I can’t persuade my wife to keep our 26″ Schneider Asda telly bought 10yrs ago any longer. Even wants to get a HD recorder as well. Are LED Tv’s better than LCD Tv’s. Do I need a back lit telly. What refresh rate and resolution should I be looking for? Any suggestions greatly received! Got about 300-500 for a telly and 150 for a HD recorder approx.

My Samsung LED 32″, newly purchased after christmas, is the shizzle. I too replaced a ropy old Schneider one though, so can’t comment on the comparison with LCD. It does seem brighter though.

We got a Samsung LE32C530 in November last year. It’s excellent. Not LED but Full HD (1080p) LCD and less than £300. I’ve got a couple of friends with big, expensive Panasonic plasmas that have been blown away by how good the picture is.

Can’t comment on recorders except that Sky+ is brilliant.

Personally I prefer Panasonic TVs. A lot of other makes have more features which you will probably never use but Panasonics keep on going and do so with consistently good performance and are a pretty safe bet. Yes Samsungs and LGs get good reviews and people who buy them swear by them but if I am installing one for someone I choose Panasonic.

Sign up to the Richer Sounds VIP newsletter and get down to John Lewis (5yr warranty and surprisingly competitive prices) as well as looking on the internet.

This place might be of use for an older model bargain: http://www.cheap-lcd-tv.co.uk/

Don’t bother with 1080P – waste of time on a set as small as 32″. You won’t see a difference unless you’re face is pressed against the screen.

As mentioned, John Lewis are very cheap and will price match as well as giving a free 5yr warranty. Costco also give a 5yr warranty and Richer sounds are good value with v. cheap extended warranties.

yeah you need to be within 6ft of a 50″ TV to see the difference or something silly like that.

There is a diagram somewhere showing how close you need to be to notice.

Go for the best panel AND picture processing you can over number of pixels and features.

1) 32″ – 1080 is irrelevant.

2) You want a TV? Buy a panasonic.

4) HD recorder = Humax HDR-Fox T2. Sorry, you ain’t going to get anything worth having for £150

5) Sky? Really? You really want to give money to Sky, really?

(6) what’s this doing in the bike forum?)

consider 1080p only if you are going to also use the TV as a monitor on a computer, unless it is only going to be used to youtube.

I also like Panasonics.

Be careful with glossy screens, such as on a lot of tvs nowadays – make sure you won’t get lots of relections where you are going to mount it.

Why so small? Get a bigger telly.

Having a native 1920×1080 (progressive isn’t vital) means that when you feed the tv a HD signal (and you will one day) there won’t be any scaling which is what degrades picture quality. Similarly feed the tv a SD signal and see how well it upscales.
Refresh rate is a con – all the pictures are made at 50Hz
Lg make good value TVs, Sony make good quality ones.
Many flat screen tellys don’t do very good sound.
Getting a tv and recorder from the same company means you can use a single remote
Wait a couple of years and OLED tvs will be in your price range

If you’re a gamer and will be playing xbox/ps3 then a TV will a low input lag will help. For that reason I chose the Samsung 32C580, which has DNLA client, can play movies via USB, has Freeview HD and has a pretty good image quality, especially for £330.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LE32C530-32-inch-Widescreen-Freeview/dp/B003EEM1M4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297593265&sr=8-1

Samsung LE32C530 Review

Have a look at this. Very low input lag means you can use it connected to a computer with no problems. I’ve got one – use it for everything, only screen I own.

As said by others 1080p useful when using as pc monitor and no need for above 50hz and post processing stuff.

Great Advice all. Have ordered a Samsung UE32C4000 LED backlit telly from Amazon for 300 notes and a Humax PVR 9300T 320GB for 150 notes. Why so small, Watching BBC’s Techy thing on a morning they reckon that it’s best to stick with the 3 to 4 times rule. IE 32″ telly you should be 96 to 128″ away so you can focus properly on the screen. That’s bang on the distance from telly to sofa! Also there is I thought a general rule that your IQ is inversely related to the size of your telly. Maybe I heard that on TopGear and its total rubbish.

Conqueror, there’s an echo around here ^^^ ;o)
We read that review too. Very informative and one of the reasons we went for it.

Inbred456, we used that rule too. Glad you’ve got your order in. New telly time is almost as good as new bike time!

That’s the same TV that I have and the picture quality is astounding.

Panny or Sony – and depends on your budget. Don’t buy a SD PVR – get a Hummy HD Freeview reciever (pref HDR-Fox_T2) we love ours 🙂

Got a Sony Bravia 32″ KDL-32EX401 just before Christmas.

It’s the Cat’s Ass!

Anything Samsung, apparently the dog’s danglies with all things both tele and visual. I’m starting to look at their LEDs even though I don’t need a new TV.

Samsung LED C6505 with 100Hz and internet. easy – we have it in our kitchen & 4 other couples / families have bought it based on seeing what it can do.

I see the OP has ordered a Samsung – good choice.

Samsung LED C6505 with 100Hz and internet. easy – we have it in our kitchen & 4 other couples / families have bought it based on seeing what it can do.

Ditto cookies – people see my LE40A656 (a couple of years old now) with some good HD reference material and their jaws drop. It’s stunning in SD too, unless let down by the feed quality (eg ITV1 SD)