TV Recommendations

My latest two are Samsungs and I have no complaints. In fact most of their consumer stuff seems pretty good (although I think they tweak Android too much).

More than one? I can think of better things to do in the bedroom, that don't require any TV.

Trouble with "smart" TV's is that they don't remain "smart". The makers might release firmware updates for a few years then drop support. As the services behind the "smart" features continue to develop your "smart" TV left behind and either those features won't work at all or be very restricted.

If your watching Freeview almost any set is more than capable of producing pictures of far better quality. Personally I can't watch Freeview as the horrendous artifacts are just too distracting and annoying.

That a side I'd make sure the set was Full HD both display and tuner. Alternatively a suitable high resolution 24" computer monitor and a Raspberry Pi with Kodi and stream stuff to it.

A 5" screen isn't really big enough for 2 viewers comfortably.

NT

Choice of sets at 24" is a bit restrictive - however that's a popular size of monitor, so you could use one of those, and an external box for the smarts. (where box could be a small as a chomecast etc)

You will likely need to look at 32" for a decent choice from most makers.

LG and Samsung are decent for the money IME. Of the budget ones HiSense just about do it.

Accept that the smarts may date with time, and you may need to add external bits to keep everything as you want it with time.

Freeview HD is ok picture wise, SD is ok on a few channels and pants on the rest. But it depends a bit on what you are looking for.

Well you could audition a few.. if you want a really nice picture then look at the OLED screens - particularly impressive in dark environments and when watching content with High Dynamic Range / Dolby Vision.

They are all pretty good. This is one tome a trip to PC world pays off. Look at the viewing angle, and teh colour, listen to the sound, see if the picture follows live action without jerkiness. Check it has wifi if that's your mode, or Ethernet if THAT is. Remember most of these are made from the same chipsets. They may have more CPU or RAM or better video and sound though, and the LCD display is a big part of the cost so cheapos my have poor viewing angle and unnatural colours

I like the UI to samsung, but I have a nice panasonic as well.

They run on tizan do they not? It probably has a linux core but is open source which makes apps a lot leess hassle, no licencing etc. Brian

Well, since the life of a tv is supposed to be five years, I'd imagine the firmware updates for an open source OS are more likely to continue than some dodgy in house mish mash. LG are quite good value, but as has been said, most of the tvs these days,I am sur have good pictures, but as always, its the sound that is the poor relation, so why not by a nice sound bar or surround system and take a cheap telly? If you don't need tha talking menues and increasing use of voice assistants, then I'd have though that might be quite nice in a bedroom. Brian

Though beware - most of the modern low end Panasonics and by now possibly all of them are rebadged Hungarian rubbish. They do not answer to a genuine Panasonic remote control but to some random noname brand.

The very cheapest sets have LCD displays that have to be viewed exactly square on for the colour balance to be correct.

For a good night's sleep have no distractions in your bedroom at all. Bedrooms are for sleeping (and for some sex) not telly watching.

Do not have a telly in your bedroom

Not a factor for some of us. I can sleep within three minutes of deciding to, wherever I am (ok, it is harder if standing up if nothing to lean on). So I really don't worry.

I just bought a Samsung 43" Smart TV. The only real complaint is the advertising for paid services (Netflix, Apple, Amazon etc) is intrusive and cannot be removed or shifted to a less prominent position. The interface seems illogical and confusing, but I'm getting the hang of it eventually.

Another Dave

Decent sound and the drive to ever thinner flat screens is always going to make uncomfortable bed fellows. So yup, taking care of the audio "outside the box" is usually going to yield much better results.

What do you mean by "the advertising for paid services"? Or ar you just referring to the fact hat it has the playback apps pre-loaded?

(Not had a samsung to try - but on all other smart TVs I have tried so far (which to be fair is not a huge number) they have all had ways of reorganising the menus and shortcuts to remove or hide apps you are not using)

Have you tried this?:

Mostly yes but the installation procedure has an advert (difficult to bypass) for a free one month trial of Amazon Prime.

Yes. Note that that page states explicitly that some (read nearly all) preloaded apps cannot be removed. If there is a way of moving those particular ones about I haven't found it, though I can move others about and of course remove them.

Another Dave

Which is what I do. The only question is, where to get an audio tap off the telly to provide best quality?

Many seem to only to have Toslink out - odd given many still have headphone sockets. But a decent sounding converter isn't too costly.

there's also HDMI out.