i need to buy a television but i'm finding it all a little confusing

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help! i've never owned a tv before, and somehow i know nothing about them, and i'm having a little trouble sorting it all out.

i guess my biggest confusion at the moment is with nicam. i figure it'd be quite nice to hook the tv up to my stereo, so having stereo sound would probably be a good thing - does this entail having nicam? what about if i get a freeview box - can that do the stereo bit straight out, without going via the tv, like dvd players can?

also, is there anywhere i should be looking apart from dixons/john lewis/argos/amazon?

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 13 June 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Freeview is stereo by default. NICAM is dino-poo analogue stereo technology. If you can get the digital tuner integrated.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 13 June 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

Also beware anything that says HD ready. Lot's of stuff does some very weird up and down converting. Just go for a good quality SD IDTV.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 13 June 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

Oh and buy at john lewis they give you a free extended warranty.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 13 June 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

buy a 2nd hand one

― charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 13 June 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

one from around 1971, with period finish

― charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 13 June 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

plenty of those retailing at competitive prices in south london's busy streatham area...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 13 June 2005 12:00 (twenty years ago)

If you can get the digital tuner integrated.

the rumor with this is you can't tape one thing and watch another -- is that true?

― N_RQ, Monday, 13 June 2005 12:04 (twenty years ago)

i think that is true, nrq, yeah. except that you can now buy ones with multiple tuners and built in hard drives, which can tape several channels at once etc etc. that's probably what i'll get (we're hanging on for a few months for freeview until our 12 months with homechoice is up).

Freeview is stereo by default. NICAM is dino-poo analogue stereo technology. If you can get the digital tuner integrated.

so if i get something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000TEV88/qid=1118670351/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/026-6201859-6305226

which has audio output sockets, i don't need to worry about having a nicam tv? is that right?

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 13 June 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

Quite so, but that is a very pricey freeview box.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 13 June 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

hmm, it looks like most of the cheaper ones have audio outs, too, so i guess that's settled. except that i'm now looking at the prices of widescreen tvs on ebay, hmm...

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 13 June 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

www.richersounds.co.uk

― lukey (Lukey G), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

i already looked there - i can only see lcd and plasma screens?

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 13 June 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

[rubs hands together in a pleased-mad-scientist manner] You're confused? Excellent! It's all going according to my little plan. Can I show you something in a 52-inch HD-ready back-projection set? How about a 35-inch flat-panel LCD with surround sound? [pisses himself with glee]

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 13 June 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

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