Hello all, 1st post and looking for advice on which LCD to buy??

[admin_exported]

Hope you guys can help me with this, and please bear with me.

I have been buying WHF for a few months now, reading up on LCD TV's, learning, getting teched up and jargon savvy ready for the leap. I've currently only got a Panasonic 28" CRT which is a good little telly, but vastly outdated now and far too bulky, depth wise. So sometime between the next few weeks and xmas i've promised myself a shiny new set to join the rest of the modern world.

I've been nosying round the usual outlets for a while now, Curry's, Dixons, etc just to see whats on offer. I've got the taste for one now.

Basically, i'm open to suggestions as i figure this is the place to be with the people in the know for the best advice.. I will trust your judgement!

OK, so what i'm looking for obviously is the most outstanding picture quality i can get, well aren't we all. My budget i figure will be anywhere between £800-£1300 with the possibility to maybe go SLIGHTLY over if something is too good to pass up on.

Preferably the set should be anywhere between 42"- 50" unless something else is REALLY worth investigating, either bigger or smaller, so quite flexible on that point i think. The distance from me to the tv itself will be approximately 11ft or 3.5m ish (incase this matters) Also, i will purchase a Blu-Ray player along with it (also any advice on those if you have time to offer it) and at some point an Xbox360, so i really need this setup to be full HD 1080p and 24fps.

I trust i have given all the relevant info to give you all something to chew over. Currently i am leaning towards any of the Philips Ambilight sets, i saw one in currys on a Blu-Ray demo and it blew me away... That is the set that has sold me so far and that was the 42PFL7962. They seem to produce some fine looking sets.

Finally, my only bug bear of a large screen is the quality of the terrestrial channels. The larger the screen the worse the picture or so it seems, i have cable and as i watch quite a bit of telly, i dont want to have to cringe everytime i turn the Blu-Ray player off to watch telly.. What advice would you give on that issue??

Thanks for reading this far, and i look forward to hopefully many varied replies as i am very keen to listen to your views.

Thanks, Ryan.

 

[Anonymous]

Just making your budget (and possibly cheaper in a few weeks) is the new Sony 46W4500, see review on this site. Around £1300.

Slightly cheaper would be the Panny 50PZ80, around £1150. Or if you really want to save some money, the Panny 42PZ80 around £750 or Sony 40W4500 at £900.

 

[pioneer7]

Good advice from rewerb you can not realy go wrong with pannys, plus panasonic have some cracking Blu-ray Players most are reviewed on this very site, so you should be able to build a very good set up which has pretty much everything you want, it should not be to hard to get a dem of the suggested TVs and Players, hope this helps a little.

 

[Anonymous]

Great question RyanJH, I think that this will cover lots of peoples questions on which TV to buy. I'm in the same process at the moment and pondering on which set to buy. Although motion is important to me for gaming and sport reason.

I'm waiting for the review on the Sony 40W4500, although I looked at the Panny TH-42PZ85B at the weekend and it looked awsome.

Good luck in your search I will be watching your reply's with interest. Although I'm starting to think it is down to personal taste or should I say eye sight.

Gary

Whoops just seen the review of the Sony 40W4500 on the whathifi web sight.

 

[Anonymous]

How about the Pioneer PDP-5080XD 50" plasma. It is discontinued, so it goes for £1400 or under. It is 720p, instead of 1080p, but that doesn't matter at your viewing distance. But, compared to other TVs, this plasma offer FAR better contrast. For TV, it would be better to buy a Sky+ or V+ box for HDTV, although the Panasonic TH-46PZ81B, which is a 46" Full HD plasma, has Freesat HD, so you can watch HD channels for free. YOu still have to pay for a sat dish though, and the contrast isn't as good as the Pioneer.

 

[Anonymous]

Nintendo_Fan:How about the Pioneer PDP-5080XD 50" plasma. It is discontinued, so it goes for £1400 or under..Cant really find it for less than £1600 with speakers and stand. Where is it for les than £1400??

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice so far guys, i'm taking it all into consideration as it comes, but please dont let it stop there, anyone else with more to add is welcome to. I've read the review of the new Sony 46W4500 and it seems to be nothing but praise... Thats definitely a main contender now, and plus i've found it for £1270 which is well under the quoted price and therefore firmly within my budget.

So does anyone have anything to say about the ambilight models by any chance, anything good or bad?? Would you recommend them? They definitely appeal to me because they have some of the best in-store demo's i've ever seen on some of those sets. Picture quality looked flawless to me.

Just picked up the november issue of WHF tonight as it happens so as soon as i leave here i'm going to spend a while flipping through that. And as luck would have it, it's got Blu-Ray player reviews in... Good timing or what!!

 

[Anonymous]

Any more for any more?? I'm hoping for a few more replies before i start to make my mind up. Not much to go on as yet but appreciate the advice so far anyway. Keep the advice coming!

 

[Anonymous]

Ryan, The WHF Awards issue will be out in 2 weeks time so if you can wait, then just hold off until the final verdict is out. If you must get LCD, then I agree with the other posters that the Sony W4500 series is the one to go for. But don't discount the Panasonic plasmas which are also very good or if you can stretch your budget a bit, the Pioneer plasmas would be the one to go for. My personal preference would be the Pioneer plasmas which IMO beats any LCD on the market today. But if you must have the ambilight feature, then you don't have any other choice.

 

[pete321]

As you'll see from my earlier post, I'm raving about Sony's new LCD TV's. Whilst the Panasonic 50incher seems a good buy I would personally probably steer clear of a plasma, having had an award winning Hitachi 42" plasma go kaput a couple of months outside the warranty period. As I found out, it was so expensive to repair, I sold it as faulty for a few quid on eBay! I'm sure Panasonic plasma's have a better life expectancy, I think the new models quote 100,000 hours, but few doubt that longevity awards between the 2 would go to LCD. The new Bravia range is 100Hz so you'll get the smooth action palyback as with the Panny, excellent contrast equal to the Panny, but with the better picture clarity that it's always had over the Panny.

When I last bought a 42" plasma about 3 or 4 years ago, it was between 2 What HiFi 5 star winners, a Panny and a Hitachi. When viewed them I preferred the sharpness of the image produced by the Hitachi. This was at the expense of some noise on the picture, but that was only noticeable if you sit right infront of it. The picture produced by the Panny was good but resembled a digital photograph which had had noise reduction applied, no noise by at the expense of outright clarity. More recent Panny plasmas seem to get a similar comment by What HiFi, award winners but not the sharpest pictures available. I guess it comes down to personal preference, I would rather have a sharp picture at the expense of a little screen noise (which you don't see when you sit 2 or 3 metres away).

If it was my money I'd definately go with the Sony KDL-46W4500, It can already be had for less than £1300 on the net and having experienced my 40W2000 and more recently, my father-in-laws 40W4500 I think they're great TV's.

 

[Anonymous]

A excellent question.
Most people spend a lot of viewing time watching terrestial TV channels. Therefore it is (in my mind) essential to upgrade the signal to 1080p as well.
I have a Samsung 46" Full HD TV (bought 07/07)which I can highly recommend, picture quality is as good as anything I have seen.
Please note, the better the signal it is feed, the better the picture! You usually get poor signal feeds in shops.
You need to buy something to upscale your signal to 1080, the Sony RDR-HXD970 is a great piece of kit.

£375, but you can get it cheaper.
What Hi-Fi says.....
As fine a fusion of style and substance you can buy in a digital video recorder - that's why it was our 2007 Award winner

Further more download CD's onto its 250g Hard Drive and enjoy good CD player quality music off it.

Blue Ray.... Sony PS3 for me, internet upgradability keeps everything bang up to date, put all your digital pics on to its hard drive and see them on your TV in HD, games.

Then spend some money on a Tacima block and some quality Mains leads to clean up the supply, then sit back and try not to look too smug as you enjoy superb TV watching.

 

[Anonymous]

trevor79:I have a Samsung 46" Full HD TV (bought 07/07)which I can highly recommend, picture quality is as good as anything I have seen

Just out of curiosity trevor, which samsung is it you have exactly?? I see by your info it is an LE46 but there are a few variations to that range aren't there? Also, how do i upscale my terrestrial cable channels? Is that what you meant or did i misunderstand that part?? Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Anonymous]

seakingadvice:Ryan, The WHF Awards issue will be out in 2 weeks time so if you can wait, then just hold off until the final verdict is out. If you must get LCD, then I agree with the other posters that the Sony W4500 series is the one to go for. But don't discount the Panasonic plasmas which are also very good or if you can stretch your budget a bit, the Pioneer plasmas would be the one to go for. My personal preference would be the Pioneer plasmas which IMO beats any LCD on the market today. But if you must have the ambilight feature, then you don't have any other choice.

Seems like some sound advice there, and im getting the impression the tussle is between Sony and Panny. Don't know much about Pioneer except that they keep raving about the new Kuro range... Are they any good??

As for the purchase, yeah i can wait until the awards have been announced, i wont be buying it until nearer xmas time anyway i dont think, hopefully they will have sales on by then too!! The ambilight feature ISN'T essential, but it is a big wow factor and the picture quality of these sets seem to be outstanding quality IMO. They are nice looking sets aswell.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Ryan, sorry I have been away, have just picked up your question.

I have the Samsung LE46M87BDX model, the Sony RDR-970 up-scales everything passed through it to full HD, but I use the Onkyo 875 to do the up-scaling for me on my system though there is little difference in picture quality.

They are always bringing out new TV models, I would be guided by the latest reviews and choose the one who's style most appeals to you, after all you have to like the style as well!

 

[Anonymous]

Mmm, not sure if this will help but it does have a 1 yr warranty.

 

[southdownswolf]

Most people are going to recommend the make/model they have, you really will have to take a look yourself. Try to view in a specialist shop instead of currys/comet etc. When spending £1300 on a TV you owe it to yourself to check it out properly rather than crudely set up in a high street store.

As you can see though, most people recommend Sony Lcd's and Panasonic/Pioneer plasma's.

Me? I love my Panasonic plasma.

 

[Anonymous]

hi,im also looking for a new screen and have been seriously looking at the pioneer kuros,until the wife saw the phillips with ambilight.Where the screen will be positioned the ambilight feature will come alive and in turn the entire room,plus the new screens have had some glowing reviews,the 47pfl9703d in particular(although i have yet to see it).My main concern is the after-sales service,i have spoken to an engineer who refuses to stock phillips because of this problem and after going onto a couple of other forums(sorry whf)it does seem to be a major flaw which is really putting me off getting one of their screens,the wife is not happy!!! Have you read the post by the poor guy who has been trying to contact phillips about his screen being full hd,you can feel his fustration through the computer screen,will go to his post now to see if he's had any more luck,it's also great to read that the WHF team are trying their best to help as well.

 

[Anonymous]

rewerb:Nintendo_Fan:How about the Pioneer PDP-5080XD 50" plasma. It is discontinued, so it goes for £1400 or under..Cant really find it for less than £1600 with speakers and stand. Where is it for les than £1400??ÿ

Sevenoaks sound and vision, Amazon.co.uk.

 

[Anonymous]

hey i just bought what proobably was the VERY LAST pioneer PDP-5080XD from CURRYS, turns out as i rang in this morning fr the very last one, the price had been reduced from £1580 for the pioneer 50 inch plus its pedestal stand and undermount speaker to CLEARANCE to a shocking £997 I SNAPPED it up as you'd imagine