Amazing deal on 42" mpeg 4 plasma

gan23

For anyone looking foa new tv,
Pixmania are selling a 42" samsung plasma with the tnt HD logo (mpeg4) for €419. it should work for saorview
see this link

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/5601374/art/samsung/ps42c450-plasma-screen.html?tag=mail_ie_uk_2010-08-17_48053&srcid=3666


Edit: Add €60 delivery also...

MisterAnarchy

gan23 wrote: »

For anyone looking foa new tv,
Pixmania are selling a 42" samsung plasma with the tnt HD logo (mpeg4) for €419. it should work for saorview
see this link

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/5601374/art/samsung/ps42c450-plasma-screen.html?tag=mail_ie_uk_2010-08-17_48053&srcid=3666


Edit: Add €60 delivery also...

Saw that earlier...must resist :pac:

martin12

Be careful of that model a friend bought one from piximania a few months ago when they were selling them for 417 euro was working good for a month or so and then developed a thin vertical blue line about halfway across the screen it had to be replaced in the end do some research on google it's quite common on these models.

MisterAnarchy

martin12 wrote: »

Be careful of that model a friend bought one from piximania a few months ago when they were selling them for 417 euro was working good for a month or so and then developed a thin vertical blue line about halfway across the screen it had to be replaced in the end do some research on google it's quite common on these models.

It seems all the plasma/lcd tvs have very short lifespans compared with the CRT ones which can last for decades.
If I buy a tv I'd expect it to last at least 7 years.

watty

Some CRTs in TVs made before 1939 and in 1950s are still giving good pictures. Admittedly via 405 line standards converters!

My cheap Vestel made "Black Diamond" is still perfect picture after 8 years. I dumped an 1976 TV at recycling centre in 2007 because the tuner mechanical buttons wore out. Picture still good.

Some late 1980s CRTs only lasted 2 years due to poor manufacturing. A Plasma will be about 50% brightness in 5 years. The CFL backlights in LCDs can fail but can be replaced. My laptop LCD is 8 years and now looks slightly yellow compared to LED backlight LCD. Colour is poorer on "White" LED backlights as there is no such thing as a White LED, they are blue, violet or near UV LEDs with phosphors to give white. More expensive R, G & B LED array backlights on LCD last longer.

The LCD colour filter can fade in direct sunlight so be careful with set position in a room.

MisterAnarchy

Fascinating insight Watty.
I have a 12 year old Trinitron 32 inch and the picture on it is as good as the day it was bought.
It blows away any SD picture I've seen on an lcd/plasma.
I will hold onto it until it gives up the ghost,too many of the flatscreen tvs look awful with an SD feed.

watty

I recommend people buy a 48" or larger full HD if they want HD.
And to buy a 1366 x 768 HD ready of desired size if they don't want HD.

There is a boring mathematical explanation as to why a WS 720 x 576 (SD ) LCD, DLP, Plasma or other pixel based display will give substandard SD pictures. It can only achieve its resolution fed digitally from source that's Digital WS 720 x 576 all the way to it.

Sam Russell

Over the past 25 years, I have bought about 5 or 6 TVs, and each one had an amazing picture compared with the one it replaced. TVs wear out because the phosphors become faded, the scan coils drift out of alignment, etc. Now, it might be product enhancement that gives the 'amazing' picture, but I think the old unit gets tired with age. I think 5 years is about the half-life of a CRT telly.

My latest TV is a LCD Sony that will have a shorter life than expected - it is MPEG2.:mad:

lawhec

Most new LCD Televisions show up the blocking and artefacts of MPEG compression in heavily compressed digital broadcasts a fair bit more than CRT televisions do. On the flip side, an above-SD resolution source with "less heavy" compression on an LCD will normally look better. CRT televisions were/are better at masking picture imperfections than LCD displays are. For Freeview broadcasts, low-resolution (544x576 cropped WS) video and low bitrate can look very poor on an 16 inch LCD display, but the 14 inch CRT makes it look passable or at least less annoying.

Very difficult now if not impossible to buy a CRT television any more, especially in sizes bigger than a portable (16 inches), even Argos or Currys don't do them any more. There's still three CRT televisions in this house, one in the attic for testing, one in a bedroom and a small 5 inch B/W job. The main Hanspree 32 inch display in the living room is still going as strong as when it was bought more than three years ago. We had an old Grundig 21 inch when Grundig actually still made televisions, and it lasted a good 12 years.

Sam Russell

lawhec wrote: »

...... and it lasted a good 12 years.

When you say it lasted 12 years, do you mean you still get a picture? How does it compare with a new one? Has it drifted out of convergence and does it fill the screen properly?

Are plasma TVs short life products?

watty

I have not seen CRTs drift out of convergence for last 20+ years unless the TV is actually broken. It was the old models before the 1976 or 1978 modern era sets that needed convergence adjusted all the time.

I have 4 x DELL 19" CRTs here that are really good at 1600 x 1200. I finally need to open them all and adjust the master "brightness" and "focus" physical pots on the LOPT. The youngest is 2000 and oldest 1997. Apart from that they are perfect.

My Black Diamond (Vestel chassis) 28" is 8 years old and OSD brightness/contrast at about 40% to 50% for perfect picture in 4:3 and 16:9 modes.

The "half life" of a good quality CRT used daily could be 10 years or more.

lawhec

Sam Russell wrote: »

When you say it lasted 12 years, do you mean you still get a picture? How does it compare with a new one? Has it drifted out of convergence and does it fill the screen properly?

It was bought in 1994 and lasted until 2006. Not sure what you mean by convergence, but the display on it was 100% until it died.