A visit to the Sony centre And...

Passport

Hi, my Dad is just back form the sony centre, and completely out of the blue decided he wants a Sony bravia w-series 1080HD1080 Lcd television, it is roughly 300 and comes with a dvd recorder, he is unsure of wether the dvd recorder is hd ready or not,
I on the other hand am not so sure about Sony and the sony centre and would apreciate any advice on other televison sets to purchase, he wants a roughly 40 inch one, and would prefer the 2000 mark if possible,
He was led to believe that Lcd is "far better" than plasma is this the case, for ordinary use, ntl digital/hd dvd's is there much of a difference?
also should he purchase a hddvd player now or wait for the ps3 which contains both hddvd and blu-ray and will bring the price of other players down,
thanks for your advice

melekalikimaka

lcd is alot better than plasma.... sony are dandy...i'm not expert but thats my 2cent

IgsTer

yeah lcd all the way..plasma suffers from burn in's..bigger pixels which mean that images wont look as crispy clear.. and they usually use up alot more power..so if your getting a ps3 youll have big problems with burn in's and the bigger pixels..

where the only small little things that are wrong with lcd's are things like refresh rates but once its 8ms there will be no problem and most new lcd's are 8ms..so no worrys there...

they dont suffer from burn in's and have smaller pixels so the image loks crispy clear and excellent for using with consoles or pcs..so ill definetly go with lcd..plasmas will eventually be gone...where as lcds will not..

and for sony..id say its probably one of the best brand of teles you can get without a doubt..

decob

Passport wrote:

also should he purchase a hddvd player now or wait for the ps3 which contains both hddvd and blu-ray and will bring the price of other players down,
thanks for your advice

ps3 only has blu-ray not hddvd

Sparky

Not to mention plasmas are a bastard to hang as they are heavy. LCDs images looks alot colourfull also.

Dr. Nick

Don't buy from a Sony Centre. I just bought the Sony 32V2000 for 1449 from komplett.ie , it's 1899 at Sony centres.

rasper

Alot of myths spread about plasma in general, spread by salespeople in general, ultimate test is compare side by side plasma vs lcd, and plasma wins hands down, colours, blacks and clean , fast moving images. No comparison .

agree wit the over priced sony centre comments though.

big_moe

thank you rasper! i work in a well known tv shop and we have HD LCD's and plasmas connected side by side to HD signals. LCD's are extremely impressive on the HD content but when on a weak signal, not so good. im not giving salesman bullsh1t here, i have plasma as my main tv and then 2 lcd's for kitchen and computer room. i prefer the image on the plasma and they are all getting the same connection. On the W-series, it is a beautiful set and there is only 1 lcd to beat it, the sony X-series! as i stated already, they are stunning on HD but sometimes the images look "flat" on SD gear.

Sony centres are obviously giving a biased opinion as sony do not make plasmas, so they tell everybody that lcd is the best. this is not the case, i see these TV's every single day and i can tell you that plasma is the way to go.

just look at them side by side, obviously not possible in sony centres, but many other specialist shops (Like mine:)) have sony, panasonic, pioneer etc all side by side and then you can compare.

for 2k the best tv at the moment is the Panasonic TH-42PV60 plasma. it doesnt have 1920X1080 resolution like the sony but at the moment that resolution is unnecessary i think.

check this out if you need further proof http://www.plasma-lcd-facts.eu


moe

big_moe

and im guessing you meant 3000 for the tv. and the dvd recorder is a basic GX120 sony deely. or you are entitled to use the value of that recorder (roughly €230) off any other dvd recorder or home cineam system. i would recommend you splash out a few quid more for the HXD860, hdd and dvd recorder with HDMI upscaling.

moe

Dr. Nick

Thanks moe. Nice to see good info backed up with experience.
Looking at rf feeds in the shops is a waste of time, I just wish more salespeople had more training.
I'm no techie, but it was embaressing how much more I knew than 100% of the people I spoke to while looking for a new tv in Currys/Harvey Norman etc. I can't go to Peats anymore as I'm exiled in Cork.
So, I relied on the internet for my purchase.

Sony seem to have brought LCD to a new level, if I believe what I read?

big_moe

yeah the new sony lcd's are really impressive, picture and aesthetics. dont get me wrong anybody, they look brilliant on good signals (Sky/HD/DVD etc) but if u have standard ntl, get a plasma!! yeah thats why i cant understand how the likes of dixons etc sell their tvs... rf all over the shop looks brutal. thats why we use good HD sources all over our shop, and peats are not too bad either as they have a good few HD sources on display. I feel bad in a way for the likes of Harveys etc.. cos the staff can be in any area on any day so their knowledge may not be the best!

moe