I'm looking for a new TV and as a bit of a technophobe I'm confused! Plasma, LED, LCD, HD, internet ready...

I'm on a limited budget and I don't expect the latest 6ft all singing and dancing home cinema system. I don't want to go bigger than a 40" screen but beyond that I have no idea what to go for. Help please!

Different strokes for different folks. It all depends on what you want in a television.

Thanks stud, that helps. I want to watch Doctor Who without the telly conking out. Howzat?!

Maybe I'm even more out of touch than I thought. What do I want from a telly? Er, decent picture. Reliable. Freeview is built in these days so that's sorted. What else should I be looking for? That's why I'm asking.

I have two televisions. A Sanyo and an LG. They both work well. They are HD ready. They have built in Freeview.

I would look for the most HDMI sockets. So many products such as Bluray players use HDMI. You don't mention your peripherals.

Internet ready is good. Wifi for media streaming should you miss Doctor Who and want to watch it on Iplayer.

Might help if you define "limited budget". To some people £10,000 is limited to others it means £100. Would give us some idea of the type of telly you can realistically expect to get.

One thing to watch out for as has been discussed to death on DS is Freeview HD. A HD Ready or Full HD telly does not by itself mean you can get Freeview HD on the TV alone. Any set you look at must have the Freeview HD logo on it or those words printed on the box and in the manual or list DVB-T2 in the specifications. if you live in an area which has or is about to go fully digital then you should at least consider Freeview HD.

What else to look for depends to some extent on what else you want to do. If you have lots of external kit (Sky box, Blu-Ray or DVD player, games consoles etc) then loads of inputs would be handy. If you have a decent AV system for surround sound then having an audio output of some kind would be very handy as well.

Ok, thanks. Freeview HD then. What's an HDMI socket? Like for scart cables and stuff?


Sorry!

I have an old chunky TV, freeview box and a DVD player, no Sky or Bluray. The kids have a Wii, currently in their room.
My laptop runs off the phone line, do I need something else to make the WiFi work? iPlayer on TV would be handy. Is that what internet ready means? That you can watch catch up TV on it? I don't know what AV is for surround sound. Can you do the pause, rewind, record thing on modern tvs or is that just for Sky users?

ETA: Sorry, limited budget meant the cheaper the better but I'm willing to pay more for something reliable that won't be obsolete in no time. I can go up to £500 at a push but if I can get something decent for less so much the better. I'm a divorced working mum so I can't afford to waste money buying something that's already becoming obsolete or to spend on unnecessary blingyness.

I have an LG TV at the moment which is not regarded as high end but a step up from the supermarket specials. No issues with it at all. So something like this might do you...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...490/lg-32ld490

If you have a broadband connection then it can link up to the interweb thingy and access various services like the BBC iPlayer YouTube etc.

For things like pause and rewind live TV you would need a PVR (recorder) as not many tellys have that sort of function built in.

Ok thanks! Much appreciated. I have broadband but I only have a laptop which is constantly plugged in. I tried a dongle but the signal was rubbish (I'm in rural Scotland).

I see that one has a USB port, that would be handy for playing music via the TV...it won't surprise you to learn I haven't got an MP3 speaker system. How does the PC input work? What does that do? Could I plug my laptop into the TV then? I remember a friend saying something about how she streams films on the computer but somehow wires it up to play on the telly.

Sorry for all the questions, I really am crap with anything technology related. That's why I asked here instead of in the shop, I'd be a salesman's dream. He'd convince me I needed XYZ and I'd spend twice as much.

Plugging a laptop into a TV is possible. Provided both have compatible sockets. Gets a bit messy if they don't. If the laptop has an HDMI socket on it then that makes it even easier as you just plug into one of the HDMI sockets on the telly. To be more specific it would help to know the make and model of laptop.

One thing about your broadband. Do you have a router or just a modem? A router has a connection to the phone line plus 4 (usually) sockets to plug in computers and the like. A Modem just has the phone line connection and a single socket for the connection of a computer. To connect up your TV and laptop at the same time you would ideally need a router.

One thing about Richersounds is that their sales persons tend to be a cut above the likes of Comet and Currys, the latter two wouldn't know the difference between a HDMI socket and a vacuum cleaner bag frankly!

I could get a job in Comet or Currys then.

It's an Advent laptop...not sure of the model, it's 3 years old. Apparently I have a router, but I'm not sure about the sockets. It has power, ethernet, USB (covered with a sticker?), phone line plus two more sockets with a picture of a phone and numbered 1 & 2. One of those has a wee short cable sticking out with a wee box thing on the end? BT Voyager 220v ADSL voice router if that helps at all.

Your router is pretty old,no wireless and only limited amount of Ethernet connections.Probably fine for standard Broadband but not much good should you try to upgrade to the allegedly faster download speeds being offered now.Although it has tobe said that most ISPs would probably offer a new router if you upgraded and the new routers all tend to be wireless these days.

Well BT may call it a router and I suppose in some respects it is. But it only has a single ethernet socket to connect to a computer. And as it hasn't got wireless capability you can't use that to connect your laptop and free up the ethernet socket for the telly So no good on it's own if you want to plug both your laptop and telly in at the same time!

So you either need to add a router to your existing set up or get a new router to totally replace what you have. Replacing what you have may be the easier solution. And maybe get a wireless enabled router as well so you can wander round the house with the laptop rather than have to plug it in with a bit of wire?

By the way the two sockets with pictures of phones are VOIP sockets. Basically they let you plug in a phone to make voice calls over broadband. The box plugged into one of the sockets is probably an adapter to convert the US style sockets on the router to a UK style phone socket.

Ooooh thanks. Ok so if I contact BT do you think I could sweet talk them into giving me a new router seeing as I've been a loyal customer? I'd love to be able to use the laptop without being plugged in all the time. Otherwise I guess that spawns yet another question...what router should I buy?

See this is what I hate about technology, it all moves too fast! Replace one thing, you have to replace another...It's never ending. I'm 39, when I grew up you used something till it died, then got it repaired and used it for a bit longer.

Give it a go. They can only tell you to go forth and multiply


Cue the Four Yorkshiremen sketch

When I were a lad computers were the size of houses and if any one said that one day you would be able to carry one around in your pocket they would be laughed out of town!

I'm older than you, and have no problems at all with the latest technology.

I wouldn't say you need to replace everything, certainly not at the same time.

The router you currently have is old, granted, but it had two ethernet ports. If your laptop uses one, you can still plug the TV into the other to get Iplayer etc. However, if you want the freedom of wireless for your laptop then yes, certainly call BT and have a good moan at them. They will probably ask you to sign up for a new contract before agreeing to send one of their new homehubs/routers, which is fine if you intend to stay with them anyway.

As others have said, what is your maximum budget for the TV?, as that determines what we can recommend.

As a ball park I would say one with at least three HDMI sockets, which although you aren't using them at present does mean they are there when you do eventually upgrade your other equipment. HDMI is a special type of small socket that carries both video and audio, like scart only much better quality as it handles high definition signals from such things as games consoles, Freeview HD recorders and BluRay players. If for example, Freeview HD comes to your area and you want a PVR for recording, you need an HDMI connection to watch the HD channels through it in HD. Scart cannot carry HD (well, technically it can carry analogue HD but it has never been used for such in the UK). Given your current equipment you ideally want one with two scart as well, so you can still use your existing equipment until such time as you upgrade.

According to this the Voyager 220v only has a single ethernet port

http://www.voyager.bt.com/voice_over...oduct_info.htm

Captainkremmen, good on you. Wish I could keep up to date without being completely overwhelmed. Budget is 500 tops, but like I said if I can get something decent for cheaper then great!

Thanks everyone. I appreciate you taking the time to explain things, it's really helpful.

An el cheapo network switch should provide as many ports as the OP needs.

A 5 way only costs around a tenner to give 4 ports.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-42LD490-W...5902098&sr=8-1

Good TV with Freeview HD built in and access to LG's Netcast online portal. My uncle has one and the picture quality is excellent, once you tweak it. Full HD (1080p) so will get the best out of BluRay etc. and has Freeview HD built in so don't need any other boxes to watch the terrestrial HD channels. It can play DIVX files, MP3 or photos from a USB stick or hard drive plugged into the USB port too.Sound quality is actually pretty good for a flat screen TV too. Best bit?, it's currently £380.

If that's a little too big:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/...0/tosh-37bv700
My mum has the 42inch version of that. Good TV as well, but it doesn't have Freeview HD built in, just normal Freeview. Not bad for £280 although I don't think personally the picture quality is as good as my Uncle's LG above.

£500 is actually a decent budget for a mid range set in the 37-42 inch size range, so plenty of choice. Try and buy from somewhere online that has a good returns policy if you aren't happy with it's performance. John Lewis is good for that.

John Lewis are also pretty good as they include a 5 year guarantee with there TV's

A little look around on the internet and I also found these TV's as possible models to consider.

http://www.bestbuy.co.uk/product/100...-1080p-tv.aspx
http://www.bestbuy.co.uk/product/100...-ready-tv.aspx

Thanks for all your help everyone! I think I'm going to go for this one. It's a little bigger than I'd planned but at that price I'm not complaning.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-42LD490-W...5902098&sr=8-1

As chrisjr said LG is not to bad a make of TV. I have a 22inch LG LCD in my bedroom and im 98% happy with it.
If you want to spend a little more then go for Sony or Panassonic.
I got both Panasonic LCD TVs in the living room and in mum and dads bedroom and both have great sound and picture.
LED is the new thing that is ment to be a little better than LCD and can cost a few pounds more then an LCD depending on the make of TV. Some like LCD TVs and others like plasma TVs. In the past plasma TVs had mixed reviews but plasma TVs have improved since then.
It also depends on what screen size you are looking for as you wont get a plama TV under a 32inch.
For me I have always gone for LCD.
Looks an ok TV you have picked. Over a 40 inch TV is fine if you got the room. I could not fit over a 40inch TV in my living room.

Darren