TV [Archive] - Caithness.Org Forums

Gizmo

12-Oct-04, 12:02

Liz, just one thing to remember.....you get what you pay for, and cheap Tv's mean 'cheap bulid, and more often than not.. bad picture and sound quality'

Save your pennies a little while longer, if you hunt around and do a little research you'll pick up a good quality 28" Widescreen for a little over £300 or a 32" for somewhere around £500/£600, personally i'd avoid a Beko Tv like the plague.

Giz

Liz

12-Oct-04, 13:17

It's £179.99.

Why would you avoid Beko TV's Gizmo?

Geo

12-Oct-04, 14:24

"Some" cheap TVs are good and are rebranded versions of better makes. It would be worth sticking "Beko TV reviews" into Google to see what comes up.

We have a Beko fridge freezer which developed a fault outside its warranty period. I phoned Beko and they were very helpful and without me asking offered to send a service engineer to fix it free of charge. They arranged a date. The engineer phoned to confirm the date. Then a few days before the engineer was due Beko phoned to say he could come a day earlier and asked if that would suit which it did. The engineer phoned to confirm and he arived on time. Brilliant customer care.

webmannie

12-Oct-04, 15:44

Have a Beko 32" Widescreen myself, picture quality is ok, nothing wrong with it as far as i can see. Have had it a year and a half. at that price i'm considering getting another for the bedroom!

Gizmo is entitled to his/her opinion, I personally think he/she is wrong on the 'you get what you pay for' train of thought.

Liz

12-Oct-04, 17:23

Thanks webmannie! When you say the pic is 'fine' is it really clear with good colour as this is what I want.

I must say I don't really hold with the idea 'you get what you pay for' theory as well. Isn't that firms' sneaky way of charging us more? :roll:

George I took your advice and put a search into Google for Beko TV reviews and am now totally confused as one person said it was an awful TV with poor picture quality and the other said it was fine!!!! :roll:

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. Think it may come down to the toss of a coin! :D

I wonder if I would be entitled to take the TV back since it wasn't plugged in in the shop so I couldn't see what the pic was like?

Gizmo

12-Oct-04, 19:46

Believe me....you do get what you pay for when buying cheap electrical goods, has no one ever owned a Matsui Hi-Fi??....cheap as chips and pure and utter junk...IMHO

I do know what i'm talking about on the subject of home entertainment equipment and i would advise you to stay well clear of that Beko tv, unless your not bothered about it lasting very long, remember there is a reason that it's so cheap, and yes, i know full well that many highly regarded 'Name Brands' have overly inflated prices, but search around and you will get a good deal.

Yes i am a snob when it comes to electrical goods and my living room eqipment is good quality gear, but i have purchased many cheaper quality items over the years and in my experiance it's better to spend a little more on better quality eqipment, i bought a 28" Proline Widescreen Tv for the bedroom at £250, which a couple of years ago was very cheap, it does the job for the bedroom but has a pretty flimsy build quality, the picture quality is ok but the sound quality is pretty poor......i got what i paid for

If you want a resonable quality 28" Widescreen Tv then try this Samsung Model for £289

http://www.electricaldiscountuk.co.uk/itfx_product_details.php?pid=3350&PHPSESSID=54d972cf397cd330cfdd13a6e20cfb59

Samsung used to be rubbish years ago but that is not the case now

Liz

12-Oct-04, 19:52

Thanks a lot. Really appreciate you taking the time to explain things!

I think after all this that I will for for a 25" screen as a few people I've spoken to have said they didn't like widescreen. :roll:

Of course with analogue being switched off we'll all need digital TV - here we go again!!!!!!

Gizmo

12-Oct-04, 20:16

No no no no!! do NOT buy a 25" Standard Tv, thats like having the option to buy a Porche and opting for a Skoda instead....lol

Most television programs are shot and broadcast in widescreen these days and soon all programs will be this way, the people who complain about widescreen televisions are just old stick in the muds who cant handle progress or change, would you be happy to spend your money on an old fashioned twin tub washing machine when you could have a super duper modern model instead??

At the end of the day it's your money and decision what television you buy, but i'd recomend you to buy the 28" Beko (i'm assuming it's a widescreen model) before you bought a 25" Square model....yuk yuk yuk and NO NO NO!!!

Please do not buy that 25" model, you will regret it

If you want some more advice and help in choosing a Tv then i'll be more than happy to help you out making the right choice for your budget.

Giz

gravedigga

12-Oct-04, 21:10

webmannie

12-Oct-04, 21:32

Liz,

In response, I have just been watching the set, the last hour or so, after reading your question. The picture quality is excellent and nice an crisp.

I originally had concerns about widescreen, I wouldn't go back to standard screen now. I bought the widescreen because I was fed up watching my latest DVDs in 'letterbox' mode.

I therefore recommend BEKO (bought mine from Chessor)

I would imagine BEKO is no different than Bang & Olufsen, a 'bad un' is always a possibility when humans are involved in manufacturing electronics. (nowadays they carry out Quality Checks and therein lies the problem)

I would ask what their return policy was?

tides of pentland firth

12-Oct-04, 22:45

Are Panasonic better than Sony? I reacently bought a fancy new HiFi and chose the Pana over the Sony. Was it a mistake?

William

13-Oct-04, 00:16

We have bought the BEKO tv from the co-op as the last one broke :roll: and the picture and sound are good it is really clear as you would hope for and the different sound parts you can set it up the way you want it.

Gizmo

13-Oct-04, 01:03

Personally i would always go for the Sony, they might be a bit more expensive but they are excellent quality products, nothing wrong with Panasonic products though, good quality and good value for money, the brands best avoided are Awia, Alba, LG....( which used to be called Goldstar ) etc which are all just 2nd rate junk and not worth half the price they charge for them.

The problem with a thread like this is that someone who has purchased a 2nd rate quality product doesnt want to admit that the product they bought is of sub-standard quality, lets see what they say in 3 or 4 years time when picture quality starts to deteriote and the cheap cathode ray tube packs in.

Giz

webmannie

13-Oct-04, 06:44

The problem with a thread like this is that someone who has purchased a 2nd rate quality product doesnt want to admit that the product they bought is of sub-standard quality, lets see what they say in 3 or 4 years time when picture quality starts to deteriote and the cheap cathode ray tube packs in.

I admit, I bought a cheap Tv!!

And IF it packs in i'll just buy another then another and so on. I get a new one every 3-4 years anyway.

Naefearjustbeer

13-Oct-04, 09:44

I bought a cheap TV, video, dvd player etc etc and am more than happy with the quality of picture and sound. The TV is a few years old now and has never given any problems. If it packed in tommorow it would not bother me too much as I only paid about £150 for it. If on the other hand I had bought a £600 TV and it packed in after a few years I would not be best pleased. We were once given a TV that was one of the more expensive brands and it packed in so we had the repair man round to fix it. It cost quite a bit to repair and it only lasted for a short while before it blew again. I decided to cut my losses and get rid of it and bought the cheap TV and it is fine. If you spend £600 upwards on a tv maybe you think an extended warranty to protect your investment would be handy. I bet the warranty will cost almost as much if not more than my TV.

We bought a DVD player for £30 and it will play every disc I have tried in it from MP3 cds to copied films and multi region discs. A mate of mine has a £250 sony dvd player and it wll only play european region DVDs if they are in perfect condition, any scratches or blemishes and it doesnt play the game! Any films brought back from holidays or bought in from america have no hope of working. So do you really get what you pay for! This is not an isolated case I have heard many people complaining about expensive branded DVD players being rubbish.

phoenix

13-Oct-04, 10:23

We have a Wharfedale Tele bought in Tescos 5yrs ago for £199.99, no probs so far, good quality sound and picture. The one we had before that was a Mitsubishi which cost well over £500 it developed a problem after a few years and was going to cost nearly £300 to fix. In the long run it makes more sense to me to buy a cheaper one and replace it if it developes problems. Someone once said to me the more advanced and finely tuned an electrical item is the more something will go wrong with it. This has proven to be true in my case. We had a fancy electronic Creda washing machine, it always had something go wrong with it. We replaced it with a basic Indesit which does the job its designed to do, Now I go for the item that has the least features and serves the purpose that I want it for.Another bit of advice I was given is never buy an item that comes of the production line on a Monday or a Friday. Not sure how you can tell this though. :)

Gizmo

13-Oct-04, 10:57

The reason the more expencive brand name dvd players will only play certain discs is simple, the manufacurer is sticking to the guidelines recomended by the movie studios, which has the world split into 6 different regions, it is also a way to combat piracy

Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada
Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
Region 5 - Russia (okay, former Russia), Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
Region 6 - China

I have seen these £30 dvd players and personally i thought the picture quality was terrible, and you will get a really good quality dvd player for as little as £150 these days, but each to their own, if your happy with it then thats fine.

I'll agree with you about the problems with some expencive dvd players, but those problems were in the early days of dvd and have long since been fixed

squidge

13-Oct-04, 11:53

Its often interesting to know who makes hese items. I thought that many of the posh brands actuall y make the cheaper ones too. this happens right across the spectrum. I have a goodmans tv - widescreen which i have had since 1998 and I have moved home 5 times packed and unpacked it and its great. Works and always produces a good pic.

i have an indesit washer - bottom of the range and its great, i have a fridge freezer - beko and it works a treat too. A creda bottom of the range dryer does exactly what it says on the tin. A bottom of the range cooker and hob a cheapy cheapy hi fi they all do the job i want them to do.

Appliance snobbery is all very well but i cant afford it. Im so cheap lol

stixie

13-Oct-04, 12:54

Whatever make or model or product it is your after, however expensive my favourite websites for them are www.qed-uk.com and also www.dabs.com. They both have most brands and products. I got a top of the range Sony stereo on qed-uk a couple of years ago with 3 year warranty, free delivery and for less than half price.

Happy shopping

13-Oct-04, 14:03

Maybe diffrences in picture quality could be 50 or 100hz sets.Mine is 100hz, 5year old 28" widescreen jvc, it seamed expensive and weird to look at at first but its been great for the time since ive had it.
Just over 4 yrs ago i bought a £1100 technics hifi/dvd,(you can get its current replacent now for£499!), and ive never had any problem with any type of dvd.Then again nor has my sister with her £70 bush dvd!

Geo

13-Oct-04, 14:09

Yeah i tend to agree with Gizmo, My brother had an aiwa hifi and it didn't last a bang, the speakers were crap - whenever you put it loud the cd's would jump.

Whereas my mum had a Sony one that lasted years - value for money in the long run.

Last time I checked (years ago) AIWA were part of SONY. I had an AIWA midi system and it was excellent, until someone stole it! My dad's Sony midi system on the other hand was not very well made at all. Some of the buttons fell off the cassette decks.

colmac

13-Oct-04, 19:17

I don't have a Beko tv, but I have a Beko cooker and Beko washing machine and I am extremely happy with both. I have never had any problems with the washing machine and once have I had to call out an engineer about the cooker and he arrived when he was supposed to and was able to fix the problem on the spot without going away and having to make a second visit to me. If I were in the market for another tv I would consider purchasing a Beko tv.