Buyers Guide: Televisions

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 ...  Read the complete review

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 ...  Read the complete review

Choosing a particular TV nowadays is all about the size of your wallet, or if cash is no object then there are 100's maybe 1000's to choose from. This is a guide to main types of television that you may come across. Plasma televisions work by using Neon or Xenon gas in a plasma state, which is sandwhiched between two plates of high quality, highly polished glass. Electricity is then passed through the gas when a picture is required, the gas then glows blue, red or green, phosphor then tints the pixel as required to the specific colour. There are over a million pixels in a plasma TV. This is complicated to produce and so costs more, an entry level plasma ...  Read the complete review

The speed at which electronic products become superceded is so rapid sometimes, that the expression "out of date before you remove it from the box" is very true. One way I found to keep ahead in one sense was to purchase second hand, but using a sensible route. I bought my TV as an ex-rental item, from one of the high-street TV hire shops (you know the sort). It was a recent model Philips TV, 21" with Nicam Stereo and an excellent remote control - all for £100. The beauty of the scheme is that the televisions/videos have been previously hired out, and due to a penalties system, are very well catered for by their owners. As a result, most ...  Read the complete review

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, ...  Read the complete review