£700 TV

[Dan_1981]

Looking for a reccomendation for my parents new TV.

They don't do home cinema or subscribe to sky or anything.

They do have a humax box and are considering Freesat (which surprised me)

So they are looking for a (presumably) LCD / LED for approx 700 quid.

Size anythign from 37" - 42".

I guess if they want integrated free sat it would have to be panasonic but i don't knwo if they would come in under budget?

So over to you for reccomendations.

Cheers

Dan

[mackie1]

Panasonic TX-P42G10

You won't find better for the dosh.

[bobthemonkey]

mackie1 said:

Panasonic TX-P42G10

You won't find better for the dosh.

The thing is finding one. G10s and V10s are like gold dust at the moment. You get the G15 however, which is fundamentally a G10 with a DLNA client. It is however a little more.

[mackie1]

Might be worth giving these guys a ring and see if they have any left:

http://www.mrmdvd.com/catalog/product_info.php?pro...

Or maybe Der has some in stock and can do a deal?

Edited by mackie1 on Friday 29th January 17:08

[Dan_1981]

And this is a plasma rather than LCD?

[pies]

bobthemonkey said:

mackie1 said:

Panasonic TX-P42G10

You won't find better for the dosh.

The thing is finding one. G10s and V10s are like gold dust at the moment. You get the G15 however, which is fundamentally a G10 with a DLNA client. It is however a little more.

Bit like rocking horse dodo

[bonsai]

bobthemonkey said:

mackie1 said:

Panasonic TX-P42G10

You won't find better for the dosh.

The thing is finding one. G10s and V10s are like gold dust at the moment. You get the G15 however, which is fundamentally a G10 with a DLNA client. It is however a little more.

I've got the 50G10 - lovely. But I wouldn't want to have to use the TV's own speakers - hopefully everyone who spends that kind of money on a TV also uses external speakers!!

[4mo]

Just got a 50g10 here as well, highly recommended.
Old man was a bit miffed though having just brought a sony 40" 5810. Saw my panny and felt it was much better picture than the sony.

[Grey Ghost]

pies said:

bobthemonkey said:

mackie1 said:

Panasonic TX-P42G10

You won't find better for the dosh.

The thing is finding one. G10s and V10s are like gold dust at the moment. You get the G15 however, which is fundamentally a G10 with a DLNA client. It is however a little more.

Bit like rocking horse dodo

Unless you ring Derestrictor's place on the off chance and they happen to have a 42" V10 in a box looking for a new owner...... that'll be me at 4pm today

[i'm no superhero]

I would consider a 42" LG LH5000 if you do want to go down the LCD route.

1080p, 200Hz refresh rate and a contrast ratio of 80,000:1.

£699 from any DSGi site. fking bargain!

Plus, sound quality is pretty good.

[headcase]

Id wait for the new pannas, only a few weeks away now.

[Dan_1981]

So plasma are ok?

For some reason the folks seem to think they are inferior to LCD?

They claim they are heavier and more delicate?

[LocoBlade]

Dan_1981 said:

So plasma are ok?

For some reason the folks seem to think they are inferior to LCD?

They claim they are heavier and more delicate?

There are lots of myths about plasma, but neither of the two you mention are common ones.

Heavier - possibly by a few kgs on an equivalent size TV but why does it matter once its on the wall / on the TV stand, still a lot lighter than a CRT of almost half the size?

More delicate - perhaps during transportation as they should be kept upright, but once in situ they're probably more robust. LCD screens are soft like a laptop screen and easily damaged if something hits it. Plasmas have a fairly thick glass front (hence the weight increase), but that will do a lot more to protect the screen from bumps and knocks than the soft LCD, especially newer screens like the Panasonics which claom to have a hardened glass screen which should resist even something as heavy as an errant Wii remote etc.

The generally accepted positives of Plasma over LCD include

Better motion handling. LCDs can't cope as well with fast moving imagery like sport so the image becomes quite blurry during fast moving camera panning shots etc

More natural looking colours - LCDs look great in really brightly lit rooms (ie electrical stores) and often look really good showing CGI movies like Toy Story and Shrek etc, but for normal "real" viewing they can look very bright and vivid with overly saturated colours. Some people like this, others dont.

Better blacks - LCD uses a backlight so to show a black area on screen, the LCD cells in front have to block the light from coming through. Some are better at this than others but none succeed completely. The backlight also means some suffer from inconsistent blacks across the screen, often with brighter patches near the edges where the backlight sits, compared to the middle of the screen thats further away from the light source, known as backlight bleed. Plasma doesnt use a backlight so doesnt suffer in the same way.

There are disadvantages with Plasmas, but they aren't really image quality related:

Weight as mentioned above

Generally higher power consumption, but not as much as the paper figures suggest because plasmas vary power consumption depending on whats on screen, ie a dark scene uses a lot less than a bright white scene. LCDs use similar power regardless of the image, so although the headline power requirement of a plasma (to show a white image) may be double that of an equivalent LCD, in practice the difference is a lot less.

Screen burn can occur on plasmas if the same image is left on screen for long periods, but modern plasmas are much more resistant to this so you'd have to do something silly like leave the same image on screen hours if not days on end to risk damaging it this way.

Plasmas can look a bit dull on bright days in rooms with lots of natural light, eg a living room with multiple large windows. Also because of the glass front they can suffer a bit more from reflections, but again modern plasmas usually have anti glare screens to minimise this issue.

There probably are more but I think these are the main ones from what I learnt when shopping with a very similar budget to you late last year, and ending up with a 42G10. The other advantage of a G10 for your parents is that it has freesat built in, I dont think you'll find a £700 LCD with that so they'd have to purchase a seperate box.

[bobthemonkey]

Heavier, yes and more complex but not fragile. The new panas like the G10 are rated for 100,000+ which beats most LCDs.

These plasmas produce a much superior image to the bulk of LCDs available today.

[Dan_1981]

Thanks very much for the detailed replies.

I've managed to find both of the panasonics mentioned above in our local panasonic store - complete with 5 year warranty etc etc and i think they coudl be persuaded to throw in the free sat dish for the freesat.

Now to convert the parents.

[i'm no superhero]

Dan_1981 said:

Thanks very much for the detailed replies.

I've managed to find both of the panasonics mentioned above in our local panasonic store - complete with 5 year warranty etc etc and i think they coudl be persuaded to throw in the free sat dish for the freesat.

Now to convert the parents.

Wait until March time bud, you'd be silly not to!

I turned away two customers today and told them to wait, they were annoyed as they wanted to have one today but then I persuaded them to hold off for a few more weeks. You'd be stupid to buy now!

[okgo]

i'm no superhero said:

Dan_1981 said:

Thanks very much for the detailed replies.

I've managed to find both of the panasonics mentioned above in our local panasonic store - complete with 5 year warranty etc etc and i think they coudl be persuaded to throw in the free sat dish for the freesat.

Now to convert the parents.

Wait until March time bud, you'd be silly not to!

I turned away two customers today and told them to wait, they were annoyed as they wanted to have one today but then I persuaded them to hold off for a few more weeks. You'd be stupid to buy now!

What happens in March?

[LocoBlade]

Presumably the 2010 Panny range is due?

[bonsai]

i'm no superhero said:

Dan_1981 said:

Thanks very much for the detailed replies.

I've managed to find both of the panasonics mentioned above in our local panasonic store - complete with 5 year warranty etc etc and i think they coudl be persuaded to throw in the free sat dish for the freesat.

Now to convert the parents.

I turned away two customers today and told them to wait, they were annoyed as they wanted to have one today but then I persuaded them to hold off for a few more weeks. You'd be stupid to buy now!

I hope for your sake that sort of thing isn't fed back to your sales manager. Still a long time to go before University starts sonny.

Edited by bonsai on Saturday 30th January 20:08

[headcase]

headcase said:

Id wait for the new pannas, only a few weeks away now.

this.