Televisions

[Dave20046]

Very generally speaking I'd go with panasonic if I could (although have bought 3 LGs recently as they were super cheaps), I'd go LED, the power consumption would be less and there'd no chance of a cathode tube (or whatever they are called) popping, research it a bit though as I think there are a couple of types of LED telly, one proper and one not so much.
Don't bother with 3D

John lewis, costco or richer sounds would be my bet if you want free/cheap warranty . Wouldn't give any money to the dixons group , plus they'll go under as soon as whoever's propping them up runs out of cash

Originally Posted by andrewsmith

om Samsung that do integrated Freesat on the TV.

We have a 42" sony with integrated FreeSat. Picture quality is excellent - even in non-HD it's better than the 32" Samsung we have.

Sony everytime for me

Originally Posted by Dr. M

Also another thing, which ever tv you find, buy from John Lewis. They're customer service is by far the best, no hassle at all if you ever need any support and also you have the added bonus of 5 years guarantee with them at no extra cost!

This

PS: Get a BlueRay player whilst you're at it. We got our Sony TV with few Sony BR player for about £850 last year - fantastic.

As the others have said, get the best you can afford. Cheap stuff is cheap for a reason, and the better quality stuff will last longer too.

TV bought, thanks folks.

[maviczap]

Well.............................................. .................................................. . whats it like then

[hindle8907]

Plasma every time for me unless smaller than 40", Plasma offers better blacks, richer colors. processes SD content much better.
If you want to comprise PQ over a few pence per hour then go for LCD/LED but plasma is always an all round winner in my book.

Pop a review of the TV in the auido visual thread
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=144668

Another vote for Patrick Vieras here.

Was sceptical about plasmas but had ours for two years now and its brilliant.

[andrewsmith]

Originally Posted by maviczap

Can you pick up Eurosport on on your detuned Freesat?

I can pick up the old analogue signal on my old analogue reciever, but not on my PVR's TV tuner card on digital signal?

I think I did mate.

I'd have to go it again and have a look if it does I'll be leaving it there

The panasonic plasmas (the newer ones in the last few years) are very good - we've got one in our TV gallery at work (a TX-P50S21) and, while it isn't a grade 1 CRT monitor, you'd be surprised how close it is. We got it as it is a bit hard to spot stuck pixels on a 17" CRT!

Above 42", Plasma is the better technology, providing you have a living room/viewing area that doesn't have lots of ambient light, otherwise the contrast ratio goes down lots.

If you use the screen for gaming the Panasonic Plasmas have less than 1 field delay (approx 20ms), but you do run the risk of burn in, but they are much better than before. Some of the LCDs are now getting close, but LCD does require more processing to prevent smearing and black trails.

For smaller screens, LED edge lit LCDs (aka LED TVs) are thinner but you'll probably get better picture quality from a CCFL screen, all things else remaining the same. Always ignore any spec that describes "dynamic contrast" - this works by dimming the backlight on the LCD, which is fine provided you aren't looking at something like a night sky or similar. The more expensive LED backlights have a matrix of LEDs which work better, but with the dimming you can get haloing around small bright parts of the picture.

Regarding power consumption, yes a Plasma will probably consume a bit more overall, but it isn't massively so - plasma screen consumption depends on the content on screen (full white = max power draw), whereas LCD screens tend to be more constant. All large screens consume quite a bit of power.

MT (Broadcast Geek)

[johnnyrod]

I just got an LG LED backlit (not edge lit) 47". The contrast is incredible, stuff like Terminator where everything is black is just amazing, and this is in SD. It totally kicks a plasma. So much so you can see when a piece of film has been touched up or if it's just been shot, it's almost unforgiving in that respect. I'd recommend it. Go to a shop and look at some, try Richer Sounds for no-BS sales guys who do give a monkey's, and the prices are pretty decent as well.