Spec Me a TV

happy_2008

happy_2008

happy_2008

Soldato
Joined
27 Aug 2005
Posts
3,793
Im after a new 32inch tv for my room but i have no idea which one to go for at the moment, i think my max budget is approximately £400! I have been advised to go for panasonic or Sony.......? Anyone recommend a plasma 32 with built in freeview?, if so could you post some links :)
Thanks
 
If you are only going to 32" then you should be looking at LCD; plasmas generally don't go that small.

Generally I'd recommend the Sony's for LCD usage.

If you decide to go larger (and a little more expensive) then I'd recommend a plasma.
 
Yeah I'd say a decent 32" LCD for that budget is probably a more sensible and realistic buy.

edit:

A Toshiba 32AV555DB can be had for £319 online.
 
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I actually work in electrical retail if it's any help, few tips:

Plasma > LCD, longer life expectancy of 100,000 hours rather than 60,000 of LCD's. More robust, with a glass screen. They also produce a better picture, with LCD being heavily backlit, the colours tend not to be as defined, whereas on a plasma, the colours can be very defined.
Also unless you want to pay an awful lot for a Pioneer, go for Panasonic, can't stress how good their TV's are.

EDIT: just realised you want a 32 inch, in which case go for an LCD, you'll struggle to find a 32 inch plasma, although LG have just released one. The Panasonic TX-32LXD85 or TX-32LXD80 are both good choices, only need HD ready and not full HD because you won't see the complete benefits at that size of TV. The LXD85 has 100Hz, which could be beneficial, as it is a quicker refresh rate, so if you watch a lot of sport/movies, this would be the better choice.

Just some advice, obviously you don't have to listen, but thats what I'm going for in a few weeks time, if you or anyone else has any question, just add my msn, be happy to chat about it :)
 
+1 to the above. Former electrical retail shop Manager here. Panasonic make & have made good tellies for donkeys years.
 
tuffty747 said:
Plasma > LCD, longer life expectancy of 100,000 hours rather than 60,000 of LCD's. More robust, with a glass screen. They also produce a better picture, with LCD being heavily backlit, the colours tend not to be as defined, whereas on a plasma, the colours can be very defined.
Click to expand...
Your info on colour reproduction and backlighting (i.e. black levels) is out of date. Modern LCDs have superb colour reproduction and much improved black levels, although Plasmas are still slightly better in this regard, especially the more expensive models such as the Pioneer Kuros.

LCD tends to be better for the 32/37" sizes and below whilst Plasma shines at 50 and above but in the 40/42/46/47 middle-ground there are good arguments for both. Plasmas do still suffer from image retention which can be an issue when using consoles a lot whilst LCDs tend not to offer as good SD scaling as Plasmas do.

Many simply prefer the image produced by one technology over the other and there's no substitute for personal viewing before making a decision.

As for the life of the panels, this is totally irrelevant. Even viewing the set for five hours a day, 60000 hours equates to 32 years of life. Even viewing it 24 hours a day would give you nearly 7 years!
 
Vertigo1 said:
Your info on colour reproduction and backlighting (i.e. black levels) is out of date. Modern LCDs have superb colour reproduction and much improved black levels, although Plasmas are still slightly better in this regard, especially the more expensive models such as the Pioneer Kuros.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but if you're willing to pay over £2000 for the Kuros range, or the New Samsung Series 7/9 Range which are very expensive at the moment. I know there isn't much between them, but I would go for Plasma at a 42", but at 32", you don't really have a choice, as very few manufacturers make a 32" Plasma. The info isn't exactly out of date, you said yourself it's still relevant, just not much between them, I will add that, my mistake.

At 32" most of this doesn't matter anyway, because you can't get a Plasma, however, I would still go for Panasonic over any other brand, they're just such good TV's
 
But I want 200,000 hours of use :D:D:D:D

OP go for an LCD, the sony V4000 is my recommendation. The LG 32inch plasma does produce a good picture, but the image retention suffered is horrible to be quite frank. A friend has one and after playing with the settings for 5 mins then putting on a dvd, an imprint of the menu was seen in the black bars at the top and bottom of the picture.

Toshibas are quite good if you can't afford the sony, and I normally try to steer people away from samsung as they have many annoying problems that I doubt will ever be fixed, even with countless new software updates being released.

The panasonic LXD 80/85 are good screen and I do like them, but watch out for backlight bleed. On an affected screen this is frighteningly evident when a black picture is displayed, with light bleed eminating from the corners. Not nice when watching films, but doesn't affect all sets out there.
 
I can only compare my Toshiba Regza against a Sharp Aquos and some obscure old CRT and I'd take the Tosh every time.

So I'd say don't scoff at the Toshiba, but there will be people in the know who can give a more detailed comparison and know more about other sets.
 
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