Televisions

[bdav]

Originally Posted by Angua

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

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

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Sony! Sony! Sony! Sony!

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. Not see you about too much lately, too much OT?

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Sony! Sony! Sony! Sony!

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 ).

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

[Hom3r]

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

[greencreeper]

Originally Posted by Mal

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

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"

Originally Posted by homealone

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

Originally Posted by homealone

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.

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 Trouble is, with the TV on full blast, it hisses. It's made me a bit nervous about buying one.

Originally Posted by homealone

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.

Noted

Originally Posted by Incognitas

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.

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 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.

Originally Posted by Shaun

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.

Always like Sony myself when it comes to entertainment stuff.

Originally Posted by Shaun

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

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

Originally Posted by greencreeper

<snip>
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 Trouble is, with the TV on full blast, it hisses. It's made me a bit nervous about buying one.

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?

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

Not really - for a gay man, I'm not much good at ass licking

It'll get deleted BUT:

You do surprise me

[greencreeper]

Originally Posted by homealone

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?

Now don't go getting all technical with me. I plugged it in - that's the extent of my expertise 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.
__________________

Originally Posted by Shaun

It'll get deleted BUT:

You do surprise me

I definitely will get deleted cos the mods are monitoring me BUT:

I compensate in other ways

Originally Posted by greencreeper

Now don't go getting all technical with me. I plugged it in - that's the extent of my expertise 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.<snip>

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

[Ramrod]

Sony UK TV's

[chambece]

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

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by david.ewles

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

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.

[cookie_365]

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

[greencreeper]

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

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

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

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!