Help me choose a new smart tv
Discussion
Haven't bought a telly for about 20 years... Looking for a basic 28-32 inch smart tv that will work in a poor signal area.
Needs to have freeview, the BBC iplayer and whatever the ITV equivalent is called already installed and be simple enough for even me to fire up straight out the box and must have a SCART socket and audio out through a 3.5mm socket too.
What's good and how much to spend?
Over to you Chaps
Needs to have freeview, the BBC iplayer and whatever the ITV equivalent is called already installed and be simple enough for even me to fire up straight out the box and must have a SCART socket and audio out through a 3.5mm socket too.
What's good and how much to spend?
Over to you Chaps
My experience is that after a few years the apps built in to smart TVs are no longer supported. I have got round this by adding fire sticks.
If you keep your TV for a long time (and it sounds like you do) then don’t worry too much about the smart apps and choose on best picture, price etc.
If you choose one with freeview play then you will be able to use the TV guide to back 7days and watch BBC, ITV, C4 programmes on catch up.
If you keep your TV for a long time (and it sounds like you do) then don’t worry too much about the smart apps and choose on best picture, price etc.
If you choose one with freeview play then you will be able to use the TV guide to back 7days and watch BBC, ITV, C4 programmes on catch up.
You'll struggle to find a brand new TV that has a scart connection; you'll need to look at getting a scart-to-hdmi adaptor. Plenty of 32" sets kicking about but you'll struggle to find anything smaller. Would recommend checking out the what hifi site and see what they recommend for <32".
Jaguar steve said:
must have a SCART socket
Rare now.If you can live with switching the source manually, the 3xphono connections that are more common will do the same job, using a cable like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/SCART-RCA-Phono-Cable-met...
Equally, might be time to update whatever it is you need that SCART socket for. Almost any modern Sky\DVD\Bluray box will have HDMI.
shtu said:
Jaguar steve said:
must have a SCART socket
Rare now.If you can live with switching the source manually, the 3xphono connections that are more common will do the same job, using a cable like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/SCART-RCA-Phono-Cable-met...
Equally, might be time to update whatever it is you need that SCART socket for. Almost any modern Sky\DVD\Bluray box will have HDMI.
dave_s13 said:
shtu said:
Jaguar steve said:
must have a SCART socket
Rare now.If you can live with switching the source manually, the 3xphono connections that are more common will do the same job, using a cable like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/SCART-RCA-Phono-Cable-met...
Equally, might be time to update whatever it is you need that SCART socket for. Almost any modern Sky\DVD\Bluray box will have HDMI.
Got a new telly bought over the weekend and guess what? It hasn't got a scart so will give the lead a go.I've already tried phono to phono and got sound but no picture and I did ask the spotty Yoof in the shop about this and in between yawns he tried to sell me a new DVD player.
Time to bin the old school dvd player I reckon.
Just over £50 bags a shiny new Blu-ray player.
https://www.richersounds.com/panasonic-dmpbd84b.ht...
It'll still play all your old dvds obvs and also has some smart functions (iPlayer, YouTube etc).
Just over £50 bags a shiny new Blu-ray player.
https://www.richersounds.com/panasonic-dmpbd84b.ht...
It'll still play all your old dvds obvs and also has some smart functions (iPlayer, YouTube etc).
JVC from Currys. Has a scart and everything else you want. . https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertai...
If you like your old DVD player then do whatever you can to get it working with the new TV, do everything you can to avoid replacing it.
There are 2 pieces of technology which boil my piss more than anything. Firstly are home printers - despite decades of progress we have yet to invent one which you can simply turn on, connect to the computer and print a f
king document or photo without some convoluted ball-ache process of dicking around trying to figure out what the cryptic error message means.
The 2nd piece of technology is DVD players. About 10-15 years ago we managed to pretty much perfect the technology to the point where you just plugged it in, shoved a disc in, hit play and enjoy the film. And they'd last for years. But somehow we've managed to regress to the point where no matter what one you go for it requires 4 hours to set it up and register the bloody thing, another 4 hours to figure out the controls, and the remote control buttons usually require you to stab them with about 2000 Newtons of force for the device to register the command. Plus most of them don't come with any sort of display on the unit so you can't tell if they're actually on or not. And after all that it packs up after about 12 months of occasional use.
/rant over
There are 2 pieces of technology which boil my piss more than anything. Firstly are home printers - despite decades of progress we have yet to invent one which you can simply turn on, connect to the computer and print a f
king document or photo without some convoluted ball-ache process of dicking around trying to figure out what the cryptic error message means.The 2nd piece of technology is DVD players. About 10-15 years ago we managed to pretty much perfect the technology to the point where you just plugged it in, shoved a disc in, hit play and enjoy the film. And they'd last for years. But somehow we've managed to regress to the point where no matter what one you go for it requires 4 hours to set it up and register the bloody thing, another 4 hours to figure out the controls, and the remote control buttons usually require you to stab them with about 2000 Newtons of force for the device to register the command. Plus most of them don't come with any sort of display on the unit so you can't tell if they're actually on or not. And after all that it packs up after about 12 months of occasional use.
/rant over
Zetec-S said:
If you like your old DVD player then do whatever you can to get it working with the new TV, do everything you can to avoid replacing it.
There are 2 pieces of technology which boil my piss more than anything. Firstly are home printers - despite decades of progress we have yet to invent one which you can simply turn on, connect to the computer and print a fking document or photo without some convoluted ball-ache process of dicking around trying to figure out what the cryptic error message means.
The 2nd piece of technology is DVD players. About 10-15 years ago we managed to pretty much perfect the technology to the point where you just plugged it in, shoved a disc in, hit play and enjoy the film. And they'd last for years. But somehow we've managed to regress to the point where no matter what one you go for it requires 4 hours to set it up and register the bloody thing, another 4 hours to figure out the controls, and the remote control buttons usually require you to stab them with about 2000 Newtons of force for the device to register the command. Plus most of them don't come with any sort of display on the unit so you can't tell if they're actually on or not. And after all that it packs up after about 12 months of occasional use.
/rant over
LOL...I know ehat you mean about old skool DVD players, I have an old Toshiba one gathering dust somwhere, cost a fortune new and seemed built like a tank. Progress made it redundant though. I only ever stream content now though so don't have to suffer as per your post. I didn't realise modern BR players were that sThere are 2 pieces of technology which boil my piss more than anything. Firstly are home printers - despite decades of progress we have yet to invent one which you can simply turn on, connect to the computer and print a f
king document or photo without some convoluted ball-ache process of dicking around trying to figure out what the cryptic error message means.The 2nd piece of technology is DVD players. About 10-15 years ago we managed to pretty much perfect the technology to the point where you just plugged it in, shoved a disc in, hit play and enjoy the film. And they'd last for years. But somehow we've managed to regress to the point where no matter what one you go for it requires 4 hours to set it up and register the bloody thing, another 4 hours to figure out the controls, and the remote control buttons usually require you to stab them with about 2000 Newtons of force for the device to register the command. Plus most of them don't come with any sort of display on the unit so you can't tell if they're actually on or not. And after all that it packs up after about 12 months of occasional use.
/rant over
t......I'd still take a punt for the sake of £50 and maybe getting a better picture. A scart/hdmi converter must introduce some degradation in pic quality I'd have thought?Forums | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff