Help with HD TV choice on return to the UK!

[admin_exported]

Help! Having been living in South Africa for the last 2 years I'm shortly due to return to the UK! Having been drip fed on What HiFi? Sound and Vision by visiting friends bringing me the latest issue, I had at least managed to decide that the Sony KDL-40W2000 was the way to go on my return. Unfortunately, that is not released here until Christmas so getting to have a look is not easy! Having taken advantage of Sky's offer for Sky HD (100 pound off for the box for July) and looking at prices for the Sony all was well, so, I phoned my local supplier to discuss a demo upon my return and asked about the Sony's performance with SD (the HD seems to be well established but I won't always be watching HD). It was then that the performance of the new Sony 'D3000' series was mentioned! The original attraction of the 'W' series was Full HD which seemed good for future proofing (I can't play the keeping up with the Jones' game). The 'D' series is an HD Ready panel but, as I'm gathering from reading comments in these forums, this is not such an issue, however, although I intend to run a Denon 1930 DVD with it, I also want to run a PC through it and, eventually, a PS3 (I'll wait for the price and performance of dedicated HD players to balance out). I'm now torn between the two! Will the difference in resolution and perceived picture performance be an issue here? Are there any other similar sized screens I should consider for my requirements (budget up to 1500 pounds)? I still intend to look at the 'W' and 'D' side by side when I get back.

Finally, I do get What HiFi? South Africa but it is about a month or so behind. I notice from this website that the 'next issue' has the headline 'a Sony that you must see'. Not wanting to risk a spoiler here but could you let me know what model this is refering to?

Many thanks

 

[Clare Newsome]

Firstly that 'next issue' headline - just for illustrative purposes, hard-wired into the current design, i'm afraid. That was a cover from last year - ironically, talking about the Sony KDL-40W2000!

We haven't yet seen any of the Sony 'D' series TVs, but the spec is impressive: interestingly for an HD Ready set, they are fully 24fps compatible, so should suit Blu-ray and HD DVD very nicely. They also have 3 HDMIs, which should be useful with the number of sources you intend plugging into it.

Sorry we can't be more helpful than that at the moment, but until we too have seen both sets to compare, we won't make judgements by specification alone - that way madness lies....

 

[Anonymous]

Much appreciated Clare! I agree that specification alone looks attractive and I look forward to seeing the similar size screens of the W and D series next to each other. I just find it extremely annoying that, when you think you have put the stick in the ground and reached your ideal solution, temptation pops up and makes you think again (good marketing I suppose)! You just want the best you can get for your money at the time and something that will last at least 5 years! But seriously, how many more 'improvements' are there?! As for the magazine cover, I obviously missed that one, thanks!