rabbitstew Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 (edited) Another vote from me for the panasonic 50" plasma. They do various models ST30, VT30 etc.. plus other models in 50" so check carefully which one it is. I went for the ST30 after trawling through review after review for months. Have to say im more than pleased with it. The difference over my older 42" Panasonic plasma is incredible. I actually started off looking at the samsung 50" LCD tellys with the mega thing bezel, but after checking the reviews soon decided on the panasonic. Ive plugged mine into the internet, and use an app on my phone to control it. I also went for the panasonic bluray player and the HD picture from that through the telly is awesome. Not one to do things by half I also upgraded my AV amp to a £800 Pioneer one and all the cabling. A great home cinema setup now. Perfect for the size of my living room - we tend to sit about 13ft away from it. Ive wall mounted it - another common mistake people make when wall mounting is to mount it so high you end up with a stiff neck. It needs to be comfortable to watch telly from the sofa! With regards to the 3D side of things. Whilst its a 3D telly I can safely say ive only used the 3D on it twice. Ive got loads of 3D films on my pc which I can stream through the telly but just havent played with the settings enough to use it. I find that if your about 4" from the telly the 3D looks great, but if your sitting miles away, it doesnt. So I still think 3D is more of a gimmic rather than a selling point. But, with nearly all tellys these days being 3D compatible, I see it as a free feature, even if i wont actually use it. Id look at buying via quidco to get some decent cash back too. Edited December 14, 2012 by rabbitstew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 (edited) First rule of buying a new TV is to ignore everything everyone on the internet tells you. Find a shop with loads in and go and see for yourself which looks the best picture for you, Unless its any high street store, in which case the tv will be set to "shop" mode with the contrast wacked up so high that it looks nothing like you`d actually have it set in your house. Best place would be to go to a specialist AV shop which has rooms setup to mimic exactly what you would have in your living room. Thats one reason why places like AV forums and other online review sites are good as you can see what people think after they have bought the exact tv you are after. Sure, some of the people on AV forums are proper fussy and particular etc... but there are plenty of other reviewers out there which can give you a good idea of any problems people have experienced. I actually got mine in the end from Comet. They came in cheaper than any other the other main stream shops. They even knocked some cash off as i bought the blu ray player in the end and they threw in 2 pairs of the panasonic 3D glasses too which normally retail for about 50quid each. Dont fall for their "we`ll let you have a £100 connecting cable for £40" tricks as you can get perfectly decent cabling online for a fraction of that. Also their extended warranty isnt really worth it. Esp with panasonic tellys. All my family have panasonics now and they some of them are still going strong after 10->15 years. Edited December 14, 2012 by rabbitstew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyBoy Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Good point on the cabling rabbitstew. The great thing about digital versus analogue is that with digital if (within reason) the signal gets there at all it gets there with full effect. There really is no need to spend millions on gold plated nuclear-submarine-grade cables anymore. Richer Sounds are very good at having realistic setups on display, that's where I've bought my last two TVs and I've seen exactly what I was expecting when I set them up at home. Also the staff are a lot more knowledgable than your average Currys employee. DB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 Good point on the cabling rabbitstew. The great thing about digital versus analogue is that with digital if (within reason) the signal gets there at all it gets there with full effect. There really is no need to spend millions on gold plated nuclear-submarine-grade cables anymore. Richer Sounds are very good at having realistic setups on display, that's where I've bought my last two TVs and I've seen exactly what I was expecting when I set them up at home. Also the staff are a lot more knowledgable than your average Currys employee. DB Richer Sounds are very good and price match if you can find cheaper "locally" online. "Locally" is debatable, as I got them to match somewhere quite a long distance away without any problem. I bought my last 2 amps from them plus all my speakers & speaker cabling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gangzoom Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 I'm waiting for the mythical OLED TVs to become affordable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblock Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Agree about "shop" mode they just want to get you to look at the tv but everything is topped out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Hmmm 3d tv's, I can think of nothing worse than sitting down to watch a nice film and having to put the 'special' glasses on + 1,000,000,000,000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarty Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 Got my new Panasonic 50 inch led tv yesterday and its superb. Here's a good bit of advice for anyone looking to upgrade to a smart tv. My new tv is not smart, to have this function I would have had to pay around another £200, for a smart tv with the same spec as my Panasonic. I was also buying a new blue ray player, so the sales man advised me to pay an extra £20 to upgrade to a "smart" blueray player which also plays 3D blueray's, if your tv is 3D. I didn't know you could get smart blue ray players. It works exactly the same as a smart tv and its got wifi built in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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