new TV decisions - panny / sharp / toshiba

TomO · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:56

i am looking into a new TV to complement some of the new AV gear i recently purchased.

i currently have a Panasonic TH42PA50, which gives a nice picture but isnt HD at all.

reason for the upgrade would be that my new DVD & receiver has HDMI switching and can upscale to 1080 (Pioneer DVD989 & Pioneer AVX4is), i also have Xbox 360 & am probably getting Sky HD and maybe HD-DVD / Bluray in the near future.

my current shortlist is (with pros/cons):

Panasonic TH42PX60
- almost the same as what i have already (boring!)
- only 720p
+ good with SD
+ cheapest by quite a bit!

Sharp 46X1DE
- not as good with SD material
+1080p
+ bigger!

Toshiba 47WLT66
- not as good with SD material
+1080p (?)
+ bigger!

is this about right? are the current generation of LCD's noticeably worse with SD material or is that a bit of a myth now? which would you choose for my situation?

usuage will be approx, 70% freeview, 20% DVD, 10% xbox 360.

Jez · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:05

You really would be best to demo the units, the issue with LCD tech is that it cannot provide the colour depth that the plasma displays seem able to achieve these days, suffering from very low contrast ratio's in comparison.

I'd take the panasonic, oh wait i actually did, picked one up at the weekend from dixons of all places, £870inc

jongeeone · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:20

Panny - i got it because its the best 1

EDIT

PX600 (42") for the sound etc

Jez · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:30

jongeeone said:
PX600 (42") for the sound etc

They use the same panel and the 600 is 50% more expensive! Doesnt make a lot of sense to me unless you really want PIP.

The extra speakers are irrelevent, who actually uses inbuilt speakers anyway?

TomO · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:54

i tried arranging a demo, but none of the places near me have all 3 options in stock.

i was also wondering what the difference was between the 60 and 600's. its seems a lot of money for picture in picture and some speakers. neither of which is particularly useful to me!

did either of you guys demo the plasma against the other LCD's?

Jez · 29 Dec 2006 at 18:02

I didnt bother as LCD technology is some way behind plasma technology, and IMHO is not worth buying as it stands at the moment unless you are after a smaller set at which size a plasma display will likely not exist.

The difference between the 60 and 600 is just PIP, and extra sound features as far as i know, i know for certain that they use the same actual panel. I personally wouldnt consider those features worth the 50% premium.

Corasik · 29 Dec 2006 at 21:21

Yeah, the 60, and the 600 not only use the same 1024x768 G9 panel, they use the same scalers, so display quality is the same on both models.

The 600 has an SD slot, so its easier to do firmware updates etc, and better speakers, and a slightly better look, but the 60 looks nice enough, and build quality seems fine on both models.

The difference in price can be put towards upgrading your Hi'fi, or even buying one if you dont already have a good one.

As I already have a Tag AV32R+ a bunch of amps/speakers etc, the PX60 made the logical choise.

HD plasma panels are excellent for SD use, better than the older ED plasmas, which were only 480 lines... PAL (euro tv) has 576 lines of resolution, so ED's had to downscale to fit, throwing away 20% of the source resolution. The Panasonic upscalers are very good, and SD TV looks very nice.

That said, I've downloaded a few HD samplers from to my PC, and played those, and the true HD output of the Pannys is fantastic.