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Assistance please , I am planning to purchase a Panasonic Plasma TH42PZ85B & link it up with a Pana Blu-ray DMP-BD30, but can you advise what surround receiver and speaker system would be best on a limited budget to get the best from the HDMI 1.3 connection. Also apart from a receiver and speakers, is there anything else I need ? thanks

 

[Anonymous]

What is the budget?

 

[Anonymous]

approx £250.00 i know its not a lot but blown most of it on the TV and the reasonably priced blu-ray player. ( I currently have an 5 year old Kenwood surround pro logic system) also I believe all i need is a surround receiver and the speakers to link the blu-ray player and my Virgin + box to ? is this correct , or am I missing anything ?, any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

You are correct regarding connections. I know the PZ85 looks the business on paper, but have you actually seen it and compared it to other models? The reason I ask is that when I was buying my new TV, I had the money to spend on a PZ85 and I was set on buying one. But then I went into John Lewis and compared it with a PX80. The SD on the PX80 was better. The PZ85 was marginally better on blacks and I could hardly notice a difference in HD ready vs FullHD at the distance I was going to be viewing at. In conclusion I decided that the extra £400 required for the PZ85 was not nearly worth it and I decided to save the cash for something else. My advice is to reconsider the choice of TV. Or if you are set on the PZ85, save up your cash for a decent receiver and speaker combo. I would recommend the Onk 605 (approx £350) as the receiver, prices should be falling because of the release of the 606. For the speakers I would go for the Q Acoustics 1010 5.1 for £299 (if you can stretch to the "i" version, it is worth the extra money) Consider the PS3 as a blu-ray player. Alternatively, the Sony DAV-IS10 would be worth a look as a one box system. I don't know if it affects your budget, but the PX80 can be bought for £677 from Sound and Vision, with the 605 and QA 1010s and a PS3, I make that about £1700.

 

[Anonymous]

tom83cat. Thanks for the info, I am a bit of a newbee as you can guess, can you please explain more on what the "SD" is when you advise it was better on the PZ80 ?

 

[Anonymous]

also i have just been looking up the ONK605 and it looks like a pretty good piece of kit, I notice in the spec it has a "monitor output" , can you advise what this is for, as I thought you would just run your sound connections to the receiver ? to produce the sound thru the connected speaker , can you advise what you would need the monitor output for ? thanks

 

[Anonymous]

SD is Standard definition... i.e. normal DVDs, freeview, non-HD sky channels. I take it that this is going to make up the bulk of your viewing. On the PX80, SD is better because it is not a fullHD telly. FullHD tellys i.e. the PZ range, tend to make SD look a bit worse than the HD ready PX series. Also,as I have said before, I don't think fullHD is worth the extra money you have to spend unless you are going for something over 42", when you will see the benefit. The Onkyo 605 is a really good peice of kit. I bought one, as did many others on this forum, and WHFSAV gave it a product of the year award. The 606 would be worth a look if you need more HDMI connections, the rest of it should be the same, but we are all waiting on a review to find out. The monitor output is a composite output for easy setup as the Onkyo has an on-screen display for its setup menu. This can be done via HDMI aswell. The Onkyo has HDMI inputs, a HDMI output and the same in Component. It means you can use the Onkyo as a HDMI switcher. The HDMI on the Onkyo supports HD audio aswell. It is just an option to consider, ther is nothing to stop you from just running HDMI direct to the telly and digital audio to the amp using the coax or optical. You could always have a read up in the manual which should be available from the onkyo website, and it tells you how to set things up in a number of configurations with different sources.

 

[Anonymous]

excellent, thanks for the info and the advice. I do have my heart set on a PZ85B, but I will will be checking out the Onkyo when I have some more cash. In the meantime I will have to use the sound direct from the TV, or thru my old Kenwood. What is the sound quality like direct from your TV ?

 

[Anonymous]

It is ok for watching something like Eastenders or the News, but if there's a film on, I can't stand it. But then thats probably because I can't stand not using all of the kit i have spent all my money on. The speakers on the telly are as should be expected, basic and functional, not going to win any prizes.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="smeghead"]I do have my heart set on a PZ85B[/quote] Just make sure that you check the PX80 out as well. And insist that you see both of them perform in SD, get hold of the remotes and mess with the picture settings to see which one kicks out the best picture when you have it set up how you like it.