mwd too
Standard Member
Hi all,
Up until recently, we've been (relatively) happy with an old TV (18-y-o Loewe), a Sky+ receiver and a DVD player/recorder (used to have a surround sound system too, but that's been in storage since I moved house 8 years back), all using SCART. Sadly, the DVD has started to act up (and I rarely used the HDD functions); the Sky box won't record any more & has issues on various channels (Sky don't care as it's old - all they're interested in doing is selling a new & expensive contract, as we're on month-to-month !), and now the TV has started to lower / totally lose sound on a random basis . We'd been thinking of replacing the Sky box for a number of months now, and in prep for this (and also because we picked up a console @ Christmas) I picked up an HDMI-to-SCART box & some cables. OK, so that's the current setup & problems ...
Since the TV began it's woes, I've started to look at the various reviews for a replacement; I had been considering the Samsung 55Q6, but the recent price drop of the 55Q7 has pushed that into contention instead. I've also had a look at the Sony 55XE9005, but my wife was upset by the sounds it makes when we had a look at options earlier today (Currys/PC World - need I say more ?) so that's one out of the window ! However ... she did see another TV I'd discounted because of price (several hundred more than I'd allocated) & she likes - the LG B7 (or C7 - not a lot of difference from what I can tell !). Given the room layout, a 55" is pretty much the largest we can happily put in, and will be a massive difference from the current 31". So we seem to be down between the 55Q7 (lovely bright colours; decent sound) and the B7 (great darks; sound seemed OK). I'm interested in hearing what people would recommend between these two, and whether the LG is worth the extra cash over the Samsung ... or whether we should consider an alternative ?
Sources will be (initially anyway) from the integral FreeSat receiver (we have no FreeView aerial; something I'll probably have to get around to), and from PVR functionality (I'm planning on adding a USB drive for this); seeing as I had broadband upgraded to fibre a while back (we get between 50-70Mbps, depending on time of day) likely to experiment with streaming more than we have done in the past; in addition, we're now thinking of a Blu-Ray player (see later). As we have no current use of HD/UHD, I can't predict future use other than we will be using them (that's part of the point of upgrading ). The types of programming watched are general stuff (documentaries etc, never soaps though !) and movies \ DVDs; no sports; and gaming via console only. Day watching has plenty of light (the TV is near a window, and currently catches reflections), and when we watch DVDs etc in the evening we tend to have the room darkened. We sit relatively close to the TV (say 2m) and pretty much straight-on to it.
I mentioned a Blu-Ray player ... Given the problems the current DVD player has, this seems to be the next step (maybe with the TV ...). Not thought much on this as I hadn't planned on replacing the DVD, but given the lack of SCART inputs to TVs these days & the lack of HDMI output from the DVD, maybe it's time ! A 4k/UHD player would seem to be an obvious choice - but is it worth the extra over a normal Blu-Ray player ? What are the better ones to look at, especially given the above TV choices (I don't know if there are any gotchas in mixing/matching TV/players these days ) ?
And if we decide we need to get a sound-bar ... what should we look at ? Ditto with what potential connectivity issues are there to the TV and Blu-Ray ...
As I said ... decisions, decisions, and I definitely need advice I don't mind spending some time checking out suggested items, nor in setting up what we end up with properly (of course, I'd prefer it to all work together straight out of the boxes ).
Mike
Up until recently, we've been (relatively) happy with an old TV (18-y-o Loewe), a Sky+ receiver and a DVD player/recorder (used to have a surround sound system too, but that's been in storage since I moved house 8 years back), all using SCART. Sadly, the DVD has started to act up (and I rarely used the HDD functions); the Sky box won't record any more & has issues on various channels (Sky don't care as it's old - all they're interested in doing is selling a new & expensive contract, as we're on month-to-month !), and now the TV has started to lower / totally lose sound on a random basis . We'd been thinking of replacing the Sky box for a number of months now, and in prep for this (and also because we picked up a console @ Christmas) I picked up an HDMI-to-SCART box & some cables. OK, so that's the current setup & problems ...
Since the TV began it's woes, I've started to look at the various reviews for a replacement; I had been considering the Samsung 55Q6, but the recent price drop of the 55Q7 has pushed that into contention instead. I've also had a look at the Sony 55XE9005, but my wife was upset by the sounds it makes when we had a look at options earlier today (Currys/PC World - need I say more ?) so that's one out of the window ! However ... she did see another TV I'd discounted because of price (several hundred more than I'd allocated) & she likes - the LG B7 (or C7 - not a lot of difference from what I can tell !). Given the room layout, a 55" is pretty much the largest we can happily put in, and will be a massive difference from the current 31". So we seem to be down between the 55Q7 (lovely bright colours; decent sound) and the B7 (great darks; sound seemed OK). I'm interested in hearing what people would recommend between these two, and whether the LG is worth the extra cash over the Samsung ... or whether we should consider an alternative ?
Sources will be (initially anyway) from the integral FreeSat receiver (we have no FreeView aerial; something I'll probably have to get around to), and from PVR functionality (I'm planning on adding a USB drive for this); seeing as I had broadband upgraded to fibre a while back (we get between 50-70Mbps, depending on time of day) likely to experiment with streaming more than we have done in the past; in addition, we're now thinking of a Blu-Ray player (see later). As we have no current use of HD/UHD, I can't predict future use other than we will be using them (that's part of the point of upgrading ). The types of programming watched are general stuff (documentaries etc, never soaps though !) and movies \ DVDs; no sports; and gaming via console only. Day watching has plenty of light (the TV is near a window, and currently catches reflections), and when we watch DVDs etc in the evening we tend to have the room darkened. We sit relatively close to the TV (say 2m) and pretty much straight-on to it.
I mentioned a Blu-Ray player ... Given the problems the current DVD player has, this seems to be the next step (maybe with the TV ...). Not thought much on this as I hadn't planned on replacing the DVD, but given the lack of SCART inputs to TVs these days & the lack of HDMI output from the DVD, maybe it's time ! A 4k/UHD player would seem to be an obvious choice - but is it worth the extra over a normal Blu-Ray player ? What are the better ones to look at, especially given the above TV choices (I don't know if there are any gotchas in mixing/matching TV/players these days ) ?
And if we decide we need to get a sound-bar ... what should we look at ? Ditto with what potential connectivity issues are there to the TV and Blu-Ray ...
As I said ... decisions, decisions, and I definitely need advice I don't mind spending some time checking out suggested items, nor in setting up what we end up with properly (of course, I'd prefer it to all work together straight out of the boxes ).
Mike