff means.

We do have sky, though do not subscribe to the HD stuff. What does that mean in terms of what we need?

Husband dead keen on all types of sport, hence the sky subscription, so important NOT to have the motion blur. Does that mean big name brands??

Thanks Again.

phatbear

Personally Id always stick to a brand name, after an extensive search before i bought my current telly i looked at most makes and found that nothing, for my eye could touch samsungs.

if your hubbie likes sport etc it will be relly important to check out refresh rates and contrast ratio of the telly, the higher the better.

hdmi is a way of connecting the tv to a hd source, whereas at the mo you probably use scart. 1080 relate to the dpi of the telly again the higher the better this allows for better definition of images.

therefore if you dont have or dont intend to get sky hd or a ps3 etc then a 1080 tv probably wont make the slightest bit of difference to you.


all the best

the bear

HoofeHearted

kiwichick wrote: »

...
This month has been horrendous, first the washing machine went bang, then the DVD player, then the Fridge and now the flippin TV!!!!!!
...

Do you have a problems with your electricity supply? Could just be a bad coincidence, but I would invest in surge suppressors to prevent nasty spikes zapping your electronics. Would not normally affect Washer + Fridge, unless it was the electronic controls that got zapped.

Just my 2p worth.

jonnypb

rdpro wrote: »

just to add, true HD is 1080p (progressive), HD Ready is normally 1080i(interlaced) - a slightly lower quality.

1080p v 1080i makes no difference unless the tv is 50" or bigger - you won't see any difference in pic quality

stick to known brands like sony, panasonic, toshiba, samsung

john lewis do a free 5 year warranty with their tvs and they price match places like empire direct, currys etc

jonnypb

duplicate post sorry