Buying an LCD/Plasma in Dublin Tonight. Advice please.

JimiTime

Hello, y'all. I'm a first time poster here. My TV (CRT:o ) is on the blink, and I'd like to go get a new TV tonight. I'll be using it for watching tele, obviously, mostly Football and movies. Also playing my XBox 360. I'd like about a 40" - 42" screen. I've seen offers about for around €800. I think there's one in Dixons at the mo.
Basically, do i want LCD or Plasma? and all the hd ready stuff etc, how much will that matter for me. Another thing is, are all modern TV's widescreen? My CRT tele always cut off the edges. Your expertise would be greatly appreciated. Oh and if any of you know of certain ofers in certain shops etc, that'd also be great.
Thanks,
J.

PS. I've got a laptop with a VGA out. Can this be hooked into these new TV's, or is there a PCMCIA card or USB device which would allow such a thing?

AV - TEC

Hello,

Threes a lot of Pros and Cons between LCD & Plasmas so I wont bore you – I Recommend LCD

I don’t think you will get a decent LCD that size you’re looking for at €800 – I’d recommend LCD as they last longer, lower power consumption for the eco friendly race among us. VGA Input is the norm on all LCD TV’s, I’d defo recommend LCD if you intend to use it as a computer monitor as Plasma TVs don’t really do the job justice.

Your new TV and lets hope its going to be a LCD should have component input for your XBOX 360 so you will be able to see your games in HD or if it’s the Xbox elite it will have HDMI output now - *Make sure your new TV is FULL HD 1080P and Not HD READY which is 1080i**

As for widescreen or 16:9 format yes most modern TVs are in this format so that Nice RTE logo or Sky logo etc will never be missing and you will see allot more of the picture.

Hope I’m not too late and if you bought your TV already Happy Viewing!:-)
Regards,

David.

DanGerMus

Sorry AV-TEC but you just gave a whole lot of terrible advice there.

Firstly as you mentioned Football i'd reccomend plasma as the picture quality is just better and they don't suffer from trailing and ghosting like LCDs do. Modern plasmas do not suffer from the short lifespans and can nowadays match LCDs.

Secondly a full 1080p screen is not neccasary on anything less than 50 inches unless your sittinf like 4 feet away and even then you'll be hard pressed to notice a difference.

Thirdly HD ready means the tv has at least one hdmi input and relates to the types of signals it will accept and has nothing to do with the display format and most deffinatly does not mean 1080p as apposed to 1080i. Both of these formats are considered Full HD.

AV - TEC

DanGerMus wrote: »

Sorry AV-TEC but you just gave a whole lot of terrible advice there.

Firstly as you mentioned Football i'd reccomend plasma as the picture quality is just better and they don't suffer from trailing and ghosting like LCDs do. Modern plasmas do not suffer from the short lifespans and can nowadays match LCDs.

Secondly a full 1080p screen is not neccasary on anything less than 50 inches unless your sittinf like 4 feet away and even then you'll be hard pressed to notice a difference.

Thirdly HD ready means the tv has at least one hdmi input and relates to the types of signals it will accept and has nothing to do with the display format and most deffinatly does not mean 1080p as apposed to 1080i. Both of these formats are considered Full HD.

Ok looks like im going to have to bore you.

I recommend JimiTime go for a FULL HD TV as this will future proof him
Samsung have a great line up of FULL HD TVs – I have a 40” Full HD TV myself.

HD Ready and FULL HD has to do with the native resolution AND Not the amount of HDMI inputs.

And under no circumstances is a 1080i TV consider FULL HD as its pictures is “Interlaced” and not “Progressive”. If you’re going to challenge my advice again Id recommend not to as from what I can tell you don’t know what your talking about.

As for the football I didn’t MENTION football I recommended an LCD for use as a computer monitor and for use with his Xbox 360.

Regards,

David.

Cmar-Ireland

It's widely know that plasma is far superior for movies and fast paced action/sports, as there wont be any ghosting.
Check out the Panasonic and Pioneer range of plasmas. The Panas are the excellent (value for money wise) Pioneers are best, money no object. Both are a good bit more than €800, but that's the price for quality. LCD cannot match plasma black levels and this is a very important feature on a tv.

DanGerMus

AV - TEC wrote: »

I'm Sorry my friend - For starter’s im certified by INFOCOMM which means I Know what im talking about because if I didn’t id have no job.

Ok looks like im going to have to bore you.

I recommend JimiTime go for a FULL HD TV as this will future proof him
Samsung have a great line up of FULL HD TVs – I have a 40” Full HD TV myself.

HD Ready and FULL HD has to do with the native resolution AND Not the amount of HDMI inputs.

And under no circumstances is a 1080i TV consider FULL HD as its pictures is “Interlaced” and not “Progressive”. If you’re going to challenge my advice again Id recommend not to as from what I can tell you don’t know what your talking about.

As for the football I didn’t MENTION football I recommended an LCD for use as a computer monitor and for use with his Xbox 360.

Regards,

David.

re football: My post was directed at the op not you as they clearly stated they would like to watch football. I've seen a lot of LCDs efforts at displaying fast moving SD imagery and to put it bluntly they're nowhere near as good as Plasmas.

HD: high definition, relates to pixel resolution not the scan i know the difference.

There are thousands of 'HD ready' badged TVs out there most of which display no higher than 720p. Which as you should already know is an accepted HD standard but by no means 1080i.

HD ready means that the tv will accept a HD signal it does not mean it will display it. Simply put it has a HMDI input. A simple browse through the specs of one of these tvs would tell you that. I am also aware there are other HD inputs but where you find them you'll generally find HDMI along side it.

1080i/p is completely unnecasary on a 42inch unless you intend to hook a pc up to it and even then the worst that you'd have to deal with is large icons and text. You simply cannot see the difference at a normal viewing distance of 8-10 feet.

<SNIP !>

preilly79

<SNIP !>

segasega

Don't want to start fights now do we.

<SNIP>

The Ritz

AV - TEC,

If you’re going to challenge my advice again Id recommend not to as from what I can tell you don’t know what your talking about.

We try to keep this a friendly place - your comments are unacceptable. Whatever your background or qualifications, you don't have a monopoly on giving advice. You (and anyone else for that matter) are warmly welcome here, but I regard you post above as belligerant, so take this as a friendly warning, any more of that and you'll earn yourself a holiday from the fourm.

and not HD READY which is 1080i**

Just for the record, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_ready. HD ready means a display having a minimum native display resolution of 720 horizontal lines in widescreen ratio, and certain minimum connection types and display capabilities - your comment above is amiguous to say the least.


JimiTime,

Welcome to our world :eek:

You could do with reading some of the other posts on the forum about choosing a tv and it might give you some pointers - you could go to DID or Powercity or Peats or any other showroom, see what looks good to you and ask here for opinions from people who already have the same model.

As for the HD ready issue, if you're looking at a screen size of 40 - 42 inches and watching non-HD sources (ie, tv from sky or NTL, dvds etc) in the main, then a tv carrying the "HD Ready" label would do fine.

I believe that future proofing is only relevevant if being able to watch tv and movies froma HD source (ie SkyHD or Bluray) on a full HD screen is important to you. At normal living room viewing distances on a 40 - 42" screen the difference in appearance of HD material on a "HD Ready" as opposed to a full HD tv is visible if you're used to comparing the two, but only a subtle difference (if that) to the casual viewer. You could try to see both types in action with the same material and make a decision yourself whether the difference in cost is worth it to you.

To give you a starting point, Powercity have the following around your budget - a Philips 42PFP5332 42" HD Ready Plasma at €725 (with an online discount), a Samsung PS42A451 42" HD Ready Plasma at €799, an LG 42PG30 42" HD Ready Plasma at €849, and a Sony KDL40P3020U 40" HD Ready LCD at €849. I'm not suggesting that these are the only ones available to you but you could have a look at these and see where you go from there.


Ritz.

The Ritz

segasega, preilly79,

Easy there lads............


DanGerMus,

You've made your point clearly without the sentence I snipped, no need to embellish it further !

No further interjections from the sidelines, please.



Ritz.

preilly79

aww Ritz, no fun I was hoping my comment would end the bickering before it started

The Ritz

aww Ritz, no fun I was hoping my comment would end the bickering before it started

A likely tale.............. play nice, now.


Ritz.

JimiTime

Thanks for the advice guys. I didn't get one tonight, but I'll be on the lookout. Want to know what I'm buying a bit more. I'll have a look round, and likely be back to quiz yee:)
Cheers,
J.

BTW ritz, thanks for posting the powercity offers. I'll check em out.

The Ritz

No problem,

Come back and let us know how you get on.



Ritz.

Senenpeter

Haha Hillarious!

Kashkai

OP, why don't you try some of the online retailers who are usually a lot cheaper than our DID's and the like.

I bought a 46in samsung (full hd) for €1,380 online while the same tv is nearly €2,000 in Powercity and DID.

gebbel

Read this. Hopefully it will help you understand better the differences. I would personally recommend Toshiba, nobody has mentioned them yet. I would also agree with the online purchase suggestion...you should check out pixmania.ie and komplett.ie

Senenpeter

Purchased an 42LG6000 nega 42" true HD (1080P, 24p, 100hz, 4x HDMI connections & USB input...) LCD in PC world in carrickmines last night for €1090 (special down from €1350)...awesome features, and surreal picture quality with bluray through PS3

Was initially sceptical of LG but the guys in stuff magazine reckoned it was a breakthrough so I went to check it out.. Im really happy with the purchase...plus its got the coolest on/off feature I've ever seen in a tv...

Cmar-Ireland

Senenpeter wrote: »

...plus its got the coolest on/off feature I've ever seen in a tv...

ironclaw

Also you may wish to consider "Contrast Ratio" (not to be mistake with Dynamic Contrast Ratio). The higher to one it is the better. i.e A good Sony could be 33000:1 while a cheap TV would be 3000:1.

It does make a difference.

Khannie

DanGerMus wrote: »

HD ready means that the tv will accept a HD signal it does not mean it will display it.

That's HD Compatible, no? HD ready means that it's 720p or better AFAIK.

Captain Planet

Hi guys,

Is there anything out there for a smaller budget, say under €400? I know that means seriously compromising on quality, but I would like to get a TV that's slightly larger than 4inches. Any online retailers you would recommend? Second hand a way to go?

Cheers for the advice!

molloyjh

JimiTime wrote: »

Hello, y'all. I'm a first time poster here. My TV (CRT:o ) is on the blink, and I'd like to go get a new TV tonight. I'll be using it for watching tele, obviously, mostly Football and movies. Also playing my XBox 360. I'd like about a 40" - 42" screen. I've seen offers about for around €800. I think there's one in Dixons at the mo.
Basically, do i want LCD or Plasma? and all the hd ready stuff etc, how much will that matter for me. Another thing is, are all modern TV's widescreen? My CRT tele always cut off the edges. Your expertise would be greatly appreciated. Oh and if any of you know of certain ofers in certain shops etc, that'd also be great.
Thanks,
J.

PS. I've got a laptop with a VGA out. Can this be hooked into these new TV's, or is there a PCMCIA card or USB device which would allow such a thing?

There's a lot of conflicting advice going on in the early posts re LCDs vs Plasmas. To be honest depending on the set you go for there may be little to no difference. Samsung have done a great job with their LCDs of late and there's little to no difference between them and a plasma.

For what its worth I have a M87 Samsung (40" LCD) and have my PC, XBox 360 and PS3 connected to it. Check out Komplett for details (http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333306 or http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333298 for the 37"). You can pick up a 37" for €807. I can't recommend this TV enough. There is no shortage of connections, the picture settings can be set individually for each input, the picture quality is fantastic and the menus are a doddle to use.

It may also be worthwhile to take a gander at http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk before buying to see if the TV you are looking at is reviewed. These are pretty comprehensive reviews so should give you a good idea of what to expect.

trabpc

Trust your eyes simple. Look at sport movies on each tv and decide for your self.

In regards to Full HD,
yes if you plan on hooking it up to a PC regulary otherwise its not too important.
I hear a lot on this thread about full HD this Full HD that and alot of people forget pictue quality. I have several friends who bought tv's recently and forgot about this one important factor "PICTURE QUALITY"

BlueRay yes but at 42" I don't think anyone will notice the differece from 3m back whether the screen is showing native 1080p or downscaled to 720P. I don't any way

For the record i own a Pioneer Plasma 4280xd HD ready and DVD's and SKY + are impressive. however the Lcd's have come on alot the sony 40w4000 also impressed me too(lcd)

I also own a HD ready 720P projector and I have a 140" picture from upscaled DVD on it and it looks fab.

Most myths about plasma are also untrue.

Off to Re Gass my plasma now!!!

JimiTime

OK, I'm going to Power City to buy one of these for €799. 40" HD Ready, I don't do HD. Just Sky Digi and my XBox. Is this a bad buy? I'll most likely be handing over the cash at around 2 - 3pm today. My budget can't really stretch much further. Though if there is a big improvement for maybe up to €100 more, I'd go for it. But my TV is completely kaput now, and its time to go into the LCD age. I've read up about the differences in the HD ready etc, and really, I'll just be using standard definition stuff.

Any final advice?

Zonda999

If it aint too late i know that currys have a 42" Full HD LG for 750e at the moment.Looks to be a good deal IMO

JimiTime

Just to report that I bought the 4 series 40" Samsung LCD for €750 in Power City. Absolutely love it! I seen the 42"LG in Curry's, and it was impressive. However, the samsung looked great too and 40" is prob the max my living room would suit. Tweeked the pic with info from AVforums, and its fab IMO. Hooked up my laptop, my XBox 360 and have been watching the football also. All look great. Bare in mind I'm used to a CRT, so maybe the more trained eye could see its faults. It defo works for me though.

Thanks for all the advice and help.
J.