We only went out to buy a carpet! (General Grundig TV Opinions)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	General Grundig TV Opinions
Date:	21/11/04 (1559 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent picture and sound quality, Looks Great

Disadvantages: None at all

Well the truth was we only went out to order a carpet and came back with a television too!

No, let me begin at the beginning, mom and dad live with us on the ground floor of our house and they had just had the dining room decorated and so needed to go and choose the carpet they wanted.

Dave and I took them to Allied Carpets where the deed was done, but, as with most towns, where there’s an Allied Carpets there’s also Currys, Comet, Homebase, and Argos etc.

Mom and dad had been having intermittent problems with the television they were using, which had been one left by the previous owners and it looked quite bulky in their lounge too as it had a 24 inch screen.

Since it was last January and the sales were on we decided to pop into Currys and take a look at their televisions while we were there.

As usual there was a good range of different sets from portables to plasma screens, but mom and dad wanted a basic television which would be easy for them to use, would have good sound and picture and would look nice in their lounge.

With a bit of help and advice from Dave and myself they chose the Grundig T55-1120.

It is a Nicam Stereo Teletext television with a 21 inch screen in a silver coloured outer case with a slim speaker on each side of the screen. Although it wasn’t actually in the sale it cost just £139.99. We were offered extended warranty but declined.

We were able to take the television with us, as it was light enough for Dave to lift in and out of the car. Mind you the box it came in was huge – it was very well packed in polystyrene so that was an excellent start.

When we got home Dave unpacked the television and put it in the lounge and he settled down ready to set it all up and tune it in to the various stations. Well that was what he thought he was going to do anyway!

He had a nice surprise there – the television tuned itself into the main four stations. We don’t pick up channel 5 here unless we are accessing the signal through a digibox, which is far too confusing for mom and dad! Heaven help us when we have to go to digital reception - but that's another story altogether!

You can opt for manual tuning if you would rather do it yourself but I can’t see the point of that. We watched as the television searched for the various signals and, on a couple of occasions we thought the signal was found and fine, but the television carried on looking until it found a perfect signal for each channel. It’s all very clever for those of us who remember fiddling with knobs round the back of the set whilst saying – is that any better then? OK so now I’m showing my age!

So we ended up with perfect sound and picture quality on all four of the available channels, which has remained stable as the television has been used.

The instructions that were enclosed with the television are printed on two sides on a sheet of A3 paper and are all in English, so no searching for the correct language here.

They are clear and very easy to understand with plenty of diagrams and step-by-step instructions explaining the various functions of the set. There’s also a large clear diagram of the remote control showing all the buttons and their uses.

There are also diagrams showing exactly how to connect a video recorder, DVD player and decoder if you intend to use any or all of those with your new television.

Another part of the instructions gives you a fault finding guide, telling you in simple terms what to do if certain things happen or don’t happen!

Another big plus for this television is the fact that there are buttons on the front of the set to change the channels and adjust the volume so that if the remote control fails or gets lost you can still use the television until you sort out the problem.

As I said at the start the television is a basic set but it does have Teletext – useful to check the lottery results – and it also has a sleep function should you wish to use it. This allows you to set the television to remain on for a fixed length of time and then switch itself off when you’ve dozed off to sleep.

It is now November so the TV has been in use for almost a year now with no problems and the batteries in the remote contriol ran out for the first time last night!

In conclusion I would recommend this television to anyone wanting a standard set. The picture is perfect, but then we do have a digital aerial so I would hope so, the sound is of excellent quality and the whole thing looks smart and classy, oh, and the price was right too.

What more could you ask?

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