Recommend a good budget TV

John Young

John Young

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We have had an old Philips TV for ages, its a beast but superb sound (Philips matchline - cost £1700 about 5 -6 years ago)

Anyway it looks like its starting to die so we will have to delve into the minefield of finding a new TV that wont need us to re-mortgage the house.

Our budget is around £400

Anyone have any recommendations please (y)
 
Any of the mainstream brands will suffice John. Forget about comparing like for like, your head will explode ;)
 
I would actually recommend Bush for a budget TV, I've had a 42" LCD 1080P for a few years and it all works well and no issues. Great when watching Blu-Ray etc, only thing missing for me is Overscan Options.
 
itsjosh said:
I would actually recommend Bush for a budget TV, I've had a 42" LCD 1080P for a few years and it all works well and no issues. Great when watching Blu-Ray etc, only thing missing for me is Overscan Options.
Click to expand...

eh? What's an overscan option?
 
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Most modern flatscreens have poor sound. The thinner they are the worse the sound. My parents got an LG recently as they were a reasonable compromise between decent picture and reasonable sound. Samsung have the slightly better picture but their sound quality is awful. With a lot of them you'd need a soundbar.

You really need to go into an actual shop and see and hear ones in your price range to decide.
 
What size screen are you after?

How about this if you're after a 40 incher?
 
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srichards said:
Most modern flatscreens have poor sound.
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Sound should be run through the amp and hifi speakers ;).

The only time the speakers on my TV are used is when my parents visit, as they can never figure out which remote control to use! Doesn't help that I have a Panasonic telly and a Panasonic freeview recorder, so they see a remote with Panasonic on it, end up turning on the freeview recorder and wonder why the telly doesn't turn on :naughty:
 
Lol Mark

You just described my setup, both Panny and to add my Yamaha remote looks like something off spaceship.

Sorry but I wouldn't touch Teknica, it's a cheap brand for a reason. Why not have a look at John Lewis own brand, they are cheap ish and contain good components. They also come with a cracking warranty.
 
Unijak said:
What size screen are you after?

How about this if you're after a 40 incher?
Click to expand...

That looks like good spec for the money.

Thanks everyone we are going to the shops today. The sound will not match our old TV it got best buy in what hi-fi years back. Everyone who sees it comments on the sound. It has huge base built in and wireless room speakers. Not bad for an old crtv from years back
 
Good luck John. The Sony I linked to is one of their latest models, so should be future-proof for a while. Looks tasty as hell to boot. :cool:
 
TheCrewDesigns said:
Yeah my wife was looking at those online.... never heard of Technika but I see they seem to get decent reviews but I did read that they have really bad sound quality
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I think Technika is Tesco's own brand but I guess that doesn't mean it's bad. I'm starting to go off the big names, I just had to buy a new washing machine and whilst browsing I found many of the big brands unimpressive with cheap feeling buttons which didn't push in very cleanly and I'm guessing they probably wouldn't last long. Also, tiny plastic catches for the door put me off.

Ended up getting one of those Direct Drive LG ones, nice and solid with a metal catch. I think LG do good TV's also, not sure how cheap they are though.
 
TheCrewDesigns said:
Yeah my wife was looking at those online.... never heard of Technika but I see they seem to get decent reviews but I did read that they have really bad sound quality
Click to expand...

I also have a Samsung 42" and the sound quality between the two are negligible (to my ears) with just using the set speakers. The Samsung sound does win hands down however when plumbed into an amp & additional speakers.

Ian
 
Decide what size screen you want first, also you'll need to factor in the cost of a stand for it I suspect. (£50 ish)

These days not much point going smaller than 42" I wouldnt have thought unless you have a tiny front room.

Quick look on Currys got this

EDIT: Just noticed that one isnt full HD, only 720p.

also worth thinking about if you want a TV that will let you connect up a disk drive so you can pause live TV and record stuff when you're out. you wont be able to record and watch a different channel at the same time on most tellys as they only have one tuner. (although that might have changed since I bought mine)
 
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We are looking at Samsung and Toshiba

40inch 1080 and 100hz is my requirement that smart TV option looks good and around £430 is our budget
 
My current TV is a Samsung 40", had it about 3.5 years and no plans of changing/upgrading anytime soon!

Set me back about £650 when I bought it.... prices have come down a lot since then :LOL:

Only ever run it through my AV amp but the sound isn't great although just about acceptable.
 
http://www.richersounds.com/products/home-cinema/lcd-and-plasma/all-tvs

They usually have a test room so you can see and hear what the choices look/sound like. Helps if you can get there when they're not too busy but you may be able to book a slot at busier times too.

Not sure who actually makes Technika and other store own brands. IIRC, some used to be Panasonics under the skin/behind the badges but that was several years ago and things have probably changed!
 
I've been happy with my Phillips 32" - but then I'm equally happy with the Samsung 36" we have at work , and my mate has no issues with his Toshiba - as Rich said earlier any of the main brands will be fine
 
Lynton said:
eh? What's an overscan option?
Click to expand...

Overscan is extra image area around the four edges of a video image that may not be seen reliably by the viewer.

Most noticeable on HDMI Converters or PC's (though PC's can manage this by changing resolution)
 
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