New fangled TVs.

[alb]

I'm under pressure to buy a new telly for the living room. We don't have one in there now because it was in the way of the speakers, so i moved it out. It wasn't used much anyway.
To save space i'm going to have to relent and buy one of these 32" LCD things, and wall mount it. Don't know anything about them, and need some advice please.
Judging by the number of broken ones for sale, i'm guessing they're not as reliable as the old CRT type.
If i had more room i'd buy a secondhand CRT again, but thats impractical.

Is there anything i should look out for, or avoid?
Do they need protection from mains spikes etc?
Is secondhand too risky?
Am i being unnecessarily paranoid?
I don't want to be spending more than £400 on something that isn't really a priority in this house.

[Ali Tait]

I'm no expert,but for that size of lcd,I think the Sony Bravia has a very good picture.You're probably best waiting till the January sales if you can,should get it for a good price.

[alb]

Thanks Ali.

Need this before Christmas, but no problem because the January sales will be starting soon anyway.
Probably won't be able to afford the Sony range.
I'm going to see what Costco has to offer this weekend.

[Ali Tait]

Sorry no idea what they cost.My mum has one and it's very good.Secondhand maybe?

[mercury1 (trolling as Dave K)]

I'm no expert,but for that size of lcd,I think the Sony Bravia has a very good picture.You're probably best waiting till the January sales if you can,should get it for a good price.

Hi Al,
FWIW I thoroughly agree with Ali. I have a 40" Bravia LCD and the picture (and sound) is brilliant (and superb on Hi-Def, IMHO). I confess to being a fan of all things Sony, and they tend to be a bit more expensive than their competitors, but well worth the extra, IMHO/E.
If you want to lead, rather than follow the herd, I've been very impressed lately with the picture quality on the new LED sets (Samsung ?) - brilliant picture, lower leccy consumption, but reliability is an unknown (too new) and you pays to lead the fashion.
If it helps (don't know where you live) I have a Costco card and would be happy to take a trip round their Sheffield branch with you to view, and buy if so minded. I believe that they are cheaper than many but may not be the cheapest - they do have a good selection of makes and sizes though, to enable you to focus on one or two perhaps. Let me know if I can help further.
EDIT:
Written before you and Ali exchanged replies - sorry.
Cheers,

[Stratmangler]

Hi Al,

You could do a lot worse than one of these - Samsung are pretty good at upscaling normal telly up to HiDef spec too.

Chris

[The Vinyl Adventure]

right, i work in a shop that sells tvs cameras hifi etc. its a small independant shop and im going to tell you some things about what i have learnt in the last 4

- dont buy a tv for spec - buy for reliability -

we sell sony and panasonic... we have only sold pannys since march. previous to pannys we sold LG, previous to LG we sold sharp.
we used to sell a lot of sharp tvs because they were cheap - maybe 5% came back faulty (we did sell a lot of graded models, that might explain this)
when we sold LG (only a few months) we only had maybe 1 or 2 back.. i couldnt give you a honest percentage
i have been selling sonys for 4 years, i can honestly say we have had one with a faulty hdmi socket (maybe the customers fault), one with a messed up picture (sonys fault) and one that didnt tune (sonys fault) .. good record, yes! maybe we, as a store, have been lucky? maybe....?
the store manager of the shop i work in is good mates with a guy who works at apollo2000 (james), over the years i have got to know him and we have had a few drinks etc. usually work related, and the convo of tvs comes up. he says the same as we do - sony and panny are the most reliable!
i cant speak for pannys having only being selling them since march (and i had a faulty one (bought of james from appolo the year before)) .. but james says his experience is that thay are as reliable as sonys!!
think about it like this:
sony - £500 - lasts 10 years.
samsung - £400 - lats 5 years....
sony costs you £50 a year!
samsung cost you £80 a year
make sence?

-dont buy a tv for spec buy for picture-

you will read a lot of shite about tv picture, dont buy any of it... its all crap! bar resolution and physical spec, its all nonsense.. you can only judge a tv on the picture on the screen that you see! i prefer plasma, not everyone does... its personal taste!

i hope that helps...

[alb]

A kind offer Mr Mercury1, but we have a local Costco and Makro around Chester.
I have cards for both but i'm not convinced Makro are all that cheap.
The big attraction with Costco is their decent returns policy if something goes wrong..
I notice Richer Sounds can sell me a TV with an extended guarantee, and still be cheaper than other places.
If i can get a meaningful warranty, i don't suppose it matters too much what i buy.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

If you want to lead, rather than follow the herd, I've been very impressed lately with the picture quality on the new LED sets (Samsung ?) - brilliant picture, lower leccy consumption, but reliability is an unknown (too new) and you pays to lead the fashion.

they are not led tvs, they are led backlit tvs. sony have been doing it on their top end models for 2 years. its not that new a technology, so there shouldnt be much risk of fault beyond the normal samsung risk of fault! (ref previous post)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

A kind offer Mr Mercury1, but we have a local Costco and Makro around Chester.
I have cards for both but i'm not convinced Makro are all that cheap.
The big attraction with Costco is their decent returns policy if something goes wrong..
I notice Richer Sounds can sell me a TV with an extended guarantee, and still be cheaper than other places.
If i can get a meaningful warranty, i don't suppose it matters too much what i buy.

i am working at the shop on monday and will happily quote you and talkyou through some of the specs etc/things to ignor! i doubt we would be competative once shipping is taken into accout but as a "prospective customer" i could wing it giving you as much advice as you need