Looks like my (until now) trusty 4:3 21" TV has died.

Any recommendations for TVs about this size to replace it for light use in the bedroom? Will be using built in freeview tuner which it must have. I have a larger Samsung LCD in the living room which I am happy with. I probably would begrudge paying more than £250.

LCDs about this size seem a good bit more pricey than CRTs were back in the day, so will be interested to hear opinions if its worth it buying a brand name or a supermarket special.

First of all you need to decide between Plasma, LCD and DLP

Plasma Pros: Pure blacks, richer colour, slightly cheaper for large sizes, wide viewing angles low latency.
Plasma Cons: Heavy, energy inefficient, unsuitable for close viewing, glossy screen, paranoia about burn-in, limited resolution on small screen sizes.

LCD Pros: Light weight, efficient, matte display, absolutely no burn-in issues, high res suitable for smaller screens, no flickering.
LCD Cons: Dark grey blacks, latency of about 8ms usually, limited viewing angle.

DLP is for massive screens.

You would be hard pressed to find a name brand 32'' for less than £250. In fact most high quality models by name brands only start at 40''. If you want a cheap TV just go for the Supermarket's own make, they are the same price as the no-name makes that they get in sometimes and you will have less trouble returning them if they go faulty.

As far as buying a brand name, if you do any serious amount of TV/Movie watching or HD gaming I would seriously consider going for a current production model from Samsung/LG/Toshiba/Pioneer/Sony/Whoever.

I recently bought the smart looking Samsung LE19R86 BD 19" LCD TV for the guest room for under £250. Works just like the larger size Samsungs except that you can't select the channel order when setting up favorites. This is not the current model hence the good price.

I was originally looking for a 23" but didn't want to pay much over £200 but as the TV it was replacing was only a 4:3, 14" CRT I realised that a 19" widescreen would be more than adequate. Kept away from the supermarket specials as they looked cheap and tacky for a similar price.

For light bedroom use this fits the bill.

Only looking for something small for the bedroom, so will rule out plasma for now I am finding it a trickier task so far than buying my main telly!


Funny that one is high up my list I think, given I am happy with my main Samsung panel. I am replacing a 21" 4:3 so thinking 19" 16:9 will be a bit small, so will have to have a look at them. I would prefer 22 or 23", but they seem to get pricier than I want to spend at that size - better value going bigger again!

Might have a look at this 22" Ferguson for £250 though.

You need to be looking at a 26 inch 16:9 to get a similar sized picture as your 21 inch 4:3.

I've been very pleased with a Sony KDL-20S300. Amazon are doing them for around £270. Might be a bit smaller than what you were after though, and a touch over budget.

However, it really feels like the quality of one of their larger sets that happens to be small... its also genuinely 16:9 rather than 16:10 which some smaller (and cheaper) screens are. Apart from just aspect ratio, I've felt that some cheaper small LCDs have the feel of a computer monitor that has been retrofitted to be a TV (I have an older Samsung which is very like that).

Anyway, for what its worth the picture and sound quality are both very good.

Yeah - just spent a while working out that out on paper, been a while since I have done that type of maths! I think 26" would be too big overall size though especially for the light use I would give it, so looks like I will be downsizing to a 19" or 22".

You will find the width of a widescreen 19" TV screen is about the same width as a 4:3 21" TV screen. Its only the height of the widescreen 19" that's slightly less.