Jamo

iTrader: (23)

hi all

been looking around for a decent but cheap plasma tv, I have found an LG one with all the spec of the £3k monsters, for £1500 delivered.

does anyone know of any others for around this price or less, with tuners and wall mounts etc?

jamo

djuk

To be honest at the moment, decent and cheap are not two words that go together when talking about plasmas - it really is a case of you get what you pay for. My other half's parents have an LG 42" and its not a bad screen in general but compared to the Panasonics I use at work its nowhere near in terms of colour reproduction or image sharpness.

If i had £1500 to spend on a TV I think it would have to go on a top end CRT rather than a low end plasma panel.

David

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

whats a crt mate?

do you know anything about these tft screens?

how do you rate projectors? do they last? how expensive/inexpensive are bulbs?



dont really want to spend more than £1800 on a tv.

jamo

Petem95

Panasonic 42" plasma, brand new for £1695 at http://www.richersounds.co.uk

Madjay2

if ur gonna spend less than 2.5k on a 42inche just dont bother and stop being a cheap ****! the cheaper ones are old generation plasma's which are ****e and why begrudge urself the extra cash when ur gonna have it for at least 6 to 8 years

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

not being cheap just realistic, ive just bought a house, and have to get everything!

so wanted a good tv to start with, I might just buy a projector and do it that way, at least you can strap them to the ceiling.

james

djuk

Only things to be careful of with a projector as a 'main' television is the fact that they are really difficult to watch properly in any amount of daylight because of the nature and the lamp life. Most projectors if used carefully will get approx 3000 hours of use on "economy" mode (not the best colour reproduction) before you need a replacement bulb fitting at £300-400 a time.

Mind, if you can pick up something like a Panasonic TH42PW6 cheaply that's a cracking screen for the money and they will be dropping in price shortly as the TH42PW7 is due out towards the end of this month. It's a monitor only option though - comes with no tuner etc so you'd need to invest in some external tuning device.

Hope this helps

David

pslewis

Stick with a 36" good CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV - thats the TV's that have been around for ever!

Plasma and LCD are dropping in price monthly - you would be a fool to jump now IMHO

Pete

mrklaw

a lot depends on your circumstances and living arrangements. TBH, my room is about 20' by 14', and a 42" panel would just be too overpowering. I put up bits of card cut to the right size to get an idea of how big they'd be when sitting down.

So I wall mounted a 30" LCD TV (same screen size as a 32" 'normal' TV), and that is perfect for Eastenders and Bob the Builder.

Then for movies or other 'event' watching like F1, I have a projector. 8ft wide image, and DVDs look great. You can pick up a good one like a panasonic AE300 or Sanyo Z2 for under a grand if you shop around.

Blackout lining is useful for watching during the day, but they are surprisingly practical.

Rob D

For £1500 your probably looking at an average discontinued plasma, the Panasonic someone has mentioned above is a excellent plasma but don't forget it is only a panel.

IMHO plasmas are still the better choice for large screens compared to LCD and of course cheaper, however plasma technology will eventually be replaced by LCD.
I think a lot of people would be suprised at what you can get picture quality wise from a plasma these days. Don't forget the crap compressed signal from Sky is going to look worse on a larger screen, it's not the screen it's Sky!

Yes prices are dropping but how long do you want to wait?? Decent 42" plasmas are not going to drop much below bottom end prices now, LCD are the big fallers.

The best thing you can do if possible is to have at look at all of the screens your interested in and decide from there.

Front projectors are excellent for movies but not ideal for day to day viewing, stick to LCD projectors if you can't demo them before hand as DLP may make you feel ill!!

Have a look at http://www.avforums.com for plenty of good advice on displays.

Madjay2

high definition tv is coming out in the next few years as well, the only plasma i know of that can properly display it is the new Pioneer

djuk

And Panasonic PW7 due at the end of the month. I think its going to become more and more of a common feature over the next year as we approach the launch of Sky HD in 2006 so the non-hd plasmas should drop quite a bit hopefully.

Rob D

Consumer models of the PW7 won't be HD, basically the same resolution as the PW6

djuk

Looks like you're quite right, just pioneer still then!

RB5-Black

if your going for a CRT you won't go far wrong with the Toshiba picture frames , think it's about generation 3 now and still very good. I've got a picture frame 2 36" and it's a very good TV.

Turbo_Steve

Or alternatively you could take a trip to the Sony Centre and have a look at one of their DLP rear projection TVs? £1800, 50", good black levels, nice picture, less than a foot deep and bulb life is about 10,000hrs (apparently). And because it's rear projection, you can use it in any thing but direct sunlight.

MJW

I had a look at these last time I was TV shopping and the picture quality is really good. But when I saw the Pixel Plus 2 set from Philips (32PW9509) I was just blown away, fantastic for DVDs. So I bought one CRT TV's are now as good as they're ever going to get, I think plasma/LCD still has some way to go with regard price and spec so I figured I'd wait a few more years. I certainly wouldn't shell out £1500 for the current slew of low-spec plasmas.