LCD, LED or Plasma?

Shelster

Shelster

Shelster

Associate
Joined
3 Aug 2003
Posts
2,028
Location
Plymouth, UK
OK,

Dont wan this to turn into a great big fan boy, flame fest of a thread, but am looking for some serious discussion on this.

Will be looking for a 40" TV when i get back to the UK at Christmas. Will primarily be used for watching Sky (SD and HD), Blu-Ray play back and Freeview (if Mrs S has her way). Budget is £1K, but can go up to £1200 if the box is worth it.

At the moment, am looking at getting the super skinny Sammies (7 series) as have a sammy atm and Mrs S is very swayed by the skinnyness of it.

Am open to all suggestions and ideas.

Over to the wisest bunch of people on the net........

Cheers

Paul
 
The LEDs are gorgeous, but i think even a 40" would set you back more than £1200 at the moment.
And i certainly would not spend £1200 on a LCD or plasma of that size.
My 42" LG cost £499 and i'm well chuffed with it.
My mate has just bought a 50" LG 'S' series at £650 and its stunning.
I know you don't want that big, but i'm just relating the cost:size ratio.
 
The Panasonic V10 comes in at around £1,200 for 42", I'm sure you can find better if you should around.

From what I've read, LED really isn't worth it at this point in time because the panels aren't true LED yet (more of an LED frame or LED backlight) give it a few months and proper LED TV's will come out.

Panasonic's current range of Plasma's are fantastic value for money and I'm sure you'd be incredibly happy with a V10 :)

The old screen burn issues are virtually all but none-existent these days with Plasma's you simply need to treat it with respect for the first few hours of use after taking it out of the box - after that it's really fine.
 
Whilst i can't comment on what nikebee said, as i don't really know about true LED etc, i did pop into No competitors (of all dingy places) and checked out their lines of each. Honestly the LED's were stunning, streets ahead of the LCDs and plasmas on display.
All 3 type were playing blue-ray, but the LED was just dazzling in comparison to the others. I'm no audio/videophile, but this had me hooked to the screen for a good few mins watching the goodness.
 
By all means, buy the Samsung UE series LED backlit tvs if you can afford them, their black levels are much better than standard LCD TVs, and they use less power.

Failing that, pick up a B650 set, we bought an LE40B650 a couple of months ago, even SD material looks quite amazing once you do a few adjustments.
 
If you go for LED make sure it's not the sidelit stuff, try and get the proper ones which can switch off various areas of the backlight :)
 
For your usage I doubt many people will recommend LCD which leaves LED and Plasma.

As has been mentioned LED TV's are still fairy new so the technology hasn't advanced much yet.

I'd recommend a Panasonic Plasma, I have the 42X10 which is pretty much a budget one and the picture is great, one of the higher end models would do you fine.
 
Im in pretty much the same boat as the OP, similar budget too, and would love one of these LED tv's to replace my old Sammy 1080i tv. Anyone tried using a PC through one of these LED jobbies?
 
I'd vote for LED, shame they're so much money.

Why are LED sets so expensive? I thought they would be cheaper as they surely cost less to produce, no high voltage inverters needed.
 
No such thing as an LED on the market, you mean either Plasma or LCD as a choice :p

If your Mrs is having serious say in which tv you buy 'becuase it looks thin and cute', then all is lost and you may as well top yourself now.

Get a nice panasonic plasma and ignore what you see from these silly edge lit samsung sets. Overpriced, overhyed, and oversaturated :D
 
-Ad- said:
No such thing as an LED on the market, you mean either Plasma or LCD as a choice :p
Click to expand...
I have seen some LED screens, they tend to be very large and used outdoors for sports or music events and cost thousands not hundreds... ;) :p

Samsung are a little misleading with their marketing IMO, they should say LED backlit or something to that effect, I still think one would make a great PC monitor tho in the 32" guise.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Samsung are a little misleading with their marketing IMO, they should say LED backlit or something to that effect, I still think one would make a great PC monitor tho in the 32" guise.
Click to expand...

They've been made to change their adverts to LED LCD in this country now have they not?

I'd not bother with LED until the local dimming stuff is working well and at a decent price, until then i'd prefer to stick to Plasma personally.
 
Agree with most, the panasonic plasmas are a fantastic bit of kit, but the samsung 8 series are awesome aswell. Was thinking about getting one myself. cheapest I've seen them is £1300ish inc vat + 5yr warranty from a proper retailer so just a shade over your max budget. Definatley go into a store and check out a few TV's. What looks great to someone else might not look that good to yourself.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
I have seen some LED screens, they tend to be very large and used outdoors for sports or music events and cost thousands not hundreds... ;) :p
Click to expand...

But but is it 1080p ? :D

ck88 said:
What looks great to someone else might not look that good to yourself.
Click to expand...

Or what looks good to someone who has never seen an accurate picture and well setup display before, certainly isn't accurate and true to how it is meant to be seen ;)

Just walking into a shop and comparing there and then is the worst thing to do, and is misleading since most people think the eyeburning oversaturated mess of a samsung LCD in dynamic mode = good.

Try a number of stores, especially ones with dimmer lighting if possible, read up on the owners threads for each set on avforums and fiddle with the picture settings on the sets in store. Most will be soo far off accurate (*cough* Dynamic *cough* it really won't give you an idea of how good they can look at home.)
 
Thanks all for some top advice.

Realise ther are not 'proper' LED TV's here atm, just the LED lit ones, to which i refer.

Had a look at the Panny 42G10 and am rather impressed by the specs and can find it for £779, but seem a bit concerned over the depth of the unit. Listed as 106mm, which when drawn out, seems rather deep for a plasma panel. I take it that this is incorporating the stand too?

-AD- havent yet seen a properly calibrated screen, but from readups on 'enthusiast' sites, realise that a screen calibrated to industry standards can appear to look 'dull' to the bog standard out of the box settings.

Its even worse than going to Blockbusters this. Spend more time choosing than watching.....
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom