Having set my heart on a widescreen TV I have been drawn into the multiple options available to put together an AV system that performs well but also will remain reasonably current for the next 24 months.

I want to be able to enjoy the DVD home cinema experience with Dolby Digital surround sound but also for the audio components to double in use as a Hi-Fi system playing all formats of CD's.

I have set my heart on the Tosh 32ZP18Q (the P being discontinued and the Q having an upgraded mother board which I hope resolves most of the problems I have read in the forums)

The Tosh comes with an intergrated subwoofer and 4 external speakers which is where my dilema starts. Is the quality of this audio setup sufficient and if so, the only additional hardware I would need would be a quality all singing and dancing DVD player.
True??
If not, then I could opt to buy the Tosh TV without the external speakers and opt for a Sony DAVS500 (or 800 depending on the wifes mood!!)

Budget is a stretched £1600.00 (though the credit card is looking reasonable healthy at the moment)

I would very much appreciate some views on the above from someone who has already been faced with a similar dilema or has experience on the products mentioned.

I live in a semi detatched house and the eventual system will reside in a room 14ft by 16ft so I am after quality of sound as opposed to straight forward volume capability.

Hope someone can help.

jonesyg_funk

The Tosh has decent audio as televisions go but an external system is the way to go. The DAV would sound better but it is not a unit i would buy, especially linking it to a Tosh tv. The sound quality of the DAV is not as good as others in the same price range either.

The Toshiba has (in order of best quality video) 1 component video input, 1 RGB scart, 2 s-video scarts and 2 s-video inputs. The 3 scarts handle composite and there is one composite video input.

The DAV can only do s-video and composite video. The lack of analogue inputs on the DAV wont be an issue in your case as the Toshiba tv has excellent audio pass through.

So, you will have a great tv but it wont be used to its full potential with a DAV.

Your best option, IMO, is to get the tv, which is about £1200. This leaves you £400. Buy the Toshiba SD220 dvd player which has component video ouptut. You can get that multi-region for £179. That leaves you £120. I would put that in the bank and save up a little more and upgrade the sound a little later down the road.

So, you have to decide, do you get lower picture quality and go with the DAV to get a average increase in sound quality over the tv or do you go for the best picture quality and upgrade the audio a little later down the road.

[LV426]

Yes, definitely echo what Doubledoom said. The internal audio on a TV is unlikely to give you good results with music. You should try to stretch to a separate amplifier to provide all your sound requirements, and choose a TV on the strength of its picture (only).

Most TVs produce some sort of noise when in use. The extremely high voltages used to drive the tube often cause a feint "chattering" sound. My guess is that you wouldn't want to power up a TV just to listen to a CD.

One controversial option is to skimp seriously on the TV ie buy the cheapest one you can find. The rationale here is that TV's are on the verge of a major change right now. Whilst they are currently unrealistically expensive, LCD and Plasma TVs are falling in price at a rapid rate. My guess is that these things will continue to fall in price and improve in performance over the next 2 or 3 years, and we will get to a point where they become truly mainstream devices. And you WILL want one.

But, in general, (perhaps because of their small cabinet size) I guess they will tend to have relatively poor onboard sound.

So, maybe an option is to get a really cheap TV and a suitable Amp (Denon 1602 for example) and DVD player. Then save your money for 2 or 3 years and ditch the TV in favour of a state-of-the-art flat panel job.