|
REVIEW
TELEVIDEOS
TV/VCR combos, or televideos as they’re affectionately
known, could be the solution to a lot of family squabbles. Rick Maybury checks
out five of the finest fourteen-inchers
AIWA VX-S140
On paper this should be the
star of the show. It’s the only one of the five televideos we’ve been looking
at to have stereo hi-fi sound, and a Trinitron picture tube (Aiwa are
part-owned by Sony), but there is a rather large fly in the ointment. The most
obvious omission is NICAM. The S140 has clearly been designed for a world
market but little or no effort has been made to tailor specific versions for
Europe, or more particularly the UK, (it doesn’t even have a SCART AV
socket...). Without a NICAM decoder it cannot record stereo TV programmes,
which rather takes the shine off the stereo hi-fi recording system.
Some aspects of the S140
are strangely old-fashioned. Aiwa can’t seem to make their mind up whether it
should look like a fully integrated unit, or a TV stuck on top of a small video
recorder; that’s precisely how it appears with the large front-panel flap in
the open position. There’s a couple of other anomalies. The set has an
on-screen display but it’s very basic by current standards showing only channel
info and deck status. Picture adjustments (brightness, colour etc.) are handled
by a set of analogue controls in a recess in the side of the cabinet, most TVs
these days have push-button picture controls, apart from being more efficient
it means they can be adjusted by remote control. The flat Trinitron tube looks
bang up to date though, and the square cornered screen contrasts pleasingly
with the rounded cabinet.
The picture is pin-sharp,
colours are clean and in a good signal area there’s very little noise. The VCR
section works well too, resolution (around 240-lines) is comparable with
mid-market VCRs, with better than average (for a televideo) trick-frame
stability; and NTSC replay is unusually crisp. The on-board speakers do their
best with off-tape stereo but it’s a struggle and they lack any real depth; the
image, such as it is, is not very well defined.
The only other drawback,
apart from the lack of NICAM, is the price; at just under £600 the S140 strays
dangerously far from the economy-minded second TV/VCR market, into the home
entertainment mainstream, where you can buy a proper stereo VCR and small
stereo TV, both with NICAM, for not a
lot more.
Value 80%
Aiwa telephone 081-897 7000
GOLDSTAR KIV-14V20
Just keep telling yourself
beauty is only skin-deep. The 14V20 looks a bit ungainly -- faint echoes of fifties 405-line sets
perhaps -- but inside the unusually
tall cabinet lurks a surprisingly competent televideo. The general
specification is unexciting; the video deck is a single-speed design, with mono
sound. It has a functional on-screen display system, 40-channel TV tuner, and
timers to switch it on in the morning, off at night, or make unattended
recordings when you’re out. Apart from that there’s little in the way of
gadgetry, unless you count index search, the NTSC replay facility or continuous
play mode. Incidentally, that last feature is common to all televideos as
they’re widely used as AV presenters in stores or at exhibitions.
It’s fairly easy to set up
and use, though the remote control has more than its fair share of buttons, and
pre-setting the tuner and timer can be a chore, until you get the hang of it.
However, the 14V20’s main selling point is picture quality. The TV section
works very well, the tuner is sensitive enough to work with a set-top antenna
in good signal areas, colours look bright and vibrant; even the sound is crisp
for a small TV. The VCR is also a cut above the rest, picture noise levels are
low, and resolution at just over 240-lines is as good as most sub £400 VCRs. Still
frame and picture search are stable with fewer than normal noise bars.
Goldstar have struck a
sensible balance between performance and price; off-air and off-tape picture
quality are both consistent with mid-range TVs and VCRs that together would
cost quite a bit more than the £400 they’re asking for the 14V20. That has to be
a good deal if you’re looking for a second-string TV and VCR for the bedroom or
kids room.
Value 90%
Goldstar telephone (0753) 691888
ORION COMBI 1494
The Orion name may not be
immediately familiar but you’ve almost certainly come across their TVs, VCRs
and televideos before as they’re big in the badge-engineering business. The
Combi 1494 is one of the first outings for the brand in the UK, but it’s
competing directly with the better-established names, so they’ve got a job on
their hands. On the plus side it’s reasonably good-looking; it has a fairly
restrained front panel with not too many controls on show, though the
button-infested remote handset might be a bit daunting. The features list is
short and to the point; it includes a twin-speed deck, simple on-screen
display, index search plus wake-up and sleep timers. They’re in addition to the
7-event/31-day timer which is programmed using the on-screen display. Around
the back it has a single SCART AV socket, and there’s a headphone jack on the
side. The TV tuner set-up is a little sluggish but otherwise it’s all fairly
easy to live with.
The downside is AV
performance, which is distinctly lacklustre. Off-air pictures are quite noisy,
even with good signal strength; set-top aerial should only be used within line
of sight of the transmitter. Recording TV programmes on the VCR only adds to
the noise problem, and the LP facility is for emergencies only; SP recordings
on our sample struggled to resolve 230-lines. Trick-play is poor, with noise
making picture search and still frame almost unwatchable. The audio isn’t too
bad though, at least it’s about as good as mono TV sound gets on a 14-inch
portable.
Orion’s problem is not so
much that the 1494 is an under-achiever -- a year or so ago this kind of AV
performance was acceptable on budget-priced equipment -- but for the same money
you can buy a televideo with better picture and sound, from a company you’ve
heard of.
Value 75%
Orion telephone (0923) 223135
PHILIPS TVC-240
Philips clearly see a
growth in demand for televideos, they’ve taken the sensible view that this is a
highly price-conscious market and put functionality before features. They
haven’t skimped on the cosmetics, though, and the R240’s smooth, uncluttered lines look equally at home in the
living room or the bedroom. It’s moderately well-equipped with an advanced
multi-lingual, menu-driven on-screen display, single-speed deck with index
search, NTSC replay and a sleep timer. The sound system is mono and it has a
single SCART AV socket on the back. The 6-event/one-month timer is
exceptionally easy to program, Philips have adopted a similar method to the one
used on Sony machines, with separate buttons for setting date, time and
channel. Set-up is also very straightforward, with a fully automatic tuning
routine that searches out and stores all locally available TV stations.
The VCR works well enough
but Philips have stripped the secondary functions to the bone; still frame and
picture search are both in black and white and large noise bars break up the
picture. The TV works well enough, though, and the picture looks very clean,
though it’s difficult to make too many critical judgements as our sample was a
pre-production model. The tuner appears to be adequately sensitive and works
well with only a set top aerial. The
audio is a bit hissy and it lacks any kind of bass presence but it’s what you
would expect from a small-screen TV.
Assuming the production
models work as well as our sample the 240 should be a success. Philips have
obviously put quite a lot of thought into this product, and resisted the
temptation to price themselves out of the market with too many frills and
gadgets. It’s basic, but it works reasonably well and it looks good.
Value 85%
Philips 081-689 4444
SHARP VT-3700
The most noticeable thing
about the Sharp VT-3700 is that it doesn’t look like a televideo, in fact it’s
no larger and only a little heavier than many 14-inch portables. The tape hatch
is very discreet, and there’s just five exposed buttons so it appears quite
unthreatening. Behind a small hinged flap below the tape slot there’s a few
more buttons, plus a very useful front
AV terminal. This is largely for the convenience of camcorder owners, to
quickly hook up machines for viewing, making copies or editing recordings. The
single-speed deck has index tape search, and like several other machines in
this round-up, automatic head cleaning. Other features include a simple
child-lock, which freezes the controls, wake-up and sleep timers and index
search. The menu-driven on-screen display system covers initial set-up, with
automatic tuning, timer programming as well as routine operations; generally
speaking it’s very easy to use.
Off-air picture performance
looks good, there’s very little noise, colours are crisp and lifelike. VCR
picture quality is above average too; resolution on our sample was just below
240-lines and low noise levels means recordings appear unusually clean. This is
the only televideo to have slow-motion replay, and although it’s not quite as
steady or noise-free as a similarly-equipped mid-range VCR, it’s still pretty
good. Sound from the single side-mounted speaker (the grille on the right side
is a dummy -- perhaps there’s a stereo model in the pipeline...) is a shade
bassy but still better than most of the others.
The extra £50, over and
above the three budget televideos we’ve looked at, is well spent. The 3700 has
to be one of the best-looking machines on the market, and features like the
front-mounted AV terminal should appeal to budding video movie-makers. Well
worth considering.
Value 85%
Sharp telephone 061-205 4255
CONCLUSION -- TELEVIDEO SPECS AT A GLANCE
Make/model Price Timer Weight Rating
(££s)
(events/days) (kg)
AIWA VX-S140 £599.99 8/365 16.4 85%
GOLDSTAR KIV-14V20 £399.99 8/365 14.2 90%
ORION COMBI 114945 £399.99 7/31 13.6 75%
PHILIPS TVC-240 £399.99 6/31 10.1 85%
SHARP VT-3700 £449.99 5/31 12.1 85%
WHO’S BETTER, WHO’S BEST
Best picture quality Aiwa
Best sound quality Aiwa
Best features/facilities Goldstar
Easiest to use Philips
Value for money Goldstar
---end---
1994 1108
| 
