Buying a TV- Curry's electrical

[Neil]

Yes, the salesman gave it all the extended warranty nonsense, but if you go in there knowing 100% that you DON'T want it, then all you have is the slight inconvenience of having to listen to them try to sell it to you for 2 minutes before saying "no thank you".

You don't have to endure any slight inconvenience of listing to them mither about it for 2 minutes - just say "No thank you" as soon as they start prattling. If they continue, that say it in a more insistent and assertive manner. If they still continue, say - "I said "No thank you" twice, I won't say it a third time, I'll just walk away and buy somewhere else".

Has never failed me yet.

I rarely have to go as far as the final warning.

 

[drcarlos]

Sales of Goods Act is 6yrs afasik, year less in Scotland.
Not actually sure if the EU directive applies to good boughtg in this country or bought from just other EU countries as our UK law being longer overrides this. Mr moneysavingman will know though or trading standards.

Strange I thought I read seven years, but it is 6 (I only used it in the second year anyway to get a refund on a faulty TV that was sold as ex-display but these are also covered unless sold with known faults). Anyway Scotland is a bit different they have up to 5 years after they first realised there was a problem, which is a bit strange.
The EU thing my father used in Tesco when the harddisk in his netbook failed after 28 months, he quoted the directive and they grumbled but honoured it.
When I have spoken to TS in the past they told me it's equally valid but the SOGA is stronger as it lasts longer.
Also as far as Guarantee goes you don't have to use it if SOGA is better, they can't force you as SOGA is law and a Guarantee isn't.

Carl.

 

[legrandefromage]

Sound bars are hateful. They sound terrible when compared to the simplest of hifi. The sounbar drive units are the same ones used in the telly just that a sub has been added. Convenient for some but a simple small hifi speaker and sub does a better job. Yamaha started that with its multi speaker arrays that were meant to spread the sound via software to each individual drive unit all inside one box. That got lost somewhere so these hideous soundbars popped up. But even the most simple amps and speakers are not female friendly. Despite their better hearing, a decent sound seems to be a male thing.

A lot of new tellies have blue tooth too so you can connect wirelessly to speakers phones etc. I'm having great fun with mine. That's the 'smart' part of it for me. Hdmi connections allow everything to talk to each other so my Sony tv chats to the Sony amp. One remote does the volume and automatically kills the built-in tv speakers (which sound terrible!).

The tv you see in the shop is the one you take home with you. If you ask nicely you might be able to borrow the demo disk so you too can do all that secret post processing. If not there ate plenty available and some DVD/ bluray come with set up instructions. Going back to my new telly, although it's a Sony it also recognizes the LG player so again just the one remote for playback, volume etc. As it also has a built-in Freeview/ Freesat HD tuner, connecting an external hdd turns it into a recorder with all the functionality of a pvr.

 

[Barneyballbags]

Sound bars are hateful. They sound terrible when compared to the simplest of hifi.

The soundbar was the solution which best met my needs. I'm not an audiophile and I probably wouldn't be able to tell much difference between my soundbar and an equivalent hifi (that's not to say that there is no difference). It looks good sat beneath my TV. There are no wires anywhere and the wireless sub is hidden away out of view. The LG 'magic' remote basically controls everything (Virgin TV Box, LG TV, LG Soundbar). It pairs up with our phones via Bluetooth so we can stream all of our music to it and to my untrained ears it sounds bloody amazing when we're watching movies. So that's good enough.

 

[Mijiblob]

Despite their better hearing, a decent sound seems to be a male thing.

No; 'Hi-Fi' is a marketing term aimed at seducing insecure egotistical men who believe that owning summat better than the next man makes them superior. Women just aren't interested in the willy waving.

Having said that; even a basic amp and speakers set-up is vastly superior to most 'soundbar' type things. In the Great Technological Revolution, we'll be getting a DAC, amp and some nice speakers. We'd really like a nice telly to go with it, but it seems things are made to a pricepoint, rather than a quality standard.

Annoyingly, ITV only supply their catch-up service with Samsung tellies. My better half loves her Corrie, so I'm trying to figure a way round that issue. I'm not going to buy a Samsung just cos of this; the ones I've seen in shops are inferior to Panasonic and Sony models.

iPad/Apple TV/Airplay?

 

[legrandefromage]

Why should ego and insecurity come into simply wanting to enjoy somebody's hundred million quid effort to entertain? Since when did it become a crime to want to watch something on a big screen or have a fuckoff big sound system?



Greed is good! Austerity is dead! Bring back speakers with 15" bass drivers from Tandy!

XTR and Di2 on everything!


Now the sugars wearing off, smart tv's are here to stay. They're simply an offshoot of the on board PC that is already there to control the screen.

 

[rosstheboss]

iPad/Apple TV/Airplay?

Google Chromecast is coming soon, 99% sure it will be a lot cheaper than it's Apple equivalent (It's currently available in the States at $35) Plug's into the hdmi port in your tv and can be control via laptop or phone. It looks rather good!

http://www.stuff.tv/google-chromecast/review

 

[xerxes]

What is this TV of which you speak? Is it like a magic lantern, or perhaps a wireless with pictures?

I'm off to wind up the gramophone.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt5tEV9lGRQ[/youtube]

 

[yagamuffin]

Currys are rubbish. My Dad moved in to a new flat a couple of months ago and went to Currys to pick up a few appliances he needed. When he asked about doing a discount for buying multiple items he was told "we don't do deals or discounts". What happened to the days of haggling in the electrical store over the price of goods?

As for Smart TVs I don't see the point, the technology just isn't there yet. The interfaces all seem really slow and laggy and try to type with the TV remote is annoying as hell.
Much better to stick with Internet on a proper device for the time being. Sky, Virgin and some freeview boxes have all the catchup stuff anyway.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Despite their better hearing, a decent sound seems to be a male thing.

No; 'Hi-Fi' is a marketing term aimed at seducing insecure egotistical men who believe that owning summat better than the next man makes them superior. Women just aren't interested in the willy waving.

Having said that; even a basic amp and speakers set-up is vastly superior to most 'soundbar' type things. In the Great Technological Revolution, we'll be getting a DAC, amp and some nice speakers. We'd really like a nice telly to go with it, but it seems things are made to a pricepoint, rather than a quality standard.

Annoyingly, ITV only supply their catch-up service with Samsung tellies. My better half loves her Corrie, so I'm trying to figure a way round that issue. I'm not going to buy a Samsung just cos of this; the ones I've seen in shops are inferior to Panasonic and Sony models.

iPad/Apple TV/Airplay?

Humax box's have ITV player, even my old FoxSat-HDR, the newer Freetime boxes do all the main channels. The Freeview versions are the same.

If you have a dish or don't mind putting one up I would go FreeSat.