TV Newbie - Your Knowledge and Help Is Needed - What Should I buy!?

[Benjam34]

Hi,

This is my first post here, or on any forum actually, so go easy ha ha...

OK, so i'm looking for a new TV. It's the first time i've ever been able to afford a premium TV and finally join the big boys and I'm very excited to do so, but at the same time totally and utterly confused.

I have between £1600 and £2000 to spend and I'm looking for something between 47" and 50" give or take an inch either side.

Obvioulsy i'm looking for something with the best HD picture (I have Sky HD) and something that will compliment my Sony BDP-S790 Blu-ray. In addition I would like the best picture for standard definition tv and of course as best 3D as possible too. I'm not too fussed about the difference between 3 and 4 HDMI connections and so on, it's all about the picture (isn't it always?).

I keep reading reviews about tvs on one site that will rate it as the best then on another they'll say it's rubbish. I find it very difficult and confusing.

For example I have been looking at:

Panasonic TX-P50GT60B

Panasonic TX-P50VT65B

Panasonic TX-L47DT65B

Panasonic TX-L47WT65B

I have no idea why they're all Panasonics I've been looking at, it just seems to be what comes up when i search. I'm open to any model and make and I dont' really have a preference over Plasma or LED although I've read that Plasma is better for films?? But again I read great reviews and awful reviews about the above...

Looking at them in the show rooms never helps as they never calibrate them.

And if i'm spending this money I obviously want the best for what i'm spending. I'm aware there will always be compromises to be made and nothing will ever be as perfect as I want, but any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all very much in advance...

 

[j4mm3r]

Good luck my friend, its all subjective!

i have the Panasonic TX-P50GT60B and its great for hd but not as good for sd.

the bigger the screen you go, the more sd will deteriorate in quality. if all you watch is hd then size what bother you but if its 50/50 you may want to consider a 46, a 42 will certainly look good with sd. in the last 4 years i have had a 42, 46 & now a 50, with the 42 & 46 sd and dvds looked almost hd like, and a joy to watch whereas on my 50 its obvious its sd and i now have the sky hd package!

you could spend weeks/months as i have in the past studying and looking and you will find faults with all and positives with all, but all different for each set. also depends if you sit close or far away from your tv regarding size! leds appear brighter and sharper whereas plasma is a much more natural look.

my 3 sets have been philips £1800, samsung £2000 and panasonic £1350 all 5 star top of the range premium tvs, and i preferred the philips out of the bunch but then again some people dont like the extra processing a philips tv does!

demo some and try and watch all sources!

if you buy premium and are happy with what you see, take my word for it, it doesnt matter what others say as long as you are happy!

good luck

 

[Deleted member 2457]

The Panasonic VT65 from John Lewis has to be the best deal, and get a price match at £1469! That is a bargain. The WHF awards issue on sale next month too, I reckon it will take one of the awards for sure. But so will the GT60.

 

[theflyingwasp]

Hi there benjam34 welcome to the forum.you can't really go wrong with this years top Sony,Samsung and Panasonics .panasonic seems to be king of the hill just now .it will be interesting to see what Tvs come out on top with the 2013 what hifi awards.

for overall picture quality I would stick to plasma unless you are watching in a bright sunlit room most of time then I would stick to led as it will give you a much brighter image.

if you're a big movie fan yet again I would go plasma,for best 3d I think this years samsungs are the Tvs to beat

If it was my money I would be going for the panasonic vt65 it's got glowing reviews from everyone,or better yet save yourself a bit of money and go with the panasonic st60 ,check out some of the reviews of the st60 .

 

[strapped for cash]

Since SD performance is important, I'd add the 51" Samsung F8500 to your shortlist.

Panasonic plasmas produce a soft SD picture, which some people prefer. The F8500 produces a sharper SD image which I liked better. I'm not so concerned about my TV's upscaling performance, though, since I watch little SD TV and my Blu-ray player upscales DVDs extremely well.

As for compatibility with your Sony 790, you won't see any difference from TV to TV. A Sony Blu-ray player is no more or less compatible with a given brand of TV than any other. There's really no advantage gained from brand synergy in this regard.

The key point is to compile a shortlist and audition, preferably at a retail outlet that will let you see how each TV performs when switched out of Dynamic mode.

 

[jog3004]

Since SD performance is important, I'd add the 51" Samsung F8500 to your shortlist.

Panasonic plasmas produce a soft SD picture, which some people prefer. The F8500 produces a sharper SD image which I liked better. I'm not so concerned about my TV's upscaling performance, though, since I watch little SD TV and my Blu-ray player upscales DVDs extremely well.

+1 from me, I have the Samsung PS64F8500 & it is a superb plasma, & so far I haven't found any faults. I'd always bought Panasonic prior to this & planned to do so when I bought a new tv this month. The Samsung is brilliant if your room can bright, but also delves into black detail etc. with aplomb, & picture quality fared well against both the panasonic VT & ZT range that I also short listed.

 

[stevenjonas]

Can I join in, please? I'm also thinking of buying a new set. I still haven't made my mind up whether to go for Samsung or Panasonic. If I go down the Panesonic route, the TX-L47WT65B & the TX-L47DT65B both seem to fit the bill. However, I cannot discover what the difference is between them, except that the WT is about £300 more expensive than the DT? oke:

 

[bigboss]

Copy pasting from Trusted reviews:

While the DT65 models support local dimming in their edge LED lighting arrays using just six individually controllable blocks, the Panasonic L55WT65 ups the separately controllable dimming zones to 16. This should enable the flagship model to deliver a richer contrast performance while also suffering less with obvious light ‘blocking’ artefacts.

Also potentially significant is the Panasonic L55WT65’s much more potent motion processing, which delivers a pseudo 3600Hz effect versus the ‘mere’ (though actually huge by the standards of the TV world at large) 1600Hz of the DT65 range. Other differences between the WT65 and DT65 series are the WT65’s aforementioned built-in camera and more stunning design.

Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/panasonic-tx-l55wt65_TV_review_features-and-performance_Page-2#iXWYEURxzY8fjljX.99