Pretty In Pink (M&S 15in with Built-in DVD Player)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	M&S 15in with Built-in DVD Player
Date:	16/07/09 (285 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Built - in Freeview and DVD, picture quality, ease of use

Disadvantages: Poor sound quality

For years I was absolutely opposed to my daughter having a TV in her bedroom. To me, a bedroom was a place for play and sleep and I was adamant she wouldn't get one until she was a good bit older.

Then last year my husband read about the Wii Fit and declared he was going to buy a Wii after our planned Easter holiday, something that excited our daughter immensely. Sadly, he died one week before we were due to depart and a few weeks after the funeral my daughter tentatively asked if we were still going to get a Wii.

I felt I couldn't say no but this raised a problem - I didn't really want her hogging the main TV with video games in the living room - better surely she played them in her room?

So I began the process of researching what to buy for her, knowing I wanted a relatively small screen and something that had built-in Freeview for her.

After some research, Marks and Spencer came up trumps with this excellent model, which also includes a built-in DVD player and I paid £229 for it. Two weeks later the price fell to £199 and it is now available for £179.

I could have bought a cheaper similar non-branded TV however the fact this was pink was a huge draw for my daughter, and the fact M&S throw in a free five year guarantee with their televisions was the clincher for me.

~~What's in the Box?~~

This lightweight little beauty contains the TV, a stand, remote control (also pink), mains cable and adaptor and user manual.

~~Set Up~~

This is fairly straightforward. First of all I had to work out how to find the relevant menu using the TV/AV button on the remote control. This gives you various options from the Video menu including TV, SCART, AV, S-Video, DVB and DVD. The user manual is helpfully very clear and easy to follow.

The TV menu is for analogue TV and I didn't even bother tuning these channels in. For Freeview, you have to go to DVB and select the menu to tune the channels in. It was a very easy process - when I think back to having to tune channels and videos into TVs in the days before digital took over, I am very grateful for this!

My daughter only uses the AV channel for her Wii and the DVD one for watching movies but the other menus make tuning in a video easy and the SCART channel is useful if you want to add a hard disk recorder without tears - something I would like to do in the future.

~~Using the TV~~

While the 15" screen is small, the picture is very sharp - I was very impressed as this is the first LCD TV we have owned, as our main TV is a plasma.

Whilst the picture isn't as sharp as the Panasonic plasma, given the price I think it's impressive. The resolution is 1280 x 800 pixels.

The matching pink remote control is straightforward with links to various menus. Once you are on the correct menu it is very easy to change channel, change the brightness and contrast levels or select the volume level you require.

The sound quality on this TV isn't good however - I personally found it very tinny from the off and at first I used some very basic computer speakers to improve it slightly but eventually I gave my daughter my old Aiwa 2.1 computer speakers with subwoofer and this has improved the sound quality immensely.

Adding the Wii to the TV was very straightforward too - I placed the sensor bar on the top of the TV and found the whole set up process very easy.

The DVD is well used by my daughter and very easy to get the hang of. Marks & Spencer don't advertise this but it is a multi-region player, something I can testify to from the number of Region 1 DVDs my daughter has that have played perfectly well on this set.

The DVD player is situated on the right hand side of the TV, which is a great design feature in my opinion. There are control buttons down this side, however you can access all of these controls on the remote - with the exception of ejecting the DVD from the slot.

~~My Opinion~~

We have owned this for a year now and I am so impressed with it!
Visually I think it looks great - I particularly like how instead of using the back for sockets and control buttons, the designers have utilised the sides of the TV instead. All the connections are made via the left hand side of the TV leaving the right hand side free of "spaghetti" for the DVD player.

The colouring is brilliant too - whilst I am reviewing the pink model I have seen this in black, silver, blue and red, meaning this isn't an exclusively "girly" model.

The fact it is so easy to set up and use makes this perfect for a child's bedroom. My daughter sometimes struggles with new hardware and I regularly have to answer plaintive calls of "Mum" from her when something goes wrong with her Wii, laptop or phone, but I've yet get one regarding this TV.

In the time since I bought this I have seen similar unbranded versions tumble in price and sometimes I do wish I had waited so I could have got her a slightly bigger screen, but my daughter seems happy with the screen size and hasn't complained about it.

The only thing that lets this TV down in my opinion is the sound quality, which is pretty poor overall. Some people might not be bothered by this but it certainly bothered me which is why I set up speakers to use with it. My daughter watches the music channels on a daily basis and I cannot bear tinny sound emanating from her room when she does this - hence the speakers!

For the money I paid I am very happy with this TV and I am glad to say my daughter hasn't abused the privilege of having a TV in her room by watching it late into the night when she is supposed to be asleep! It is used predominantly for her to play her Wii games on and for a kids' TV I believe this one is hard to beat.

It's also really nice to know should this set develop any problems it is covered by a free warranty.

This is currently a home delivery only item from Marks & Spencer's website but it has been available to purchase instore in the past.

***This review was originally published by me on ciao under the same user name***

Summary: M&S have come up trumps with this TV which is perfect for bedrooms

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