lcd v plasma 42"

man1

Hi was just wondering which is better,
plasma or lcd, I have heard that lcd is better for some things while plasma is better for others?
I have just got a lcd 42" philips from DID electrical.
It is a philips model number 5421 lcd 42" hdmi .
Does anyone know about this model if it is any good? I cant find it on any philips website.

Ivan E

It's really down to personal preference. As you say each one has their own advantages and disadvantages. LCD's are meant to be both lighter and less power consuming that plasmas as well as being better in bright rooms as they emit their own light. Plasma's have better blacks and can cover bigger sizes than LCD's.

I can't tell you about that individual model. I have gone into check them myself and really that's the best way to judge. Each time I have come out with a view that the plasma has the better picture. Certain plasma's are working on their weight, with LG having changed from a glass filter to a plastic one, easing the weight difference. Also with the power consumption, with the bigger LCD's the difference there seems not to be as great.

If you can get examples of them side by side, it's easier to make your mind up. But you can always get caught in the trap of not being sure and leaving it a little longer. Rule of thumb seems to be LCD for smaller tv's, under 37" with plasma's that size and above. LCD's are improving all the time. And there is always the problem of different quality feeds going in too.

But either way, it should be an improvement to what you have provided you feed it with the correct quality feed.

man1

Thanks for the reply.
It seems a good picture but when you watch football or something fast, it can be a little blurry. There are some issues with sound that I have put up on another post.
I rang the guy in the shop (DID) and told him I couldnt find the model on any philips website as I wanted to compare it to other philips(or other brand tvs) and he said I wouldnt be able to find it on any website (a bit suspicious, i think) as they were made for the Irish market and DID in particular. I never heard that before..... Maybe they got a bunch of 2nd's or rejects from philips.
What do ya think?
Can you look at my other post about the best way to connect it up, any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks again.

Ivan E

That's actually common enough. Irish tv's work off two bandwidths whereas in the UK they just work off VHF or something like that. So Irish tv's need different tuners and they release the same tv with a different tuner and give it a different model number.

So you just need to find out what the model number is in the UK and search a few websites, avforums being probably the best, for reviews.

As for connections on your other thread, I couldn't be sure. I think that's what I have at the moment but I am just working with a CRT tv. A component connection would be better than scart in terms of quality.

hshortt

First up.

here is the link to the TV spec and details on the Philips website.

Next - I've just replaced the kids plasma with this set and it is excellent! Also bought in DID for the current price.

Then - to get a good picture feed it a good signal. It cannot be stressed enough how important this is! I went a bought an upscaling DVD player (Samsung HD-860) to ensure I get a good feed from DVDs, I've also got NTL digital fed into it and this looks great. Lastly and most poorly old analouge ntl is also fed in and while not great it's perfectly watchable.

Connections - There is a little booklet in the box about the type of connections you can make to this set. Here's a little list of best to worst for picture quality.

1. HDMI
2. Component.
3. Scart (RGB)
4. Composite (yellow)

This set has two scart inputs, two HDMI inputs, component, all on the bottom and composite inputs on the side.

The only thing this set is missing is a digital tuner. But for that advantage you are looking at quite a bit more expense.

Lastly, in constrast to Ivan_E's post. The Irish and UK tv systems were/are different and years ago you couldn't get a tv in the UK because it couldn't tune channels here. However that's all long gone now and you can quite happily buy a tv online from the UK and it will work here.

For example, the Philips TV just discussed, when you turn this on it goes through a setup procedure and the first thing you do is select which country you are in. The TVs these days are nearly all like this. It's easier for the manufacturers this way as the same set can be distributed in many countries.

From personal experience and to back up the above, I bought my first Plasma from an online store in the UK over 18 months ago. A Pioneer 435 XDE. This is an English model and not sold here because it comes with two tuners, an analouge and a digital one. At the time I bought it the digital trials were not even running, so it was a feature I wasn't planning on using, however now that the trials are underway I've been able to make use of it by connecting a digital antenna and can happily get the Irish channels in full digital free to air quality!

Give me a buzz if I can be of any help,
Cheerio
Howard