advice on plasma/lcd tvs please

[leaky]

ive decided to get a new tv, but its making my head spin on which to go for

basically me and the missus have decided rather than spend a load of money on pressis for each other for crimbo to put the money toward a new telly, looking at around 42" and planning on paying upto about £1500 for telly stand and ps3 or blu ray dvd player. would like panasonic but they seem a bit pricy, so been looking at makes like samsung/lg that fall into our price range.
heres a few questions thats doing my head in

plasma or lcd, bearing in mind we have kids who will no doubt be putting there mitts on the screen and prob leaving dvd on the menu screen (screen burn).. does a ps3 play bluray dvds as good as a player would cos ps3 seem cheaper than bluray dvd players. would it be wise to get a tv with hard drive or is it more to go wrong. whats gonna be the standard in the future, hd or blu ray. discs, we just have a normal sky box, is it worth the money for sky hd. and do i need to spend a fortune on special leads, and finally whats round the corner, is there something new about to emerge which will make me wish id hung on a few month

ive bought which tv magazine today so will have a study at that too. but any advice from any experts or anyone whos bought a new big telly recently would be appreciated.

the only thing i deffo know, is its gotta be big, black, and pref from a store that will take a deposit and the balance on intrest free credit

ohh yes just 1 more do things like tvs get put in the january sales, dont wanna buy one befor crimbo to find they drop by a couple of hundred squid for the sake of a couple of weeks

[Monty]

My Father bought a 46 inch LCD Samsung it is massive,these Samsung ones are getting very popular and i would buy LCD not Plasma so check out the Samsung range!

[Shooms]

Originally Posted by leaky

the only thing i deffo know, is its gotta be big, black, and pref from a store that will take a deposit and the balance on intrest free credit

Sounds like Lottie's preferences too... She normally pays for her ethnic rent boys in Milk Tokens though...

As for tellys - deffo LCD imo... plasma are too expensive & too flakey.... LCD can look a tad blurry up close but they are the bollocks at a distance - especially with HDMI...

OR.... get a projector - like mine

Footy & porn in 8 foot by 6 foot

[jimmycobra]

lcd have caught up in picture quality over the last 12 month on larger screens
there was a time they could not draw natural skin tones and only looked good with pixar or disney they always had those on in stores, but they are now a safe bet accross the board.

go for 1080p at both 50 and 60 Hz this will give most options. hdmi sockets are the best so the more the merrier


as for blueray vs. hd there are now dual format players available so a separate would be ok. and you will not miss those blockbuster films just because one studio has only signed up to blueray or vis versa.

[sy69]

Good thread this,im also upgrading my 42" rear projection tv to a 50" plasma/lcd
Wanted a plasma originally and had looked at the samsung one would love a pioneer but way to expensive
Now im being told to get a lcd.
Have read this in a magazine recently.
Lcs screens have a higher resolutions(good news if your after 1080p,are lightweight and cost less at larger screen sizes.
However the blacks look slightly washed out and some lcd panels struggle with fast motion.
Plasma,contrastingly,deals with motion confidently and delivers rich black and vibrant colours but the sets are chunkier and guzzle electric.
Theres also a slight risk of screen burn(which i got told about for rear projection and has never happened,it all depends on how your tv is set up ie brightness,contrast etc).

[Monty]

There is also something about the higher the contrast the better like 15,000 contrast thats just a ruff guess.....

[leaky]

jesus the more i look into it the worst it gets, look at this baby now im really confused

LG 100-inch LCD TV: It's the big'un - Crave at CNET.co.uk

[leaky]

Originally Posted by montydj

There is also something about the higher the contrast the better like 15,000 contrast thats just a ruff guess.....

yeah thats whats confusing me a bit, its all new to me this but ive just been round to my sisters who has just got a 42" lg lcd and tbh the picture wasn't great she said it varies depending on what program is on, but also said its plugged in with a scart, but theres a gold lead for about £90 which is better.

[Monty]

Originally Posted by leaky

yeah thats whats confusing me a bit, its all new to me this but ive just been round to my sisters who has just got a 42" lg lcd and tbh the picture wasn't great she said it varies depending on what program is on, but also said its plugged in with a scart, but theres a gold lead for about £90 which is better.

My Father was told that about his picture can be better if he bought better scart leads as well so must be true then....

LG 100-inch LCD TV: It's the big'un - Crave at CNET.co.uk

OMFG Leaky that is 100 inch lol

[Duke]

dont Buy Off Pikies like My M8 Did
he got em down from 650 to 450 n when he got it home it was a lg 50"tv wid a panasonic remote n best of all the screen was cracked .........we ripped him 4 dayz

[sy69]

Ive always gone looking and getting advice from good home cinema shops/dealers before buying equipment.
Dont go into a currys/dixons the idiots that work in them sort of places dont have a clue imo,tried asking one a techical question once just got a blank look back as though i had asked about some nuclear psychics or summat

[leaky]

as for blueray vs. hd there are now dual format players available so a separate would be ok. and you will not miss those blockbuster films just because one studio has only signed up to blueray or vis versa.[/quote]

i had a look at a bluray in action today and it looked topnotch, so thinking of getting that and hopefully joining an online dvd rental site like amazon and hopefully can rent films on bluray. question is how come a ps3 is cheaper than a stand alone bluray dvd player is there any dissadvantage to the ps3, as i might as well have a games machine chucked in too

[jimmycobra]

[quote=sy69;691942]

Plasma,guzzle electric.
QUOTE]


yep not had the heating on for three years now

advise is dont buy on first visit try different shops and sales people.

ask lots of questions, ie what would take pride of place in thier living room.

when i bought my plasma 3 years ago the sales person got so fed up with me
he invited me round to see his own home theatre.

look for whites and blacks

panasonic and pioneer used to do good blacks but the whites had the that bluey tinge to them.

hitachi who used to supply alot of flat panels to most brand names had realy good whites but the blacks somtimes had a hint of green

i still like my hitachi although its three years old now still i feel no reason to upgrade.

i have connected to it

topfield 5800 pvr
sky+
samsumg hd dvd
liteon dvd recorder
my computer
xbox 360

[leaky]

Originally Posted by sy69

Ive always gone looking and getting advice from good home cinema shops/dealers before buying equipment.
Dont go into a currys/dixons the idiots that work in them sort of places dont have a clue imo,tried asking one a techical question once just got a blank look back as though i had asked about some nuclear psychics or summat

dooh. i did that today (at a couple of specialist stores) and 1 shop said plasma when i said i had kids who might put fingers on screen and the other shop said lcd but the inlaws have plasma and there are marks on where the kids have touched the screen, that wont come off i think the majority are saying lcd though. and isn't there something about needing to get plasmas re-gassed after a while.

[jimmycobra]

Originally Posted by leaky

as for blueray vs. hd there are now dual format players available so a separate would be ok. and you will not miss those blockbuster films just because one studio has only signed up to blueray or vis versa.

i had a look at a bluray in action today and it looked topnotch, so thinking of getting that and hopefully joining an online dvd rental site like amazon and hopefully can rent films on bluray. question is how come a ps3 is cheaper than a stand alone bluray dvd player is there any dissadvantage to the ps3, as i might as well have a games machine chucked in too[/quote]

some film studios might only release films on one format. so you might not be able to get a film if you only have blueray.

a few months ago most studios had signed to HD which is the cheaper format
as the disks can not hold as much info as blueray. the extra disk space the blueray has will not give better picture or sound quality, but can be used for more extras.

my next investment will be a dual format dvd player.