Shopping for new TV

[juvenile]

Looking to get a new TV this week and found three i like..

I keep thinking LCD and to be honest i dont know why,i just do.Plasma used to put me off for some reason but iam sure they've all come a long way since then.. I dont watch much and i dont watch sport except F1, so can i have suggestions,opinions and or feedback thanks :)

The three i like are

SAMSUNG 40" LED (good price)with bonus 26" LCD

PANASONIC 42" plasma with bonus Wii bundle

SONY 42" LCD with bonus blueray player

[DJKOR]

Plasmas used to be a bit behind in terms of resolution, but that was quite a while ago. Thanks to advancements in technology, plasmas have now caught up to LCD's in terms of resolution.

Having worked around all three brands listed (as well as both plasma and LCD), I can safely say that all of them are on par with each other. If you are going for the LCD no questions asked, I'd straight away go for the Samsung LED LCD due to the LED backlighting technology.

If I was to choose a TV for myself though, I'd be going for the Plasma but this is because plasma has just that slight advantage with the contrast ratio and I do most of my TV watching at night where the plasma performs its best. That said, LED TV's are getting damn close on the contrast ratio side of things.

My recommendation though that covers most situations would be a LED TV, and from the Samsung LED LCD you have listed... you can't go wrong. Another bonus with this is the fact that an LCD usually works out to be more space efficient than a plasma... and LED TV's are even better.

[1stKill]

Hey John...go the 100"LCD.

also theres the 108"LCD

all jokes aside,i've got the 50"Panasonic Viera...had it about 2 yrs now,no dramas what so ever.

[DJKOR]

all jokes aside,i've got the 50"Panisonic Viera...had it about 2 yrs now,no dramas what so ever.

Same here mate. Great TV that one. And the EPG on it is quite alright. Also got a 50' Bravia plasma upstairs. Tough call between the two though. Only thing that lets the Sony outweigh the Viera is the fact it has network connectivity with DLNA.

Point being, major manufacturers these days are pretty much on a level playing field.

Slightly off topic: How about a 103 inch Plasma. I snapped this one in December 2007 when I was over in Japan:

[juvenile]

Thanks Daryl, as you know when you visit the stores they're all there side by side all running on the one antenna and all look different at each store.

LED was beautiful but in one store the Panasonic plasma G series was absolutely brilliant, ive never see a plasma that clear,iam leaning towards that at the moment plus its cheaper.Not the plasmas they used to be....

Lee: i think i would have to trade in my Corolla on 108" TV.... Do i really want to know how much? :o

[DJKOR]

Thanks Daryl, as you know when you visit the stores they're all there side by side all running on the one antenna and all look different at each store.

Be careful with instore test viewing. They do all kind of things to the settings to 'attempt' to make them look better or worse. There are service modes in these TV's which allow you to enable a showroom display mode which turns up settings like sharpness, brightness, saturation etc. To most people, the end result is a TV which would look better if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. In my opinion, these showroom modes make the image worse, but that's how I see things.

The point being here is that they can selectivly make a particular range of TV's look wortse than a range that they are trying to push out the door.

[juvenile]

Thanks Daryl, as you know when you visit the stores they're all there side by side all running on the one antenna and all look different at each store.

Be careful with instore test viewing. They do all kind of things to the settings to 'attempt' to make them look better or worse. There are service modes in these TV's which allow you to enable a showroom display mode which turns up settings like sharpness, brightness, saturation etc. To most people, the end result is a TV which would look better if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. In my opinion, these showroom modes make the image worse, but that's how I see things.

The point being here is that they can selectivly make a particular range of TV's look wortse than a range that they are trying to push out the door.

I've heard that actually,they all seemed similar but this one particular panasonic stood out.. What to do what to do?

Its the whole springs or coilovers debate allover again

[69.NIX]

Samsung LED FTW! - if the wallet will yet you :)

[CME-LFT]

TCL 42inch FULL HD $850 :D From bing lee.......i was actually thinking of getting one of these.lol

By the way whats the prices of these units that your looking at?

If there all roughly the same, see what you really need. Are you ever going to us the wii or need the extra tv? do you already have a blu-ray player?

Edited January 9, 2010 by CME-LFT

[juvenile]

TCL 42inch FULL HD $850 :D From bing lee.......i was actually thinking of getting one of these.lol

By the way whats the prices of these units that your looking at?

If there all roughly the same, see what you really need. Are you ever going to us the wii or need the extra tv? do you already have a blu-ray player?

Firstly iam a bit of a brandwhore :D Thats why i havent really looked at the lesser known brands,even though i hear Samsung make most of the panels anyway..

The LED i can get for $2200 with the bonus TV, and yes i want a bedroom TV...two birds with one stone here

Panasonic Plasma 100Hz is $1700 before my cash offer, my son says i need a Wii too

Blueray i dont really care for,plus with Sony i think i would be paying just for the name...

[1rocky]

just picked up a samsung plasma tv 50 inch hd from Harvey Norman for $1088. done from $2000. and it is great. :lol:

[D35]

just picked up a samsung plasma tv 50 inch hd from Harvey Norman for $1088. done from $2000. and it is great. :lol:

Sounds like a great buy, $1088 = 50''.

But im not too into TV :P :P

I still have a small CRT ones at home which i cant remember when was the last time i turned it on.

[SuperDave]

CRT FTW!!

Don't go plasma, they use way more power than the LCD displays. Just put your hand behind them when you look at them to feel the heat they give off.

I've seen that massive Samsung TV, and it is bigger than you think! Saw it in Japan for (equivalent) $70,000 aud a couple months back.

[juvenile]

CRT FTW!!

Don't go plasma, they use way more power than the LCD displays. Just put your hand behind them when you look at them to feel the heat they give off.

My CRT Panasonic is great but i need a new look at home.. Yes i did feel the heat of the plasma,ouch

[MT]

CRT FTW!!

Don't go plasma, they use way more power than the LCD displays. Just put your hand behind them when you look at them to feel the heat they give off.

Yep, exactly right, but you should see the difference between the LCD and the LED... feels like the LED is sitting in the freezer pretty much, its awesome. LED FTW.

[SuperDave]

Yep, exactly right, but you should see the difference between the LCD and the LED... feels like the LED is sitting in the freezer pretty much, its awesome. LED FTW.

I haven't actually gone and looked at the LEDs yet, so thought I better just compare the other two. But theory strongly agrees with what MT is saying :P

[DJKOR]

Yep, exactly right, but you should see the difference between the LCD and the LED... feels like the LED is sitting in the freezer pretty much, its awesome. LED FTW.

I haven't actually gone and looked at the LEDs yet, so thought I better just compare the other two. But theory strongly agrees with what MT is saying :P

LED LCD's are the way to go if you have the money. A good advantage of the LCD is that if you spend big, you can get really high resolutions. That said, this can be done with plasmas as well.

But I'm sticking with my plasma living room TV. This is my own opinion. Each to their own. Pfft to the power and heat. It's like petrol for my car. Sure I could drive a smaller car with a more petrol efficient engine, but I don't mind the petrol costs with my current car :P

On that CRT topic, it's still amazing how these hold up in terms of resolution. Our old Sony Wega 91cm HD CRT... despite weighing a ton, was by far the best TV we've had in my opinion.

[Guest]

Plasmas used to be a bit behind in terms of resolution, but that was quite a while ago. Thanks to advancements in technology, plasmas have now caught up to LCD's in terms of resolution.

Having worked around all three brands listed (as well as both plasma and LCD), I can safely say that all of them are on par with each other. If you are going for the LCD no questions asked, I'd straight away go for the Samsung LED LCD due to the LED backlighting technology.

If I was to choose a TV for myself though, I'd be going for the Plasma but this is because plasma has just that slight advantage with the contrast ratio and I do most of my TV watching at night where the plasma performs its best. That said, LED TV's are getting damn close on the contrast ratio side of things.

My recommendation though that covers most situations would be a LED TV, and from the Samsung LED LCD you have listed... you can't go wrong. Another bonus with this is the fact that an LCD usually works out to be more space efficient than a plasma... and LED TV's are even better.

+1 for the Panasonic Plasma, I have a Viera 42in that is well over two years old and is still brilliant... plus, richer contrast FTW

[RoM2nV]

still rolling with our 72" dlp 1080i tv haha.. now thats a tv ;)

although i'd recommend the plasma if you don't play games or pause tv/dvds often. latest 100hz sony bravia lcd's are top notch tho if you're into consoles and all that :P

LED's are overpriced, like any new technology, and will depreciate like ****, but if you have the money and dont care about resale, i'd take one instead of the bravia lcd.

Edited January 11, 2010 by RoM2nV