Lum

Well we got the Panasonic 50PZ70 in the end.

The 700 does have a better scaler, we tested both using an anime DVD and you can see the difference on diagonal hard black lines but it wasn't £500 better and if it really comes down to it, I'll probably end up using a PC or PS3/X360 as the DVD player and use their scalers.

Ended up paying more than we'd planned because the sales guy in Richer Sounds (who actually worked out just as cheap as online once the warranty was included) was an idiot who made the mistake of talking down to my GF while trying to convince her that the 768 resolution LG that they had working and in stock was a better buy because "you have to upscale BBC HDs 1080i to 768 anyway" then got into an argument about whether it was upscaling or downscaling, getting annoyed she mentioned that he's talking himself out of a sale here to which he replied "I don't care, go somewhere else", so we went to Hinchleys in Cardiff who were really nice and helpful, let us muck around with both and even carted the things around the store for us so we could use the same DVD player for each test.

Sadly the TV wont fit in the back of my Legacy, so have to wait until Tuesday now

maps

iTrader: (3)

took me ayear of homework to make up my mind, every week it was defo one make then a diffrent one the next lol

if you buy cheap your buy twice, most of the top end makes are all good tv's its down to silly things which you will never use, and every one will tell you there tv is the best lol

work out your top 3 or 4 then use your eyes go look for your self, then buy the pioneer PDP508XD like i did lol

mark

Lum

For the price of the Pioneer though you could get any of the cheaper brands and a £1000 scaler and still have £500 change left over.

What we've ended up doing is building a new(ish) HTPC which will serve for playing BluRay, DVD and HD-DVD and we can run DScaler on it to sort out all my legacy VHS and LaserDisc material

MrRA

Surely if you can afford to buy a top spec Pioneer in the first place, £500 is of little consequence, and then to go to all the bother of hooking up a separate scaler etc when you could just buy a Pioneer set and have it do everything for you in one neat package.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

I would buy this one

LG 60PC45 Plasma 60" 16:9 Hd Ready Freeview | EmpireDirect.co.uk Electrical Appliances

Lum

That 60" one is likely going to be too big for the room in question, wont be enough room for all the speakers to be setup correctly.

What's annoying me now is you appear to pay "plasma tax" on any accessories. Want a stand thats the exact same size as a small coffee table but not as tall? Be prepared to pay triple the price for a bit of metal and glass thats had too many sodding "designers" working on it anyway.

davegtt

Glad you opted for the Panasonic, good choice

p.s. told you in the second post that was was no more need for the thread to continue (well apart from you chose the model down from my suggest for very fair reasoning )

SirFozzalot

I'm looking at buying the Panasonic 42" PZ70

Power Junkie

iTrader: (1)

The new Pioneers will be here soon, it will be worth waiting, they will all be full HD, so you can get the pdp428's for about £1500 now,

SirFozzalot

Am I right in thinking Full Hd is 1080p?

The Panasonic Viera TH42PZ70B is 1080p.

I keep waiting and there is always something new just about to come out, I will end up waiting forever at this rate!

corradoboy

Plenty of reasonably priced stands available if you search. I've seen 50" glass/chrome for under £100. We have THIS waiting for when we decorate in a few weeks, £235 delivered.

Dream Weaver

I know you've bought the PZ now, but if people are after a TV without speakers etc, then why not opt for a commercial panel?

MrRA

New Pioneers??? They are already here. This is their latest range of FULL 1080p panels.

Pioneer Plasma HD Ready Plasma TV

Power Junkie

iTrader: (1)

Not the new ones they will be out later in the year, they will use a media box again and they will all be full HD the 42" wont be a 42 but another 40 something inch and a smaller one along with the 50 and 60".

MrRA

I don't get what your saying sorry. The link I provided shows their range of FULL 1080p panels. I have one myself, the PDP-LX508D. So are you saying there is going to another lot coming along, when their new Kuro FULL 1080p range has only been out a couple of months??

Power Junkie

iTrader: (1)

Yes but it will change more in the smaller screens, the current models are the 8th gen 9th will be out around July time. the panels will be the same for the current 1080p screens, but they are going back to the media box idea so taking out the tuner/inputs on the screen. so no need to worry about the pdp-lx508 or 608D's the only change for them will be the media box.

stormyuklondon1

panasonic 50pz800 will be the set to i'll replace my 42pwd6 with..



The VIERA PZ800 series of 1080p Plasma televisions includes four screen sizes, the 42-inch class TH-42PZ800, the 46-inch class TH-46PZ800, the 50-inch class TH-50PZ800 and the 58-inch class TH-58PZ800. The PZ800 series meets the THX(TM) Certified Display specifications, signifying the highest standards of performance and quality. The PZ800 Plasma televisions feature an improved native contrast ratio of 30,000:1; Game Mode; VIERA Link; a PC Input, four HDMI connections and an all new one sheet of glass design concept.

should see them april/may time.

SirFozzalot

Sounds good. Any indication of price yet?

Lum

Arrived yesterday, haven't had much chance to mess around with it yet as the current project is to build the HTPC (which has a combo HD/BluRay drive, sod format wars and looking forward to lots of cheap 1080p discs soon), which wont happen until the bits are freed up from my GFs PC, which means getting that upgraded, which means backing everything up etc. etc. In any case I'm very impressed with what I've seen, looks much better than it did in the shop.

I'd just like to point out that I'm very very happy with the service received from Hinchleys in Cardiff. Rather than just sending two chavs in a Transit van, the two who turned up knew what they were doing (particularly with regards to not laying the thing on it's side) and were very careful about getting it up my stairs without damaging the thing, and then they went above and beyond the call of duty by shifting my ancient Toshiba 46WH08B rear projection to it's new location downstairs. Not having to move that ******* by myself was worth the extra money paid for the TV, I think!

Got a link to any? (that aren't sodding silver!) I spent pretty much the entire time between purchase and delivery looking for a reasonably priced stand. For now we're just using a coffee table, and I suspect it will be cheaper to put the beanbag on a few blocks of wood, rather than pay silly money for a stand that's 5 inches lower.

And yeah the PZ700 isn't worth it. From my research it's actually an older model, admittedly a higher spec one, the PZ70 has a better panel but less electronic trickery and less inputs. The only thing annoying me right now is that I have to hook up my S-Video kit to the connector on the side as both SCARTs are in use. That will be resolved once the HTPC is built though as I'm putting a capture card in there for scaling. Sky and PC - 2 HDMIs, it's all you need, we wont be playing games on it anyway. They can go downstairs on the old RPTV.

GazTheHat

Consider yourself lucky. My viera has no HDMI and only 1 component, plus the 1080 model is over £3000 cheaper.

stormyuklondon1

should release price info 1st march. being pana, keenly priced i suspect.

SirFozzalot

I have noticed that John Lewis no longer advertise the TH42PZ70B only the 50"

The PX70B has also been replaced with the PX80B still at the same price.

I wish I knew what the spec and price will be of the PZ80B so I would know whether to wait or to get one of the last PZ70B's while they are still available.

Anyone heard anything? I have looked everywhere and can't find any info at all.

pslewis

If Currys come and take my TV off me I will be going through all this again.

All the reviews and all the specs and all the talk on SN was to buy the Panasonic ..... down I went to pick one up, then I saw the LG ...... game over!

Now I know to ignore everyones elses opinions and buy with the eyes - the LG blows any Panasonic I saw into the weeds in pure Picture Quality terms - the LG looked so much better too (Cabinet wise), which was a Bonus.

The things I would do next time I buy a TV is:-

1. Buy with the eyes, note everyone else's opinion - but buy with the eyes!

2. Buy from somewhere with excellent Customer Service ... this means NOT buying from Currys, Dixons, Pixmania or PCWorld.

3. Buy a Plasma