New TV - which one to get?

Mc Love

I am looking to get a screen between 47-55inches, and wondering if plasma screens are better than they were a few years ago. In terms of picture quality I would like an LED but they tend to be on the expensive side.
From reading on here I have seen that plasma according to posters seems to have a better picture quality than LED??

Had a look at Samsung, because from what I have heard (or is known) and seen, seem to make the best screens? And on that basis I did look into Finlux too which seem to get good reviews despite their low prices.

Any other recommendations? I am basically looking to see which is better, LED or Plasma!?

Thanks -Mc Love

banie01

Double Post

banie01

A big part of the decision will fall on what you are going to be viewing?
Movies/sports/gaming?
And what your viewing environment is? Bright? Sunny? Reflections?

Plasma is best for Bright environments, and fast fluid ,motion. Sports and so on and also has excellent contrast for black levels.
However this is a traditional view of the performance benefits of Plasma!
To be honest apart from motion handling all other advantages of Plasma are equalled/not far off in the newer LED sets.
And Plasma is very expensive to run in comparison to LED.
Plasma still has issues with Image retention so I would avoid it if you like gaming, particularly shooters or anything with on screen HUD.

LCD/LED The current LED set's all have their foibles and there are issues on larger screens, particularly the Samsungs and LGs with ''Banding'' and ''Dirty Screen Effect''(Which can also affect Plasma sets!)
That said not all LED's suffer these issues.
In fact I have an LED at the moment(after many years of LCD and Plasma) and I love it!

I currently have a LG55LM620 and I have to say it is a fantastic set, excellent black levels, stunning picture and excellent 3D,which uses cheap passive''movie'' glasses at a €1 apair rather than the expensive ''active'' type glasses which cost upwards of €65 a pair to replace...and make watching a movie as a group/family and expensive option especially if you have kids...
Cos as a mate of mine says...Nothing is kid proof!

Mc Love

LED's are pretty expensive though thats the only thing!

Use the tv for whatever is on the box really. Maybe once or twice for gaming. The room the tv will be in is pretty bright in that it receives plenty of light

So it seems there isnt much in the difference between LED & Plasma, except that Plasma is more energy consuming/expensive to run

banie01

Mc Love wrote: »

LED's are pretty expensive though thats the only thing!

Use the tv for whatever is on the box really. Maybe once or twice for gaming. The room the tv will be in is pretty bright in that it receives plenty of light

So it seems there isnt much in the difference between LED & Plasma, except that Plasma is more energy consuming/expensive to run

And that Plasma in general handles motion better than LED.(although newer sets have improved)
LEDs have some motion blur/smear issues with fast motion images.
In a brightly lit room reflections could be an issue for you on the panel.
take a trip to a TV showroom and have a look around at the plasma's and LEDs in your price range and see what catches your eye.
Because at the end of the of the image quality is subjective and you need to be happy with what you buy and best way to do that is take a look at a few sets and see what you like.

Tea 1000

banie01 wrote: »

A big part of the decision will fall on what you are going to be viewing?
Movies/sports/gaming?
And what your viewing environment is? Bright? Sunny? Reflections?

Plasma is best for Bright environments, and fast fluid ,motion. Sports and so on and also has excellent contrast for black levels.
However this is a traditional view of the performance benefits of Plasma!
To be honest apart from motion handling all other advantages of Plasma are equalled/not far off in the newer LED sets.
And Plasma is very expensive to run in comparison to LED.
Plasma still has issues with Image retention so I would avoid it if you like gaming, particularly shooters or anything with on screen HUD.

LCD/LED The current LED set's all have their foibles and there are issues on larger screens, particularly the Samsungs and LGs with ''Banding'' and ''Dirty Screen Effect''(Which can also affect Plasma sets!)
That said not all LED's suffer these issues.
In fact I have an LED at the moment(after many years of LCD and Plasma) and I love it!

I currently have a LG55LM620 and I have to say it is a fantastic set, excellent black levels, stunning picture and excellent 3D,which uses cheap passive''movie'' glasses at a €1 apair rather than the expensive ''active'' type glasses which cost upwards of €65 a pair to replace...and make watching a movie as a group/family and expensive option especially if you have kids...
Cos as a mate of mine says...Nothing is kid proof!

This is not all correct. Plasma aren't best suited for bright environments, LCD/LED TV's are better suited for that. And Plasma is better for gaming, image retention hasn't been an issue for at least 5 years, and Plasma has better black levels which makes for better and more detailed dark scenes in games and movies, and top of the list is the response time of plasmas, it's much quicker than LCD's, making it better for games. Plasma is also still better for movies particularly if you like watching movies in a darkened room.
LED back-lighting has helped LCD's narrow the gap a lot, but they add a premium to the price that often makes Plasma's better value. The problem is that stores are very bright environments, meaning Plasma's are set to "Dynamic" mode for stores, making them look poor enough. The best way to view them is in someone's sitting room if you know someone.
But it's actually hard to buy a crap TV these days in fairness, either technology has come on so far that €500 TV's these days would blow away €1500 or €2000 TV's from 5 or more years ago.

Mc Love

It looks like Plasma might win this fight for me now - thanks for your help fellow boardies

Mc Love

Got myself a samsung plasma, however in the setup when prompted to select a country I only had three options listed "Germany, Austria & Switzerland". I checked the service menu and the region option is greyed out.

Can anyone tell me how on earth I can change this? Factory reset does nothing.

JonathonS

Looks like you got a grey import! Was the price really good?

ZENER

Shouldn't make much difference if the source is SCART/HDMI or CVBS with separate Audio Signals. If it is an import then you may find that analogue signals into the RF input may not have any audio.

You haven't mentioned SAORVIEW in any of your posts so I presume you don't have an antenna and are on SKY/UPC/Freeview ?

Ken

Mc Love

JonathonS wrote: »

Looks like you got a grey import! Was the price really good?

Well I am not sure its a grey import as I got it from Pixmania and they are owned by Dixons, and the same tv is in Harvey Normans for 699. Managed to pick it up for 549 including delivery

ZENER wrote: »

Shouldn't make much difference if the source is SCART/HDMI or CVBS with separate Audio Signals. If it is an import then you may find that analogue signals into the RF input may not have any audio.

You haven't mentioned SAORVIEW in any of your posts so I presume you don't have an antenna and are on SKY/UPC/Freeview ?

Ken

Yep the house has a Sky dish and two other boxes, would there be a problem with setting sky up on this?

I have the digital irish channels tuned in off the aerial(sky dish) and the analogue channels are also there but their picture isnt as good as the digital ones. Also no problems with sound that I have noticed.

I have set the digital tuner to Germany (just picked one of the options) and the analogue tuner as ireland...but was still able to pick up the saorview channels.