Hi Duh,

Well it's horses for courses here.

Yes you can get LCD TV's with inbuilt DVD player and don't worry about a recorder as such like your digital box.

Mostly the new TV's have a USB slot so you can add an external hard drive. You just have to be careful what size hard drive your TV will run.I have a 23inch/60 cm Teac with inbuilt DVD player not Blu-Ray, it will only support up to a 320 Gigabyte hard drive.Other brands can use any hard drive up to Terrabyte sizes.Most also have the old connectors for Video.tThe red yellow and white and many the green/blue/red connections (Component) and of course multi HDMI connectors.

You can get a lot of stuff on a terrabyte drive.

Shopping around I am sure you will find a brand to suit.Kogan are advertising various cheap TV's with inbuilt DVD players.Even 3D versions depending on screen size.

I have a 42 inch Kogan LED TV at home, and my only complaint is that it is slow to start up compared to some of the better known brands but overall for $650 it is not a bad price.

Drawback is you can record via an external drive, but only one chanel, not like a set top box with a TV tuner and one in the set top box as well. As for 3D more and more DVD's and movies are being made in 3D but not all so yes you can watch 3D movies in 2D.

Another point is that many of the newer LED TV's are running through a transformer as the work on 12 Volt so with a supply box to run from a 12 Volt battery you can run the LED TV in a caravan or motor home.

Hope that helps

Thanks Yuglamron and Milo,

I want to steer clear of combined internet functions as there are two of us and only want the one home TV, would rather keep the internet function separate with own pc etc.  

Reason being is if someone is online and the other wants to watch TV then we can do so etc.

Is this Blueray worth having?  And exactly what does that do and what is the advantage?

PS:  This is for our home TV so if travelling would probably have a combined TV/PC one, but not for home.

Hi Duh,

Even for home use you don't need the internet to record from a hard drive with the new LED TV's.

Just connect an external hard drive with the USB cable and plug into the TV.

 I have a one Terrabyte hard drive with upwards of four hundred full movies on the thing and something like twenty full TV series also. Some like Only Fools and Horses ,a pommie comedy series has something like ten seasons and eight Xmas specials so a big hard drive can hold an awful lot of stuff.

The input select button on the remote will give you a selection of inputs from DTV DVD USB HDMI  and a few others including your old red white and yellow connections.

Just highlight USB and your hard drive is all set to go.Either record or play already loaded stuff from your hard drive to your TV.

If needs be you can plug your hard drive into your computer and download music,your photos and even record movies from your PC to the hard drive to watch on your TV.

I know I said about Kogan earlier, but I just got an email from them offering an LED TV   55 inch 3D for $699

As with every brand you will get those who like them and those who hate them will and have heard all the horror stories.

With the modern full HD TV's I personally don't think the extra defination on Blu-ray is worth paying  for,after all I wear glasses and don't think the extra is worth it for me.

Best to check it out at a big store and see if you think it's worth the extra cost of the DVD's and Blu-ray player.

-- Edited by Yuglamron on Tuesday 7th of August 2012 01:29:41 PM

-- Edited by Yuglamron on Tuesday 7th of August 2012 01:34:42 PM

Thinking of getting rid of my old anologue TV with Digital Box for one of the newer ones, preferably LCD/LCD/HD

What I would like on it is an inbuilt DVD recorder and player and connections for the old VHS tapes.  Is there such a thing?

Also, are movies going the way of 3D now and should I look at one with this function?  If I don't have 3D can I still watch 3D movies in mono? (is mono called 2D?).

Pretty dumb in this department so any feedback appreciated (oh....I do know how to turn on the wall switch! )

Just some info I have been told.

Many moons ago there was two formats, VHS and Betta (spelling). It was decided to go with VHS. Betta faded into oblivion very quickly.

Now we have DVD and the new kid on the block Blu-ray. I have been told that Blu-ray will take over from DVD and DVD will no longer exist in the near future. You can play DVD on a Blu-ray player.

Worth keeping in mind I spose if buying new.

As for 3D, I love 3D but not the new 3D TV's however, LG have just introduced a new 3D TV format so I would look at that next time and would go for a Blu-ray player/recorder with 3D capability. That way all bases are covered.

Edit...I got a bit mixed up, but ok now.

About 3 months ago i bought an LG DVD recorder / player, with VCR player. This was so i could play some of my Video tapes or burn them on to DVD. Also use it to record on to Erasable DVDs for programs when not at home, then erase them after watching the program.  Blue ray doesnt interest me.

In addition to my post above, I have noticed for the first time this week in the TV Guide Channel 9 have a new 3D channel, 95 in Melbourne, anyway. I tried tuning it in to see what would happen and doesn't tune in, probably because my TV is not 3D. Very interesting though, I'm sure others will follow.

Many thanks for the feedback and tips folks, much appreciated.

In retrospect I should have put this in the Techo section, so apologies for the oversight

Hi Duh, just remember, whatever you buy will be obsolete tomorrow.

I have never liked the idea of tv/dvd combo, too much in one box to go wrong.

To answer your original question, yes, you can plug your VCR into any LCD/LED nowdays that has the reg/yellow/white sockets.

I have a Samsung LED 3D tv and testing has begun with 3D broadcasting now by Ch9 on Ch95 as Doug said.  They are showing some live stuff but mostly re-runs of the opening ceremony at present.

The new generation 3D tvs will enable 2 people to watch 2 different movies at the same time on the same screen . What next!?

You can choose to watch 3D movies in "mono" with a button on the remote.

Definately get a FULL HD tv.  The visual quality improvement of BluRay over std DVD is amazing but unless you plan to rent a lot of movies it is probably not worth the expense of a Bluray player.

Kogan tvs have been mentioned which I reckon are fine for caravan or garage etc but for your main home tv I would look to a bit better quality.  Kogan runs on 60khz to 120khz while the better ones are up to 200khz or better.  This reduces or eliminates flicker.

Cheers Neil

Thanks Neil,

Just read your comments.  We have been out to The Good Guys and bought a 40" (don't have room for anything bigger) Samsung Full HD LED TV, did not want 3D, integrated DVD player or Internet capability, I think this will suit our needs hopefully.

Also bought a Sony Hard Disk Recorder SVR-HDT1000 which records two movies at a time on hard disk and can play your recorded videos or can view your video's/pic's or movies off sticks, and can copy to an external HDD device.

So can't say I understand all this yet but Carol seemed to know what they were talking about even if I didn't so that's our TV needs sorted out for a couple of years.   Deciding what to do with the old Anolgue TV and set top box, might use the set top box for an RV TV we have, analogue TV will probably go out at the next street pick up!