Last week our beloved old Sony television finally decided that retirement was no longer an option and gave up working for a living! To be honest, it was not unexpected; it had been fading for some time and taking longer each day to wake up, but after about twenty years faithful service, it really was like one of the family.
We had been looking at new sets so now was the time to set the wheels in motion and do something about it. One slight problem we had was the size we needed. It's very easy these days to get large tv's - not the same choice with smaller ones.
The one we decided on was the Dual DLCD 1905. This was not previously a brand with which I was familiar, but apparently they have been around for some eighty years, so they must have some idea of what they are doing! The fact that this was 'on offer' at Argos had a little to do with the decision - a reduction of around £60 on something that seems to suit all your purposes is quite an incentive after all.
As I mentioned, one of the main problems we had was size. Wall-mounting wasn't an option which left the corner where the television had always been - itself being between the chimney and the cupboard under the stairs! Perhaps I should add that the house is over a hundred years old and pretty solid (apart from some nasty little woodwormy friends who have to be evicted) so not really built to house televisions! This set is a 19" Integrated digital LCDTV with Freeview and HD Ready - a screen size matching our old set - and I must say, looking remarkably similar if you ONLY see the screen. As a set of course, MUCH smaller and lighter and weighs only 6.9 kilos - less than one of my cats!
Setting up caused us a few problems. This was because the scart is recessed and required a straight plug - ours wasn't straight and didn't fit properly. This hadn't been a problem with the Sony which had two scarts anyway. Anyway, when this was changed everything worked well. We did find initially that the colour was too bright, but is much better since I adjusted it. I do notice the difference with the sound - a Sony is a hard act to follow and, to be fair, I have probably not quite got the 'hang' of it yet.
Another thing that takes some getting used to is the remote control. Of course, they are all different anyway - not forgetting that our other one was getting on for twenty years old!
All in all, I have to say that for the price we paid I think we have a pretty good buy as it only cost £159.99 at Argos. The picture quality is very good - far better than some I have seen - and better than I was expecting.
I am not going to go into technical details because, if that's what you want, there are plenty of sites to visit that would tell you exactly what you want to know. I feel that my views on how the set works are more important at this stage.
Thank you for reading this review - I do hope you have found it interesting or helpful.
Hazel
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