Buying a new Telly.

[conny]

Have also posted this on 'Audio & Visual'.

We are thinking of buying a flat screen telly for the bedroom, wall mounted.
I've seen some with 'Freeview' and some with 'Digital Tuner' is there any difference?

Also, if we get one with built in 'Freeview' would we still need an arial on the roof or would an indoor loop one do the job,in fact, do we need any sort of arial at all?

As you may have guessed, I am not a big telly watcher.

Any help would be most helpful.

 

[Blasphemous]

Yep you still need an aerial conny. In fact, unless you're fairly close to a local transmitter, Freeview normally requires you to have a decent aerial in order to receive the Freeview signal.

The 'Digital Tuner' is there because the the old analogue transmitters are being switched off (over time), across the country so you'll either need a Digital Decoder (a box that you plug your aerial into and then plug that box into your TV), or a new TV with a digital tuner.

As for a 'Flat Screen', your two main choices are Plasma and LCD (there are others but they are expensive). They both have a 'following'. What I mean is, you will find that some will tell you Plasma gives a better viewing experience and LCD is pants. Similarly, you'll find that LCDs have there admirers stating that LCD is the way forward and Plasma is dead in the water. Both statements are untrue and both screen types have their pluses and minuses. If you're interested in knowing more, nip over to AVForums. You'll find a bunch of fairly friendly folk there (just like here ), who are happy to advise.

If you want some basic help I'm fairly confident the collective minds of DIYnot members will be able help.

Hope that helps so far though.

 

[Richard C]

I've seen some with 'Freeview' and some with 'Digital Tuner' is there any difference?

Freeview/digital is the same thing; you'd be seriously hard pushed to buy a TV without a digital tuner now unless it's back street.

Also, if we get one with built in 'Freeview' would we still need an arial on the roof or would an indoor loop one do the job,in fact, do we need any sort of arial at all?

Yes you will still need an ariel but all my digital TV’s run quiet happily on a loft mounted ariel with a signal booster. A loop ariel may give you some channels if your in a strong signal area but will seriously limit what you can receive, unlike the old analogue signal, a digital signal either works or it doesn’t; it’s all or nothing!

 

[conny]

Thanks for the info lads.

We have a 32" LCD telly in the other living room and it looks good enough to me so we will be looking at LCD not plasma. As I said, I'm not a big telly watcher, Discovery Channel mainly, the odd DIY program and a few nature ones other than that I don't bother. Wife likes the soaps and American crime dramas, CSI, Law & Order Criminal minds etc

We are on Virgin Media so might just get an extra box put upstairs , should solve all problems.

Once again, thanks.

 

[securespark]

It does certainly depend on where you are as to the quality of the signal.

I can run 3 STB's off one non-digi aerial via a booster here in Stockport, but in Harlech a friend can only get 4 digi channels and pixellation is a frequent visitor.

 

[Richardp]

We just got one for our bedroom, the best deal we got is from Tesco on line, it comes with ipod dock, is that good? I don't know

 

[snico]

They both have a 'following'. What I mean is, you will find that some will tell you Plasma gives a better viewing experience and LCD is pants. Similarly, you'll find that LCDs have there admirers stating that LCD is the way forward and Plasma is dead in the water. Both statements are untrue and both screen types have their pluses and minuses

Thats very true, LCD TV's are getting better reviews at the moment though due to better technology which could sway it

Most people agree that anything over 37 inches go for LCD

 

[Richard C]

It pays to shop around &, to be honest, I find none of the Supermarket or high street deals that good. Buying "on line" can get you a much better deal or a better set for the same money; got this mail shot deal only this morning from a computer company I use regularly;

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160823
We have one in the bedroom, really good TV at the price.

Also worth checking out is Dixons which is now the exclusively on-line arm of Curry’s/PC world, these turned out to be the cheapest for the 42” LG LCD I bought last Christmas; free next day deliver as well.

I also have a 5 year old 42” Hitachi plasma which now lives in the conservatory; it weighs a ton, doesn’t have an onboard digital tuner & cost 4½ x the price of the LG. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference in picture quality with a digi box attached but comet trails on rapid cross screen movement was one of the earlier problems; at least I can lift the LG on my own though!

 

[kjacko]

Most people agree that anything over 37 inches go for LCD

I'll take it you meant anything OVER 37" for for PLASMA!

 

[snico]

Most people agree that anything over 37 inches go for LCD

I'll take it you meant anything OVER 37" for for PLASMA!

you are right i did

 

[ColJack]

one thing that I've noticed on my LCD is that you get problems with things moving in front of vertical stripes.. they get a kind of "aura" around them that is out of synch with the background.. what I mean is that directly behind the person or thing that is moving, the stripes may be a few mm ahead of the same stripe further up..

 

[kjacko]

thats one of the plusses a plasma has. Fast moving objects ie. football matches etc don't suffer like LCD's can do.

 

[Trazor]

Does anyone know about these, or have one.

LED TV

The picture looked brilliant compared to other televisions.

 

[RF Lighting]

I recently worked for a customer who had one.

He was showing it off to me, and the picture to me didn't look much different to a decent LCD telly.

They are super super slim though, which seems to me to be the only advantage over LCD at the moment.


Freeview reception will be affected by geographic location. Where I live, we can't even get channel 5 (no really we can't)

 

[Shutpa]

Hi Conny. For the past 15 years or so, we have always bought our tvs from John Lewis mainly because all come with a free 5 year warranty and they have a price promise. The service is, I believe, second to none. For example, I also bought a fridge freezer from them 6 years ago and paid £55 for a 5 year guarantee. It has been replaced 3 times and they (JL) have just renewed the guarantee until 2012 at their expense. Can you beat that?