TV, TV, TV!
August 2, 2008 4:05 PM Subscribe
Whats the best television one can get around the £200-give-or-take benchmark. I've searched around but am totally overwhelmed by all the myriad of possibilities, monitors, High Def, TV tuners etc. Built in Freeview would be extremely useful as it'd save me getting the extra box, however it isn't essential. Same with a built in DVD player.Help me hive!
Freeview is the UK's free-to-air Digital TV service, and should be incorporated into just about any new-ish TV on the market.
My suggestion would be to look around sites like Empire Direct or Amazon.co.uk or even Play.com, see what's in your budget range.
£200 isn't going to stretch very far, to be honest - it should get you a reasonably well-specced brand name 19" LCD what is (technically) HD compatible (although trying to spot the difference on a 19" screen can be interesting), it might stretch to a no-name 32" LCD but for £200 I wouldn't like to comment on the quality.
As disillusioned said, more information, e.g. which room in the house/flat it's for, space available, planned viewing distance, any potential external sources (presumably DVD, from your question, but what about Sky/SkyHD, Freesat/FreesatHD, games consoles (SD or HD), etc)
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 6:27 PM on August 2, 2008
My suggestion would be to look around sites like Empire Direct or Amazon.co.uk or even Play.com, see what's in your budget range.
£200 isn't going to stretch very far, to be honest - it should get you a reasonably well-specced brand name 19" LCD what is (technically) HD compatible (although trying to spot the difference on a 19" screen can be interesting), it might stretch to a no-name 32" LCD but for £200 I wouldn't like to comment on the quality.
As disillusioned said, more information, e.g. which room in the house/flat it's for, space available, planned viewing distance, any potential external sources (presumably DVD, from your question, but what about Sky/SkyHD, Freesat/FreesatHD, games consoles (SD or HD), etc)
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 6:27 PM on August 2, 2008
Response by poster: Hi, sorry, i'm looking for something flat screened, LCD.
Brand new would be great. Any particular brands to look out for/avoid? I was thinking of this one. What should i look out for in terms of technicalities that would differentiate a good LCD TV from a bad one? As far as i know, they're all the same.
posted by ashaw at 1:42 AM on August 3, 2008
Brand new would be great. Any particular brands to look out for/avoid? I was thinking of this one. What should i look out for in terms of technicalities that would differentiate a good LCD TV from a bad one? As far as i know, they're all the same.
posted by ashaw at 1:42 AM on August 3, 2008
Vizio has a couple of nice 20" models around your price range, I'd check them out.
posted by InsanePenguin at 5:32 AM on August 3, 2008
posted by InsanePenguin at 5:32 AM on August 3, 2008
Best answer: What should i look out for in terms of technicalities that would differentiate a good LCD TV from a bad one?
One thing to check in terms of picture quality is the "contrast ratio". This is basically the difference between the darkest and lightest colours the TV can show, the bigger the ratio the better (so 1000:1 is better than 700:1). The extended specs on the TV you linked say it is 700:1. Most decent HDTVs have contrast ratios in excess of 5000:1, and you can go over 20,000:1 even, so 700:1 isn't great.
If your budget is limited it's worth doing a lot of research, and, for example, noting down the makes, model numbers, screen sizes, and contrast ratios of TVs you see online that sound good, and then going to your nearest Comet/Dixons/whatever superstore to a) see if they have the same TV in stock that you can look at in person, and b) see if they have anything else with similar specs so you can compare, say, a 19" to a 22" or a Sony to a Toshiba, or a 700:1 contrast ratio to a 7000:1 ratio. Don't be afraid to ask to see a particular TV turned on or hooked up to an hi-def source (like an HDTV broadcast or a Bluray DVD player) so you can get a good idea of the image quality. You don't have to tell them you're actually planning on buying from Amazon!
Finally, built-in Freeview seems to still add a fair chunk onto the price at the moment, but you can get a decent external Freeview box for £20 so it's worth considering that instead.
A good 42" can be had, at least in the states, for near $800.
Unfortunately the equivalent in the UK (£400) will "only" get you a decent 32" HDTV...
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:03 AM on August 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
One thing to check in terms of picture quality is the "contrast ratio". This is basically the difference between the darkest and lightest colours the TV can show, the bigger the ratio the better (so 1000:1 is better than 700:1). The extended specs on the TV you linked say it is 700:1. Most decent HDTVs have contrast ratios in excess of 5000:1, and you can go over 20,000:1 even, so 700:1 isn't great.
If your budget is limited it's worth doing a lot of research, and, for example, noting down the makes, model numbers, screen sizes, and contrast ratios of TVs you see online that sound good, and then going to your nearest Comet/Dixons/whatever superstore to a) see if they have the same TV in stock that you can look at in person, and b) see if they have anything else with similar specs so you can compare, say, a 19" to a 22" or a Sony to a Toshiba, or a 700:1 contrast ratio to a 7000:1 ratio. Don't be afraid to ask to see a particular TV turned on or hooked up to an hi-def source (like an HDTV broadcast or a Bluray DVD player) so you can get a good idea of the image quality. You don't have to tell them you're actually planning on buying from Amazon!
Finally, built-in Freeview seems to still add a fair chunk onto the price at the moment, but you can get a decent external Freeview box for £20 so it's worth considering that instead.
A good 42" can be had, at least in the states, for near $800.
Unfortunately the equivalent in the UK (£400) will "only" get you a decent 32" HDTV...
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:03 AM on August 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
Most 32" are around £300 and include built in freeview. For example this one seems popular. Hot uk deals often has tv bargains listed - for example, this 26" lcd tv at £224.99.
posted by JonB at 10:54 AM on August 3, 2008
posted by JonB at 10:54 AM on August 3, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
How big a room is this going in? How far away are you sitting? A good 42" can be had, at least in the states, for near $800.
Do you have cable/satellite that offers high definition? I imagine "freeview" is just over the air programming across the pond? A lot of TVs today are JUST monitors; they have no tuners of their own and rely on a cable box or satellite box to tune the channels for them, and deliver a straight video feed to them. You'll probably want one with a tuner.
Need more detail!
posted by disillusioned at 5:04 PM on August 2, 2008