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Probably going to need anew telly. Not a fan of big uns ( <40") , needs to be smart with decent sound. I'm not interested in bells and whistles, just a good standard telly for not too much.
Any recommendations where to buy - factory restores, refurbs etc?
Any telly you buy these days will have smart features, unless it’s more than ten years old. My Sony Bravia has just died on its ass, sadly. It’s been a fantastic set, with a great picture, and it has no smart functions, but it’s sixteen years old! It’s a 42”, and I’m replacing it with a 50”, which does have all the smart stuff. But it can be turned off, allegedly.
So, check out somewhere like Curry’s, they have <40” sets from most of the different brands, and one that size will likely cost £300 or so. I’m not sure I’d go for a refurbished one, screens can suddenly go, and without warning. An end-of-line one or ex-display can usually save a significant amount, I nearly bought one, but there’s no setup or delivery, I’d have to get it home myself, and I’m not certain about setting it up, it’s sixteen years since I did mine, and a lot’s changed in the tech. Plus, they’ll take the old one away.
It’s worth pointing out that newer sets have a very narrow bezel around the screen, maybe a centimetre or so, the bezel on mine is 5cm, the screen is actually a 40”, but including the bezel, it’s 47”, so my new one is going to be barely any bigger. Mine will double-up as my computer monitor, my Mac Mini will sit just below one corner which is great for space saving.
Prime day next week, should be some bargins. Get something big branded if you want the smart stuff to work well, or just plug in a fire TV stick
Big 4k monitor and tv streaming box of choice is the usual recommendation. After 2 years your smart TV won't be receiving updates and it will become less smart. Choose your streamer box wisely and updates for that will keep coming for years more.
Bought an LG earlier in the year, 42" 4k from Richer Sounds
The picture quality is fantastic, as is the sound, and the remote is very nice too
The smart features are good, and it all comes preloaded, but there's an awful lot of guff that I'd rather wasn't there. Sooner or later my kids are going to discover there's games etc on there...
One annoying thing is it keeps pestering me for updates, not just the TV but the apps too
Don't go to Currys, they're crap. Well unless it's to look at them but you'll probably struggle to find many less than 40". We went for a 43".
As people say prime week is next week or John Lewis or Richard Sounds for the extended free warranty.
Just bought a bottom end Samsung 43" 4k to replace an ageing 39. The picture and smart TV functions is night and day better.
My parents wanted a new tv a couple of years ago. They only want something small, so we ended up getting them a 32" LG.
What I found when doing some research for them was there was very little choice below around 43". And the TVs that are below that value tend to be pretty low spec - I guess this is to keep the cost down & because not that many people buy them. Just a guess.
We looked at a few 40" TVs as well, but they were terrible quality. This was in Currys - all TVs were receiving the same feed, but the two 40" ones they had on display had really bad artefacts and colour blocking in large swathes of similar colour, as well as a smeary appearance to the picture.
The LG they ended up getting was night & day difference in terms of screen performance and the menu system is very easy to navigate.
Our 43" LG TV is around 7 years old & still has full smart functionality. I don't know if that is par for the course these days, but I would get another one.
Keep an eye on https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/tv for good deals. I don't think you can go too wrong with the usual LG, Samsung, Sony, etc though.
Nothing has good sound these days, the cases are too slim to get speakers of any size inside. Even a cheap soundbar (Richer Sounds do a good one for £100) will be a massive improvement - or frequently there's offers that get a nicer soundbar from the same brand at low cost with a new TV.
I've bought a couple of refurb (but to all appearances brand new!) tellies from ElekDirect (AO outlet) for very good discounts, no complaints!
Although built-in sound is massively better these days than it was, if that's a priority budget for a decent soundbar also.
After 2 years your smart TV won’t be receiving updates and it will become less smart
Our LG was bought at the end of 2020 and just received an update to the OS / home page. Installed apps (Disney + et all) all get regular updates every few months.
I've got a Sony Android TV. Partly bought on the idea that the OS should keep going with updates seeing as it is Google. We use the Smart TV all the time and rarely use our Sky box apart from sport really.
Hijack, but any suggestions for my parents both of whom have dementia? Would need to be as simple to operate as possible.
Do voice activated TVs exist, so Mum can ask the telly to play Paul Simon videos on YouTube for example?
At that size, picture quality is going to be much of a muchness assuming you stick to well-established brands such as Sony / Panasonic / Toshiba / Samsung / LG. LG probably make the panels for all those others now anyway.
Sound is always going to be crap on a sub-40" super-thin TV. If this is important to you, consider a soundbar.
All modern TVs are smart. The quality of said smarts vary wildly. You can always add external devices (Firestick, Apple TV et al) later if support wanes over time.
Do voice activated TVs exist, so Mum can ask the telly to play Paul Simon videos on YouTube for example?
TVs with Alexa exist. Mine has it, though I've never used the functionality as I have more Echoes than Amazon already.
My LG, bought about 8 years ago, only supports BBC and C5. I haven't seen how I'm able to download the other channels. Consequently we watch it through a Humax DVR. My wife thinks I'm bonkers as I still record stuff.
Our LG TV is now probably 4yrs old and getting regular updates and all the apps/functionality still there
Yes YouTube can be controlled by voice via the remote or even casting from a mobile phone direct to the TV
Personally I’ve found LG to be much more user friendly than Sony, and have much more functionality
You just need to go to a shop and spend time playing with the menus etc
I don’t get why older people don’t like big screens, I guess it’s because they were never available when they were younger
Do voice activated TVs exist, so Mum can ask the telly to play Paul Simon videos on YouTube for example?
Yes. Samsung do this. Ours has a separate, much simpler remote that it uses for voice activation. Ours lives in a drawer buried under a load of crap with its batteries removed as heyGoogle/Alexa tech is banned in our house.
Annoyingly the TV goes searching for it every time it boots up and will stall for about 20 seconds until it realises it’s offline. You can’t disable it.
Toshiba do good smart TVs with really simple remotes. We got one for my in-laws one of whom has dementia & they seem to get in with it fine.
Thanks Cougar and hot_fiat
Echoing a point made earlier, you’ve got to be careful at the <40” end of the market. The big manufacturers are just not operating there, they may have a few token models in that size. I bought the best 32” I could find (Samsung the frame) and ended up taking it back - the picture wasn’t great and I found the smart features unresponsive and unintuitive. (Top tip: buy curries click and collect so that distance selling applies, then you can take it back for a refund no quibbles). I ended up buying an LG 42” and it’s brilliant, easy to use and astounding picture (ok we paid ££ for the OLED). It’s also little bigger than the old fat-bezelled 32” it replaced.
The bezel point is a good one to bear in mind.
Mid range Samsung here, always used Firesticks, the Samsung SMART functions are better and worked fairly well with Sky as well so don't use the Firesticks any more.
Generally decent sound with some bass requires a sound bar and sub woofer, I think the branded manufacturers assume that's the way people to so concentrate onvtg e picture rather than sound.
The bezel size is a good point. We had an old 32" Samsung with massive bezels. When I replaced it about 2-3 years ago went for a 43" and the bezels are tiny, so overall width and height isn't that different, maybe a couple of inches.
I nearly bought one, but there’s no setup or delivery, I’d have to get it home myself, and I’m not certain about setting it up, it’s sixteen years since I did mine,
Do you not just stick the 3 pin plug in the wall socket and the aerial lead in the round hole at the back of the tely...
my recommendation would be don't buy anything backlit get something with qled or oled.... the backlighting leds have a tendancy to fail/every time you move the tv you run the risk of led diffusion layer popping off the "lens" on the led and leaving blue/purple patches all over the screen
I've got an LG C2 OLED, 42".
Interface is good and responsive but does require a little bit of learning.
Picture is excellent but what took me by supprise is the sound quality, it's really very impressive for a flat screen.
OK it's never going to compete with a full fat AV cinema sound system, but it's good enough for me not to see the need for a sound bar.
It also does 120hz @4k so an excellent big screen for console or PC gaming.
Our LG TV is now probably 4yrs old and getting regular updates and all the apps/functionality still there
I should blimmin hope so!
I don’t get why older people don’t like big screens
Who you calling older?! I don't want my room dominated by a massive screen on the wall (because when I were a lad we could see t'wall and it were where t'paint dried while t'adverts were on)
Re. voice control - think you'd be hard pressed to find something without it. Looking at my TV(s);
- The TV itself has voice control (inbuilt LG + Alexa + Google Assistant)
- Sky box was voice control
- Apple TV has voice Control (Siri)
- Attached Sonos system has it's own + Alexa + Google
Then the TV connects to the rest of the smart home stuff, so I can can tell any Siri/Alexa/Google device to operate the TV.
Essentially my point is - you can't escape bloody voice control!
Do you not just stick the 3 pin plug in the wall socket and the aerial lead in the round hole at the back of the tely…
Well its going to need the wifi pass word at at the very least . Sign into apps, download apps
You'll probably need to tell it to scan for channels and possibly tell it what region your in.
If you plug things into it you'll need to at least work out on the remote what number they are on
As an option find a YouTube video on setting up the picture on that tv. Made a huge difference to ours
for an LED based TV it is worth looking for a well reviewed model where someone has published their calibrated settings on the web, which you can then easily apply to your new TV.
For most TVs (especially Samsung...) the supplied/default settings are normally awful so this will save a lot of messing around. That's one reason it is not worth going to a shop to look at picture quality (unless it is a speciallised shop that has callibrated them), plus they always use unrealisticaly good source material and sometime refuse to let you view anything else.
Do you not just stick the 3 pin plug in the wall socket and the aerial lead in the round hole at the back of the tely…
Well its going to need the wifi pass word at at the very least . Sign into apps, download appsYou’ll probably need to tell it to scan for channels and possibly tell it what region your in.
If you plug things into it you’ll need to at least work out on the remote what number they are on
As an option find a YouTube video on setting up the picture on that tv. Made a huge difference to ours
Pretty much all of those. Plug it in, set up the router, sort out HDMI sockets for the Sky+box and my Mac Mini, set up a number of things with passwords etc.
Unfortunately, it appears to have an issue with the screen - there’s a dark curved shadow at the top centre of the screen. It doesn’t seem to be there when I’m using the Mac, so it may be an issue with an HDMI cable, or the Sky box… Honestly I’m not sure where to look. I’ll pop into the store tomorrow, have a chat with them.