Which telly from Currys?

[Mr Whippy]

£500-£600 tops!

37" ideally, maybe 42" (room isn't small, but I don't like TV's that dominate rooms, and it's going in a corner too)

Not fussed on LCD/plasma and all that jazz.

I guess just seeing which one looks best in store is best, but since most stuff will just be SD Sky, it's hard to gauge really (most in-store stuff is silly 1080p footage which is a tad unrealistic for 95% of my intended use)


If a telly looks nice with HD stuff, is it generally accepted that it'll also look better with SD stuff too? Or is the downsampling/interpolating stuff variable between models too?


Any help much appreciated (i've gone round in circles with advice within the office now so moving it out to the PH experts )

Dave

[paddyhasneeds]

Try John Lewis (price match and 5 year guarantee).

If you're feeding it lots of HD I'm led to believe Plasma is slightly "better".

[Silver993tt]

John Lewis will try any trick to get out of price matching. A couple of years ago I found exactly the same 46" LCD TV in Richer Sounds (walking distance from John Lewis). Adding 10% to the price to get the guarantee up to 5 years (as with John Lewis) and it was still £500 less. Price was £1500 in RC with 5 years guarantee and £2000 in JL with the same length of guarantee. After a number of calls with JL, who said they couldn't see the TV in the store (it was clearly on display) and then said it wasn't in stock (I reserved the last one they had in the store), JL simply left me a message saying my facts were wrong. In my experience they are a bunch of liars and since then I have never stepped into any of their stores or even a Waitrose supermarket.

They are quite regularly undersold, so don't fall for their marketing slop. Too many people buy from them assuming they're the cheapest but very often they are not.

[Mr Whippy]

No JL's nearby unfortunately.

Richer Sounds look ok, and are fairly near.

But I'm still stumped what TV is going to be best for mainly SD stuff, with occasional HD use (hd discs and hd consoles)


Right now I have a 28" 4:3 Hitachi from 2000 ish, and it's still going strong and looks very very nice. I'm not an image quality snob, but I need to feel like I'm upgrading, not just buying a white good LCD screen that will ultimately be a bit naff.

You reckon Currys will let me take an SD DVD of a fave film to try out on their tellys in my price range?

Dave

[HRG]

Panny

[Mr Whippy]

I've been told Panny plasma lots at work... but the 1080p ones (thinking future proof here, my last telly has kept me happy for 8 years thus far) start at a bit above my budget it seems, and 42" too if that is correct?

Hmmmm

[toppstuff]

Try not to buy from Curry's if you possibly can. They suck on a massive scale. If there is anything wrong with the TV there is a reasonable probability that their customer service will make you want to hurt people.

John Lewis may not be near you, but it does not matter. Find out what you want and get it from there anyway..

Or from digital direct - its run by a PH'er and is as risk free as it gets.. www.digitaldirect.co.uk

[t84]

Had awful customer service from *A CERTAIN BRAND OF A WELL KNOWN CHAIN OF STORES* yesterday when trying to buy a telly, really disappointed

Edited by t84 on Monday 23 November 16:44

[toppstuff]

t84 said:

Had awful customer service from JL yesterday when trying to buy a telly, really disappointed

Thats very rare. I would tell them of your experience and why you were disappointed. In my experience they genuinely want to know, unlike the spotty oiks in curry's who generally seem to work there passing between jobs from McDonalds to Burger King...

JL will probably give you a discount voucher and invite you back..

I bought a laptop from them , had a problem with it, and they were simply fantastic.

[Mr Whippy]

How about this one?

http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/panasonic/tx-p42x10...

Good price, can pay a year later, 3yr warranty, has 1080i (is that essentially p for what it is worth? ie, 25p or 50i?) is a plasma, and is a panny...

Hmmm, maybe a tad bigger than I'd like, but I think it'll be ok

Dave

[t84]

toppstuff said:

t84 said:

Had awful customer service from JL yesterday when trying to buy a telly, really disappointed

Thats very rare. I would tell them of your experience and why you were disappointed. In my experience they genuinely want to know, unlike the spotty oiks in curry's who generally seem to work there passing between jobs from McDonalds to Burger King...

JL will probably give you a discount voucher and invite you back..

I bought a laptop from them , had a problem with it, and they were simply fantastic.

Well I phoned two of their stores about a price, was told it was £50 cheaper than their website, when I went to pick it up (Didnt reserve foolishly) I was told that I had the wrong price and basically made out to be a liar, ended up walking out empty handed on principle, phoned one of the stores again this morning and they quoted the cheaper price, so we're off to get it today, what a waste of time.

The woman who served us actually smiled when she was told over the phone that we were wrong about the price!

[Funk]

I bought this one from Currys (I had £150-worth of vouchers from work for Currys/Dixons/PC World, so it seemed daft not to use them) and Currys price-matched Richer Sounds and then added a further 10% of the difference as a discount - bringing the cost of the TV to about £585. It ticked all the boxes for me - 42" (anything larger in my room would've been too much), 1080p, 24p, 400hz scanning (rather than 200), Freeview built-in.. All in all a bargain for £585 (and then I used my £150 of vouchers!) and I'm very pleased with mine. Have to say that I have no complaints about Currys' service either; I know a lot of people on here would slate them.

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp...

ETA link

Edited by Funk on Monday 23 November 17:25

[PJ S]

Dave, get either the 42X10 or the 42G10, if you're able to fund the extra ££ over your originally intended budget.
The G10 provides a few extra features that can be argued are worth the extra expense, but if budgeting only permits to go for an X10, you'll be far from unhappy with what it provides for the next lot of years, and then some.

[Mr Whippy]

It seems that to get good spec screens and features it also needs to be quite big, and looking tonight with a tape measure I think 42in might just be a tad too big. 37in feels nice for the corner and stand I have.

I think I'll have to do more reading on the panny plasma range.

What does the g10 offer over the x10 in laymans terms?

Many thanks

[PJ S]

FreeSat decoder/tuner in-built, higher contrast ratio (better blacks), 600Hz image processing (less-zero motion blur of fast movement across the screen), NEO panel (more energy efficient), and Full HD (1920x1080 native resolution) for B-R 1080p 24fps playback.
No 37G10, so if 42" won't work, the above is moot.

[Funk]

The S10 offers most of that bar FreeSat. If you have Sky, Freesat's moot, and a friend of mine who works for Panasonic said if you can tell the difference between 400mhz and 600mhz scanning with the naked eye, they'd like to employ you in development.

OP, for your budget, the S10 would be perfect and the size actually isn't as big as you'd think it would be once it's in your room. I had a Philips 42" and it's physically smaller than that by some margin. I'm very pleased with what the S10 offers for under £600 and I'd encourage you to have a look at it.

There will ALWAYS be 'one better..' but you have to draw the line at some point. The S10 offers everything I need and the picture quality is fantastic. HTH.

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 24th November 08:52

[Mr Whippy]

So the Panny plasma 42's go S (£600 ish), X (£700 ish), and G (£800 ish)

The S seems the one right on for budget, and also seems good value next to 42" LCD screens (like Pannys own 37" TXL 37 S10 (lcd) is £600 ish as well and is smaller)

Is the 37" LCD one much good and worth considering?

Last time in Currys I really couldn't tell the difference between most TV's there to be honest (I think I'd want to take a decent SD DVD like "Taxi" (French one) to check properly though...

Dave

[PJ S]

Funk said:

The S10 offers most of that bar FreeSat. If you have Sky, Freesat's moot, and a friend of mine who works for Panasonic said if you can tell the difference between 400mhz and 600mhz scanning with the naked eye, they'd like to employ you in development.

OP, for your budget, the S10 would be perfect and the size actually isn't as big as you'd think it would be once it's in your room. I had a Philips 42" and it's physically smaller than that by some margin. I'm very pleased with what the S10 offers for under £600 and I'd encourage you to have a look at it.

There will ALWAYS be 'one better..' but you have to draw the line at some point. The S10 offers everything I need and the picture quality is fantastic. HTH.

But aside from the lack of FreeSat and "only" 400Hz sub-field processing, you also don't get the NEO panel, and the specs suggest the S only has 30,000:1 CR compared to the G's 40,000:1 native CR (2M:1 and infinite/over 2M:1 Dynamic CR respectively).
Then there's the filter used for taming reflections - the S has an anti-reflective filter, whereas the G has what's called Natural Vision. Also the G has VReal Pro 4 processing, the S uses last year's Pro 3, and the step shade graduation is greater on the G than the S (which is fundamentally a PZ80 with the new panel).

So, whilst your friend may be right about the minimal difference of 400Hz vs 600Hz sub-field processing, I'd still recommend the new TVs (G/V) over the modified version of last year's (very good) PZ80.

At the end of the day, the OP will decide which one is more preferable to him.

[gbbird]

The OP should consider where his TV will be positioned. If it is going to be in the way of lots of sunlight, then a plasma screen (glass covered) will attract much more reflections during daytime use than an LCD, so the latter may be a better option.

[Mr Whippy]

Haha, it's all getting a bit complex now

Are the days really gone where a TV that is made well is made well irrespective of what comes out a year later... or is it just that half the LCD/Plasma stuff out there is still fundamentally not as good as CRT stuff, and they are still catching up to that point with new models every year? (ie, so every year you really can tell a difference in practical use?)

Afterall, it's not like my old CRT TV from 2001 is appalling to watch.

I bought my last TV on recommendation, hence wanting to do the same again.


The TV screen points in to the room from a corner, but the room is south facing, so sunlight illuminating the room between TV and viewer does mean it's half mirror on the current set sometimes (rarely watch TV during the day though)


It's generally a bit frustrating that the best spec stuff seems to come on the big screens. 42" seems to be the entry level for the really well specced stuff... hrmmm.

Will try get out to Currys tonight and look at some, then haggle lots

Dave