I?ve just looked at some specs for a current Samsung TV and there is no mention of Composite / component video.
Is it likely they just haven?t bothered mentioning them?
Or is it time for my friends to find another way to play their DVDs (not a deal breaker as there are solutions from £15 (external DVD drive for laptop)).
The manual(s) seem really poor for a random 2021 model picked from the Samsung website, effectively saying it might have composite and/or component inputs depending where in the world you bought it.
You can't be sure without looking though. The last TV we bought showed the specs as having a digital terrestrial tuner, ethernet, USB and 4 HDMI inputs. It actually turned out to have those, plus still having an analogue tuner (handy if you have old devices that have UHF modulators), composite and SVHS inputs, plus a completely unmentioned satellite tuner!
WOW! Good bonus! They usually mention a built in satellite tuner - charge extra for that! Analogue tuners, inputs and outputs are slowly dying out.
I wish they would die out faster in the devices that still default to analogue TV mode (ie white noise) after factory reset. It confuses the hell out of little old ladies when they do the wrong thing when told to retune their set because the TDTV digital MUX has been randomised yet again. I have disabled the new channels available notice on some.
On some TVs reset to factory defaults button is right next to retune :(
I agree that to be sure it is best to seek out the model and look very carefully at the back, sides and under any sneaky front panels. Also if it is important to you that is works with a particular makers remote take that along too since some famous names are rebadged other tat.
You can get composite to HDMI converter boxes for cheap. First hit on ebay:
formatting link
No experience with those, but I did use one the other way for a while - to connect a Roku stick to a CRT TV (it used a SCART connector, but I think it was composite signalling rather than RGB). It worked fine, obviously picture quality was limited by the TV.
Although I'd expect a DVD player to have an HDMI output? If it doesn't and you don't want to spring for a new one, I imagine they're worth approximately nothing on the secondhand market now.
Them still including analogue, is for other markets than the UK - so the set can be used anywhere. Cheaper to make one set for anywhere, than numerous designs country specific.
My sets not only need to know language and country, but where in the country you are, so it knows which channels to concentrate on receiving.
Never quite understood why they don't provide a phono output. Given the internal audio amps will be digital- and many have a headphone output anyway. So would add pennies to the costs.
I can see no reason to 'upgrade' my Hi-Fi to one with Toslink inputs.
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