Buyers Guide: Televisions

The Digital revolution is upon us! Well that's what the man at Currys told me when he tried to sell a new all in one TV and satellite decoder and very convincing he was too! But luckily I've seen most of the developments of digital TV from the inside, no I haven't been to Parkhurst I mean the inside of TV. Digital TV has been with us for many years with the first domestic digits coming via D2Mac a system that never quite found favour with the Sun reading masses, right the way up to present day and the battle between Sky and On Digital. So what exactly is Digital TV? And why bother switching after all my TV picture is fine, ...

What to look for when buying a new television. Screen format, SCART, NICAM, NTSC, extended warranties... I recently had to buy a new TV, when my Hitachi gave up the ghost. You'll have your own criteria for deciding what to go for - here were my main considerations. -- Widescreen (16:9) v Standard (4:3) Widescreen is the future, according to the industry. The truth, it seems, is that the broadcasters have to catch up. Terrestrial broadcasts are not available in widescreen unless you have cable or satellite. A lot of the other cable-only channels are broadcast in 4:3 only, meaning you have to watch with black bars at the side if you want ...

OK, so you have some £££s burning a hole in your pocket. You fancy a swish new telly. Oh, the choices! Firstly, do you want plasma or LCD? Both are 'flat-panel' technologies, but they are VERY different, in terms of price and performance. Generally speaking, LCD TVs go up to about 30-32" in size, while plasmas start at about 43" and go up to about 60" (very big, very heavy, very very expensive). LCD is lighter, and much more economical, the downside being that you simply can't get it in as big a size as plasma. Power consumption is considerably lower, and LCDs are generally designed to last about 10-15 years. The ...