Hi folks,

I'm looking for a new TV set-up for a separate room and was considering getting a TV/DVD combi as part of it, and was wondering if anyone had much experience of them.

The one I was looking at in Radio Rentals was a 28inch Philips, the model number was either 28pw6816 or 28pw6828.

My main concern was over whether there are any disadvantages about getting one of these rather than hooking up a separate DVD player.

I'm assuming you can still connect up a video and satellite box as normal through the two SCART sockets, but was a bit concerned about whether using the DVD to watch movies would mean you couldn't record something off the telly or Sky at the same time?

Also, is the quality of DVD picture as good with a combi as it is with a decent separate player?

Any opinions would be gratefully received as the salesperson in RR didn't seem too clued up about it other than "it looks very nice, doesn't it". I'd prefer a more in depth analysis of its qualities before signing up for £40 a month or so!

Inbuilt DVD players tend to work much the same as if you purchased similar priced units and used them together. Speaking from experience of selling the Thomson DVD/TV combos (sorry no idea about Philips)

With the Thomson (and most others I suspect) the DVD player is totally seperate to the TV except for perhaps sharing some parts of the power supply. It's just a TV with a bigger case for the DVD player to sit in. It does require special connections and switching. You press TV/ DVD to toggle between the two items.

Internally the DVD connects in a similar manner to using scart sockets, so being inbuilt does not mean you get a better connection between the 2 units. Picture quality was the same as using a standalone player. With the Thomson the same DVD region hack even worked (it's a Samsung DVD player in a Thomson TV) This is handy, and there are still stereo outputs for a hifi, optical output for Dolby Digital amplifiers and a video output.

Regarding using Sky or video, there's no difference at all to a normal TV. Your video records via it's own inbuilt tuner for analogue channels or via Sky digibox so the TV has no influence over recording. You cannot record from DVD generally speaking.

The final thing to consider is what happens if the DVD player fails. If it goes worng and is beyond economical repair, you'll have a redundant DVD player in your TV. BUT it saves space, wires and looks pretty cool, so if you like the idea... go for it.

Thanks for that Orbitalzone.

I found a Philips one in Scottish Power today and had a toy about with it. The salesperson claimed they've been going like hotcakes, though how much of that was flannel in a bid to get me to part with £900 I don't know.

I'll see what kind of deal Radio Rentals are offering me, then try to convince my other half that we could really, really do with this!!

Radio Rentals merged with Granada to become box clever, just incase you try looking for it.

Cheers Markrlaker,

They've a shop in the local High Street which used to be Radio Rentals, but to be honest I couldn't say what was above the door these days!

Granada maybe can't afford n e new signs.

If it's 28" you want, the Samsung TV/DVD combi is selling well at the moment - it's had good feedback too from customers...