Recommendation for compact bedroom TV in UK
April 23, 2022 11:00 AM Subscribe
Buying televisions is suddenly incredibly complicated. I'd like to get my elderly parents an easy to use TV for their bedroom, so not especially large (max 24"?). But...
Where I'm struggling is in the requirements for additional boxes and aerials and whatnot. Ideally this would just be a reputable brand with built in terrestrial channels - no need for streaming services just yet. If everything could be operated off a single remote that would be ideal. Will it need an aerial? If anyone has any recommendations it would be so helpful.
Where I'm struggling is in the requirements for additional boxes and aerials and whatnot. Ideally this would just be a reputable brand with built in terrestrial channels - no need for streaming services just yet. If everything could be operated off a single remote that would be ideal. Will it need an aerial? If anyone has any recommendations it would be so helpful.
You probably want a non-smart TV with FreeView. Just avoid anything with Android, basically (because those are the ones with all the complicated stuff these days).
FreeView will need some sort of aerial. If they have one on the house already, your easiest option will be to get their local aerial installer to come and fit a splitter and run a cable to where the new TV will be. There are some portable alternatives, but whether that would work really depends on the local signal quality.
posted by pipeski at 12:53 PM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
FreeView will need some sort of aerial. If they have one on the house already, your easiest option will be to get their local aerial installer to come and fit a splitter and run a cable to where the new TV will be. There are some portable alternatives, but whether that would work really depends on the local signal quality.
posted by pipeski at 12:53 PM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
An aerial will get you the best quality signal for the regular broadcasting bands. NOTHING the smaller antennas can do will beat that, even with fancy shapes and amplifiers and such. The question basically is what quality are you willing to live with, and what receiving conditions does your parents' house have? (close or far from the transmitter? in a valley? blocked by major buildings or mountains? etc. etc. )
In the US there are maps where you enter the postal code and it will tell you which channels are broadcast from where and give you a guesstimate on what sort of antenna you will need. Not sure about your side of the pond.
posted by kschang at 1:45 PM on April 23, 2022
In the US there are maps where you enter the postal code and it will tell you which channels are broadcast from where and give you a guesstimate on what sort of antenna you will need. Not sure about your side of the pond.
posted by kschang at 1:45 PM on April 23, 2022
Agree with pipeski, you just need a 'normal' non-smart TV. You can get one in Currys or Argos for less than £150. If the house has an existing aerial you can then just plug it in to that. This will get you all the usual channels out of the box. This is the TV system that I use in my house in the living room, and with another TV in the bedroom. We have one remote control for each TV, you press 'Guide' to get the TV guide up and there are about 100 TV channels and 20 radio channels available using the up and down buttons.
It is very, very unusual for a house not to have a TV aerial. If it doesn't, I would just get one installed. If it has an aerial but the outlet is in the wrong room, get it extended (you can do this yourself with a kit from Argos, but it's probably better/easier to pay, it shouldn't be very expensive). The house aerial is most likely to get a decent picture ahead of any other solution.
I expect it will be fairly easy to add streaming services later if required.
posted by plonkee at 2:21 PM on April 23, 2022
It is very, very unusual for a house not to have a TV aerial. If it doesn't, I would just get one installed. If it has an aerial but the outlet is in the wrong room, get it extended (you can do this yourself with a kit from Argos, but it's probably better/easier to pay, it shouldn't be very expensive). The house aerial is most likely to get a decent picture ahead of any other solution.
I expect it will be fairly easy to add streaming services later if required.
posted by plonkee at 2:21 PM on April 23, 2022
Here is the Freeview channel checker, if you want to see which channels you will get.
posted by plonkee at 2:25 PM on April 23, 2022
posted by plonkee at 2:25 PM on April 23, 2022
Buying a TV without the smart stuff is pretty difficult these days and I’m not convinced it’s worth it. Especially if you just don’t give it your Wi-Fi password.
Personally I’d just pick up a 24” LG TV and not connect it to the internet. All of them seem to come with Freeview HD and, if you can be bothered, plugging a hard drive in will mean that live TV can be paused and recorded.
posted by mr_silver at 3:05 PM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Personally I’d just pick up a 24” LG TV and not connect it to the internet. All of them seem to come with Freeview HD and, if you can be bothered, plugging a hard drive in will mean that live TV can be paused and recorded.
posted by mr_silver at 3:05 PM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. Went for a 28" LG at Curry's (the smallest they had available...) and dialled in a bunch of existing streaming services for the big three four UK broadcasters. Seems to work OK, although a bit of menu diving is required.
posted by srednivashtar at 6:52 AM on April 24, 2022
posted by srednivashtar at 6:52 AM on April 24, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
I use a Roku device that uses my wifi to connect to the streaming services to which I subscribe, which changes fairly often. I use the tv remote to change the source of content - antenna, dvd player, Wii, Roku(HDMI) - and the Roku remote to do everything on Roku, so not many devices needed, just ones I chose to add. The worst thing is putting in my userid/ email address and passwords for new streaming services. If your folks don't care about over-the-air tv, an old laptop is a very easy way to use streaming services. I have an old laptop on a music stand, quite portable. I'm an old, can deal with technology well. If your folks do not like to deal with technology, a laptop allows you to set up remote access for troubleshooting.
posted by theora55 at 11:37 AM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]