Hoping you can help!

Relatively new as I am to Home Cinema I am in need of some direction to buying a television (seeing as you helped me so much 6 months ago to pick the right speakers and receiver).

I am looking for a 28 inch widescreen - preferably no more than £500 (but as with all these things I could stretch for a good 'un (to about £600)) but am a bit stuck as to which one to go for and where is the best place to get it (Techtronics seem to be focussing more on the high-end of the market - I can but dream!).
So I am calling on any advice that you guys (funny how it seems to be just guys!) to help me out with whats the best at the mo.
I am also more than a little confused by the all the connecting implications. Bearing in mind that most tellys seem to have a maximum of 2 scarts (with only 1 seeming to send in RGB) I am wondering what is the best way to connect up the kit that I have got. Is it as simple as using one of those double to single scart sockets.
The kit I have is as follows:-

Pioneer DV626 DVD Player
Denon AVR-1801 Receiver (connected to Mission FS2-AV set of speakers)
Bog standard JVC VCR (with 1 scart)
I am planning on getting the Sky Digital type thing as well which as far as I can tell is where I am going to experience the connection problems (I presume you connect Sky to TV via scart - so with Sky connected to telly and telly to Receiver I should be able to get both sky and regular telly, video through speakers as well as DVD. Is that right?)

Your help on this would be hugely appreciated. Is it possible to get a decent telly to complement my modest - yet great - little system?

Cheers
AdtheBad

(also - this may be extremely obvious but its lost on me - why are most AV inputs apart from the scarts on the front of TV's (which if you are plugging in a DVD player would be a bit of an eyesore?)

(also - this may be extremely obvious but its lost on me - why are most AV inputs apart from the scarts on the front of TV's (which if you are plugging in a DVD player would be a bit of an eyesore?)

They are not. The connections on the front are for the temporary items such as camcorder. This connections are usually audio, s-video and composite video. All of which can be carried by scart lead round the back or have duplications round the back. Some ot the budget models may not duplicate to keep costs down.

As for connections: usual response copied and pasted. Adapt it accordingly.

Various ways to connect depending on what you think is acceptable.

option 1 - RGB for both DVD and digibox but need to record via the RF.
Audio carried from TV to Amp and DVD to amp (TV passes audio from vcr and
digibox)

DVD > Digibox VCR scart ( use scart lead, set DVD to output RGB)
Digibox > TV (use scart lead into RGB scart socket)
Video > TV (scart lead into composite scart socket - Don't use an expensive cable, it would be wasted)
Aerial > digibox > vcr > TV

DVD > Amp (using digital co-ax or optical -identical quality, depends on your available connections)
TV > Amp (using 2x phono connection)

-----------------------------------------

Option 2 - RGB for digibox and s-video for DVD. Allows recording via the scart. Audio the same as above

DVD > TV (scart into s-video scart)
Digibox > TV (scart into RGB scart)
Digibox > VCR (composite scart - Don't use expensive cable for this one)
Aerial > digibox > vcr > TV

DVD > Amp (using digital co-ax or optical -identical quality, depends on your available connections)
TV > Amp (using 2x phono connection)
------------------------------------------

Option 3 - TV doesn't pass audio or doesn't pass it with decent quality. Will require manual switching between sources. Use video connections as option 1 or 2.

DVD > Amp (using digital co-ax or optical -identical quality, depends on
your available connections)
TV > Amp (using 2x phono connection)
VCR > Amp (using 2x phono connection)
Digibox > Amp (using 2x phono connection)

Thanks very much for that - much appreciated. Those front AV sockets make sense to me now. Will use your connecting guide once I've decided on a particular telly (I'm toying with a JVC AV-28WFRIEK).

Cheers

Ad

Personally, I'm a big fan of the Philips 28PW8806 and 8807 Widescreens.
They feature 3 scarts (2 RGB, 1 S-Video) and another S-video and composite on the front. The 8806 is a great performance Flatscreen 100Hz set for about £550.
I own the 8807 myself, which is slightly better but quite a bit out of your budget.

Thanks for that CrunchyB - I'll have a look into the Philips. The 2 RGB scarts sounds great!