Advice new tv

[poldo]

Hi I want to replace my Panasonic 50 inch G20.

Main reason is the ugly design and the size, I want a 55 or 60 inch.

Distance to tv is 4,5 meters, I watch DVD, Blu Ray and HD sports like football, tennis. 3d is an extra for me not very important. It need to perform well in a bright and dark environment.

I did demo some sets and I quiet liked:

Panasonic VT50

Sony HX 853

Samsung UE ES7000 / 8000

LG LM 760T

Any advice?

 

[Andy Clough]

We're hugely impressed with Sony's HX853 range this year, and our September issue (on sale now) has a round-up of the best big-screen (50in+) TVs. Personally I'd look at the Sony KDL-55HX853 (£1800) or the Panasonic TX-P50GT50 (£1500).

 

[Oldboy]

We're hugely impressed with Sony's HX853 range this year, and our September issue (on sale now) has a round-up of the best big-screen (50in+) TVs. Personally I'd look at the Sony KDL-55HX853 (£1800) or the Panasonic TX-P50GT50 (£1500).

I would echo Andys advice as i've taken delivery of the Sony-KDL46HX853 just over a week ago and i'm hugely impressed with it after having a Panasonic TX-P42GT30. I've posted a review of the tv on the forum if you wish to read it, i was so impressed with it that i thought a customer review was worth sharing.

The Panasonic TX-P50GT50 is a great tv though and initially i was going to replace my GT30 with a GT50 but extra screen size and the emergence of the excellent Sony HX853 changed my mind after i demoed it, both are fabulous tvs so i guess the question for you is which technology you prefer for your needs?

Both have their pros and cons so perhaps you would be better off getting out there and judging for yourself, get a demo of both tvs and decide which you prefer.

 

[poldo]

The Sony did impress my, by the way we call it the HX 850 i think outside UK.

The 55 HX 850 costs 1999 euro

Panasonic 55 VT 50 2399

Panasonic 55 ST 50 1499

Samsung PS 60 ES6500 1699

Those 4 telly's had the best picture i think.

 

[bigboss]

Well, you have already demoed the TVs. Just buy what looks best to you.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Main reason is the ugly design

I'll put in a plug for the Samsung UE55ES8000, which most folk think is beautiful, although I myself quite liked the quad "claw-foot" stand that Samsung used last year, and still uses for the current E8000 plasmas.

It need to perform well in a bright and dark environment.

Given your requirement for a bright environment, I would maybe steer away from the best domestic plasma TV, the Panasonic VT50 series. The Panasonic ST50 series is brighter than the VT50 series, and I hope to buy the 65" ST50 by Christmas. However, I must say that three weeks ago I saw my sister-in-law's Samsung UE55D8000 LED TV, during the Olympics, and as a plasma fan I have to admit that it looked very, very good indeed. Perhaps at night its black level isn't quite as good as that of the best plasmas, but otherwise that particular set, which is LAST year's model remember, was very impressive. In fact my sister-in-law has upstairs one of the most celebrated plasma sets of all time, the 60-inch Pioneer PDP-LX6090, and to compare that set with the Samsung downstairs, with both sets in moderate daylight, was absolutely no competition. Even I, as a plasma fan and as the proud owner of a Pioneer PDP-LX5090, when watching the basketball on one of the 24 HD Olympic channels, would not have chosen the Pioneer PDP-LX6090 over the Samsung UE55D8000.

The important corollary to my praising last year's Samsung UE55D8000 TV is that my sister-in-law phoned me last week, to say that she had just splashed out (well, she's a successful GP, so she can afford it!) on the current top Samsung LED, the UE55ES8000. And how does it compare with last year's Samsung UE55D8000 (the one that I found very impressive), I asked? She said that the new Samsung blows last year's model away, it is that good. And 3D, though not a priority for you, is very, very good on the new Samsung, she said. The only caveat to this new Samsung UE55ES8000 that I have heard of is that the viewing angle is not very wide.

 

[Oldboy]

Main reason is the ugly design

I'll put in a plug for the Samsung UE55ES8000, which most folk think is beautiful, although I myself quite liked the quad "claw-foot" stand that Samsung used last year, and still uses for the current E8000 plasmas.

It need to perform well in a bright and dark environment.

Given your requirement for a bright environment, I would maybe steer away from the best domestic plasma TV, the Panasonic VT50 series. The Panasonic ST50 series is brighter than the VT50 series, and I hope to buy the 65" ST50 by Christmas. However, I must say that three weeks ago I saw my sister-in-law's Samsung UE55D8000 LED TV, during the Olympics, and as a plasma fan I have to admit that it looked very, very good indeed. Perhaps at night its black level isn't quite as good as that of the best plasmas, but otherwise that particular set, which is LAST year's model remember, was very impressive. In fact my sister-in-law has upstairs one of the most celebrated plasma sets of all time, the 60-inch Pioneer PDP-LX6090, and to compare that set with the Samsung downstairs, with both sets in moderate daylight, was absolutely no competition. Even I, as a plasma fan and as the proud owner of a Pioneer PDP-LX5090, when watching the basketball on one of the 24 HD Olympic channels, would not have chosen the Pioneer PDP-LX6090 over the Samsung UE55D8000.

The important corollary to my praising last year's Samsung UE55D8000 TV is that my sister-in-law phoned me last week, to say that she had just splashed out (well, she's a successful GP, so she can afford it!) on the current top Samsung LED, the UE55ES8000. And how does it compare with last year's Samsung UE55D8000 (the one that I found very impressive), I asked? She said that the new Samsung blows last year's model away, it is that good. And 3D, though not a priority for you, is very, very good on the new Samsung, she said. The only caveat to this new Samsung UE55ES8000 that I have heard of is that the viewing angle is not very wide.

All good points but what i would add to that is i have demoed both the ES8000 and 7000 prior to purchasing my current Sony 46HX853 and was astonished at the amount of backlight bleed on both of these admitedly stylish tvs, i went to four different retailers to compare the sets and despite a correct calibration and not viewing on the shop floor but in a dedicated demo room at each retailer every single one had backlight issues present.

Considering that the ES8000 is a top of the range premium tv i find it simply unacceptable and despite my advice a close friend of mine still went ahead and bought the 46inch version a few weeks ago and even at this lower screen size her set has exactly the same issue i warned her about with some really bad bleed at the bottom of the screen across all sources and in all lighting conditions. Just thought this was worth mentioning so get a demo if you can and preferably an agreement to be able to return the tv quickly and easily should you buy one and the problem is present.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Main reason is the ugly design

I'll put in a plug for the Samsung UE55ES8000, which most folk think is beautiful, although I myself quite liked the quad "claw-foot" stand that Samsung used last year, and still uses for the current E8000 plasmas.

It need to perform well in a bright and dark environment.

Given your requirement for a bright environment, I would maybe steer away from the best domestic plasma TV, the Panasonic VT50 series. The Panasonic ST50 series is brighter than the VT50 series, and I hope to buy the 65" ST50 by Christmas. However, I must say that three weeks ago I saw my sister-in-law's Samsung UE55D8000 LED TV, during the Olympics, and as a plasma fan I have to admit that it looked very, very good indeed. Perhaps at night its black level isn't quite as good as that of the best plasmas, but otherwise that particular set, which is LAST year's model remember, was very impressive. In fact my sister-in-law has upstairs one of the most celebrated plasma sets of all time, the 60-inch Pioneer PDP-LX6090, and to compare that set with the Samsung downstairs, with both sets in moderate daylight, was absolutely no competition. Even I, as a plasma fan and as the proud owner of a Pioneer PDP-LX5090, when watching the basketball on one of the 24 HD Olympic channels, would not have chosen the Pioneer PDP-LX6090 over the Samsung UE55D8000.

The important corollary to my praising last year's Samsung UE55D8000 TV is that my sister-in-law phoned me last week, to say that she had just splashed out (well, she's a successful GP, so she can afford it!) on the current top Samsung LED, the UE55ES8000. And how does it compare with last year's Samsung UE55D8000 (the one that I found very impressive), I asked? She said that the new Samsung blows last year's model away, it is that good. And 3D, though not a priority for you, is very, very good on the new Samsung, she said. The only caveat to this new Samsung UE55ES8000 that I have heard of is that the viewing angle is not very wide.

All good points but what i would add to that is i have demoed both the ES8000 and 7000 prior to purchasing my current Sony 46HX853 and was astonished at the amount of backlight bleed on both of these admitedly stylish tvs, i went to four different retailers to compare the sets and despite a correct calibration and not viewing on the shop floor but in a dedicated demo room at each retailer every single one had backlight issues present.

Considering that the ES8000 is a top of the range premium tv i find it simply unacceptable and despite my advice a close friend of mine still went ahead and bought the 46inch version a few weeks ago and even at this lower screen size her set has exactly the same issue i warned her about with some really bad bleed at the bottom of the screen across all sources and in all lighting conditions. Just thought this was worth mentioning so get a demo if you can and preferably an agreement to be able to return the tv quickly and easily should you buy one and the problem is present.

Agreed.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

All good points but what i would add to that is i have demoed both the ES8000 and 7000 prior to purchasing my current Sony 46HX853 and was astonished at the amount of backlight bleed on both of these admitedly stylish tvs, i went to four different retailers to compare the sets and despite a correct calibration and not viewing on the shop floor but in a dedicated demo room at each retailer every single one had backlight issues present.

Hello Oldboy, it's good of you to point this out. The Samsung UE55ES8000 has recently been reviewed in What Hi-Fi in the September 2012 issue, and in quite some detail in the May 2012 issue of Home Cinema Choice magazine, and another lengthy review can be seen online on Trusted Reviews. Those latter two reviews (which are by the same author) do mention the backlight inconsistency if the backlight setting is too high. "just slash the backlight output to under half of its maximum setting and tone down the colours a bit." says the Tech Radar article, and "It's only when you manually reduce the backlight output to a much lower level - to its 10 setting at most, and ideally as low as six or seven - that colours, black levels and uniformity suddenly click into place." in Home Cinema Choice. The review in our own What Hi-Fi makes no mention of the backlight inconsistency or bleed. I don't think that my sister-in-law will have adjusted her new TV, I think that so far she is pleased with the out-of-the-box settings. I am troubled that you saw backlight bleed, on calibrated sets, in four different shops. I wonder what the backlight settings on these four TVs were ....?

 

[Oldboy]

Son_of_SJ,

When i demoed the ES8000 and 7000 tvs i even got to check the backlight levels of the sets and can report that all of them were set to either 5 or 6 due to the testing rooms being quite dark so there was no excessive backlight adjustment to any of the sets i tested.

Of course all reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt and not because they are not accurate or testing the equipment correctly but because they can only review what is sent to them by the manufacturer, would they send out an example that hadn't been rigorously tested for faults you have to ask yourself and often it's only when a product has inherent fualts in production that they are picked up during review. What my experience with these tvs during demonstration has told me is that there are massive differences in quality control going on at Samsung, i have no doubt that good examples of the range are out there as many reviewers have seen such examples but all i have seen is example after example of poorly implemented backlight. In all i have seen 9 tvs, 5 ES8000 and 4 ES7000 and every single one has had fundamental backlight issues which certainly meant i was never going to consider purchasing one, they were very high on my wish list until i saw the backlight issues for myself.

I wasn't prepared to enter into what seemed to me to be a bit of a panel lottery as i have been through that before with the infamous Sony backlight issue of a few years back. What i would say is that any potential buyer should be made aware that i have seen a great deal of these tvs professionaly calibrated that exhibit some serious backlight issues and flaws so buyer beware, demo first and get a cast iron guarantee that the tv can easily returned if you get an example with backlight issues that i have seen.

It's also worth noting that when i got to calibrate my friends 46inch ES8000 the most shocking aspect was that no matter where you set the backlight, even at zero, the issue was still very clear and with 3D even more pronounced. Such a shame as i was definately considering getting one but i am so relieved that i never bought one.

 

[poldo]

Hi Oldboy, so you don't have backlight issues with your Sony tv? Does Sony use another panel/technique then Samsung does?

Unpublished - duplicate post

 

[poldo]

Hi Oldboy, so you don't have backlight issues with your Sony tv? Does Sony use another panel/technique then Samsung does?

 

[bigboss]

Hi Oldboy, so you don't have backlight issues with your Sony tv? Does Sony use another panel/technique then Samsung does?

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/tvs-and-projectors/my-sony-kdl46hx853-review

 

[bigboss]

How bright is your "bright environment"? I personally found the VT50 more natural & superior than the Sony HX853 & Samsung ES8000. As long as there isn't sunlight directly falling on TV, a plasma should be fine.

 

[poldo]

Not very bright I have no problems with my Panasonic G20 but had some problems with the LG PK 990.

Most of the times I watch movies or series in the evening. I always owned Panasonic plasma's. First a 42 inch then a 50 inch. Now I want as big as possible. So maybe I will check out the 65ST50 too when I save some money. The price difference between the 55VT50 and 65inchST50 is not that big. 55 HX850 would be the LCD alternative.

 

[Oldboy]

Hi Oldboy, so you don't have backlight issues with your Sony tv? Does Sony use another panel/technique then Samsung does?

Yes and no. My Sony 46HX853 never has any issues with backlight bleed during normal viewing of movies and tv BUT it does have a weird instance of it when you use the tv menu, apps or Game mode. The most noteable is with the menu so i presume the tv is boosting the backlight here and in the apps menu, it happens in Game mode too but i've worked out a workaround where i've just calibrated an alternative mode and turned all processing off and it's fine and sees the bleed disappear completely.

The Samsungs on the other hand always display bleed no matter what you do to the picture which is just unacceptable, my Sony may have a weird instance in the menus but it never affects picture quality when viewing movies and tv so i can live with that where as the Samsungs would just annoy the hell out of me! I doubt the two manufacturers use vastly different tech but i'm sure the panels will be different and of course the implementation of the tech will differ between manufacturers.

As ever the best thing to do is check them out for yourself.

 

[Oldboy]

How bright is your "bright environment"? I personally found the VT50 more natural & superior than the Sony HX853 & Samsung ES8000. As long as there isn't sunlight directly falling on TV, a plasma should be fine.

Agree and disagree...it's the same old pros and cons argument of plasma vs LED/LCD. They produce very different pictures but up until now i would never have gone back to LED/LCD due to the plasma advantage with blacks but with the HX853 the lines have blurred for me and it's now very close between the two.

I still love plasmas but i'm very pleased with the Sony and it's certainly better than my old GT30 but as for if the GT50 and VT50 are better tvs than the Sony HX853 i'm not so convinced, it's a personal preference thing really and for me i just preferred the Sony over the two Panasonics. You really need to demo them for yourself to make a judgement.

A plasma will be fine in a bright enviroment for sure but if not then draw the curtains a bit to block out some or all the light, simple, that's what i done with my GT30.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a samsung PS51D550 plasma just over 10 months old

and I have been waiting for samsung to do something about

the bleeding when on a white screen it has been happening

just about three months now but will never get another

samsung tv.

 

[bigboss]

How bright is your "bright environment"? I personally found the VT50 more natural & superior than the Sony HX853 & Samsung ES8000. As long as there isn't sunlight directly falling on TV, a plasma should be fine.

Agree and disagree...it's the same old pros and cons argument of plasma vs LED/LCD. They produce very different pictures but up until now i would never have gone back to LED/LCD due to the plasma advantage with blacks but with the HX853 the lines have blurred for me and it's now very close between the two.

I still love plasmas but i'm very pleased with the Sony and it's certainly better than my old GT30 but as for if the GT50 and VT50 are better tvs than the Sony HX853 i'm not so convinced, it's a personal preference thing really and for me i just preferred the Sony over the two Panasonics. You really need to demo them for yourself to make a judgement.

A plasma will be fine in a bright enviroment for sure but if not then draw the curtains a bit to block out some or all the light, simple, that's what i done with my GT30.

That's why it's important to demo!

We all have our individual preferences. When I demoed, while the Sony HX853 was the best LED lit LCD I've ever seen, I found the VT50 to be superior.

 

[Oldboy]

I have a samsung PS51D550 plasma just over 10 months old

and I have been waiting for samsung to do something about

the bleeding when on a white screen it has been happening

just about three months now but will never get another

samsung tv.

Bleeding on a white screen?? Plasma works in a totally different way to LED/LCD and therefore each pixel cell is illuminated by itself by an electrical charge into plasma gas with no backlight involved, what you are seeing must be a very different fault but it's certainly not backlight bleed as a plasma tv has no backlight in the first place.

What exactly are you seeing on a white screen?

 

[Oldboy]

How bright is your "bright environment"? I personally found the VT50 more natural & superior than the Sony HX853 & Samsung ES8000. As long as there isn't sunlight directly falling on TV, a plasma should be fine.

Agree and disagree...it's the same old pros and cons argument of plasma vs LED/LCD. They produce very different pictures but up until now i would never have gone back to LED/LCD due to the plasma advantage with blacks but with the HX853 the lines have blurred for me and it's now very close between the two.

I still love plasmas but i'm very pleased with the Sony and it's certainly better than my old GT30 but as for if the GT50 and VT50 are better tvs than the Sony HX853 i'm not so convinced, it's a personal preference thing really and for me i just preferred the Sony over the two Panasonics. You really need to demo them for yourself to make a judgement.

A plasma will be fine in a bright enviroment for sure but if not then draw the curtains a bit to block out some or all the light, simple, that's what i done with my GT30.

That's why it's important to demo!

We all have our individual preferences. When I demoed, while the Sony HX853 was the best LED lit LCD I've ever seen, I found the VT50 to be superior.

Exactly!

I'm sure if more people got out there and demoed tvs before they purchased them there would be far more happy customers out there, reviews are just a guideline and there is no substitute for your own eyes eh

 

[poldo]

Most demoes in most stores are useless, because of the settings and environment, well here in Holland.

Right now, when I grabbed some remotes I could just set some screens on cinema or thx I have 2 favourite sets.

2 criteriums:

-image

-design

2 tv's"

=Sony HX 855/853

=Panasonic VT 50

 

[richardw42]

The Phillips 21:9 TVs are special. They do 50 & 58 inch.

Ambilight is genius for dark(er) rooms.

 

[poldo]

I don't like the philips tv's to be honest. 21:9 50 inch is way too small and the 56 inch way too expensive.

I am really leaning towards the Sony HX 850/853 in 55 inch. Good price, imo design is better then the VT 50, maybe the VT 50 will beat it on image quality, I will take another demo next week.