Relisys RLT 2000

It is nearly 2 years since I got my TV. In that time I have experienced the good and the bad. On the good side, there are loads of inputs and the TV comes with lots of quality cables (but not a SCART lead). The TV is not too heavy and has a handy carrying handle. The remote has individual buttons for each input source but is missing a few teletext buttons and it is a bit cheap. The TV is 4:3 format which is great for watching old TV programmes. You can watch widescreen programmes in letterbox mode but it may be too small for lounge viewing. However, it is great as a bedroom TV. This TV replaced my old 14inch CRT TV and it isn't that much bigger physically. As well as a TV, it also has a VGA input for a PC and phonos for sound input. The bad news is the maximum resolution is 800x600 pixels. A bit low for a 20inch screen. The picture in picture feature only works when in PC mode too. Out of the box, the picture was not good and the sound was poor so I had to play with the picture and audio setup to get things right. The manual is not much help here. The nice thing is each input remembers its own settings so you can get everything perfect. The autotuner finds all TV stations and other devices (eg playstation) as long as they are switched on!! There is no manual tune facility to add them later if they were switched off during autoscan. You can swap the scanned channels around to get them in the right order but you can't label the channels (eg 1 = BBC1). Once setup, the picture is quite good so no complaints there. Obviously not suitable for HD TV but great with normal TV and progressive scan DVD players. The sound is another matter. The speakers are small and tinny and the whole thing lacks any bottom end. Good job there is a subwoofer phono out, you will use it (and a powered subwoofer). The BBE sound feature does help a little if you don't want to get a subwoofer (or aren't that bothered about bass). The built in TV tuner has a problem with Nicam channels. After a couple of minutes watching, the sound goes distorted. Relisys did replace the TV but that had the same problem. This will not be an issue if you watch DVD, Sky, Freeview and other external sources. Or you can just switch the sound mode to MONO. Problem fixed. However, after 18 months of faithful service, the TV refused to switch on (except for the green LED). The TV repair people said it couldn't be fixed but luckily, I had extended warranty insurance (Relisys standard warranty is 12 months). Overall, it was a nice TV once setup with a subwoofer and an external digibox but it only lasted 18 months and the built in TV tuner and PC option are not really up to the job. You would seem to get what you pay for.