In message
(WbSearch) wrote:

Does anyone have advice of TV brands not to consider?
Pretty much any Thomson brand - RCA, Proscan, Thomson, Ferguson ("Thomson
Technology")...

The major brand names I
am somewhat familiar with, but there are many names I have not heard of prior
to shopping.
Check the labels - most of the "Made in Japan" stuff - that's Sony,
Panasonic, etc. - is still quite good. You can't really go wrong with a mid-
to high-end Sony. There's still a 28" Sony in the living room at home that's
roughly seven years old. The picture is still better than some modern TVs,
the Prologic sound presets are fun to play with ("Arena" is quite nice) and
it's only ever been serviced once - for a power supply fault. One minute it
was working, turned it off and it refused to power back up.

Now, as for laptops, avoid anything that uses one of those "barrel"
connectors for its power input. They don't last very long IME. I've got a
Compaq Presario 700 on the bench at the moment that needs a new PSU
connector. Then I need to work out where the one leftover screw fits...

Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn RiscPC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB,
(valid address)| 6GB, video mods, 8xCD, framegrabber,
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/ | Ethernet (i3 Etherlan600), Teletext
Seen on T-shirts at NASA: WILL BUILD SPACE STATION FOR FOOD.