£983.98 to spend on new TV, but which on ??

I have plasma, it's great for gaming, but I must admit I am all to cautious about the burn in people have been saying. I don't really know if it still applies to this model Samsung Bordeaux PS42Q97HDX 42" this is the one I use now.

I have an samsung LCD TV upstairs, which is just used purely for gaming it's great but naff like most people have said when watching regular TV. With the plasma, things tend to be less pixelated and more smooth.

EDIT: colours and contrast are brill on a plasma though, you won't get many LCD's matching them for that.
 
Frank Butcher said:
Yes its a very capable set for a great price.

Have you changed any of the display settings? The M/N87 notoriously look terrible out of the box. Same for any LCD really.

Virgin channels, as with Sky, do differ in quality though.
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I have played with the settings, even though I don't know what half are but then it looks different depending on the program being broadcasted.

Does the V+ upscale the normal channels?
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I have played with the settings, even though I don't know what half are but then it looks different depending on the program being broadcasted.

Does the V+ upscale the normal channels?
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Take a look at this thread:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=676095

It has a lot of settings that people have worked out for the best quality.

The V+ box does upscale all normal TV to 720p / 1080i, there should be an option to change it via the box's menu system.
 
Frank Butcher said:
Take a look at this thread:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=676095

It has a lot of settings that people have worked out for the best quality.

The V+ box does upscale all normal TV to 720p / 1080i, there should be an option to change it via the box's menu system.
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Cheers for that.. It appears that someone is also claiming that the picture is worse on standard TV than there old CRT :(

I've changed the virgin box to 1080i. So does this mean it's stretching the PAL screen out further hence the degrading of the quaility.
 
Metalface Mark said:
There is no problem gaming on a plasma anymore, you might get a bit of retention that fades quickly. People are misinformed, the same way plasma owners say "dont buy an lcd, SDTV looks terrible on them", sure they used to, but not now.

Im looking to upgrade my 40" Sony40D3000 to a panny 50" 1080p plasma when the prices drop nearer to a grand for it.
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People aren't misinformed.
The issue with burn-in is a condition of the technology behind a plasma screen.
In the same way that all CRT's flicker and all can get burn-in, all Plasma screen are quite capable of getting burnt-in.
No matter how unlikely it is, it does still happen and even the very latest plasma screens available can be ruined in a matter of days if certain static images appear on it.

It is impossible for an LCD to get burn-in because of the technology behind them - there simply is nothing to "burn-in".
Any image retention on an LCD can be removed by either leaving the unit switched off or by making sure non-static images are shown on the screen.

The general feeling is that blacks and SD images are better on a plasma.
After comparing them side-by-side I would actually agree.
However that hasn't stopped me buying a Samsung L40F86 LCD panel.
The blacks are as close to a plasma as you're going to get on an LCD and the SD image really didn't look too bad at all.
However throw a full HD input at it and wow....
 
I think that LCD technology is a step backwards tbh. I know none of you are going to agree with me on this but for normal TV (non-HD), the older 32" CRT I had was far superior in quality. So ok, it's big and bulky but I don't think it was worth sacrificing the quality for good looks, which is all the LCDs have going for them, HD aside.

My arguement here, is although there are some HD channels available, a majority of channels we watch are non-HD. So unless HD becomes mainstream soon, maybe buying a HD TV for TV viewing is pointless.
 
You find that some SD channels are worse than others..

UKTV are probably the worst.. complete and utter tosh!
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I think that LCD technology is a step backwards tbh. .
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its called progress

its like arguing that crysis was a step backwards, because it requires a newer and faster PC than you currently own

on a middle ish spec PC, i dare say HL2 based games look a load better

There will come a day, when all broadcast TV is 1080i or 720p and you'll wonder why we put up with SD for so long

the single biggest reason why SD looks crap on 1080p plasmas / LCDs is that your trying to display a signal with 1/4 of the quality of the natural resolution

its like trying to play a game at 640 x 480 on a 24" WS monitor with a native resolution of 1900 x 1200. Do this on a PC and it will look pants

the reason SD looks as bad as it does is probably 90 % due to its resolution. The good quality sets its even less to do with the TV.
 
I understand what you are saying and whole heartly agree with you but there is no plan as far as i know for any of the SD to be replaced with the HD resolutions in the near future.. or even ever.. For most of us watching SD channels, it's quite frustrating.

Does anyone have any idea as what the intentions are for future HD broadcasting?
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Does anyone have any idea as what the intentions are for future HD broadcasting?
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That should become clearer following the switch-off of analgue broadcasts since this will free up a lot of bandwidth that may be used for HD freeview.

BBC have certainly been given the go ahead to develop HD freeview so we'll see what happens.

With regards to SD on HD panels, things are improving rapidly with some panels now acheiving a CRT standard image on SD programming. I'd suggest that this year or the year after a lot more manufacturers will start to acheive this.
 
Channel 4 already have a HD channel on Sky
BBC have already committed to HD broadcasting
ITV and channel 5 wont be far behind,

there is already lots of HD content out there from america etc.., its just a question of the UK broadcasters switching over their in house stuff to HD so its not just the prime time american stuff thats show in HD.
 
MrLOL said:
there is already lots of HD content out there from america etc.., its just a question of the UK broadcasters switching over their in house stuff to HD so its not just the prime time american stuff thats show in HD.
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It's not just a case of UK broadcaster 'switching' to HD, the major problem is that the majority of houses in the UK recieve there television signal through an aerial on the roof and currently there is no way to recieve a HD singal over the air in the UK and no concrete plans or guarantees that we ever will be able to. So unless you have sky or cable you HD LCD will almost certainly be a step back in picture quality from a decent CRT TV when watching free to air terestrial services.
 
The BBC have been recording in HD for a good few years, just not broadcasting the stuff, sadly :(
 
EVH said:
The BBC have been recording in HD for a good few years, just not broadcasting the stuff, sadly :(
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Thats because they have no means of transmitting it and if our money grabbing government gets it's way and sells off the air space currently used for analogue TV to the highest bidder (Most likely mobile phone companies, see America!) we will never have any free to view HD service for the majority of people in the UK. [/Rant]
 
a1ex2001 said:
It's not just a case of UK broadcaster 'switching' to HD, the major problem is that the majority of houses in the UK recieve there television signal through an aerial on the roof and currently there is no way to recieve a HD singal over the air in the UK and no concrete plans or guarantees that we ever will be able to. So unless you have sky or cable you HD LCD will almost certainly be a step back in picture quality from a decent CRT TV when watching free to air terestrial services.
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It is perfectly possible to receive HD signals over a standard aerial as far as i am aware. The current problem is that there is not enough bandwidth in the TV frequency used to have lots of HD channels. This is also an issue that sky have had to deal with and is probably why we won't see lots of HD channels from them for quite a while.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Thats because they have no means of transmitting it and if our money grabbing government gets it's way and sells off the air space currently used for analogue TV to the highest bidder (Most likely mobile phone companies, see America!) we will never have any free to view HD service for the majority of people in the UK. [/Rant]
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My point was more "why are they limiting the BBC HD channel to selective shows," when I've been there on several occassion and they've been filiming in HD.

I hope to God they don't sell the extra bandwidth to mobile phone networks.
 
a1ex2001 said:
It's not just a case of UK broadcaster 'switching' to HD, .
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it is for me

the BBC have already comitted to broadcasting HD, whether they enable freeview or not. There will be a proper BBC HD channel on sky, same as there is for Channel 4. No doubt ITV wont be far behind

for these existing HD channels showing some content, all thats needed now is their stuidos to switch over so all the existing home grown stuff, eg news, big brother etc.. is shown in HD.
 
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