Well, they don't make them like they used to, do they? I think it was the smell of electrical burning and the fact that the picture slowly began to diminish to a small dot in the middle of the screen that convinced me that my not-so-old television set was about to desert me for that t.v. graveyard in the sky. Ok, forget the graveyard bit - we took it to the tip!

Browsing round Curry's, and trying very hard to avoid the young man who seemed very keen on selling us an all too expensive surround sound home cinema system (in your dreams matey!) we eventually found a very smart, very stylish and very large Polaroid Definia 37" model. I must admit that I had never, up to that point, been aware that Polaroid manufactured televisions, and to this day, I have still not found the slot underneath where the photo comes out!

Firstly, all the obvious procedures need to be carried out such as attaching the power cord, aerial, scart leads where appropriate, satellite cables etc. to the set. Before going any further, remember to plug it in! In order to set it up completely, you need to remember to put the two AAA batteries into the remote control. For once, batteries ARE included! When the power is turned on via the manual button on the television, the set is automatically on standby and the LED light shows up red. Once the television is taken off standby via the remote control, the LED light turns blue. Now that the tricky bits have been done, just take a look at the screen and you will note that the 'auto install' menu appears automatically. (Does anyone else remember the days of having to laboriously search through all the channels and setting each one to a channel number?) Automatic installation of the channels takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. Once this has been done, the only aspect that you need to deal with is setting your desired preferences with the brightness, colour contrast, sharpness, sound settings etc., and again, this is done by simply using the remote control.

***DTV***
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As with all modern televisions, this model has been designed in readiness for the much advertised digital switchover, which simply means that digital tv is already incorporated into the set and there is therefore no requirement to have a Freeview box.

Other features include:

Wide range stereo speakers

We purchased this television in February 2008. In November 2008, we started to notice a dark 'splodge', about 3" x 3", in the top right hand corner of the blue screen when the television was first switched on. As the picture settled down, this splodge would disappear, but it would then be back again each time the television was switched on again.

We purchased this set for £579.99. When the television was returned after having the screen replaced, the service report stated that the cost of the replacement screen, which obviously included fitting and man hours, came to.....£596.06.

***Instruction Manual***
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Although the Instruction Manual has a very pleasant front cover (a television screen with vibrant marine fish swimming by), at first site, this is quite a scary looking book simply by the sheer thickness of it. It's only when you realise that most of the contents are the instructions duplicated in various languages. The English version covers a mere 46 pages. Instructions on how to set up and use the set are simple to follow and there are plenty of diagrams in addition to written instructions which should be of great assistance to any technophobe.

Polaroid Website: www.polaroid.com