"What TV should I buy?" type advice please

[Teatowel]

I should seize the moment before Mrs Tt changes her mind

 

 

OK:

 

This TV needs to be 50", unless someone can tell me a 46" will be a better TV for the budget. Will watching a 46" at that distance actually be a better experience than a 50"?

 

It will be viewed from approximately 2 - 2.20 metres.

 

I have no idea about whether it LCD or Plasma. I need to be eddycated

 

It's going to be used for the usual things... TV, PS3, Xbox 360, dedicated DVD player, Mac, PC, amongst others. It'll be used for Blu-ray, DVD and games more than TV.

 

I don't have or need Sky/Virgin, so Freesat or Freeview +/- HD would be useful.

 

I assume it'll have the usual ports.... I'm certainly going to need component in, HDMI, scart x2 (x3 ideally), VGA, DVI and s-video. I know a lot of TVs have a digital out for audio, ideally if there is a co-ax out for the digital sound signal that would be better (due to all the other things that are plugged into my amp)

 

Does it need wifi/ethernet? What are the advantages?

 

Does it need a USB or SD card slot?

 

 

Budget - £700 as a maximum. There need to be overwhelming reasons to go higher than this.

 

 

Ta

[Zugara]

LED..... Is the way ahead, low power consumption. good screen refresh rate.

 

I have 50" plasma, sit about same distance as you and its fine. Upgraded from a 46" and difference is vast.

 

Or the new Sharp quatro.. expensive tho

 

3d to new technology to comment

[Teatowel]

LED might be the way ahead but not at that size in my price range!

[Beavis]

Been discussed on here several times before. Best checking some of the a/v forums out is the best bet

[Sarnie]

Gonna be lucky to get that for £700 imo, I recently bought a Sony 40" for £740 and that was the best price in the UK......unless you buy a 'lesser' brand which is fine but I'm just a brand whore.....

[350 Russ]

try and get one with the highest MHz that you can, ive got an LG 42" LCD and i love it. never played up and its a great picture

[bigbramble]

Personally I dont like Plasma screens, the screen burn may be pretty hard to get these days but because I am always using my TV as a monitor its a no no. I would have to say the 6 series onward Samsung LCD sets are awesome and use LED backlight iirc. My brother just bought one, fantastic TV.

[Sarnie]

My Sony plasma got screen burn from the sky+ menu.....

[captain]

www.avforums.com

 

It's all there.

[captain]

Even better..........

 

http://www.avforums.com/forums/tv-should-i-buy/

[bigbramble]

http://www.avforums.com

 

It's all there.

 

It is but boy can you spend hours.. ...forget that DAYS trawling.

[Teatowel]

http://www.avforums.com

 

It's all there.

 

It is but boy can you spend hours.. ...forget that DAYS trawling.

 

Exactly - I have done that and my brain hurts

[bigbramble]

Check out the LCD Samsungs then series 6 onwards, I spent weeks trawling only to discover that no set is perfect. This particular set is what I would buy if I needed a new screen.

[bigbramble]

Something like this;

 

http://www.robertwhyteltd.co.uk/samsung ... p-1325-b-2

[Bradders]

Forget Scarts too. You shouldn't be using those at all. The picture quality is noticeably worse. Just get as many HDMIs as you can. Wouldn't bother with a Plasma either, go for LCD or LED if budget allows.

 

I think you'll be lucky to get a 50" plus for £700, but might be wrong. LG are good value, as I believe they make alot of screen for other brands.

 

Bradders.

[Sarnie]

Forget Scarts too. You shouldn't be using those at all. The picture quality is noticeably worse. Just get as many HDMIs as you can. Wouldn't bother with a Plasma either, go for LCD or LED if budget allows.

 

I think you'll be lucky to get a 50" plus for £700, but might be wrong. LG are good value, as I believe they make alot of screen for other brands.

 

Bradders.

 

+1 on the scarts, PS3 and xbox360 should all go through the HDMI's...........

[helimeddaz]

I looked into the extensively about a year ago.

 

The best screens on the market are high end plazma. The best at the time were Pioneer KURO 50 or 60 inch, after loads of checking. In the end went for a series 7 Samsumg 63inch Full HD. 2.5Mtrs is the minimum veiwing distance. wall mounted.

 

There are some horror stories about screen burn (older panels), but if you read the instructions at the start and don't set all the brightness, colour and contrast to MAX you will have no issues. It's abit like a running in period.

 

Good plazma panels have better Blacks, brighter colours and a far superior veiwing angles. Move around an LED and watch the picture disappear. (although this is getting better).

 

This is my second plazma in ten years and my first 1 is now in the kids bedroom and still working superbly.

 

At the end of the day it's a personal choice, but when you go to look, see the picture from a few sources TV, Digital TV, Sky, DVD and Blue-ray. That way you'll know the quality from any input. Don't just let them show you a Blue-ray picture as that would make a cardboard box with a square hole cut in it and dropped over the salesmans head look good.

 

Oh and HDMI should be the standard for all AV gear now.

 

Hope this helps.

[Teatowel]

Thanks for all your help people

 

bigbramble - your example is £800 over my budget!

 

I won't be using SCART for anything other than old games systems (N64 and Saturn) - everything else will be HDMI.

 

I think Plasma is the way forward:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0039SLYI2/ref=asc_df_B0039SLYI2722081/?tag=nextag88-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=B0039SLYI2&linkCode=asn

 

The neoPDP screens are second to the Kuro ones, no?

[Gball1973]

You should have a look at the supplier sites for info as well as the forums. For instance, about three years ago Hitachi were the only company using soft/hardware designed specifically for LCD/plasma TVs, every other company used the internals from standard sets and the visual difference was like night and day. Even the top range Sonys and Panasonics (both 100hz, picture enhancers etc..) looked S%!* by comparison, thats not even taking into account the shops NEVER set up any colour/contrast or brightness settings to give the best picture possible.

 

 

Remember to leave about 10% of your budget for cables as the picture/sound is only as good as whats being fed into the set.

After all you wouldn't put standard asda petrol in the Zed?

[IanS16]

You should have a look at the supplier sites for info as well as the forums. For instance, about three years ago Hitachi were the only company using soft/hardware designed specifically for LCD/plasma TVs, every other company used the internals from standard sets and the visual difference was like night and day. Even the top range Sonys and Panasonics (both 100hz, picture enhancers etc..) looked S%!* by comparison, thats not even taking into account the shops NEVER set up any colour/contrast or brightness settings to give the best picture possible.

 

 

Remember to leave about 10% of your budget for cables as the picture/sound is only as good as whats being fed into the set.

After all you wouldn't put standard asda petrol in the Zed?

 

The cables don't matter as long as its HDMI, ebay cables are as good as monster gold plated ones, picture and sound wise at least

 

Now audo cabling is a different story

[Neilp]

i have the samsung series 6 and i have to say it was amazing when i got it... the full hd on it is outstanding but, to be honest, id lower the size you want and defo go for the led, nothing compares

[evilscorp]

LED's can completely turn off giving the best black's (lots of little tiny bulbs in laymans terms)

High end Plasma's (like panasonic) last longer than LCD's 15years+

LCD use less energy than plasma's

 

LED is the way to go but is very expenicive at the moment and with 3D coming into main stream mabe hold off for a bit and wait for prices to drop for other tv's.

[Teatowel]

All good stuff - plenty of food for thought

 

Off topic: regarding the Asda petrol in a Z comment, I did a experiment with mine. For the first 20k miles including 2 trackdays and 3 ring trips, I only used Optimax (as it was back then) or Tesco 99 (or very occasionally £5 of normal 97 RON if I was in the middle of nowhere).

 

For the second 20k miles I only used standard 97 ron from supermarkets, whichever was cheapest.

 

I was anal enough to keep all the receipts. For each tank I wrote down the number of miles done till refill, and used the amount of fuel put in to the third "click" to calculate an accurate MPG.

 

There was no difference and my ring times were better the second half, although that might have been due to the 5 trips I did that year

 

 

But I take your point - decent cables, in particular for audio, do make a difference. A guy I know spends £50 per metre of audio cable and buries them in sand under his floorboards!

[bigbramble]

Thanks for all your help people

 

bigbramble - your example is £800 over my budget!

 

I won't be using SCART for anything other than old games systems (N64 and Saturn) - everything else will be HDMI.

 

I think Plasma is the way forward:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0039SLYI2/ref=asc_df_B0039SLYI2722081/?tag=nextag88-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=B0039SLYI2&linkCode=asn

 

The neoPDP screens are second to the Kuro ones, no?

[choptop]

Pioneer (Kuro) no longer make Tv's anymore...................in their absence go with Panasonic NeoPDP Plasma. In your budget and from personal experience, I think you will be very pleased.