Big Flat Screen TV's; Advice

[pyx_e]

So the missus wil not let me spend anymore mony on my bike for a bit (cow). And wants a Flat Screen TV to enhance her Eastenders experience.

I am aiming to spend £400-500 when I ahbe finished saving. What I don't get is why they are so different in price. Some of it is size ( I get that bit) but lcd/plasma etc just confuses me. At present I am only looking in Comet, Tescos and Asda. And only at their sale ones.

Any clarification/advice please.
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Shiney!
Kawasaki: ER5, Versys, VN900.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

This question has been asked many times in Geek Zone, do a search.

The concensus was something like < 40" go LCD, >40" go Plasma.
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[Hetzer]

Make sure it's 1080p and at least 100hz.
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[tribal_tiger]

Quick general tips, that I'm sure a lot of people will go into more later on.

Unless your going over a 42" screen, forget plasma and stick with LCD.

Make sure you get a screen with a high contrast ratio. General rule is the higher the number, the better the picture is going to look.

You can pay a lot for a branded set, but it often turns out that you do get what you pay for. Most of the own brand and cheaper makes have real crappy picture quality.

Don't be tempted to go for a TV too bog for the room. sit to close to one of these screens and the picture will appear blocky and crap.

Here's a rought guide for the best size to have depending on how far away you will sit.

Screen size Viewing distance range
26" 3.25 - 5.5 feet
32" 4.0 - 6.66 feet
37" 4.63 - 7.71 feet
40" 5.0 - 8.33 feet
42" 5.25 - 8.75 feet
46" 5.75 - 9.5 feet
50" 6.25 - 10.5 feet
52" 6.5 - 10.8 feet
55" 6.9 - 11.5 feet
58" 7.25 - 12 feet
65" 8.13 - 13.5 feet
70" 8.75 - 14.75 feet


This is very like mine, and I've been very happy with it!
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All of it.

[JAMSXR]

Me and my brother just bought a 40" Samsung LCD, it cost £670 and thats pricey for a 40" LCD but it was top of the range. You can get a 50" plasma for around 550 these days but the problem with plasma is they use allot more power and you will notice it on your electricity bill, they also have about half the life (30,000 to 40,000 hours) of and LCD screen. On the plus side they are brighter and react faster.
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[lydanial]

just bought one of these it seems really good..
picture is perfect and full of lots of features.

also with £100+ off and free 3 year warrenty i figured it will do for a few years.

edit, i paid on debit card but was told i could have a nice argos card and 0% over a few months.. said my credit sucked but they said it didnt matter and did i want one.

[Tonka]

I've only ever bought one TV in my whole (long) lifetime as others have been 'donated' and I set a budget of £400. Being a girl, I ended up at over double that! but a sign of the times is 18 months ago I bought a Sony 32" LCD (D series) for £899 but it did include 5 years parts and labour cover (at the likes of Comet etc. this can add nearly £200 to the price). They are cheaper now and I think you can get a better deal still if you're paying outright and not taking their finance packages (I just used my credit card as added protection and a delay to find the extra! ).

I like Sony as a product, find the Sony Centres helpful and not pushy and felt I was getting what I paid for. There were several nearer to my budget but the picture quality on this one was evidently superior and I figured the cost over 5 years was worth it.

I know a lot of people have quite different experiences with products and stores, but that's my
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[JAMSXR]

This is the TV I bought, might be worth checking the website out because their prices seem really good, I got mine for £662 and the next cheapest was Amazon at £774, and the Argos at £900.

https://www.prcdirect.co.uk/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=LE40A656A1FX
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[pyx_e]

Thanks to all. I did a search and read a few other threads as well so now feeling a bit more informed. Funnily the best place around here seems to be Argos.
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Shiney!
Kawasaki: ER5, Versys, VN900.

[Dave McCool]

Give Bennets a look if there's one near you, I bought myself a 37" LG LCD from them for £400, everywhere else I looked had them up at least £200 more than that, so I was thoroughly chuffed!

Would thoroughly recommend the TV too, very nearly as pretty as the much more expensive Samsung units, and the picture quality is amazing, at least to my untrained eye, it's 'only' 720p, but still looks incredible running my XBox through the HDMi port.
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[el_oso]

have a look at john lewis - have some really good deals in there

plasmas generally have a better picture quality but use more power and have a slightly less lifetime although this has been greatly improved over recent years.

LCD+'
less weight
less power consumed
lifetime is slightly longer

LCD-
slower pictures - some fast images may produce blurs although greatly improved in the latest generations
cannot produce 'true' blacks.


plasma+
faster picture - blur is never a problem
greater viewing angles but LCD is pretty close nowadays

plasma-
images left on the screen for long periods of time tend to burn in. For recent plasma's the burn in is not usually permanent anymore.

enough crap:
bottom line I would say LCD is the way to go as there is very little difference between the two unless you are looking for something 42"+
the samsung models i believe are very good in terms of picture quality and price

[Moonie]

Big fat telly advice:

Go for a walk instead
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[Paddy Blake]

Sparks had a thread on this in the geek zone.I have the 40in he was after
and got at a good price.It's LG and I think it is tops for less than 500 euro at the time(6 months ago).

Paddy.

[Paddy Blake]

[pyx_e]

Well on one of the other threads it mentions Richer Sounds, we have one in Bristol and they were better than everywhere else I looked at by £100. Got a 37" LG3000 for £400 (Tesco's same model £497). Watched some TV and DVD's last night - Happy.
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Shiney!
Kawasaki: ER5, Versys, VN900.

[Ariel Badger]

Whatever you buy do not leave the box outside your house for the binmen to collect. They will take more than the box.
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