This time last week I was not a very happy bunny I can tell you!!. I got up with my little one at the usual time of 7.30am, just in time to watch her favourite Big Cook Little Cook on Cebeebies. I pressed the on button… nothing.. tried again… nothing. I smacked it a few times as this usually helps… nothing. Mind you it had been on its way out for a while now. When I turned it on I got sound but no picture for about ten minutes. So what a brilliant start to a Monday morning, no TV means no Big Cook Little Cook and one unhappy little girl.
Due to a throat infection I wasn’t up to go roaming around to try and find a new television as I couldn’t talk so I would look like a deluded mental patient pointing and waving my arms at televisions’ in shops. This meant there was one thing for it! Internet shopping!. After browsing many web sites I came across one which was listed as a google favourite. I took particular liking to the Timeuk.com website as there was a telephone number too which made me feel more at ease about ordering from them as I haven’t used them before.
I honestly don’t know much about televisions all I knew was that I wanted a big one that was HD ready. The reason for this being my other half kept moaning that when he came over he couldn’t play his XBOX 360 as well as he could at home as my television was ‘rubbish’ and not HD ready. So I set off browsing the site.
I came across the Hitachi 32” LD 8700 whilst randomly browsing and instantly fell in love with it. It has a LCD screen, which stands for Liquid crystal display. Sounds posh when you say like that doesn’t it? It was HD ready too which I knew my other half would thank me for. HD meaning High definition, which gives you a crisper clear picture compared to the regular television. When it comes to tuning it gives you ninety nine channels, which is ninety more than my old television. (I haven’t got a clue why anyone would need ninety nine empty channels) Im sure I will find a use anyway. The on screen display boasts of: Graphical; 750:1 Contrast; 450 cd/m2 Brightness. I cannot explain what this means as I don’t know myself! It just says it in the manual. There are three different viewing aspects to it, Widescreen, 1.85:1, 2.35:1. I mainly watch mine on widescreen as it looks better!
The speakers are already built in but you can plug your surround sound into it. The speakers that are built in are Ni-Cam stereo speakers. There are also two scart sockets in the back of it. And also HDMI and Component Sockets. A Side Input Terminal was also a must to make easy access for plugging the XBOX in apparently which it comes with. Being a flat screen it does look more stylish than my old one, and it has a gorgeous black frame to it.
I was pleased to see that it had a Digital terrestrial & analogue tuner with it. As this makes tuning in much easier. Oh and of course a personal earphone sockets. So I don’t have to listen to his annoying games! The actual amount of visible screen on this is 82cm which is massive!! And the dimensions for the telly are: W x H x D: 854 x 600 x 104. This is just pure telly! Not my tv unit!.
This is a wonderful purchase and my little girl is happy that Big Cook Little Cook can still be watched whilst shes having breakfast!. Mine cost me £369 not including delivery which was £39.99. The website also tries to con you out of another £12.99 a month warranty. You can deselect this option which I did. I ordered on the Monday by Wednesday it was here! I would recommend this telly to anyone!
(+) Speedy channel navigation + table-top stand swivels + clean standard-def input (-) no white balance control - doesn't smooth jagged edges from interlaced well - average motion resolution
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