New TV

[ironmonger]

Can anyone reccomend a 32 inch TV . Also an easy to use DVD. We are shortly changing over to the new signal and all the salesmen I ask have different ideas. They seem to be pushing out all the old models. Any help
would be appreciated. Thank you

[redman41]

Buy a TV with inbuilt Freeview. Go for a reputable make like Sony, Panasonic etc. I'd go for LCD rather than Plasma.
Have a look on Google and check out the sites that review TV's in an impartial manner as these Salesmen are only interested in a Sale. I bought my TV at a Family run Firm, who are agents for Sony and I have not regretted it as they are very helpful always if I need advice

[Postdog]

Obviously, whatever is suggested is going to be subjective because they have that make or model.

Two valid points to consider tho.

LCD is usually cheaper to buy and run compared to plasma.

Secondly, I personally wouldn't buy a TV with an integrated freeview tuner, as this will limit you just watching the one channel. Also, it makes recording hard (not impossible) but because the recorder may not have a digital reciever, you cannot really watch one channel while viewing another - plis if you DO record from the TV, it is pointless as the TV has to be on, which sort of defeats the purpose.

I would buy (in fact have) a freeview dual reciever/digibox, such as a humax,

[Postdog]

It posted before I finished, but DVD is considered old hat now anyway, so you might as well just by a player from the supermarket.

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdR ef=10067&cat=lcd

[Francis Asis]

I recently got a 32" Acoustic solutions telly from Argos. Very happy with it so far. But if you look on their website you can read customer reviews of all their tellys which helped me decide which one to get.

[hc4361]

Just make sure the dvd recorder (or hard drive recorder) that you buy has at least two digital tuners. Then you can record two channels, watch a third or turn the tv off when it is recording.

[hc4361]

By the way, I would not buy a tv without an integrated freeview tuner. You would need to buy a freeview box and when your analogue signal is turned off the analogue tv tuner will be redundant.

[Scarlett456]

Hi, I am looking for a 32" LCD TV myself at the moment and have done quite a lot of research on the internet. WhatHiFi have a good website too. I looked at what they had given five stars to and then looked up other independant reviews after that. I think I am going to go for the Samsung LE32A558 which I couldn't find a bad review about. The cheapest price was Amazon and there were an awful lot of five star reviews on their site - of the people who had already bought this model, no one had a bad word to say about it.

Also, I'm not sure there is much point in buying a regular DVD player anymore. You might as well buy a blu-ray player as they play DVDs too. There are some really good deals around at the moment, I know people who have bought good quality blu-ray players for under �100 in the sales. As you are upgrading your TV, it seems a good time to do this rather than buying a DVD player now and then deciding you want a blu-ray player in a years time.

[Rach2008]

I've got a 40 and a 37" lcd (one for bedroom, one for lounge) from laptopsdirect.co.uk (based in huddersfield) - both are teco, which is widely regarded as a cheap crap make, but i've since found out they are made by the so-called top brands - panasonic, samsung - and are the same tv in all but the name badge - had them for 1 1/2 years n had no problems, great pic, quality sound. I always bought Sony but am now a convert!
Sky + is excellent, but tends to break down just after the warranty runs out. If you're a new customer, go for the deal sky have got on now.

[ironmonger]

Many thanks to everyone it was very good of you all to reply.
I now have a lot to think about

[LeMarchand]

Unless you NEED a new TV, there is no reason why you can't just get a Freeview box (you may also need to upgrade your aerial). Assuming your TV isn't so old that it has no SCART sockets, then you don't need to throw it out just because of the digital switchover. (I'm pretty sure that many Freeview boxes output via Co-axial as well, so even lack of SCART isn't necessarily a drawback).

As for DVD, I'd just get a cheapo player from the supermarket. They often play all regions without hacking and IF Blu-Ray takes off (current take-up isn't great) then you haven't wasted much money.

If you have some spare money, I'd tend towards a Hard Disk/DVD recorder combo which makes recording easier (to hard disk) and archiving the ones you want to keep to DVD fairly painless.

I'd even go for Sky+ or V+ rather than buy a new TV, assuming there isn't anything wrong with your current TV and it's a decent size.

[johnny37]

I recently did a lot of research. The best deals I found were Richer Sounds and Dixons online. If you want it to be future proof get 1080p. Older cheaper models are 720p. Even if you do not have HD now you may want it in future. I bought a LG 32LH3000 with freeview. I also bought a Humax Foxsat HD recorder and Freesat dish. Signal from the satellite is perfect, better than the arial. If you keep the arial plugged in it enables you to record 2 progs on the recorder and watch a third through the arial.