[damienb]

Hi all,

just wanting some advice. I am new to Home Cinema, and am wanting to purchase a widescreen TV to go with my Sony DVD player. I decided to go for a cheaper widescreen initially to allow me to have money for a DTS surround sound system, and upgrade the telly later. So when I read the HCC review of the budget widescreen TV's (April 2001 issue), I thought "Well I'll have one of them!" I looked on the net and found EmpireDirect (.com) selling this TV for £370inc VAT! Even better I thought. But I was a bit worried about buying over the net from a company I haven't used before, so posted at a home cinema news group, saying i was looking at buying the said tv from the said supplier. The only response I got was one of not to bother with cheap Philips sets as they have geometry problems. Is this true, has anyone owned cheaper Philips sets such as this model? Has anyone bought from Empire Direct before? And if so what are they like if you need after care service, for instance what if I do get a set with geometry problems, will/can they fix it? If you any experience of either the TV or Empire Direct, please let me know what they are like. All comments welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Damien

I recently bought the same TV from Sound and Vision (Bolton), for 375 (inc postage). Excellent service - it arrived at 8.55 the next day. EmpireDirect charge 20 quid for delivery I believe.
The TV has a 12 months Philips warrenty, and for 20 quid you can extend it to 6 years if you wish. They have an advert in the April 01 edition of HCC.
The TV seems superb for this sort of money, although I can't claim to be an expert. Incidently in the magazine roundup they said they had problems getting the TV to automatically switch ratio. I have OnDigital and it switches every time.
Hope this helps.

[damienb]

Thanks for the reply, have now bought the T.V. from John Lewis, getting them to price match Empire Direct. The only problem was the John Lewis model came with the stand, so they would only price match E.D. after adding the E.D. cost of the stand and delivery. Still got the lot for £416's, with the 5 year J.L. garauntee. And while writing this I have just had a phone call to tell me it has been delivered, so I am off home at lunchtime to have a mess.

Thanks for the reply.

Damien