Televisions
 

Right. I've done a bit of overtime and have sufficient cash to buy one of these new fangled colour TVs I've been hearing about. May also go so far as to get a DVD player.

Any manufacturers to avoid? Features to look for?

Re: Televisions
 

personally i wouldnt go near phillips again , what sort of money are you looking to spend and what sort of size are you after ???? :)

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How about one of these, it's widescreen 28".

It's what I have and it's not bad at all.

Depends how much you wish to spend.

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I was looking at Philips :erm: What's wrong with them?

<decides against rent boy joke> :D

I have about £300

I was going to buy it from a shop. Is it hassle free buying electrical goods online? Will it end up arriving in bits?

I have a B&W portable at the moment - have done for the past decade.

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Mine was delivered without any problems, it came via Citylink, which you can track online. i.e. you know what day it will be delivered.

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take a look at this http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten...C-AV28T5BK.htm

I bought from this firm and had problems with panasonic they were very helpful I ended up with a toshiba

the linked tv is flat and just a Little over 300
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http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten.../TOS-28Z44.htm

this one has a free dvd recorder stock due soon may be worth a wait

Where are you? I got a friend in the trade and I can get refurbs cheap

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Do these also have a full 100 channel tuner range rather than the 20 to 70 that most seem to have?

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the one for £300 quid flat fronted with free dvd recorder does

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A2/Nicam stereo
Hyper sound (surround effect)
2 x 10W full-range speaker output (RMS)
Fastext
Colour temperature adjustment
3 scarts
T-V link
Auto aspect switching (Auto WSS)
100 channel
Autoset programming
Sleep timer
Child lock
Unified TV/VCR/DVD remote control
Finish: Silver or Black

Of course there are plenty to choose from on that site

Re: Televisions
 

I've got a Phillips widescreen. I've had no problems with it. :shrug:

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maybe it was just my bad luck , mind you i still wouldnt have another one :erm: , as the price of tft's and plasma comes down , normal style tv's are getting as cheap as chips , £160 for a 28" widescreen in asda now :disturbd: :D :D :D

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I've had a few Philips teles, one of the best brands around imo...

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blimey, if you have had a monochrome set for that long, you are going to be happy, whatever the features of the new one. ;)

I agree - buy one from a shop, especially one where you can see it working - & listen to if you go for the dvd option. Bear in mind a decent set of speakers will be well worth thinking about, as well, but otherwise a bog standard dvd player should only add about £25 to the price.

For the telly itself it is about future proofing - HDTV compatibility would be high up this list, also component video connectors as well as minimum 2 scarts. These features are going to narrow your choice & raise the cost, though - and HDTV isn't going to happen for a while yet, in the UK.

After that, it is the 'nice to have' things like built in Freeview decoders etc that you can look at.

we have a very ordinary Panasonic 28" widescreen & a Sanyo DVD player, no external speakers, downstairs - it does the job ok, but is not 'future proof' ;)

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Sony! Sony! Sony! Sony! :D :tu:

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OH just go to Curry's and take a look.See what you like and then do a bit of research via your local library and any newer copies of Which they may have. :)

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Why would you want that? There are only 50 analog chanels anyway arent there?

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We love our Sony Wega (must admit I love all our Sony stuff), its great, but a little over the £300 J was thinking of. We got ours off the 'net and found the delivery great, hope you find something you like J.

P.S. :wavey: Not see you about too much lately, too much OT?

Re: Televisions
 

Big up to the Sony man!

I have to agree - if you can afford the extra for a sony, go for it - I always try to go for sony, since I think it's a good reliable make.

My mum has a samsung, which is quite nice too (it should be I picked it for her :p: ).

What we did was go down to currys, find one we liked and then got it from their website - since apparently the website is a seperate business and as such charges different prices to the store, usually a lot cheaper - keep an eye out for their web specials as well - and I think they have a bank holiday special going on too.

One thing I would say, is personally I would never deal with Empire direct again, after I had no end of problems with them when they 'lost' a tv I had ordered. The customer service was terrible, with them basically saying what ever you wanted to hear to get you off the phone.

Just my 2 pence worth

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The TV anybody should buy MUST have HDTV support (Special socket) it not going to be worth spending loads of money on a TV without it

Re: Televisions
 

Whenever I post one of these threads I just know that several people will say, "Don't buy x - absolute rubbish" and another load of people will say, "Never had any problems with x" :D


I know :D I've resisted the madness that means that a colour license is 3x the cost of a B&W :spin:


Funny you should mention sound. My mate bought a DVD player to attach to his colour portable and unless the TV sound is turned up full, you can't hear it :erm: Trouble is, with the TV on full blast, it hisses. It's made me a bit nervous about buying one.


Noted :)


I remember when I was looking for my first PC and I asked the nice chap in Curry's what ports it had and he went away to ask :erm: They're like flies - annoy the hell out of me. It's the only down side to shopping - that and security guards that follow you.


Always like Sony myself when it comes to entertainment stuff.


Not really - for a gay man, I'm not much good at ass licking ;) so the bloke in charge of overtime doesn't rota me that often. Once in 6 months. I spend my days dealing with the worst of humanity. Some days when I get home, I just don't want to interact :shrug:

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either the player, or the speakers, must have a decoder for 'proper' dolby digital, dts, whatever - has your mate tried a different sound stream from the dvd that doesn't need decoding?

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It'll get deleted BUT:

You do surprise me :p: ;)

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Now don't go getting all technical with me. I plugged it in - that's the extent of my expertise :D I did have Grease playing in Dutch - an experience I've stored away for future use. You never know when you might need to extract information from someone. When I'm next round there I'll look for "stream" in the manual - see what it says.
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I definitely will get deleted cos the mods are monitoring me BUT:

I compensate in other ways ;)

Re: Televisions
 

depends which player you use - I use PowerDVD, a lot - the setup allows you to choose a sound 'stream' appropriate to your setup - including vanilla stereo ;)

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Sony UK TV's :D

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I'm another who's gonna give a big shout for sony, but at that price, maybe not.......

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As I understand it HDTV support on CRT TVs just means they can change the HDTV stream to an analog stream which is displayed at the same resolution as current broadcasts, not as high definition.

Best bet would be to pop into some of the high street retailers and compare sets there noting down the prices of ones that you find acceptable. Have a look at Asda as Paul suggested as they are very good at sorting out problem TVs which some online retailers are very bad at doing. If you have a problem with a set bought from Asda during the warranty period they will repair, replace or refund whichever you choose. We bought a set from them which developed a fault and they replaced it with a newer, better model and gave us a refund of the difference between the price we paid and the price of the new set with a full new warranty on the new set. There was no hassle at all in getting this done, they didn't even bother to check out the set we were returning.

Re: Televisions
 

Can I also say: 'Sony, Sony, Sony' ----- except:

Right now is probably not a good time to buy a telly.

LCD screens are dropping in price but go above 20" widescreen and they've still got a way to go. Also, what's the pointing in getting HDTV now? Chances are when HDTV comes in you'll want to watch it on a plasma or LCD screen.

What I personally would do now is either wait for LCD screens to drop further, or buy a cheap & cheerful Bush or suchlike now, then trade up when HDTV really takes up (and you'll find out what features you don't and really do need). Just make sure you get 2 SCARTS minimum.

I bought mine online from The Electric Shop - all was fine, though they're not geared up to delivering to the room you want, up stairs if you're in a flat, etc. At least Currys will come round and set it up for you.

If you're going to be doing any shifting it around yourself you need at least one other person to help you stick the thing on the stand, and I'd recommend 3 of you for lifting it up stairs etc

Re: Televisions
 

I've been looking and I can't really see the attractions of widescreen - terribly expensive, especially the Sonys. Strangely, it seems that your standard TV is a dying breed - Comet website only has a few. I don't have that much room neither, so something the size of a swimming pool is just going to get in the way. Who'd have thought it would be so hard to buy something <big sigh>

Noted on the lifting :)

Re: Televisions
 

Ah, if you don't wan't widescreen then you should be able to get a nice good brand 28" 4:3 for about £200 or so; probably less if you're happy with a no-name box. Personally I would go online to 24-7, electricshop, empiredirect, etc for this sort of thing as, as you say, shops don't tend to stock many 4:3s these days.

I personally wouldn't bother thinking about HDTV or any other future proofing if you're going for 4:3.

You'll still need 2 of you to lift it though!

Re: Televisions
 

once you have had a ws tv then you will screw your face up in disgust at a 4:3 one , a point also to note is that more and more tv is broadcast in ws so you may find yourself looking at a 16:9 picture on a 4:3 tv :Yikes: :D :D

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I would agree with that. When we got our first widescreen TV it seemed very odd with everyone looking like short fat midgets and footballs looking more like rugby balls. Reading the manual and adjusting the settings of the TV and Sky digibox soon got the picture right and after a week or so watching a 4:3 TV was the thing that looked odd.

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I don't get the ratios :spin:

So standard TVs are dying out and the thing to go for is a widescreen? I can see I need to save more cash :mis:

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4:3 is 4 wide X 3 high , 16:9 is 16 wide X 9 high , feet , inches or whatever you want to measure it in , 16:9 is more akin to your natural field of vision , hope that helps :)

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Just have a look at the screen size next time you go to the cinema. Very wide isn't it compared to its height, similar to a widescreen TV. If you take a movie made for cinema showing you either have to lose the edges of the picture or make the picture fit the TV width and have thick black bars top and bottom.

Re: Televisions
 

the link here

http://www.technofile.com/articles/v..._distance.html

shows what a couple of aspect ratios look like on a 4:3 & a 16:9 tv

- if you want to play back DVD a widescreen is pretty much compulsory, a 4:3 wastes too much of the screen.;)

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Pretty much all the tv's you have been linked to at your budget have been widescreen anyways dude,you only really have to spend more if you want hdtv,but they have not even desided how there gonna broadcast that in this country yet,yes hdtv will be better but will it be the 100's more its gonna cost?

Re: Televisions
 

Right - so widescreen it is. Sod the rent :D There are a few here - might bid on one of these :erm:

http://www.clearance-comet.co.uk/cgi...4&noMoreSubs=N
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What's "NTSC" and "100MHz screen" all about? Good to have, or not important?

Re: Televisions
 

ntsc is the american format , it means you would be able to play back american dvd's / video's with a compatible player , 100hz is , if you like , the refresh rate of the screen , not convinced myself but there you go , and as for comet clearance , keep your eyes open , you will find that a lot of the gear they sell goes for very nearly the retail price :disturbd: :D :D

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pauly got there be for me, as for the web site the things all was go near or at shop price .

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I will have to say most new tvs that you find will be ntsc compatable,in fact I would say you would be very unlucky to find a tv that does not.

Some people,again very few ,actually see a screen flicker at 50 hz if your one of these a 100hz model will cure this

This tv I linked you to earlier would interest me as it comes with a dvd recorder (gotta be worth a min £100) and the total price is £299,it s says due soon but they will have them in,my tv was labeled this and I had to wait a few weeks but they sorted me out

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten.../TOS-28Z44.htm

Re: Televisions
 

Also, should you be going integrated digital (Freeview) - as the reasonably expected lifetime of any TV bought now should run into the time where they were planning on the analogue shutdown. Currys have a digital widescreen at £299.

Of course, if you plan on using it with cable or Sky, then it doesn't need built-in digital.

Re: Televisions
 

There is no real need to go for built in digital decoders as all you need is a Freeview STB if you don't have cable or satellite. You can get both a 28" widescreen TV and a Freeview box for £200 these days.

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you sure can if you go to asda :tu: , and i dont think you can go far wrong , ok so it wont be the latest model etc etc , but , you defintely aint robbed imho :)

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Panasonic, Panasonic, Panasonic, their Tau screens are far better than Sony screens these days, the blacks blacker and generally fab. Also more reliable than Sony.

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Why are TVs 16:9 when DVDs are 2:1 (Anamorphic, whatever that is?). The Widescreen never seems to match up with my telly anyway, unless I put it into "cinerama" or some other stupidly named widescreen mode. Whats the difference between 16:9 and 16:9Large?

Re: Televisions
 

The common cinema experience is 2.35:1 the words anamorphic basically means it automatically sets tv to correct ratio,none anamorphic dvd will show letterbox in a 4:3 ratio which is pants :D the format is not written in stone,movie producers choose themselves,have you seen in the cinema the little side curtains open after the trailers this is 2.35:1,oceans 12 is 2.4:1 for instance,so the 16:9 tv has its bands as to not lose any of the picture,most tvs have cinema mode or a ratio adjuster to allow you to fill the screen but this will not be in correct aspect

Assault on precinct 13 (2005) is 1.85:1 this will fill a 16:9 tv

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i just went for a viewsonic n3000w
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/de.../lcdtv/n3000w/
didnt want bigger as my front room sofa is huge so only about 7 foot away from it when its on the wall

Re: Televisions
 

Probably as it is easier to make a widescreen CRT tube at 16:9 than wider, of course this may be different for plasma and LCD.

Anamorphic, this is a whizzy on DVDs. If you think of a widescreen VHS tape, the tape is recorded with a black bar at the top and bottom, a large proportion of the tape is dedicated to recording nothing but black. An anamorphic DVD on the other hand has an instruction at the start to define the black and then the entire bandwidth of the transmission is used to play out the moving image between the black bars at a higher available resolution.

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Nice telly - are there enough widescreen programmes in the USA for it to be worth it though?

So, no elections in the last few months then?