New TV for old parents?

On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:04:57 +0000, Donwill
wrote:


I recently purchased an LG

Funny enough we were talking about LG yesterday (I remember it from
it's 'Lucky Goldstar' days).


with built in Freeview, and was pleasantly
surprised that it came with two remotes one of which only had 3 switches
(buttons), two rockers for sound and channel changing, and one OK
button. :-) . The other remote has 30ish buttons :-( .

Yeah, plenty for one of them to sit on. I've also popped round to find
them watching TV through a translucent setup menu overlay because they
didn't know how to get rid of it and didn't want to 'upset anything'.
;-(

Haven't connected up yet but I'm expecting the sound to be crap as the
TV is so slim the speaker(s) must be even slimmer. However, It will be
connected to an 80W Lindsley Hood Amp and B&W Speakers. :-)

They got rid of their music centre thing a while back and just have a
portable cassette / CD player in each of the main rooms now.

As an elderly I require a simple remote for everyday use, a good picture
and a good sound, so it seems to satisfy my requirements, I hope :-\ .
The Big Power up is on Friday.!!! So if the lights dim in North
Shropshire you'll know why.

g I'll await the feedback (the human type) with interest.

What size set did you end up with please Don?

Cheers, T i m

On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 14:16:06 -0000, "Tim Downie"
wrote:


Dunno if this is any help but my mother (84) recently had need to buy a new
TV. She was replacing an old 32" CRT TV and was adamant that she didn't
want anything bigger.

We went shopping and I tried to suggest to her that she ought at least to
look at some slightly larger sets and steered her towards a 37" Panasonic
Viera.

TX-L37D25B LED TV? That looks quite nice as it seems to do everything
mentioned so far and without a complete rearrangement of their room
I'm not sure they could get anything much bigger in (it's a fair size
lounge with the current TV sitting across the mouth of the big bay
window. The settee and Dad are against the opposite wall. Two chairs
flank the existing 28"(visible) CRT set and therefore create a 'frame'
for any TV positioned there). With the furniture they have (inc a
large ornately carved bureau made by my granddad) and a wall mounted
gas fire (probably ruling out a wall mount on the chimney breast) it's
fairly restricted.

37" £678.99 on Amazon or £649 for the 32" model from JL and with a 5yr
guarantee?

If they went without the twin tuners and Internet stuff the Samsung
UE32C4000P is nearly half the price (£356.40) even with JL.

I think they would possibly make use if the things like iPlayer but
they don't realise it enough yet to spend the extra because of it. Mum
would go for the cheapest option but Dad would (generally) go for the
bells and whistles option if I suggested it was the best thing to do
(even if he didn't understand why at the moment).

I could run the 32" Panasonic past him first as 'the' solution and see
if he flinches (it's only my inheritance after all). ;-)

Unless anyone can suggest anything else before I do so to avoid
confusing him etc?

Cheers, T i m

T i m wrote:
On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 14:16:06 -0000, "Tim Downie"
wrote:


Dunno if this is any help but my mother (84) recently had need to buy a new
TV. She was replacing an old 32" CRT TV and was adamant that she didn't
want anything bigger.

We went shopping and I tried to suggest to her that she ought at least to
look at some slightly larger sets and steered her towards a 37" Panasonic
Viera.

TX-L37D25B LED TV?

The Sony KDL-37EX503 seems to get better reviews and is a good 100 quid
cheaper.



--
David Kennedy

http://www.anindianinexile.com

In message , Donwill
writes


I recently purchased an LG with built in Freeview, and was pleasantly
surprised that it came with two remotes one of which only had 3
switches (buttons), two rockers for sound and channel changing, and
one OK button. :-) . The other remote has 30ish buttons :-( .
Haven't connected up yet but I'm expecting the sound to be crap as the
TV is so slim the speaker(s) must be even slimmer. However, It will be
connected to an 80W Lindsley Hood Amp and B&W Speakers. :-)
As an elderly I require a simple remote for everyday use, a good
picture and a good sound, so it seems to satisfy my requirements, I
hope :-\ .
The Big Power up is on Friday.!!! So if the lights dim in North
Shropshire you'll know why.
Regards
Don

If it's anything like my LG, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
--
Ian

On 03/03/2011 13:13, T i m wrote:
On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 14:16:06 -0000, "Tim Downie"
wrote:


Dunno if this is any help but my mother (84) recently had need to buy a new
TV. She was replacing an old 32" CRT TV and was adamant that she didn't
want anything bigger.

We went shopping and I tried to suggest to her that she ought at least to
look at some slightly larger sets and steered her towards a 37" Panasonic
Viera.

TX-L37D25B LED TV? That looks quite nice as it seems to do everything
mentioned so far and without a complete rearrangement of their room
I'm not sure they could get anything much bigger in (it's a fair size
lounge with the current TV sitting across the mouth of the big bay
window. The settee and Dad are against the opposite wall. Two chairs
flank the existing 28"(visible) CRT set and therefore create a 'frame'
for any TV positioned there). With the furniture they have (inc a
large ornately carved bureau made by my granddad) and a wall mounted
gas fire (probably ruling out a wall mount on the chimney breast) it's
fairly restricted.

37" £678.99 on Amazon or £649 for the 32" model from JL and with a 5yr
guarantee?

If they went without the twin tuners and Internet stuff the Samsung
UE32C4000P is nearly half the price (£356.40) even with JL.

I think they would possibly make use if the things like iPlayer but
they don't realise it enough yet to spend the extra because of it. Mum
would go for the cheapest option but Dad would (generally) go for the
bells and whistles option if I suggested it was the best thing to do
(even if he didn't understand why at the moment).

I could run the 32" Panasonic past him first as 'the' solution and see
if he flinches (it's only my inheritance after all). ;-)

Unless anyone can suggest anything else before I do so to avoid
confusing him etc?


I know someone with that model. Size is OK for the
small room it sits in, but I'd have thought 37" would
be a better experience for a normal living-room. The
remote's busy, but then they all are. As suggested,
you can get simple 3rd-party remotes. Bear in mind
that with the number of channels available, especially
on Freesat, you really need to use the EPG and maybe
set up some favourites, so a simple remote can be
quite limiting.

Any Freesat TV will have iPlayer, which is nice, but I
doubt it would be upgraded for the new multi-channel
service being worked on at the moment, so another box
would be needed. The Panasonic wireless gadget is
£80, so a wired network connection might be preferred.

Other Internet stuff is pretty worthless, IMO, on any
TV I've seen to date. The manufacturers all want to
do an Apple, but they just haven't got a clue.

Whichever set you get, consider who is going to do the
setting up, and whether it's worth paying a bit extra
for the supplier to do it. Local dealers will often
do that as part of the service.

On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:12:40 +0000, Jim wrote:


I could run the 32" Panasonic past him first as 'the' solution and see
if he flinches (it's only my inheritance after all). ;-)

Unless anyone can suggest anything else before I do so to avoid
confusing him etc?


I know someone with that model. Size is OK for the
small room it sits in, but I'd have thought 37" would
be a better experience for a normal living-room.

I guess it depends on what you are used to. We had an 18" 'monitor
style' Sony Trinitron set for nearly 20 years (I only changed one cap
when the Teletext overlaid all the time, an output transformer and a
couple of power switches in that time) and now we have a 19" UMC TFT
and don't think much about it. However, when we bought the Wii we
realised why many people might have big screens these days. ;-)

To be fair 'she' watches most her TV (live, recorded from a STB or off
the web) on her 15" PC screen quite close to her and I'm not that
bothered about TV from the emersion pov. We have a fairly decent
surround sound setup and haven't turned that on for years.

If you saw the quality of some of the stuff Mum and Dad used to watch
(ghosting and breakup when a train or unsuppressed vehicle went past)
....

The
remote's busy, but then they all are. As suggested,
you can get simple 3rd-party remotes. Bear in mind
that with the number of channels available, especially
on Freesat, you really need to use the EPG and maybe
set up some favourites, so a simple remote can be
quite limiting.

Ah, good point. Maybe one of those flip / slide jobs then that cover
the extra stuff when not needed.

Any Freesat TV will have iPlayer, which is nice, but I
doubt it would be upgraded for the new multi-channel
service being worked on at the moment, so another box
would be needed.

Ah, I didn't know about that. From what you are saying it might take a
while to work its way into units as std and if we wait we would never
get anything?

The Panasonic wireless gadget is
£80, so a wired network connection might be preferred.

Whilst there is a wall between the TV and router in it's current
position it's literally only 2m away. I could very easily put the
router on the TV side of the wall for them as the rest attaches
wireless in any case (mainly his old iMac and Mums laptop once in a
blue moon).

Other Internet stuff is pretty worthless, IMO, on any
TV I've seen to date.

I've tried iPlayer on out Wii and that was ok, not tried anything
else.

The manufacturers all want to
do an Apple, but they just haven't got a clue.

Especially if you go all Apple and tie it all together (I should
imagine).

Whichever set you get, consider who is going to do the
setting up, and whether it's worth paying a bit extra
for the supplier to do it. Local dealers will often
do that as part of the service.

What sort of thing are we talking about these days? I'm pretty good re
the cables (UHF / Composite / SCART / HDMI etc) and the tuning is
pretty automatic on most the DTV stuff I've played with so far. As yet
they don't have any other stuff (DVD / PVR / Console ) but again, I
should be ok with most of it (and they are only a 15 min walk away).

As for the picture itself I'd start with default settings and see what
they like from there?

Re the size thing. I think I'm going to have to pop round again with a
rule (or some cardboard screen templates) and remind myself exactly
what space they have there (well, more like clear viewing angle
between the furniture) and then report back for a recommendation for
models in that specific size.

As I mentioned, their existing widescreen CRT (that I gave them years
ago as it was given to me and we don't have space for it) is 28"
viewable and Dad's guide re a replacement size were 'about the same
size'. However, I can see bigger is better. [1]

Luckily their eyesight still seems ok even if their hearing isn't. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. On the sound side and expanding on from the PC speaker idea. I
was wondering if some remote speakers nearer to the sofa (wireless?)
bight help keep the overall sound levels down would work (work as in
would it be weird not having the sound and video coming from the same
area? I think a 'Line out' source would be best for that so he could
change the volume on the remote speakers independent of the TV volume.

[1] I have a 42" Plasma hanging on the wall in out bedroom that the
kids have used a couple of times when they come to stay. It was given
too me by my mate out of his shop and has some 'sparklies' along the
top that are a bit off putting when watching a film (electrical fault
of some kind). No so bad for the XBox etc.

On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:46:11 +0000, T i m wrote:

The
remote's busy, but then they all are. As suggested,
you can get simple 3rd-party remotes. Bear in mind
that with the number of channels available, especially
on Freesat, you really need to use the EPG and maybe
set up some favourites, so a simple remote can be
quite limiting.

Ah, good point. Maybe one of those flip / slide jobs then that cover
the extra stuff when not needed.

I'm quite fussy about the controller - seem to lack the feel for position.
The Samsung that I bought has a large, rectangular controller that can pe
pressed whils on a table etc. without rolling over. It has 47 buttons but
they are big square ones and the central cluster is cruciform, so easier to
navigate, and of a different texture from the other buttons and even I can
feel the difference.

Here's a diagram:
http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=...1MyYh4l5k2TGxc

A lot of the damned things need to be picked up to operate any but the
central column of buttons.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

In article , T i m
scribeth thus
On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 14:16:06 -0000, "Tim Downie"
wrote:


Dunno if this is any help but my mother (84) recently had need to buy a new
TV. She was replacing an old 32" CRT TV and was adamant that she didn't
want anything bigger.

We went shopping and I tried to suggest to her that she ought at least to
look at some slightly larger sets and steered her towards a 37" Panasonic
Viera.

TX-L37D25B LED TV? That looks quite nice as it seems to do everything
mentioned so far and without a complete rearrangement of their room
I'm not sure they could get anything much bigger in (it's a fair size
lounge with the current TV sitting across the mouth of the big bay
window. The settee and Dad are against the opposite wall. Two chairs
flank the existing 28"(visible) CRT set and therefore create a 'frame'
for any TV positioned there). With the furniture they have (inc a
large ornately carved bureau made by my granddad) and a wall mounted
gas fire (probably ruling out a wall mount on the chimney breast) it's
fairly restricted.

37" £678.99 on Amazon or £649 for the 32" model from JL and with a 5yr
guarantee?

If they went without the twin tuners and Internet stuff the Samsung
UE32C4000P is nearly half the price (£356.40) even with JL.

I think they would possibly make use if the things like iPlayer but
they don't realise it enough yet to spend the extra because of it. Mum
would go for the cheapest option but Dad would (generally) go for the
bells and whistles option if I suggested it was the best thing to do
(even if he didn't understand why at the moment).

I could run the 32" Panasonic past him first as 'the' solution and see
if he flinches (it's only my inheritance after all). ;-)

Unless anyone can suggest anything else before I do so to avoid
confusing him etc?

Cheers, T i m


Just a suggestion we bought a Sony 40 inch EX503 just before Xmas and I
have to say its giving the best rendering of SD TV I've seen thus far on
an LCD type screen. Can't really fault it at all, and the built in
iplayer and Youtube are a real useful bonus. We bought it from JL and
they did a packaged Blu ray player all with their 5 year warranty.

We were thinking of going to Richer sounds but were not impressed with
their sales person and as for the others comet and curry's etc didn't
even bother .. Very well recommended.

And its got terrestrial HD built in come the big switch round this way!.
Its got a very neat EPG alarm system so you can set a reminder for a
later prog and on it comes so you don't forget...

Furthermore we though that the 40 inch might be too big but now its just
right, perhaps It wouldn't have mattered if it was a bit bigger even!..
--
Tony Sayer

On 03/03/2011 10:16, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:04:57 +0000, Donwill
wrote:



I recently purchased an LG

Funny enough we were talking about LG yesterday (I remember it from
it's 'Lucky Goldstar' days).



with built in Freeview, and was pleasantly
surprised that it came with two remotes one of which only had 3 switches
(buttons), two rockers for sound and channel changing, and one OK
button. :-) . The other remote has 30ish buttons :-( .

Yeah, plenty for one of them to sit on. I've also popped round to find
them watching TV through a translucent setup menu overlay because they
didn't know how to get rid of it and didn't want to 'upset anything'.
;-(


Haven't connected up yet but I'm expecting the sound to be crap as the
TV is so slim the speaker(s) must be even slimmer. However, It will be
connected to an 80W Lindsley Hood Amp and B&W Speakers. :-)

They got rid of their music centre thing a while back and just have a
portable cassette / CD player in each of the main rooms now.


As an elderly I require a simple remote for everyday use, a good picture
and a good sound, so it seems to satisfy my requirements, I hope :-\ .
The Big Power up is on Friday.!!! So if the lights dim in North
Shropshire you'll know why.

g I'll await the feedback (the human type) with interest.

What size set did you end up with please Don?

Cheers, T i m

It's a 55" Tim . I wanted a 47" but I was leaned on :-[
cheers
Don

On 03/03/2011 07:45, Woody wrote:
wrote in message
...

On 02/03/2011 12:29, T i m wrote:

HI all,

Before I try to drag my elderly (80+) and less than mobile Dad
round a
few TV shops I thought I'd see if there may be an answer, or
at least
general direction that could be gleaned here please.

They are looking to replace their ~36" CRT wide screen TV with
a new
flat panel jobby but whilst one could walk into the likes of
Tesco and
come out with something that would probably do, I think their
needs
might require a slightly more specific solution, namely it
would need
to be able to go fairly loud (and clear) and be reasonably
bright.

Now that could be any set these days (not bought one myself
and we
only have a 19" UMC TFT that was bought for us) but in case it
isn't,
could anyone give us some pointers re particular brands /
models that
may have impressed you in those areas please?

Oh, and a remote with /only/ volume, channel and on/off would
be handy
(and Mute for when we go roundjoking). ;-)

A plain Freeview TV is all that's required as I don't suppose
they
would use any fancy features even if they were present or
particularly
care for HD or 3D etc (unless there are good technical reasons
why
they might). A built in DVD player or PVR would be acceptable
if it
meant they got the main things. I don't think money is a real
issue as
long as it works and is good VFM.

Cheers and thanks for your time in any case.

T i m




I recently purchased an LG with built in Freeview, and was
pleasantly surprised that it came with two remotes one of which
only had 3 switches (buttons), two rockers for sound and
channel changing, and one OK button. :-) . The other remote
has 30ish buttons :-( .
Haven't connected up yet but I'm expecting the sound to be crap
as the TV is so slim the speaker(s) must be even slimmer.
However, It will be connected to an 80W Lindsley Hood Amp and
B&W Speakers. :-)
As an elderly I require a simple remote for everyday use, a
good picture and a good sound, so it seems to satisfy my
requirements, I hope :-\ .
The Big Power up is on Friday.!!! So if the lights dim in
North Shropshire you'll know why.
Regards
Don




{snipped} Long may the soul of the sainted JLH rest
in peace.



Yes I'll second that, . I have all his Wireless World articles
photocopied. together with the other Guru, AR Bailey of the non resonant
speaker design ( Long fibre wool etc) I made a pair using concrete and
high density chipboard but unfortunately lost them in a divorce 30yrs ago..
I built JLS's Amp from a Hart kit, it had been in dry storage for 7
yrs but I powered it up last week via a variable transformer, checked
osc input and scope o/p , superb, just as good as ever.
Aaaaoooh!!! I've been playing all my old CDs since then:-- " Beautiful"
Cheers
Don