What tele and laptop?

miss notax

Hello

Life has turned unexpectedly cr@ppy lately and sadly Notax and I have split up

Not here to whine about that though (it could take some time :? ), but am after advice as I will soon be living on my tod (again!) and amongst other things I am missing both a TV and a laptop. I don't want to spend a fortune but am not sure what to go for either. Was thinking about £400 ish for a bigish flat screen TV and about the same for a decent laptop. I don't download loads of films or anything, but needs to be reasonable powerful to cope with the oodles of go-pro MTB rubbish I seem to acquire

Any advice on what to go for would be appreciated (but no advice on my love life thanks - this isn't crudcatcher).

nicklouse

what do you mean by bigish?

27" or......

and a PC screen with built in tuner?

I have something like one of these http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/pc-p ... v-monitor/
in the 27" flavour which also does 3D.

Laptops no idea.

cooldad

<Crudcatcher mode> If you need someone to take care of you on the rebound... (and protect you from Gazlar's stalking) <off>
Bummer. But as I have a cathode tube TV and a laptop from the Flintstones era that is less powerful than my phone I won't offer any useless advice.

Chunkers1980

Buy a smart TV.

Runs apps like the iplayers from BBC C4 ect. Also film apps like love film ect.

Much better than sodding around connecting a smart device to a dumb machine like all media centres , much better for the non-geeky people.

jairaj

If your not too bothered about absolute awesome picture quality and just want something OK. Pop down to your local Richer Sounds (there used to be one on London Road in Southampton) and check out the offers they have. Anything by the big brands will be reasonable (Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG etc ... ).

For £400 you should be able to get something with a good picture or loads of features (3D, smart apps etc) but probably not both. So depends on what you prefer. Also I think most TVs these days will have a PC monitor socket so should be very simple to connect your laptop to a bigger screen if required.

I'm not up to date on computers so can't recommend a laptop. But what ever brand you go for check if they have an outlet store on the web and buy from there. These are returned or refurbished computers sold with full warranties and quite large discounts. I've bought the last few computers from Dell's outlet and received a massive saving from the normal RRP. Each computer has been prefect not a single scratch or blemish, you would never know otherwise.

Chunkers1980

If you do go tv and computer way, it's much better to have hdmi out on the computer, then you don't have to faff with audio too.

benpinnick

Id look for a good keyboard, trackpad and screen on your laptop. The internal gubbins are mainly the same with some better than others, but you tend to get what you pay for, and unless you want to run some uber 3D games or something, you'll not really notice any difference. Don't be swayed by extra 'media center' crap or the like. Blu Ray yes, a 'media jog dial' no. You will however notice if you hate typing on it, the trackpad has a mind of its own, and the screen looks like you've developed cataracts. We tend to buy Lenovo's at my office (Small company so we buy from down the road at PC world as its easier) and they've been reliable and well liked. More memory is good. Faster processors with more cores also good - also, ask if it has a decent either onboard or even better separate graphics card if you want to edit those go pro films.

paul.skibum

I have a dell laptop - its pretty decent. Seems to work well, sensibly priced. If I had my time over I would get one with an HDMI cable port to stream to the TV.

Cant say much about tele's - I have a cheap Dynex, I think new it was $350 so couple hundred quid and it works fine, HDMI port, couple of AV ports, sounds reasonable. I dont need more.

paul.skibum

Oh and sorry to hear your news.

adm1

How about just not buying a TV? GTFUADSLBI.

And a Mac.

miss notax

Thanks for all the advice guys - i'll have a look into all this and see what I can find

benpinnick

Something like this is a pretty decent lappy for the money - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lenovo-g5 ... 5-pdt.html, and you'll get a voucher for £50 off a TV too, or anything else over £200 (if you then bought that from pc world/currys).

miss notax

benpinnick wrote:

Something like this is a pretty decent lappy for the money - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lenovo-g5 ... 5-pdt.html, and you'll get a voucher for £50 off a TV too, or anything else over £200 (if you then bought that from pc world/currys).

Hmm, with my limited technical knowledge that looks pretty good! Thanks

anj132

adm1 wrote:

How about just not buying a TV? GTFUADSLBI.

"get the f**k out and do something like blowing ink"

Sure, interesting patterns and colours but I could think of more fun things to do...

adm1 wrote:

And a Mac.

Burn in hell.

OP: I got our telly from Asda, LG 42" around that mark. Seemed good for the money. Could never go back to a 32" now.

http://www.ebuyer.com is usually good value for money for PC (not that "i" rubbish) related stuff, good place to set a benchmark from. You don't get technical support, although I'm not sure if you get that in PC World either.

Greer_

Macs are awesome but acer aspires are very good value at the moment and they come with an i3 processor which should handle video editing well - either http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-i3-370M-Pr ... 052&sr=1-1 or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-2-5 ... 052&sr=1-2

adm1

anj132 wrote:

adm1 wrote:

How about just not buying a TV? GTFUADSLBI.

"get the f**k out and do something like blowing ink"

"get the feck up and do something less boring instead"

anj132 wrote:

Sure, interesting patterns and colours but I could think of more fun things to do...

adm1 wrote:

And a Mac.

Burn in hell.

Sigh.

The best Windows laptop right now is the MacBook Pro "Retina" running Parallels (although quite WHY you'd want to run Windows or Linux should be reserved for a totally different thread). :evil: Hate all you like, but Macs are awesome laptops. Not cheap though, so admittedly not what the OP was looking for - although if he doesn't buy a telly, then he's probably almost in the ballpark.

Funnily enough, Mac haters seem to be almost exclusively people that have never owned them. Whereas most Mac users have used the alternatives extensively.

(Disclaimer: After 25+ years in the IT & electronics industries, I am writing this on a 2010 MacBook Pro, with a Retina MBP on order for delivery next week.)

cooldad

adm1 wrote:

Sigh.

The best Windows laptop right now is the MacBook Pro "Retina" running Parallels (although quite WHY you'd want to run Windows or Linux should be reserved for a totally different thread). :evil: Hate all you like, but Macs are awesome laptops. Not cheap though, so admittedly not what the OP was looking for - although if she doesn't buy a telly, then she's probably almost in the ballpark.

Funnily enough, Mac haters seem to be almost exclusively people that have never owned them. Whereas most Mac users have used the alternatives extensively.

(Disclaimer: After 25+ years in the IT & electronics industries, I am writing this on a 2010 MacBook Pro, with a Retina MBP on order for delivery next week.)

Sigh. (The 'miss' might have been a clue.)(not to mention the list of bikes) And well done

bartimaeus

Lenovo kit is worth a look for they keyboard alone... always have a go on the keyboard before buying a laptop, and also pick it up and carry it about as some are very flimsy. It's a bit like choosing a bike where you cannot change the saddle... you might choose a Deore spec with a comfortable saddle over XT and something horrible... but if you race you might put up with a so-so seat to get XTR.

In 6 months time you will be able to buy something better/faster/cheaper whatever spec you get as specs change all the time... so try not to be seduced by all the technical chit chat. For video editing, though, get as much RAM as possible... or at least make sure there's room to add more.

[Disclaimer... I have always had IBM/Lenovo kit through work, some better than others, but all have had good keyboards]

Growmac

NOt sure I can be of any help on the telly fornt. However, Currys are currently doing an absolute bargain on a Samsung 13" ultrabook (think Apple Macbook Air copy). Lu just got one and absolutely loves it.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-ul ... rcial.html for the advert

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-se ... 4-pdt.html for the actual laptop.

It's £649 but there's a £100 redemption offer, and if you can find anyone to give you an old laptop or computer to trade in, there's another £150 on offer on Ultrabooks. So you could get an absolutely kick ass laptop for just £400.

We're at Artur S this Sunday with Bx, and if you wanted to come along and then borrow an old PC to trade in you'd be more than welcome. G :0)

Growmac

* It's important to note that a telly fornt is a special, ceremonial table and not in any way a stupid typo.

miss notax

Thanks

Nice new tele delivered today and laptop ordered yesterday - some great advice here I won't post what i've got though as then i'll probably get told it's complete cr@p and it's too late

I may be miserable but at least I can watch tele whilst annoying everyone on random internet forums now

mrmonkfinger

time for a forum name change?

clearly too late, but:

lenovo laptops are good, so benpinnocks-reply-plus-potato

and TVs, I bought a 37" LG flatscreen about a year back... the 'smart' version was closer to £400 (even the cheap one plays back a gazillion file formats from usb sticks, just no internet stuff) and I'd have got that if I didn't have all-the-sky-I-can-eat-for-free-thanks and a laptop.

miss notax

Typically I have bought neither a Lenovo or an LG

I did think about changing my (forum!) name but I think i'll stay as Miss Notax.... Wouldn't seem right being called anything else! And anyway, i'm on here more than him and my advice is better

Growmac

Seems fair to me. So, you gonna come join Bx, Paul, me and others at Antur Stiniog on Sunday?

miss notax

I would actually be tempted but I have an exciting day of packing up my worldly belongings

Growmac

Bugger, that sounds rubbish. At least you have slightly more possessions now though, right?