corradoboy

If you can afford the PZ then get it. You may as well have 1080p for the sake a a couple of hundred quid IMHO. A bit more future-proofing.

If money is no object then the X1 NEO panels due soon look amazing, but they are going to be IRO £3k. The new 12th gen PZ/X90 models are also due in March and will be very reasonably priced. I believe the 50" is quoted as £999 RRP from day one.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Just went to my local currys store to view what they had on offer (wouldn't buy from there!) I was quite impressed with the LG plasma. It had a hd feed as well as the panny PZ's and to be honest, I couldn't tell the difference. In fact, I actually preferred the LG! 50inch tv for just £800. Very tempting.

phoenixgold

iTrader: (2)

I have just bought This LG from richer sounds and am very happy with it. Not supposed to be full hd, but the PS3 has gone into 1080p. It's good on SD from the virgin box, but looks better connected on the HDMI than the scart. Paid £670 with the 5 year warranty!

Dream Weaver

You don't need 1080p at 42" and SD viewing is better on 720p as well.

Buy the Panny 42 from John Lewis with 5 year guarantee and price match it as well, you won't be disappointed!!!

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Looks like it is going to be a THPX4280 then.

Thanks for the advice peeps.

T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

Keep us updated

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

It's just going to be difficult to resist those 50inch jobbies when I stand there, wallet ready!

T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

To be honest I wish I had bought a 50/52" instead of the 42" you soon get use to the size.

corradoboy

But for the minor price hike, you may as well. Get the best from BluRay, Sky HD or HD channels on Freesat for now, but be ready for more future HD material. When 1080p PDP's first arrived they were £5-6k over 720 (768 pixels) sets at £1200 or so and I could never have condoned the extra cost, indeed I didn't when I bought my 720p 50" Pana and did a visual comparison of the newest Pioneer 1080p set. Now a 1080p is only £100-200 more you may as well have it as not IMHO.

Agree about JL price-matching. Visit the Plasma forum on AV Forums for a big guide on the rules and tricks, and lots of other peoples price finds that have worked for them

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

A budget is a budget though. Otherwise, where do you stop. Are you really saying you notice a difference between 1080 and 720 feeds? Because I can't!

It's more of a 'mine's bigger than yours' affair! If I can get a fantastic tv for £600 that will suit my needs, why would I spend £800?

Diesel

TOTALLY and UTTERLY disagree

SD was designed for 17" screens back in the 60's. It was a vast improvement over 405 line mono... NOTHING remotely like designed to transmit or fill a 42"screen...

D

corradoboy

Simple, if you can neither afford it, nor justify it then get a 720. If a couple of hundred extra on a 'once in ten+ years' purchase which will give many thousands of hours of entertainment is affordable, then why not get the best your wallet can stretch to ?

Diesel

Damnit - just to throw a spanner in the works....WHO transmits 1080P??? No one! And I doubt we will see it (FAR too high a bandwidth - you can get 2 x 1080i in there...) Discuss D

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Have just seen a 42PX80BA in House of Frasier for £550 ex display, with a 5 year warranty! The sales guy said it had been on display since December, so I reckon 10 hours a day for 10 weeks, so around 700 hours?

Does this still seem like a good deal? Otherwise it is 1 to 2 week wait for a new one to be transferred from another store (only 8 left in the country at H of F!) and the price would be £620.

corradoboy

For £70 more get a new one.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Got the ex demo in the end, as it was in 'as new' condition. The guys at House of Fraiser let me watch and check the tv over whilst they boxed it up for me. The original stand had a scratch on it, so they replaced that with a brand new one.

So, £550 for a TH42PX80BA and a 5 year warranty. Job done.

Have already played on the xbox and watched a dvd. Absolutely blown away with the quality. So thanks for the recommendations peeps. Very happy so far!

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Just watched 'Vantage Point' in the dark with the mrs whilst stuffing our faces with milk tray and sipping on champers. The Panasonic Viera is a master piece. It truely felt like we were at the cinema. And that's with playing the film via dvd through the xbox, god only know what it is like on Blue-Ray!

And to top the lot, the inlaws have just offered us £150 for our trusty philips LCD, so the panny will have only cost us £399.95!

corradoboy

Have you got surround sound ?

DTS

Sonic'

TV's are no longer a once in a ten+ years purchase, they might have been in the days of CRT but the ten+ years purchase thing went out years ago

besides, early LCD's & Plasmas struggle to last 2-3 years

corradoboy

If my PDP isn't still running in 10 years I'll be annoyed. It's stated as 30,000 hours until it reaches half brightness, which can be balanced over its lifetime as it's running at 40% now anyhow. 8 hours a day will see it run for 10.27 years

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Yes, but if you are really bothered about having things like 1080p now, don't you think that it will be obsolete in 10 years time anyway?

And no, we don't have surround sound..........yet!

Sonic'

Technology is changing far too much for people to not want to change TV's its been happening for a while now already for those reasons such as HD etc

Leslie

Just took delivery of a Panasonic 42" Plasma with Digi tuner having been reading this thread.

I support all the good things which have been said. The SD picture is a big improvement on my previous plasma which was SD only. The 1080p seems to improve the SD picture enormously and I am looking forward to seeing the HD when I get the Sky+HD box. I found the digital signals to be much better than I expected too.

Les

Diesel

L - you will LOVE it when you get the HDMI lead from your SKY HD box connected up. SD pics look SO much better. Fiddle with the 720p or 1080i outputresolution choice on the SKY box to get the output that best suits your TV (720p might be a bit juddery on fast action).

Toys for the boys!

D

Leslie

Thanks Diesel-looking forward to it

Les

Sonic'

I have got a Toshiba 42" rear projection TV, cost me 60 quid and I have a full spare one in the garage too, with only a cracked screen from a Wii injury

I dont have HD or Blueray etc so the current TV is fine

I have also just managed to get a Toshiba 37" LCD HD TV too brand new, not sure what it is like though as I havent opened it or powered it on yet (I swapped it my boss for my pool table )

Dream Weaver

It's a well known fact that at 42" the difference between 1080 and 720 can only be seen if you sit far too close to the screen, most differences people think they see are the placebo effect.

720p is better for SD viewing as well, and the majority of us will view SD most of the time, I know I have no HD sources except PS3 but I don't buy BR discs.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Just been playing PGR4 on the Xbox 360. The quality is really impressive. I have it set on 1080i and it is hooked up by the standard component lead. Will I notice any further improvement via HDMI?

corradoboy

Depending on the quality of the DAC in the XBox and the ADC in the TV it may be a little sharper as HDMI is digital to digital. Don't be tempted to splash cash on any fancy HDMI cables though, £5 ones are as good as £90 ones, unless massive lengths are required.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Yea, I understand that. A digital signal is just that, a set of 1's and 0's. Think I'll just pick one up off ebay.