New TV – what's a good one?

Want a 32 inch TV for around £300-£400 but haven’t got a clue where to start (we’re still watching an old CRTone!). LED, LCD, Freeview etc – it’s all new to us. Just want a reasonably future-proof telly with decent picture and sound, and one that will last more than 12 months. Brands recommended so far have been Samsung, LG and Panasonic, but I’d like to hear about particular models etc.. Any opinions/warnings welcome. Ta v much.

When I was looking for a new telly the Sony ones reviewed well. Richer Sounds always came out well price wise although John Lewis were doing a price match.

http://www.richersounds.com/

Always worth dropping in on AV Forums for up to date advice.

http://www.avforums.com/

Judging by my mates experience with his ‘Smart’ TV I would avoid them for the time being…

Picture is good, but the tv is slow..

Recently bought an LG smart TV (47″ rather than 32″ admittedly) from John Lewis and very pleased with it. HD is stunning as you’d expect but most SD feeds are very good as well. Dunno about audio quality as we have it hooked up to a sound bar.

I recently inherited a 40″ LED LG. The picture is great,the sound a bit tinny but overall satisfactory.

The main issue I’ve had with it in the 5 months we’ve had it, is turning it on. It doesn’t have a physical on/off button and relies on the user running their hand over the on/off icon, a bit like a phone. I have had trouble turning it on, on occasion, although using the remote to switch it on normally works.

On the other hand, we’ve had a Panasonic TV for the last 4 years, which gets a lot of use and has been fault free.

Samsung seem the best ATM, but really don’t bother paying the extra for the smart bit, if you want smart then you can buy a DVD player with the functionality for about £50, so don’t pay £100’s extra for the latest TV.

Cheers.

I’ve got a Toshiba for sale that fits the bill. 18 months old, immaculate condition.

No such thing as future proof – it’ll be out of date in 18 months no matter what you buy. My main telly is a Panasonic Plasma and is the dogs danglies and I have yet to se any telly at any price with a better picture. But more relevant for your budget, i’ve also got a Samsung LED smart TV. Pretty good picture – excellent with an HD feed. Its connected to WiFi via a USB WiFi dongle (£20 off Amazon – I didn’t get the £80 proper Samsung one). It is a bit slow and clunky to navigate round, but once you’re streaming something like iPlayer, YouTube or Netflix its fine. I can also access my NAS server so can access all my media files.

Having said that, I recently stayed in an apartment on holiday and there was a 32″ Tesco own brand TV (forget the name of the brand). I’ve no idea of its spec but I was pleasantly surprised by the picture quality, certainly passable and watchable, though not as good as my Samsung, and very good when playing DVD/BR.

I’m afraid i’ve been underwhelmed by Sony’s. My mate got one and I was not that impressed – a good picture, but for the price (or cheaper) there are alternatives that are just as good, if not better.

Cheers for the tips everyone – keep them coming. It’s a baffling subject for a luddite like me. Is LED or LCD best at my price point, in terms of picture quality? Looked on a couple of review sites and I’m none the wiser! Ta.

We ended up with a Samsung LED, great picture quality, again on the sound no idea it runs through a surround sound box.
It was the last of the Non Smart ones which is fine as it’s hooked up to a media centre which by all accounts is faster/better/easier and more versatile that the smart stuff.

Best bet is to go and look at some in real life to get an idea of what they are like, also make sure they have an HD feed in the shop as loads just run a crap feed to them on mass.

Future proof = not getting a smart TV and using external boxes for that functionality…

I think the current Sonys have nice picture quality, and I don’t rate Samsung as I think 1. their colors are a little off, and 2. their picture processing sucks.

Beware of getting a set with a reflective ‘anti-glare’ surface on it as this often makes the picture seem like it is better, but the reflections can be a pain in the rear in reality.

+1 for Panasonic. Really good picture generally, and very reliable. I’ve had a few over the years.

Just bought a projector instead – awesome so far. We only watch movies/TV series/Netflix anyway but it means we can have an 80″ screen without it taking over the room.

At your price point LED/LCD are basically similar, the only difference being that the LCD panel in the LED tv is lit by white LEDs instead of CCFLs. This means your TV gets slightly more energy efficient, thinner and lighter. I’ve got a 32″ Sony LED and people have remarked how good the picture looks, although without a side by side comparison against my mates Sony 42″ LCD I personally can’t see the difference.

I had the same budget and size requirement as you a year or two ago, and my two major requirements were LED and built in Freeview HD. Mine has LoveFilm and iPlayer built in as well, but really for the ‘smart’ requirement these days either a games console or relatively cheap blu ray player can do the job.

Also don’t be sucked into paying a premium for a brand name wireless dongle to match the tv as well, even if you don’t have ethernet near by it’s possible to sort it out for cheaper.

I am also looking at getting a tv and looking at a Panasonic 42″ plasma, seems good vfm for 330. But its only hd ready at 720p. Don’t think I notice the difference between 720 and 1080

1080p will only be noticeable when playing Blu rays or some modern games.
HD broadcasts on Sky/virgin are 1080i or lower depending on the program.
Be surprised if the panasonic doesn’t go up to 1080i in resolution,mines a few years old and supports it.

Buy the biggest one you can afford

sonys are good but not the best value compared to others so you end up paying more than you wanted (well thats what I did!), but if youve got a ps3 or other sony av kit bravia sync is excellent and a joy to use compared to other manufacturers efforts, and ours has been faultless for 3 years now

Had this issue a few weeks back – hadn’t bought a large TV for fifteen years.
Chose a £300 Samsung from John Lewis to get 5 year warranty.
Has iPlayer and USB recording & playback ability. Not full HD, but at 32″, wasn’t likely to tell the difference, and don’t have a bluray player or console with 1080 output. Wonderfully light – old CRT must have been nigh on 60kg.