TV advice required...

[seb]

Hi techno geeks.

I know nothing about tv's. so help required.

I want a 1080p tv for my PS3 and for obviously watching tv/blu-rays/dvd's etc. i have a surround sound system and amp.

Would like 40 inches i reckon... got a 32 inch at present and it is clearly not suitable.

would like a decent brand too.

price wise... well the cheaper the better obviously but realise you have to pay for a decent tv. so under £1000 sound ok?

i have been on avforums.com but it makes no sense... seems there is so much out there!?

 

[Pettsi]

Panasonic.

 

[Justin]

You will easy get a decent one for under 1k.

I'm a big LG fan though no doubt someone will come along and slate them. Got a 42 in my living room and a 32 in my bedroom.

Maybe nip into Currys and see which you like the look of?

 

[seb]

my brother has a 42 inch sony which is cool. 1080p etc. cost him about 1400 quid about 18 mth ago i think.

i will pop inot currys but i don't trust the hormonals they employ knowing anything. just idn't want ot buy somethnig that looks good but is infact shat.

seems there are so many variables involved to tv's...

 

[DannyR]

Pansonic 42" PLasma

If you want Freesat HD built in
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...m=null&tm=null&sku=985749&category_oid=-21214

If your happy with just normal freeview
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...m=null&tm=null&sku=167248&category_oid=-21214

People in Curries etc.. are usually nobs! Dixons is best place online at the moment

 

[172.com]

http://www.avforums.com/

I found that place useful when I was looking for an LCD TV. I didn't post, just read threads about TVs that interested me and some guides people had posted.

 

[Justin]

my brother has a 42 inch sony which is cool. 1080p etc. cost him about 1400 quid about 18 mth ago i think.

i will pop inot currys but i don't trust the hormonals they employ knowing anything. just idn't want ot buy somethnig that looks good but is infact shat.

seems there are so many variables involved to tv's...

Make sure it has enough HDMI's/Opticals etc for what you need aswell.

 

[Revels]

Avforums is good but if you pay too much attention to it, you'll never buy anything. They'll find fault with every set.

Apparently my plasma has awful speakers and you can't hear anything but I've never had a problem with it.

£1k is easily enough TBH mate. Samsung/Panasonic really. Although you might be lucky and get an end of line Pioneer for that price.

 

[172.com]

They were spot on with mine. They said the remote was terrible and lo and behold it is lol.

 

[seb]

well 1k is max tbh, could pay more, but i see little point. ideally would like to pay less!

 

[seb]

wtf is freesat HD? like the council version of sky HD?

 

[seb]

Pansonic 42" PLasma

If you want Freesat HD built in
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...m=null&tm=null&sku=985749&category_oid=-21214

If your happy with just normal freeview
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...m=null&tm=null&sku=167248&category_oid=-21214

People in Curries etc.. are usually nobs! Dixons is best place online at the moment

the second one looks good, i'll go google avforums for it.

 

[172.com]

Freesat is free satellite obviously. Can get it through sky or just normally.

 

[Revels]

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...hgecflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&sku=606573

I'll give you £50 for the BR player

 

[seb]

lol can BR players play normal dvds?

 

[Revels]

Yup.

 

[SC03OTT]

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...hgecflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&sku=606573

I'll give you £50 for the BR player

My uncle has this one. It's a good TV, but it's been back twice as the frame keeps coming away. Don't know if he is just unlucky or it's a common problem.

 

[dk]

this is a VERY good TV, was going to get it until i was sold on the led ones, but this is a stunning tv.

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/525820/SONY-KDL40W5500U

 

[seb]

what is 24p?

 

[dk]

its the speed at which cinema films are filmed at, bluray films will play in 24p to make it the closest to the cinema experience, so the tv also needs to support it.

Unless you are an uber g33k and review films, you won't notice the difference really.

read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24p

people sometimes notice that films on dvd are not the same length as they were at the cinema and think they have been cut, but its because they have been speeded up to run on a pal tv.

 

[seb]

ok cheers mate, top of my budget tbh... but looks good.

 

[dk]

http://robertwhyteltd.co.uk//shp/sku.php?id=386&cat=9&str=sony-kdl40w5500-kdl40w5500

£830 with a 5 yr warranty, can't say fairer than that, a lot of avforums use robert whyte

or play with a 3yr

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Ele...screen+LCD+TV+(Includes+Sony+3+Year+Guarantee)

 

[seb]

looks like a cracking deal, cheers

 

[Brazo]

http://robertwhyteltd.co.uk//shp/sku.php?id=386&cat=9&str=sony-kdl40w5500-kdl40w5500

£830 with a 5 yr warranty, can't say fairer than that, a lot of avforums use robert whyte

or play with a 3yr

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Ele...screen+LCD+TV+(Includes+Sony+3+Year+Guarantee)

I just read the spec out to the wife and she said go for it!, I said nah and she was like I want it, I said well if you insist

 

[shadowsun]

I was in the business for over 9000 years.

God tier: Panasonic, Sony
Mid tier: JVC, Philips/LG, Sharp, Toshiba, Samsung
Total s**t: Thompson, Bush, Beko, All cheapo never heard of makes, everything else

May have missed a few but that's the rough list.

Panasonic you'll pay a bit more for and you tend to pay a lot more for Sony.

In the 6 years I did the job we had more problems and returns with Philips/LG than any other brand. When they work they're great, but when they break you'll know about it because the support is CRAP.

Another tip - most HD TV's will look good when displaying an HD picture because the signal is such high resolution. The extra you spend goes into the picture quality of your normal definition display. Panasonic, Sony, Toshinba, high end Samsungs and dare I say it LG's all tend to give good standard def pictures.

Forums are good to learn about whats good feature wise etc... but they're only good if they work and don't break and I can tell you I would never buy anything Philips.

 

[paulos]

I worked for a high end tv hi-fi specialist for 16 years as a technician. Go for the 42 inch Panasonic ranges or pioneer 43's (that's if yu want top notch) It's definately worth saving the extra. LGs look nice on the wall, shame about the crap picture quality. Love Sony equipment ie playstations, computers, mp3s's, cameras etc although no such thing as good Sony Hi-Fi it's Japanese rubbish and their TVs are ok. Avoid LCD, picture quality not great due to processing speeds, although very much improved over what they used to be. Subject to what a lot of people belive, Plasmas have a longer life span than LCD 60 odd thousand hours as aposed to about 20 thousand for LCD. This is due to the flouresent tube lifespans used to back light the LCD screens. Plasma is cheaper per square inch too. Hope this helps

 

[shadowsun]

I worked for a high end tv hi-fi specialist for 16 years as a technician. Go for the 42 inch Panasonic ranges or pioneer 43's (that's if yu want top notch) It's definately worth saving the extra. LGs look nice on the wall, shame about the crap picture quality. Love Sony equipment ie playstations, computers, mp3s's, cameras etc although no such thing as good Sony Hi-Fi it's Japanese rubbish and their TVs are ok. Avoid LCD, picture quality not great due to processing speeds, although very much improved over what they used to be. Subject to what a lot of people belive, Plasmas have a longer life span than LCD 60 odd thousand hours as aposed to about 20 thousand for LCD. This is due to the flouresent tube lifespans used to back light the LCD screens. Plasma is cheaper per square inch too. Hope this helps

Forgot about Pioneeer! We never used to stock it but my parents have a 50" Pioneer plasma on the wall and the picture is excellent. Also like the fact that you have a media box and don't have to run all the cables to the set.

 

[paulos]

Also should have mentioned. DO NOT go into the likes of Curries and Dixons for advise. The young gimps know nothing. GO to sxome where like SevenOaks Sound and Vision etc for the advise THEN just walk into Dixons and buy it cheap! unethical but everyone does it. I should know I used to work for them. he he.

 

[paulos]

I did mention Pioneer. Yes very good Arguably better than the Panasonic!

 

[shadowsun]

Order wise I would say:
Pioneer > Panasonic > Sony > Everything else.

Plasma for 37" and above but Sony only do LCD (at least they did when I was in the game)

 

[paulos]

shadowsun is spot on about Philips (DON'T TOUCH IT) We used to say Philips was Dutch for ' Broken'

 

[shadowsun]

shadowsun is spot on about Philips (DON'T TOUCH IT) We used to say Philips was Dutch for ' Broken'

It took us 6 months to get them to accept that their Plasma TV was faulty and take one back, knob heads.

 

[dk]

i guess its a shame that pioneer have pulled out of the tv market then...........

Keep up guys

 

[Brazo]

My brothers got a 42 inch pioneer plasma, tis very good, although he was 50:50 with a viera panel!

 

[dunganick]

to be fair LG and Samsung have improved alot in the last year or so. As mentioned i wouldn't touch philips.

The companies we have the most issues with at work (currys ) would be, Philips (not that we really sell them anymore, but they just keep coming in... where from im not sure!) Sony!, out of the box last years stuff was breaking more than any other company other than maybe Logik.

Other than that just avoid own brand stuff.

Panasonic or Samsung gets my vote (we see a few of Samsungs back at work, but % wise its still lower than almost every brand as we sell so many of the things)

The new Samsung LCD ranges produce pretty impressive colours for LCD's, still not as good as the Panasonics.

 

[shadowsun]

You sure Pionner have pulled out of the TV market?

http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products/62/index.html

EDIT: Just found the news:

We covered the news that Pioneer shuts down TV production back in February and today Pioneer Japan revealed a number of details about their radical move [JP]. In short: There will be no more Kuro plasma TVs from May this year. Pioneer calls it quits after 12 years of plasma TV production.

Wow, that's a shock as they really were bloody good.

Panasonic it is then.

 

[seb]

Someone explain the whole difference between 100hz and say 600hz?

 

[shadowsun]

Someone explain the whole difference between 100hz and say 600hz?

This is something that has come out since I left the industry but I think that basics are that the 600hz refresh rate gives a smoother image and gives you the 'soap opera effect'.

I can't tell you the ins and outs of it but it's meant to be the next big thing.

 

[Gally]

Make sure whatever tv you're buying has 100hz+.

 

[chris_p]

Panasonic plasma mate.

That's what I'm going for. You want 1080hd, 100hz or more, and as higher contrast ratio as possible.

Personally, I think the best deal is either the S10 or G10 (with built in hd freesat). John Lewis will price match high street stores including Richer Sounds, £890 at the moment, they will also throw in a 5 year guarantee and free delivery!

Oh, and you won't be dissapointed Hope this helps.