I've been working from home for a while and my office had an old 22" FHD TV in there and I found that I'd started to use it again. To be honest it was many being used for the radio on Freesat but I'd also have it on TV when there was cricket or golf on or for bargin hunt / news at lunch time. Anyway the picture quality and size was beginning to irritate me and the TV didn't support CEC which is something I use alot with my freeview / sat TV boxes. I decided to upgrade to a 32" FHD TV which needed a centre stand as the TV is in the corner of a table and went for this Toshiba from John Lewis with the 5 year guarantee:-
https://www.johnlewis.com/toshiba-32lk3c63db-2022-led-hdr-full-hd-1080p-smart-tv-32-inch-with-freeview-play-black/p109526030?s_ppc=2dx92700070984466761_mixed_technology_BAU&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=CjwKCAiAxP2eBhBiEiwA5puhNQihlLmFEoNc0jh-HYU7OtMFmrpXMv_PAY-SWOHRdojMibvhX2dHjRoCQMIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.dsIt is £10 cheaper at Currys but I refuse to do business with them and always prefer to use John Lewis if I can. However it should be noted that John Lewis have dropped the 'never knowingly undersold' policy and you no longer get free returns unless the item is actually faulty, it looks like its about £30 to send something like a TV back. Richer Sounds didn't do this model and I didn't see an obvious contender there, I do tend to prefer Samsung or Panasonic TVs but the Samsung was eliminated do to those stupid stands that they now fit and the Panasonic on price - an extra £90.
The picture quality is decent but nowhere near as good as the two 32" FHD Samsung's I have which are quite old now but I don't think they were particularly cheap. My 47" Panasonic is in a different league again but I think that was about £600 at the time albeit nine years ago. When setting up a TV I do spend an awful lot of time tuning the picture, people always comment how crisp and clear the picture is on my Panasonic, the panel seems to provide incredible depth too. Tuning this Toshiba however has been a complete nightmare, I simply cannot get the colour blend right. I've ended up setting it to 'game' mode which is acceptable and I'll probably have another look when I've got more time to fart about. This also uncovered a problem in that because I'm using a Sat / TV box via an HDMI input I cannot access the TV menu when CEC is enabled so there's some compatibilty issue between the two. I can disable CEC and get to the picture menu to tune the TV so I'll live with it as it is very rare that I'd look at that menu once everything is calibrated.
I'm reading of a major issue with this TV in that when using it in standard TV mode whilst connected to the internet it will ask you to setup Alexa every time the TV is switched on, I guess this happens until you sign in and then apparently it can be disabled. Now because I'm using a Sat / TV box I don't use the integrated TV tuner or the Smart TV facilities so I have the internet connection switched off meaning that I don't get the warning notification. I also don't want a TV with listening facilities in an office where I make business calls. For Smart TV functionality, I have a single Firestick plugged into a TV distribution amplifier, the signal is distributed around the house and appears on each TV as a seperate custom TV channel and I use the Firestick app on my phone for the remote control. It gives me access to all the Smart apps plus my IPTV subscription (Custom app) from any TV without having to use the integrated Smart TV feature which vary in their offerings depending upon the manufacturer. I also find that the TV manufacturers don't keep the apps up to date and if you have an older TV, you have no chance.
Overall this TV has been a decent purchase for the amount that I've paid for it and how I'm using it, certainly much better than the one it replaced. The sound is very good epecially when using it in radio mode and I'm sure I'll be able to get a better picture calibration result given more time.
