Recommendation request

[admin_exported]

Good evening all!

I appear to be getting a little too swamped with specifications and am falling into the trap of "wait and see" but really need to take the plunge and buy a new TV.

I did consider a projector unit but it wouldn't work for my room space / shape. I do not want to buy plasma due to the additional energy usage over LCD (cost adds up over time and it's a quasi eco-warrior thing!) and ideally would like to go for a TV no smaller than 46". I want Full HD 1080p resolution with 24fps support for Blu-Ray and will be using it mainly for gaming (XBOX360), watching movies and watching TV - sports are not that important as I tend to watch with friends elsewhere. Naturally a digital tuner inbuilt and around a 120 degree viewing angle.

My maximum budget is around the £2100 mark, although anything lower would allow me to purchase an HDD/DVD recorder unit and/or other items. Thusfar, I've been swayed by the following TV's in the order listed (plus any reservations) and the price I'd be paying for each approximately:

Samsung 52" F96 (LED Backlit) - LE52F96BDX - £2120 (inc.5 year warranty). The in-built speakers seem excellent but I fear that I'm just being blinded by the ludicrous black rating and the TV has received very mixed reviews which suggests it's a blinding gimmick.

LG Scarlet - 47" - 47LG6000 - £1300 (inc. 5year warranty). Can't find any reviews yet although the specs look impressive (especially the response time) - doesn't say whether it supports wall mounting via standard brackets.

Sony KDL-46X3500 - £1980 (1 yr warranty). Although excellent reviews, I can't help feeling I'm paying an extra £500 for the honour of buying a Sony, the specs seem somewhat lower than comparibly priced sets of a similar size and a 5-year warranty is prohibitively expensive.

This list is not exhaustive but these are the 3 TV's I'm currently pondering. I've gone through the What Hi-Fi ratings and other site ratings. Any other suggestions would be welcomed along with critique / experienced thoughts on the above TV's. I need to make a decision within the next month as that's when the house redecoration will be completed.

Thanks all - sorry it's a long one!

Jon.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Hi Jon,

Well, we haven't reviewed the LG, so can't comment on that. Of the sets you've listed, i'd opt for the Sony - though we've had a peek at the new W4000 models and they look something very special indeed - definitely worth seeing in action.

Still think you're missing a trick with plasma, though - just watch it a little less and save the planet that way (or turn the heating down a notch/run your washing machine/dishwasher on a lower setting.) Compromise slightly elsewhere in life and you'll enjoy better home entertainment....

(Oh, and BTW - many 2008-gen plasmas use far less electricity, have eco-modes, and are lead-free).

 

[D.J.KRIME]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
Hi Jon,

Well, we haven't reviewed the LG, so can't comment on that. Of the sets you've listed, i'd opt for the Sony - though we've had a peek at the new W4000 models and they look something very special indeed - definitely worth seeing in action.

Still think you're missing a trick with plasma, though - just watch it a little less and save the planet that way (or turn the heating down a notch/run your washing machine/dishwasher on a lower setting.) Compromise slightly elsewhere in life and you'll enjoy better home entertainment....

(Oh, and BTW - many 2008-gen plasmas use far less electricity, have eco-modes, and are lead-free).

[/quote]

I am with Clare here as at screen sizes of this magnitude a Plasma is far superiour to a LCD and will cost you far less. If you compare say 2 Samsung sets the PS-50P96FDX Plasma to the LE52M96BD you will save almost £1000 buy getting the Plasma. Both are Full 1080p/24fps sets but with the Plasma you will enjoy far better colour rendition and motion which is the primary job of the TV, Your enjoyment!!!

Yes the LCD does use less power @ 310w/PH compared to 520w/PH of the Plasma but there are far better ways to save the Planet which your £1000 saving on the Plasma could go towards. I Own My own Construction company and the amount of wasted energy on 85% of our homes is terrible! The £1000 could go towards propper wall/loft insulation which will save you serious money on your heating costs in the Winter and keep your Home cooler in the Summer. Energy efficient light bulbs + turn off light when not in the room(really cool if you fit motion sensors to do this automatically).Ditch the old Boiler and go for a effiecient Combi or even better Solar pannels for your hotwater, the list is endless but put it this way my house is very eco-friendly (we even have a system to recycle bath/shower water to use in the loo and washing maching) but there is now way on Earth that I would compromise picture quailty when watching a movie or a session on my 360 by opting for a LCD!

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry this has nothing to do with TVs but DJ which heating system would you recommend to replace solid fuel?

 

[D.J.KRIME]

[quote user="Scotsgirl"]Sorry this has nothing to do with TVs but DJ which heating system would you recommend to replace solid fuel?[/quote]

Dont dissmiss solid fuel so quickly Scotsgirl as there are some fantastic Stove systems with back-boilers out there that not only do a good and economical job(especially if you use dead felled tree logs rather than the often green woog sold in petrol stations) they also look lovely. I have 2 stoves and 1 open fire in my house which provide heating and hotwater on days where my solar panels cant supply the water. The downside of this system is it is expensive to install, so a more cost effective system is to install a good say POTTERTON Combi boiler and limit the amount of hot water you use by taking showers rather than baths, cold input on your washing Maching etc, and turning the thermostat on the heating down a tad. A good bioler will cost about £1000 installed.

Thought this was a Hifi forum LOL

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for the feedback.

Having seen what most of you are saying, you have swayed me to look more into the potential of a Plasma TV (inspite of quality degradation / screen burn paranoia! p ). Also, looking at the "best buy" tables, a lot seem to be around the 4 - 5 star mark.

So now, being admittedly lazy, can anybody point me in the direction of a "recommended" Plasma TV, with at least 2 HDMI (pref. 3+), around the £1200 - £2000 price range? Sorry - as all of my searching has been in LCD, I'm completely blown away by the options available! Ideally, 50" 1080p and excellent for gaming / HD movie viewing with inbuilt digital tuner.

As I say, I'd ideally like to purchase by mid-June.

Thanks again,

Jon.

P.S. my home's pretty energy efficient but the idea of having a near-perfect representation from my gaming / movies has swayed me.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

I have the Samsung PS-50P96FDX and cant recomend it highly enough at its price point, and with a little Googleing can be found for under £1200, I got mine from Crampton and Moore and they were excellent.

The set is Full HD 1080p and also able to run Blu-Ray at 1080p/24FPS at 24htz so no screen judder for BD playback. Its is also a rather nice set design wise on the eye which helps keep the Wife happy, but Proformance wise it is great even with SD, but does excell when fed a HD image from either my 360 od PS3.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="D.J.KRIME"]
[quote user="Scotsgirl"]Sorry this has nothing to do with TVs but DJ which heating system would you recommend to replace solid fuel?[/quote]

Dont dissmiss solid fuel so quickly Scotsgirl as there are some fantastic Stove systems with back-boilers out there that not only do a good and economical job(especially if you use dead felled tree logs rather than the often green woog sold in petrol stations) they also look lovely. I have 2 stoves and 1 open fire in my house which provide heating and hotwater on days where my solar panels cant supply the water. The downside of this system is it is expensive to install, so a more cost effective system is to install a good say POTTERTON Combi boiler and limit the amount of hot water you use by taking showers rather than baths, cold input on your washing Maching etc, and turning the thermostat on the heating down a tad. A good bioler will cost about £1000 installed.

Thought this was a Hifi forum LOL

[/quote]

Cheers DJ and sorry for going off topic!!!lol

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Have alook at Panasonics 2008 plasma's. I have the new 42" PZ85 and it's amazing. A huge step up in performace/quality than my brothers 1 year old sony bravia lcd.

There's also the new Freesat Pany's that are about to be released. All Full HD http://whathifi.com/television/archive/2008/05/14/news-panasonic-s-three-new-freesat-plasmas.aspx

EDIT: Also you might be able to get a 2007 range Pioneer Kuro with that sort of budget. But they don't have the freesat tuners if that interests you.

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

You'd be crazy not to at least consider a 50" HD-Ready Pioneer Kuro on that budget, as SpiceWeasel mentions above. I know I'm probably going to get shot because it's not Full HD, but in the case of the Kuro it makes little difference. Once you see it alongside Full HD models from other manufacturers from a regular viewing distance, the question of resolution really does got out of the window. The 5080XD can be found for around £1700 on the net. It's definitely worth an audition alongside the other contenders. If you save up for another few months, you might even be able to push the budget out to one of the new 9th Generation Full HD models which are launching soon.

 

[Anonymous]

Have to agree with Fuzzy on this one ! My mates Kuro 5080 is fantastic and at 2 grand he thinks it was great value !! Which it was, but I haven't the heart to tell him they're nearly 600 quid cheaper 6 months on.

But with the new 9th Gen screens coming soon, the price can only keep going down.

On a side note, my other friend, who has a Sony kdl40x3000 has just commended me on the pic on my Panny 37'' plasma (px80) and couldn't believe I paid less tha 600 quid for it.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, today I spent an extended lunch-hour meandering the electronics stores of Wolverhampton and checking out Plasma Screens.

Regarding the 8th Generation Kuros, I agree the picture quality is superb - probably the finest picture I've seen, but the "budget version," being only 720 res, and the only one I could afford, means I think I'd be missing out, plus the lack of true 24fps support for HD-content doesn't provide quite as much future-proofing as I'd like.

I was also impressed by the Panasonic sets I saw, One that really caught my eye was the Panasonic TH-50PZ80B but it also troubles me that the 46" Z80B set is £500 cheaper with identical specification! Wasn't too impressed with the Sharp styling or the overall picture quality and was warned off both Phillips and LG panels by several shop assistants.

The Freesat tuner is of interest to me but, having compared the Z80 to the Z81 specs, both seem identical TV sets, just with different inbuilt tuners and, doing an online price search, an extra £500 regardless of size for an inbuilt FreeSat tuner and an optical out seems a little extreme. I can't help feeling I'd be better off buying a separate FreeSat box, waiting until they have built in HDD and DVD-RW capability which, hopefully (please correct me if you know something I don't!!!), will be available in about 3 months' time and probably cost around if not less than £500!

Again, to all posters, thanks for your input - if there's anything else you want to add, please do as I'm not decided and still evaluating - but will happily admit that Plasma picture quality seems to be noticably superior to LCD panels of a similar size, And that the VanMan "oh sugar help" thread is timeless...

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

[quote user="Pseudodenys"]
Regarding the 8th Generation Kuros, I agree the picture quality is superb - probably the finest picture I've seen, but the "budget version," being only 720 res, and the only one I could afford, means I think I'd be missing out, plus the lack of true 24fps support for HD-content doesn't provide quite as much future-proofing as I'd like.
[/quote]

Fair enough but do bear two things in mind:

Firstly, at over 8feet away or over, the human eye has difficulty differentiating levels of detail between a 720p and a 1080p feed. There are many people on these forums who have saved themselves a lot of money by realizing that Full HD would be of absolutely no use to them because of their viewing distance. It's been pretty much universally acknowledged that the 50" HD Ready Kuro outperforms just about every Full HD set out there with both HD and with SD especially. Don't get too caught up in the numbers game especially if you're sitting at a sensible viewing distance.

Secondly, you're wrong about the 'lack of true 24fps support'. Pioneer were one of the first companies to implement support for 24fps material, two generations ago, using a special 72hz mode which means that you see 24fps material at its native speed. Panasonic have finally caught up with their current generation.

Obviously you might still decide differently but it's good to have the facts. Good luck which ever one you go for.