Help to choose the best tv set

Please can anyone help.

I am considering purchasing a new tv set and could really use some advice as to what make and model I should choose. I have been looking at 40" and 42" full hd sets with freeview hd, in both smart and non-smart versions. I'm not really sure whether I need the smart version, because I don't expect to be wanting to look at Youtube or Netflix, but as the smart sets seem to cost only a little more money than their non-smart versions, it seems like it might be false economy not to?

As I don't watch very much television, I am hoping spend only a modest amount of money on this purchase, but I'd still like whatever receiver I choose to have good picture and sound, and to be reliable.

To this end I have looked at a 42" Hitachi Smartvue set currently on offer with a major UK retailer for under £250, until I read some customer reviews posted on the web saying how they'd experienced technical problems with these.

I then came across a 40" Finlux non-smart set for around £200, and another Finlux (this time a smart set) for less than £250. Again, these also appeared impressive until I again began to read some reviews. Blaupunkt also looks to be a popular brand, but based on all of the above, it seems like it might be difficult to tell for certain.

I hear that people are saying good things about Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG - only their tv sets seem to cost a considerable amount more money for what looks to me to be about the same spec. as the lower priced Finlux, Blaupunkt and Hitachi. So, what gives?

Are the more expensive sets really worth so much more of my hard earned cash? Can I expect the picture and sound quality to be substantially better, and be more reliable?

I have read that it doesn't matter how much money you spend on a tv set these days, because you're unlikely to get anything better than poor quality sound without adding additional speakers due to the sets being too thin to house a proper speaker. This seems a bit daft, as you buy an ultra-slim tv set only then to clutter up your living space with all kinds of add-ons.

Some people are saying that smart tvs at the lower end of the price scale can be slow to access the internet - don't play back programmes recorded to usb properly without being choppy or freezing, and often don't even have a scart socket enabling them to be connected to a vcr and standard dvd player. Is this right?

So, would I be barking mad to even consider spending £500 on a 40 - 42" non-smart or smart tv set, or should I just spend a more modest £200 - £250 for what looks to be pretty similar?

Do you have personal experience of what is a reliable tv set with good picture and sound? If so, I'd be happy to hear from you!

Any constructive advice gratefully received.

Steak and chips.

You can buy this in lots of different places. The greasy spoon does it. So does the Weatherspoons. Or you can get buy it in a city center restaurant. It's all the same basic ingredients: Beef and fried potatoes. So why does the cost vary from a fiver all the way through to £30+, and why does it taste different?

That's basically the same question as yours. The answer should be obvious. No, it's not just profit margins. The budget pubs and cafes buy cheaper cuts of meat, often vac-pac'd and that may have been in cold storage for anything up to 6 years. The restaurant doesn't do that, and it shows in both the taste and texture of the final product.

All the cheap makes you've mentioned are now just badges on TVs produced by one or other of the faceless manufacturing companies that make supermarket budget brands. The LCD panels are older generation product bought on commodity pricing. The panel backlight is either edge-lit or uses fewer LEDs, and the colour of those LEDs is not so pure white. The picture processing and scaling isn't as accomplished because it uses generic chips rather than something more bespoke. It's a similar story with the software that controls the menus and any e-features. The construction isn't quite as good, and the after-sale and long-term support isn't up to the standard of the bigger brands.

In short, you get what you pay for. The cheap TVs are ridiculously cheap because they're made under dozens of different brand names. It's a 'volume of scale' thing. This pricing makes the good sets look expensive by comparison, but their pricing better reflects what it costs to make a quality TV. Incidentally, both Sony and Panasonic lose money on their TV business. The losses are colossal.

In terms of brand reliability and quality, I'd put Panasonic ahead of Sony who outsource their manufacturing. 2nd tier I'd say Samsung. They had a bad reputation for reliability until fairly recently. That's changing as they wake up to the realisation that customers once bitten are twice shy.

LG is still playing the "make 'em cheap" game. Their product performance and it's reliability isn't anything to write home about.

As for the rest, well it's luck of the draw really. The picture quality will be adequate if you're not fussy. Reliability is a crap-shoot TBH. They're really sold as a disposable commodity. If you get 2-3 years then anything after is a bonus.


On the question of sound; thin TVs have no room for good speakers. It's simple physics. People don't listen to sound in a TV store. (They don't have much of a clue about picture quality either otherwise most of the cheap brands would be left on the shelf; but that's a different story). They're more swayed by how much thinner this years TV is than the model they have at home. It's dumb, but whoever said the general public was smart?


As for smart features... well you know what the score is there. One common mistake a lot of buyers make is expecting the sort of versatility to load apps as they have with a tablet or PC. That's a big mistake. All TVs (even top brands at +£1000) are locked to the apps available either in the set of via the maker's portal. The other issue with apps is long term support. I'm hearing stories now that because of changing allegiances that YouTube will no longer be supported on some pre-2012 TVs. There's no fix for this. The TV isn't a PC where you can do a workaround.

Personally I have one of the outboard media streamers running on Android. That has much greater flexibility to run 3rd party apps including all the big names. A better option is a mini PC (NUC) or old laptop with a wireless keyboard (Logitech k400 is a good k/board). This isn't as neat as having all the features built in to the TV, and recording to USB would be more difficult (read as: impossible in most cases) from the TVs own tuner. But in terms of apps and playing back online streams then it would be a superior solution.

Incidentally, many non-smart TVs also offer direct-to-USB recording from the tuner, so you don't need a smart TV for this.

I always used to go for Panasonic, but after reading the Which reports for the past few years, and looking at demos, Samsung and LG are now streets ahead of other makers.

I got Samsungs and plugged a hard-drive or a memory stick into the one of USB sockets, they do their own programmed recording.

The own brands, including Bush which is an Argos brand, are rubbish.

Thanks for the advice, which is very helpful. As for additional speakers, I already have a home cinema amp, including 4 satellite speakers and a sub woofer which I used to use several years ago and which is currently living in a box somewhere. Also, a currently unused set of Videologik speakers which I used to have connected to a PC. Would either of these be suitable to connect to a new flat screen tv set? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Videologic-VL-60664-ZXR-550-Speakers-5-1/dp/B00008O0U4

I connect my TV to the home cinema system, with JBL Control 1 speakers, which is very good, although my newer Samsung has bigger speakers and sounds better than earlier thin sets.

I've been doing a spot of Googling for Samsung and Panasonic non-smart 42" full hd with freeview hd. There are so many different retailers to choose from, with each of them often advertising several sets of the same make and screen size, with what appear to be very similar specifications. How does the ordinary person with little knowledge of such things (such as myself) know which retailer might be the best choice to buy from, and which model of set is the latest version?

To further highlight my point as regards how confusing making a choice of set can be for someone with no technical understanding, I found this 40" set: http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-ue40h5000-led-hd-1080p-tv-40-with-freeview-hd/p1461311

then I found this, which is a 42" version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-UE42F5000AKXXU-42-inch-Widescreen-1080p/dp/B00BTG8AR4

which then says further down the same page that there is a newer version of the set, which is apparently the same one shown in the 1st link I posted here.

So the new version is apparently less expensive, and 2" smaller in screen size.

If I Google long enough I bet I find a few other 40" and 42" Samsung full hd with freeview hd, all with different model numbers. How can I ever know for sure which is the newest version.

In terms of reliability, as models seem to change so frequently, how can anyone really know how its performance will stand up long-term?

No one said it was going to be easy. That's just life. If you want to then it wouldn't be difficult at all to drive yourself nuts comparing models, specs and prices.

On the specific points you raised: It's very likely that the 40" is cheaper partly because you're comparing the old discontinued model from Amazon's web site against the current 40". Amazon's web bots will just look at any of their suppliers for product pricing. It won't necessarily be the cheapest and it could well be old data that's surfaced now that all the volume discounters have moved on to the new model.

There's also LCD screen price volatility to consider. There could have been new fabrication plant come online that makes 40" significantly more competitive than old fab plant making 42".

In terms of broad-stroke price comparisons, you have to try to stick to the same model before comparing supplier prices. If you don't then you won't be comparing apples with apples.

Samsung model numbers appear to be listed by size, chassis generation, series and then incrementally higher specification. So, 40H5000 would brak down as 40", 'H' gen (ie a later model than F), Series 5, and then 000 refers to the most basic version in that series. The sister product is the 40H5500. '500' is the improved version. In this case the spec shows it has smart features for your extra £80.

Knowing which is a later model just comes then from a little logic and the common sense to check that against the manufacturer web site.

hypno said:

In terms of reliability, as models seem to change so frequently, how can anyone really know how its performance will stand up long-term?

Click to expand...

You can be fairly certain that all Samsung models are likely to suffer capacitor failure. You can see a couple listed here:
http://www.satcure.co.uk/reviews/

The good news is that, if caught early (as soon as any symptom appears) the repair can be simple and cheap.