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My old TV has finally decided to blow up FML so i need to buy a new one.

I've not bought a tele for at least 7 years so am looking for advice on what sort to get.

My old tv is an analogue 28" and i sit approx 12' from it and at that range is a little small for the distance. I mention size and distance because i have no idea which size to get, i don't want anything too small obv.

Also being a techno newbie could you tell me the difference between LCD and plasma please? Which is best?

All i watch on the tv really is mainly sport and documentary's and occasionally play the Wii on it also have an HD virgin box.

Budget is around £400 but could squeeze a bit more.


Saw this one http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-viera-tx-p42c2b-42-hd-ready-plasma-tv-05047416-pdt.html?srcid=369&xtor=AL-63

Any good?

Thanks  :)

I asked on here when I got mine, and there are a few who know there stuff who advised me.  Also worth going to avforums.com and looking on there.

From what I think I was told, LCD is better for dealing with movement (so if you watch a lot of sport) and so I think is generally better than an equivalent plasma (might be wrong and I'm sure someone will correct me).  LCDs suffer in direct sunlight compared to plasmas - so might be a consideration for you.  To add to that, there are the newer LED screens, but they're a fair bit more expensive.

LCD FTW; would also get 37"+

Both good deals I reckon:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/sharp-lc40ct2e-40-full-hd-lcd-tv-04982318-pdt.html

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/lg-37ld450-37-full-hd-lcd-tv-04892124-pdt.html

Plasmas can be great if you've got the budget. The £2k pioneer PDPxxxxxxx (don't know what it's called these days) was the absolute nuts dealing with anything you could through at it.

The £700 LG plasma that I ended up with isn't so great. If you look very carefully parts of people's faces don't move because the screen doesn't recognise some subtle movements of slightly diferent colours.

It still looks good hanging on the wall though so I don't mind too much.

If you've got £2k to spend I'd get a plasma or LED.

For £400 you should def get an LCD.

Pretty much this. You won't get a particularly decent plasma for £400. Plasmas have the advantage in colour reproduction and (sorry Kin, got to contradict you) movement. LCDs lose resolution when things are moving. An LCD screen will probably last longer though - plasmas gradually lose brightness, although it's still thousands of hours of viewing before it's noticable. That said, if you can get a Panny Vierra plasma for £400, I'd go for it, they are very good.

Ah, scratch that, the linked one is only "HD Ready", that means it does 720 lines only, which is fine for Sky, but if you want to play Blurays, best to get a "Full HD" one, which does 1080 lines. The Full HD Panny on Dixons is: http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-viera-tx-p42s20b-42-full-hd-plasma-tv-04965896-pdt.html. Quick scan on pricerunner.co.uk and the Dixons price looks pretty good.

Matt - unfortunately, Pioneer stopped making their Kuro plasma screens a couple of years ago - any screens they sell will be rebranded Panasonic. Which is fine, but the Kuro screen was always the best, although you paid through the nose for them.

As to size, if you're 12' away, even a 50" wouldn't be too big, frankly. I sit that far away (or maybe even a bit less) from a 50" Panny plasma, and it's almost starting to look small :). You'll get used to it very quickly.

And I'd second the advice to check out avforums.com - lots and lots of serious AV geeks on that one (including me :)). Check out the Member's Home Cinema Gallery, then prepare yourself to want to go very balla.

Oh, and don't forget to budget for a wall bracket or a stand, unless you have one already. And don't buy this from Dixons - it's stuff like this they actually make a profit on. Oh, and definitely don't buy cables from them. You'll need a HDMI cable to connect the Virgin box to the TV, and if you spend more than £5 on one, you've been ripped off. Digital 1s and 0s can't degrade over a cable (unless you're running it >10m anyway).

Amazon is your friend!!

Just a quick search on my iPhone and this is the first that popped up.......

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B003H1048C/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1286977796&sr=8-1

I thought I'd got the advice about LCD v Plasma from avforums, and that for the price we're talking about the LCDs gave better clarity with movement compared to same-priced plasmas?  So that's not the case?

Good, reasonably brief article comparing them here (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-hXun82zkVwS/learn/learningcenter/home/tv_flatpanel.html). Maybe you've misremembered?

People tend to recommend LCD for gaming, as you can get higher resolutions on a smaller screen, and if you're going to be playing the same game for hours plasmas have a potential burn-in issue with static parts of the screen (status/health/map displays for instance). This is somewhat dependent on the quality of the plasma - I've never really suffered it on a Panasonic screen.

Edit: Price for price, you'll probably get better picture processing on an LCD, you're right about that bit, which should improve the motion handling somewhat.

Thanks guys for some great advice.

Don't have a DVD player downstairs so the HD ready plasma would be ok for just running my virgin box?

But do go down to Currys or Comet to have a look at the tellys - this is the best way of judging which size would be best for you and your room.

Then buy it off the internet.

^^THIS^^

I've been double mis-quoted. Don't buy accessories and cables from Dixons is what I actually said. Dixons (online only these days) actually has pretty competitive prices on the TVs themselves, plus a good size company is likely to have better after-sales. Not saying you should buy it from there, just don't discount them. pricerunner.co.uk is your friend for TVs. Pixmania probably cheapest, but I suggest you avoid, they sell grey import European stuff, and don't have a good reputation.

And be careful comparing TVs in a shop. They'll often be set up to be very bright, with high contrast. Makes them look vibrant under shop lights. Then you get them home and they look bloody awful.

Oh, and do use a simple calibration once you've had it on a few hours. Any Lucas DVD (eg new Star Wars ones) will have a THX calibration in a menu somewhere. Simple steps to get brightness, contrast and sharpness to decent settings.

If it's a Virgin HD box then yes, fine. But you may kick yourself in future when/if you invest in a bluray player (or PS3). Missing out on some high def-ness.

Yeah, Rex, I totally committed death by snippage. Apologies.

Yes it is a hd box plus luckily they gave me a free hdmi cable

After weighing up all the options i decided to get this one

http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-viera-tx-p42c2b-42-hd-ready-plasma-tv-05047416-pdt.html?srcid=369&xtor=AL-63

Think it will serve our purpose at a good price.

Its being delivered this afternoon, Do these modern new fangled tv's take much setting up?

Only thing connected to it will be the Virgin+ box.

Should pretty much set itself up. If the only thing you're connecting is a Virgin box, that should be HDMI. Warning here - only make/break HDMI connections with both devices completely powered off (not even on standby). Other than that, you should be fine.

Why ?

Erm maybe cos u might blow summet up!!

Not sure, just repeating a common AVForums warning. Believe there can be problems with shorting and/or static, and there are some delicate digital chips at either end. Also, the devices have to handshake over HDMI for the HD copy protection stuff, which is almost certainly more likely to happen properly if you turn-it-off-and-on-again. You won't necessarily kill anything, but I've never thought it was worth taking the risk.

So if I take a lead out of summit it might blew up,sure seems likely.

Do it then see what happens and report back to us!

Been switching leads between sky/ps3 for months, several times a day too. No problem (yet).

Should have a tv for each IMO!

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/2-way-automatic-hdmi-switch.html?id=iVFhKDsY

Or one of a bajillion others that do the same thing. Or get yourself a decent AV amp with switching built in. And 5.1 speakers, inc a monster sub. I've just bought one of these (http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-pb13ultra.cfm). Well, actually the previous model with only 750W amp. MMMMMmmmm. Chest-thumpingly lovely.

Lol. You big nerd!!!

How do you move the thing? It weighs 11st!!!!!

Is it powered seperately to the rest of the speakers? If not wtf kind of amp you got to drive that f**ker?

:). I called my brother, who helped. The wife refused to even try, the big wimp :). I live in a split level house, so we had to unpack it downstairs then carry it up a flight of stairs, with a bend in the middle, which was interesting.

Amp is built in. Almost all decent subs are active (ie internal amp). AV processor outputs a line-level sub output, sub amp (750W) does the rest.

Fortunately I live in a detached house, otherwise I think my neighbours would reeeeally hate me.

Compared to a lot of AVForums people, I'd barely qualify as mildly geeky, let alone nerdy. The really geeky ones build their plasma screens into a fake chimney breast, and then have a motorised screen for their projector coming out the coving.