Which 50" Plasma (yet another spec me thread)

If your fixed on a plasma, and i don't blame you much prefer them too .... then there really is only one choice, Panasonic.... they paid a LOT of money last year to get the rights to the pioneer KURO research and design when pioneer pulled out of the plasma tv market, as a result they are producing probably the best screens these days bar none.

which model is tricky, because of the costs involved, if you want the best screen right now, without going to 3D then the Panasonic TX-P50V20B can be had for about £1325, however, John Lewis are doing the 46 inch VT model, which is 3D with a free 3D DVD player thrown in (£280 worth) and 5 years warranty for £1600 !! so it's not a straight forward choice.

Last year, Panasonic had some issues with the 2009 range loosing their black depth levels inside a year, google it, it will show up, as far as i know this has been rectified for this year, certainly on the infinite black pro range, which are the ones that use the pioneer technology.

Both of those models also come with Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners built in, which if you ask me is good, and not something to be overlooked these days.

If your budget simply won't stretch that far, the 42" TX-P42V20B (non-3D) panel can be found for as low as £890 with a little help from google :D


If that's still too much then your looking at the TX-P50X20B ....
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_...sma+TV/TX-P50X20B/Overview/3507173/index.html

For what it costs (£499.00 is about the best deal right now) the TX-P50X20B represents a good deal for a LOT of tv of good quality, but for me the added benefits of the newer pioneer sourced technology, and the dual HD tuners, make the 42" TX-P42V20B at £890 is a better deal in the long term i think.

There are many things to consider these days with plasma choice, as i'm sure you are aware, especially from your last purchase, someone here has one of the 50" 3D monitors because i saw it mentioned in one of the picture threads, either show us your desk or setup or something like that, you could always ask them :D

EDIT:
just finished typing all that wwhen i checked the last couple of posts, i see you bought one ... lol, oh well the info can stay there for anyone searching..... so how is it, and what are your thoughts so far ?
 
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I'm glad you started this thread as I'm looking at exactly the same TVs! The only other dilemma I have though is whether to splash out a few hundred more and go for a 3D TV instead? I'm very keen on the 590 though. Sods law it's up at £699 from £626 now though so I'll wait for it to come down a bit if I get one. The other one I was looking at was the Samsung PS50C550.
 
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I found it was hard to not get caught in the "for just a few hundred more" syndrome while i've been looking at this

For example, unlike the original poster, i do want the Freeview HD and Freesat tuners, i also want the top end image processing, because had they not dropped out of the market, i would have been looking at a pioneer plasma !

so, the one i want, with all the features can be had for about £900 in 42" guise, i can accommodate that size, but, would really like a little bigger.

50" versions will do 1:1 pixel mapping so are better when used with a PC, so i look at the price on the 50" model (upgrade number 1) and i see it's around the £1325 mark, i think even argos has it at about £1299 without the full 5 year warranty ... cool, not a bad price, can i accommodate that size, hmmm ... maybe not, maybe a tad too big, also, is Freeview HD available in my area, no, not till Sept, no problem ... do i have a Blu-Ray player ..... no, so i'm gonna spend a couple of hundred more on a Blu-Ray Player to at least be able to make more use of the HD capabilities of the tv .....

then i see the 3D deals, do i need 3D ... no, do i have any content to play on it, no ... is it something that will improve with time, oh yes of course.... but,

£1599 gets me a 46" top of the range tv, free Blu-Ray 3D DVD and 4 dvd's thrown in and a 5 year warranty.... plus i can accommodate that size... and there we have, it upgrade number 2.... so i've gone from looking at £900 ish TV's to £1600 in the space of about 10 minutes of "I want logic" :rolleyes: :D ..... then you'll of course likely need a nice new stand/cabinet to display your purchase on properly, so there's another £200 ... hahaha £1800, double the original price you were considering not long ago ! :p
 
Gunslinger said:
EDIT:
just finished typing all that wwhen i checked the last couple of posts, i see you bought one ... lol, oh well the info can stay there for anyone searching..... so how is it, and what are your thoughts so far ?
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So far I think it's great, played a far amount of xbox now and not noticed any lag. Although at the moment I have everything hooked up via previous cable (htpc over VGA, xbox over component), got a few hdmi cables on order which should turn up tomorrow all going well; Once I have those I'll wall mount it and make any final adjustments.
 
Wicksta said:
I'm glad you started this thread as I'm looking at exactly the same TVs! The only other dilemma I have though is whether to splash out a few hundred more and go for a 3D TV instead? I'm very keen on the 590 though. Sods law it's up at £699 from £626 now though so I'll wait for it to come down a bit if I get one. The other one I was looking at was the Samsung PS50C550.
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Keep an eye on the price. As I said, I ordered mine yesterday morning for 626 and the night before it was 699.. it doesn't make any sense.
 
gord said:
Keep an eye on the price. As I said, I ordered mine yesterday morning for 626 and the night before it was 699.. it doesn't make any sense.
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Yeah I'll keep trying. :)

If it doesn't go back to £626 I'm hoping once the VAT rate changes that prices will fall.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
So far I think it's great, played a far amount of xbox now and not noticed any lag. Although at the moment I have everything hooked up via previous cable (htpc over VGA, xbox over component), got a few hdmi cables on order which should turn up tomorrow all going well; Once I have those I'll wall mount it and make any final adjustments.
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Yeah, Lag was something i read about regarding the Panasonic's there were some doubts about it for certain gaining, but to be fair, i hate gaming anyway, and it's a home cinema type of display, and i would argue that's it's primary role, and it fulfils it well :p ... for me lag is not a huge issue.


Glad your enjoying it :) ... (so where's the pics of it in situ/mounted :D )
 
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scott212 said:
Is it not a case of being picky though. I've had the set a few months and we've played embarrassing amounts of MW2 and BlackOps and I haven't noticed any lag. Perhaps if someone pointed it out to me I might notice.
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I play fighting games so it's a lot more important for me to have very low input lag. For very slow FPS games like CoD and Halo, racing games and most single player games it won't really affect your performance, although I still notice a minor delay and turning in FPS games feels a little sluggish to me.

Certainly not a deal breaker for most people, I agree on that :)
 
The PK590 is a stunning TV for the cash, picked up 2 on release week and i've been really happy with then, PQ is getting better and better the more i use them.

Picked up another last week for my parents, £649 which is a massive price reduction considering my original ones cost £842 each.
 
Wicksta said:
Argghhh I missed it, back to £699 now!

EDIT: Now £748, dammit!
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Heh, it is all over the place, back to £640 now.

Mine arrived yesterday and on first impressions.. big! I might have to put it in the lounge instead of my room.. Not had a chance to hook up any HD content yet but the digital channels looked very nice and it picked up my sky feed, which doesn't look too bad either.
 
Hmmm it's tempting at £640... I might pop down to Currys/Comet in a bit to take a look and buy it later on Amazon. Knowing my luck it will be £800 then. ;)
 
GSXRMovistar said:
If £640 is tempting why not just pay £650 and it pick from RicherSounds, will be a much better service than you would get with Currys/Comet etc.
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I was about to post that the nearest one is about 20 miles away in Reading, but I see on the website they have one in Eton now which is 2 miles away. :eek:

Good shout, I'll give them a call this afternoon and see what they say, Comet and Currys are just over the road from work so I'll still take a look there first.
 
I've gone off the idea of the LG now, comparing them side by side to 100hz models in the shops the difference in movement is amazing. There was an excellent Samsung 46LE650 but reading up the later versions have a rubbish panel so I won't be going for that.

So 100hz is now on the list and I think I want 46/47 inch instead of 50. ;)
 
Wicksta said:
I've gone off the idea of the LG now, comparing them side by side to 100hz models in the shops the difference in movement is amazing. There was an excellent Samsung 46LE650 but reading up the later versions have a rubbish panel so I won't be going for that.

So 100hz is now on the list and I think I want 46/47 inch instead of 50. ;)
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You need to ask for the remote and check its not set to shop mode ... in the case of the LG if on this setting it is complete pants !
 
I think I will pop down to Richer Sounds then! At least they will have set them up properly.

It doesn't seem to be a great time to buy a TV though, a lot of the models seem to be end of life now and the prices seem to be about the same as spring/summer last year!
 
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