TV set recomendations please

seems our TV is on the blink - tuner wont hold chanels.

not a huge issue as we can still watch the missing chanels via the tuner in the VCR, however the TV is an old 28"ish bow fronted CRT and it seems er indoors would rather like a change (100% without prompting by me!), so, gentlemen, what in your opinon is the best value kit out there at the moment?

We wont be looking high end - just good old middle of the road, open to all suggestions though, from what little i have read, CRT still reigns supreme for quality? though i do covet those slim LCD / Plasma beauties........

oh and can anyone recomend an idiot proof DVD recorder to go with it........
Cheers

Chris

 

I just bought a 28" Ferguson flat screen CRT telly...
It's got a lovely blue l.e.d around the off button, it's not widescreen (and therefore better resolution), it's NICAM and brand new from Currys...
£120.
When this one dies it'll be just in time for analogue switch off, and plasmas and the like will be:
a) cheaper
b) more reliable

I never see the point in following the herd with the latest must-buy thing..

 

Argos have a 28 W/S with black ! not the horrid silver for £280 I think.

Philips recorders, although complicated I think are the easiest and most reliable. I bought a DVD +RW and now wished I had purchased an HDD one.

 

Disagree completely. Lots of unreliability problems with Philips. Go Panasonic. Easily the most flexible and relatively idiot proof.

You should also be able to pick up a Panasonic 28" W/S set with Freeview digital tuner for less than £300 if you shop around.

FFS don't go 4:3. Unless your into steam in a big way.

 

Nowt wrong with 4:3 - the analogue signal is 14:9 letterbox anyway.
And digital transmissions can be outputted as either anamorphic or letterbox by most freeview type boxes..
You'll always get a sharper piccy than with a widescreen - that's the difference between regular square 4:3 pixels, and rectangular anamorphic ones!
I find most folks with widescreen tellies watch them in either "Dixon's Vision" (i.e. a squashed letterbox), or zoomed in to remove the ends of the captions...

 

for a dvd recorder i'd try and hunt down a toshiba dr1 they are a few years old but feature packed and tough as old boots. simple to use to. they can also handle dvd ram whcih means you can do sky+ like tricks such as pausing live tv and rewinding it too.
toshiba also make good tellys too - i nearly bought a 28 inch widescreen crt a few weeks back but i'm going to waid and get a 32inch lcd i think - they are pretty cheap now.

 

Why watch a 14:9 analogue signal when most of the major channels have a 16:9 digital output available?

I would agree with your second point, but I would assume that members of this forum didn't fall into that category.

 

I thought Philips made the recorders for Panasonic ???

 

I got my TV from here - http://www.clearance-comet.co.uk/cg...y?cgrfnbr=36513&cgmenbr=37087214&noMoreSubs=N

basically when someone buys something and return it - comet can't sell it as new so they auction it off..I got my panny tv for 265 when it's retail price was nigh on 500 (tho, that went down to 360) and it was new and came with a guarantee!

when you view an item it tells you the condition of each item at the bottom, I think the delivery of the tv will be about 35 quid

 

Because the I can't stand the artefacts and glitching from the digital signal...

 

No.

 

Absolutely not!

I'd second the comments about Philips DVDRs. No end of reliability issues. I had a DVDR 890 for 2 years and it spent nearly half that time being repaired. Many, perhaps even most, of that generation of Philips DVDRs had chronic reliability issues. I was far from alone with my situation. It's possible the current ones are better but for me the damage has been done. Won't touch Philips products again.

I've now got a Sony RDR-GX3 which is superb.

Re. widescreen: if you want to watch DVDs then a widescreen TV is a must unless you want to watch a postage stamp sized letterbox rendition. Most broadcast content in the UK is 14:9 or 16:9 these days anyway.

Michael.

 

Fairy nuff, but if you can clean up mains interferance and get a decent signal it doesn't become a problem.

 

Ok, I stand corrected !

I have the DVDR70 (I think) last years model. The thing with it I found, I wished I had bought one that recordes onto the hard drive, and then transfers to disc.

A part from that, I can honestly say it is easy to use and reliable (touch wood)

 

Nowt to do with mains interference or a decent signal, it's down to excessive compression and too small a bandwidth!
Seem to me that progress seems to mean more at a lower all-round quality...

And the reason I'm happy with a 4:3 telly is because I watch DVDs on a projector screen...

 

Top value LCD TV now must be one of the Samsung. If you like to tune your tele with one of the reference set up discs then you might become paranoid they just don't do reference black like CRT ..... but LCDs have caught up fast and for my eyes do many things much miles better now like the geometry is spot on even with factory setting. The pixel cells are much smaller so giving much smoother pictures with good source material.

Leonard,
Must have a chat with you about projector and screen one day.

 

morning all - may thanks for the input - especially MrCat for the link, i think i'll be looking at CRT for now - cheap enough (not scared of spending, but i have a wedding and phase 2 house renovation to support in '06 ) and known quality - as i said i really have not looked into plasma / lcd etc too deeply but, if i pick up a CRT for a couple of hundred quid now i dont mind moving it on in 12 months or so when flat panel stuf will presumably be cheaper and better......

 

Agreed. Got a 32" for £850 which gives a great picture off Freeview (analogue is cr*p, but then I never use analogue). HD Ready too so roll on HDTV next year Picture isn't as good as some of the better CRTs, but it doesn't take up half my living room either!

 

I've got a Panasonic AE500, which is has sufficient resolution for HD, came with a free 6' screen and cost just under £1k - sadly they're now discontinued, but this chaps selling the slightly better AE900 for £975!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-AE9...844761694QQcategoryZ22610QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Doesn't come with a screen, though, which is £200 or more..
Any more info, PM me!

 

Thanks for the tip.