No bells or whistles...

[BishopPhil]

I have £1,000 to spend on a TV that's somewhere between 36" and 42". The budget needs to cover the cost of a soundbar if the TV sound falls short. I don't want 3D and don't need smart features. All I really care about is

1) picture quality

2) sound quality

3) how it looks - ideally a simple clean design (I prefer black edging to silver) and preferably as few loose cables as possible.

4) enough connections to link the TV to the sound bar, a Sky box and a DVD player.

Can you please recommend TVs that don't waste money on features, but focuses on a decent picture, sound and design?

Thanks in advance, Phil

 

[John Duncan]

£1,000 will buy you a stupid amount of television nowadays. In fact, if you don't want 3D, £500 will buy you a stupid amount of television and that's what I'd be looking at spending, together with £500 on sound (since all of them will sound a bit weedy, tbh).

I've just bought the 32" of this, for example:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/tv---all/panasonic/viera-txl42e6b/pana-txl42e6b-bk

(also available in 39"), but it's silver rather than black. Samsung and Sony are also making terrific TVs areound the 500 note mark, and to me it would be mostly how the set looks, since picture quality is extremely good nowadays across most of the big-brand edgelit LED TVs.

If those float your boat, that'll leave another £500 for a sound solution, and I'd be looking at soundbars and soundbases I think, rather than a full surround setup. This seems to be the favourite at the moment;

http://www.whathifi.com/review/dm-50

though I'd suggest you audition Yamaha's soundbars as well, of which I've had really good experiences.

 

[BishopPhil]

Thanks John

I think the silver would rule out the Panasonic you've linked to but will check out Samsung and Sony's offerings.

The Canton is interesting, will certainly go and check that out. I've pretty much ruled out full surround sound systems as don't want speakers and wires all over the place.

Cheers, Phil

 

[John Duncan]

Fair enough re: silver, it does give the corner of my living room a different 'feel' (though much of that may be down to the fact that it's much smaller than my very thickly-bezeled Sony). On that note, the Panasonic's bezel is very slim so it may not be as big an issue as you think.

Also look at the Yamaha YSP-2200, which is available for £500 now.

 

[simonlewis]

How about this panasonic.

 

[John Duncan]

Ooo shiny (and black).