Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

After some Reevoo shenanigans on our canoeing trip yesterday, we’ll have to relive the best moments with this deal:  Matsui PF-A701W photo frame - down from £40 to £25 with free delivery at Dixons.

Since our last post on what Panasonic TV model numbers mean, Panasonic have changed the way they use model numbers.  Here is a quick guide to decoding the new product numbers, part of our ongoing series on understanding TV model names.

The first two letters are no longer a simple guide to the type of screen.  In the new system, both plasma and LCD screen model numbers start with TX.  Older plasma screen models start with TH.

- TH is used for older plasma screens (pre-2009)
- TX for LCD screens and newer plasma screens (2009 onwards)

The third letter refers to the type of screen

- P for plasma
- L for LCD

The first two numbers refer to the screen size in inches.

The next numbers and letters are the series. Full details of the newly launched series can be found at Panasonic’s website: click here for information on Panasonic’s new LCD TVs or click here for information on their new plasma TVs.

Finally, the B that’s sometimes included in the product name stands for region B – the UK.

Have you got millions of old 35mm film in cupboards? Do you wish you’d got it all developed? Or do you have lots of old photos you’d love to be immortalised forever? Well now you can. The USB Negative Scanner will take all your negatives and old slides and digitalise all your old pics. Is digitalise a word? Who knows!

It’s nice and compact and it just plugs into your USB port so there’s no need to use batteries or have a separate power source. It’ll turn all your pics into 5 megapixel masterpieces in no time.

So if you’ve got some shocker photos that made you breathe a sigh of relief when 35mm film got the boot, you may not be able to hide them much longer. Just make sure you get to them before anyone else does…

It’ll make a great gift for some oldies this Christmas too. You can get your hands on one for £79.95 or US$126.90

But don’t forget to take new photos too - check out some reviews for newfangled shiny digital cameras.

There are only 49 days left until Christmas. That’s only 8 more weekends. If you’re the type of person that hates venturing into shops at Cristmas, save yourself some hassle and get your stuff online. Not only will youI be free from crowds and car parks but you’ll also save yourself some petrol.

There are a few things you should be careful of and watch out for when shopping online but follow our top tips and it should all be peachy:

Write a list - Write a list of the people you need to buy for and what you want to get them. This will not only ensure that you don’t forget anyone but you will then be able to work out what will be easy to buy online and what you will need to go into a store to buy. For example, a games console is a product that’s easy to choose online by reading reviews, whereas clothing is something that you might want to see and feel in-store.

Always read reviews - you wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive so why not read reviews from people that have test driven the product you’re about to buy? Reviews from people who have actually bought a product can give you a much better idea of what it will be like than journalist or ‘expert’ reviews - who might have only spent a few minutes looking at the product. And funnily enough, there’s over 400,000 real reviews from people like you and me on Reevoo : )

Read up about the retailer if you’re not familiar with the company - look for and check the phone number on the site so that you know you can get through to them if you have any problems. Also search for the company in a search engine to check other people’s experience with the company.

Check the returns policy - although reading reviews makes it less likely you’ll need to return products after Christmas, it’s worth checking out what it would entail if you had to return a gift to the retailer. You may have to pay a restocking fee or shipping costs or you may be able to return the item to a store.

Check all special offers - Christmas is the time all companies will be offering deals on their products but don’t just look at the product price when you’re comparing deals. Also check delivery costs, returns policies (see above) and make sure they are exactly the same products with all of the same features. Reevoo has prices from over a hundred retailers so it’s a good place to start, especially if you’re buying electricals.

Shop early and check delivery times - Companies will stock up on popular items before Christmas but it’s worth shopping as early as you can to avoid the “out of stock” nightmare. Also ensure that the company will be able to deliver your products in time for Christmas.

Payment and secure sites - Be safe online. Consumer Direct, the government-funded advisory service, recommends that before you enter any details into a seller’s site, make sure you can see the closed padlock in the status bar at the bottom of your browser. The web address should also change from http:// to shttp:// or https:// - this indicates a secure purchase. If you’re paying by credit card, this offers some security online from non-delivery and fraud although it’s usually only for transactions worth more than £100.  Offers are great ways to save some money but just beware of the ones that seem too good to be true, because they usually are. And if you don’t trust the company completely, it’s probably best if you don’t hand over your card details. Oh, and if you’re buying from an auction site such as ebay, be sure to use a service like PayPal which offers some purchase protection.

Ensure your computer is secure - you should have a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer. Read more about how to make your computer secure on http://www.getsafeonline.org. Also make sure you turn your computer off after use to keep it safe from scammers and malicious software.

Keep records - Keep receipts and any email exchanges. Alsodo a print out of the product you are buying and ensure it includes the price and description of the product.

Now you know all that, happy online shopping!

I know it may seem a little early but we’re nearly in November and I’ve seen my first advert for Christmassy things on TV so I thought I’d kick off a series of posts that should help the clueless when it comes to buying gifts this Christmas.

There’s always someone that totally stumps you in the gits department. You just never have a clue what you should get them. Well, hopefully we can help.

We’ll start off with the one that I think loads of people find difficult to buy for - Dads. There are only so many socks and ties you can buy a person, so here are some gifts your Dad may appreciate a little more:

Men hate to ask for directions so give them this to save them the embarrassment - the TomTom One Explore is £100 and has some great reviews.

For the DIY Dad - How about this versatile Black Decker CD18CA drill? - it has five torque settings and a removable end cap with 6 screwdriver bits. It’s a bargain at around £30.

For the Dad that likes to have a hobby - What about a compact digital camera? All Dads like to embarrass their families so why not equip them with one of these so that they can take photos and videos to taunt you until their heart’s content. The top compact camera on Reevoo is the 10 megapixel Canon IXUS 85 IS. It has a 2.5 inch screen, 3x optical zoom and video recorder. If you have some siblings, get them all to pitch in because this little gem will set you back around £150.

Bargain buy - Dad Rocks! - Various Artists - the ultimate driving CD for Dads everywhere. Always turn to music when you have no idea what else to buy. This is great if you’re short of cash too as it’ll only set you back a tenner. If he’s not into rock, there are loads of other CDs to chose from.

Splash out - As I said, music is a great default present. If you’ve got a bit of extra cash, give you Dad a treat to make up for all the socks and splash out on an MP3 player. The most highly rated one on Reevoo at the moment is the 8GB iPod Touch. You can pick one up for £113.

So there you go, some great gifts for Dads. If you have any other ideas, let everyone else know by leaving a comment. We need all the help we can get!

In light of the credit crunch, you would have thought that we’d all be being a little more careful over our spending but new research from Reevoo has found that we not only still spend a fortune on electrical devices but we are also still shopping for middle of the range brands, rather than cheaper ones. But it must be said that we are at least reading more reviews so that we can be sure we’re spending our money on worthy goods.

The poll of 3,000 households revealed that 77% of Brits are now opting to read customer reviews before selecting items such as televisions, washing machines and dishwashers. And 69% of people are taking more time over choosing electrical products.” – very wise.

The research also showed that over our working lives, we will spend a massive £48,940 on electrical devices alone. And what is the item we’ll have to replace the most? The humble kettle. We will buy one every three years, costing us £1000 over our lifetime.

But that’s small fry compared to the amount we’ll spend on PCs, TVs and ovens over the years. The table below shows how often we’ll replace items and how much they’re likely to cost us.

Spending patterns differ in different regions. Click on the map below to see how much you’re likely to spend in your area:

If you like your wine, you might want to get your hands on one of these. It?s a nifty device that can age wine - or any other alcohol that benefits from age, like Whisky - almost instantly. The Ultrasonic Wine Ager looks like a common ice bucket but it uses ultrasound to collide alcohol molecules which artificially ages the alcohol. In 30 minutes, your wine will taste like it?s been aged for decades.

It?s also great for preventing hangovers because the process purifies the alcohol and makes it easier for your kidneys to absorb.

So you can take a cheap supermarket bottle of vino and change it into an oak-aged vintage in no time. Or take a bargain Whisky and turn it into an eight-year-aged single malt.

Casey Jones, inventor of the device, even tried it on orange juice and said it made it taste a lot fresher and look brighter too.

It improves the taste, look and bouquet of the drink ? I?d imagine you all saying that in the voice of Jilly Goolden… But although you could quite happily turn a cheap bottle of plonk into a masterpiece, the price of this gadget is definitely not cheap. It?s ?350 at the moment. A little steep but if you?re into your wine, I reckon it would pay itself off in no time…just beware of restaurants trying to make you pay a fortune for paint stripper..

As I was browsing Reevoo, trying to find a present, I decided to see which were the top rated DVDs to help me find something. I have to say that they were the strangest collection of titles and definitely not what I expected so I thought I?d share them with you all.

The top 10 most highly rated DVDs* on Reevoo.com were:

1.    Long Way Down
2.    Gavin & Stacey
3.    Dirty Dancing
4.    Sharpe
5.    Shaun the Sheep ? The Christmas Giftset DVD
6.    Peppa Pig Vol.4
7.    Lazytown
8.    Genesis - When In Rome
9.    Fifi Bumper Collection DVD
10.  Dancing On Ice

*with over 15 reviews

Pretty odd, hey? Unfortunately we can?t control people?s taste but it got me thinking about my favourite movies.

If you had to pick your top three movies of all time, what would they be?

If you’re heart’s still in the eighties with jelly shoes and hypercolour t-shirts, then you might be a little disappointed by this announcement.

Classics like The Goonies, Gremlins and Beetlejuice are about to be Blu-rayed up and re-released. It all sounds great until you think about it. Some of the best bits about those films are the grey and fuzziness. So we’ll either be able to see just how badly they were filmed in the first place or it’ll ruin the fuzzy magic.

But I do like the fact that it’s made me want to dig out all my old video tapes and watch them again. Who knew that Mikey Walsh would turn out to be a tiny hairy man a few years later…

If you are actually really excited about seeing your old faves in high-definition, get yourself a Blu-ray player but read all the Blu-ray player reviews before you do.

There are 15 days to go before the Beijing Olympic games and this year will be the first time we can watch them in HD in the UK. Pretty exciting stuff. For those of you who don’t know, HD is high-definition and it’s all about more pixels and much clearer pictures for our TV sets.  It makes watching sports events, wildlife programmes - well, anything really - way better.

We’ve looked at all the full HD TV reviews over on Reevoo to find the best ones. TVs are rated on their design, sound quality, image quality and value for money. People are then asked if they would recommend the TV set.

Here’s the top five:

1.    Sony Bravia KDL40X2000 - £999
2.    Panasonic TX-32LZD80 - £724
3.    Samsung LE37A656A - £679
4.    Panasonic TH42PZ80 - £724
5.    Panasonic TH42PZ85B - £864

And here’s how we got there:

So top of the list was the Sony Bravia KDL40X2000 but interestingly, it lost out to the Panasonic TH42PZ80 for image quality and the Samsung LE37A656A for design.

If you’re looking for a top all-rounder, the Sony is obviously the one to go for but it’s also the most expensive. The Panasonic TH42PZ80 leads the pack for image quality, which should be one of the top considerations when buying an HD TV. It’s also over £200 cheaper and it’s been recommended by 96% of the people who bought it. This would be my choice.

If you’re not convinced about HD, there are lots of other TVs around. You can check out all of the TV reviews over on Reevoo.