Good value TV set

Two related questions:
1). I want to buy my elderly mother a new TV. No bells and whistles, just a reliable set. What's the best one for €500 or less?

2). She lives in Donegal and gets TV reception at the moment from a local (soon to vanish) deflector. This means that she gets the Irish and British stations on one 'channel'. Hence, she only needs to push buttons 1–9 on the remote for all stations.

With Saorview she will only get the Irish channels and will need a satellite dish and a second remote for the UK stations.

Is there any easy solution so that she can have one remote and still only press one set of buttons? Menus confuse her (she's 90 years old!).

Many thanks.

500 euro I suppose is a lot to fork out. I know she is in Donegal but I got my 91 yo aunt a 32inch SAORVIEW LCD in powercity in dublin for 260 euro. she and her 89 yo sister love it.

Next year they will have to get UPC or SKY digital when the analogue goes as they wouldn't survive on the stations that SAORVIEW gives. I think 2 remotes will be needed, one just to switch TV on and the digital one to change channels.

Thanks STEINER. I was hoping not to fork out 500! €260 sounds very reasonable. I suppose we could try and train her to get used to it. If I get a new set now, will she still be able to receive the UK channels up until analogue is switched off?

The multiple remotes are a pain for older people.

For my Dad, I did up some printed labels and stuck them on the back of the remotes and then tippexed dots under the main buttons.

You can get combo boxes that will receive the Saorview service via an aerial and FreeSet channels via a dish. Something like this, but there are many other options out there.

With this all the channels are available on the one box, with a single remote.
Leo

Get yourself to eBay.

I got a 46' Sony Bravia for €220 with a cracked LCD. Cost me 300 to repair so still saved about €600 on it.

directdebit said:

Get yourself to eBay.

I got a 46' Sony Bravia for €220 with a cracked LCD. Cost me 300 to repair so still saved about €600 on it.

Click to expand...

That's a very risky path to go down. Especially similar spec TVs for similar money that will come with a fully valid and enforceable warranty.

I'd never buy anything like that from eBay, too many things can go wrong and dealing with issues is often a nightmare.

Supervalu have a 42" LCD Hannspree, Saorview approved, at €399.99 today. Thinking about it.

Leo said:

You can get combo boxes that will receive the Saorview service via an aerial and FreeSet channels via a dish. Something like this, but there are many other options out there.

With this all the channels are available on the one box, with a single remote.
Leo

Click to expand...

I agree with Leo on this, if you can get a combo box so that the saorview channels and the satellite dish are on the same source it makes a big difference to the previous generation. (I expect this is all one source) I know my Mum who would be in the age bracket you mention finds it quite confusing, writes it all down on the top of the Independent! but simple things like making sure the satellite receiver is turned on when she changes from RTE to BBC and even having to choose OK seems to be illogical to her...anyway the fewer remotes/boxes etc the better!!

Also this box will work with any TV - it saorview enables TVs...

Thank you all so much for that information and sorry for not getting back sooner. Christmas got in the way.

I'm thinking of getting a TV from Power City. If I get a satellite dish at a later date, will the combo box still be necessary or would I just be doubling up on Saorview?

If you're going to be getting a combo box like the one Leo suggests (and I'd agree that it would probably be worth it in this case), you could save further by buying a TV that isn't "Saorview approved", i.e doesn't have the decoder already built in. a perfectly good Toshiba 32" for €229 in Argos at the moment. If you're not going above 32" you won't notice the difference between HD Ready and "full" HD, either, so don't be sold more than you need by an eager salesman.