Bush 2138T

The Bush 2138T Television is worth a look. It is only £110 in Tesco (April '04).

No grumbles, a decent device.

This Bush 2138T is one of those things that you buy if you cannot afford something better. I probably could have, but didn't realise it's shortcomings at the time, still it does it's job well enough for the price, which is to be my bedroom TV.

Before owning this I'd been the proud owner of a Bush 2009, my first ever TV, a 20". It was a real cheap special, lacking ANY Scart scoket (!), so when I bought my Bush DVDVHS1 (see other review in DVD/VCR combis) I decided to complement it with this. In retrospect I probably should have laid out a little more cash and got a superior Bush model, here's why, and this is important so read on;

This model is an entry-level 21 inch traditional TV and retails in Argos for £149.99. My model has the pre-'facelift' frontal appearance but is essentially identical. This is cheap for a 21" TV but the thing is it has just the one Scart socket, and no AV connections whatsoever. No co-axial, no phono. Put simply this means you can connect it to one VCR, DVD player, or DVD/VCR, you cannot connect it to this and, say, a Sky digibox. Also, the lack of co-ax or phono outs means no extra speakers, which means you cannot use your home cinema's Pro Logic for normal TV transmission (it will still work for your DVD player if that has the appropriate sockets).

Basically, if you have a number of things to connect up, and you're looking for a main TV set, I don't think this is the one for you. To add insult to injury where the sockets would be is clearly indicated on the back - they've just been blanked off! Clearly it shares a backpiece with a higher spec model.

However, if you're sure you just want a simple bedroom or otherwise TV, the simplicity of this affordable Bush could suit you.

The sound quality is actually quite good for the size, the speakers face forward so at the end of thd bed is it's ideal position rather than trying to cater for a wider angle. The output isn't huge but certainly enough for most tastes and rooms.

It's ever so painless to install. It has 100 channel memory and scans the range itself storing all the usual terrestial stations by itself. You can even manually fine tune each channel yourself if reception is dubious, though I have often found it knows best the first time! You then have the ability to rename these channels to their real names via a menu. You're allowed 5 digits, so BBC2, CH4 etc. is fine.

The menu system really is a breeze that anyone should be able to master given 5 minutes and a read of the handbook. There are even colour-coded buttons on the remote for bringing up the various Picture, Sound, Feature, and Install menus.

There are all the usual contrast/colour/brightness adjustments in the picture menu, the feature menu hosts the useful sleep timer so you can go to sleep with the TV on knowing it will go off if you so wish.

But the best feature in my opinion is the wonderful AVL selector in the sound menu. When selected, this will prevent the volume of the transmission exceeding your chosen volume level, or being too quiet for that matter. If, like me, you're convinced the adverts are always louder than the programmes, you'll find this an absolute Godsend. There's the childlock too, which will prevent your kids from fiddling with your settings and watching things they shouldn't. Also, there is the nifty Personal Preference button. When you have found your ideal volume, you can set is as your PP, and whenever you press the PP button the volume will be returned to this level. A really thoughtful little feature.

The remote control is excellent; a good size with big buttons and very easy to use.

All this makes me love this TV enough to forget about the lack of connectivity. Even a slightly flimsy case and not-perfectly positioned screen can be forgiven (this may well have been improved in the latest incarnation). If you already have your main system downstairs and are looking for a good bedroom TV I can throughly recommend this for the price. It's been thoughtfully designed by Bush and will be a pleasant surprise. Only if you desire lots of subsidaries to be run off it will you be disappointed, and you should seek a higher-spec model with more sockets.