Panasonic TH-42PE40 PLASMA £798.00 Table Top Stand Or £898.00 Cabinet Stand

Majik

Furry wrote:

Theres are reasons why they are so cheap "as ever".

1.Plasma's are unreliable

2. One of the very few electrical items I would insist on taking out an extended warranty on "very expensive to repair".

3. LCD has won the battle over plasma as the next gen format. Remember with a lot of luck even a plasma TV will last for the best part of 10 years by which time HD will long have been the dogs B's and this TV does not support HD. Still I supose you could go round to a mates house and look longingly at his HD.

If you were one of the people who bought Betamax....go ahead.

1. Cobblers. Where did you garner that little nugget of misinformation? Plasmas are as reliable as any other Television - care to enlight us why you thnk they are unreliable?

2. I would be tempting to agree with you there. However, I would automatically get the insurance from anywhere except Currys, so this doesn't prevent the purchase anyhow.

3. Won the battle? Really? Are you sure? Considering the price differences, I would doubt it. Having compared a new LCD TV on 720p to a two year old Plasma on 720p, I'd take the plasma every single time. I'm not saying LCD is worse, I'm saying it's a personal preference. To compare Plasmas to Betamax is laughable and short sighted fanboy opinion.

Majik

Furry_2

LoL well what a fuss Majik.

1. little nugget of misinformation... was passed on from a electrical/tv enginner with 30 years experience.

2 Glad to hear we agree on something. I would not bother with a ext/wty for an lcd tv as lcd pc monitors have been around for a while and even cheap ones have proven to be very reliable. Would you buy an unknown brand name plasma TV? So the cost of the ext/wty must be taken into account.

3 I'm not saying LCD is worse... Betamax was the better format it still went down the pan. You may not remember Betamax "the better format" costing almost half the price in a last ditch attempt to gain control of the market, I do. Go into any Store and count the LCD to Plasma ratio. Then ask "Does the plasma support that HD thingy"?

4 I will agree that if you take out the ext/wty and buy the stand you will have a good TV, but that will cost more llike £1000.00 and for my money I would rather wait a few months until Lcd prices drop a little as they are starting to do and this will speed up when all old widescreen models with 3ft stickin out the back have been sold off. Plus you will prob get a free view box built in.

5 Before you buy any older model of plasma or lcd TV try and take a look at it turned on as the older models have a terrible viewing angle. ie its ok if you sit right in front of it. Walk around it to check the picture is clear from all angles. The latest models have fixed this prob and advertise 170* viewing angle.

Furry

Furry_2

Roger_Rampant wrote:

That sounds a bit too "black and white" for my liking - no pun intended!

I'm sure my daughter would love to have this for her playstation games if I decide to go for an HD model in a few years

I'm sure she would and you have hit on a very good point.

Games consols are really the best reason for getting a HD TV at the mo. The XBOX 360 and PS3 "when it arrives" both support HD and the pictures are out of this world. Take your daughter to a store and ask to compare the 360 on a plasma and a HD Lcd.

Furry

tjsmangina

i have yet to see ANY lcd HD OR NOT that can match the pic from sky on my pw7.LCD looks nice with top of the line HD signals being passed through it but put an SD signal like sky or an outdoor aerial and it looks horrific imho.360 does look lush on a HD screen hough cant argue there,shame it doesnt have a hdmi cable though.

so a tv engineer with 30 years experience says plasma is unreliable ? domestic plasmas have only been out about 6 years at a reasnable price and with it being new technology is bound to have more problems than standard crt sets which have had 30 odd years to iron out its faults so its not exactly a fair fight is it. i wouldnt say plasmas are any more unreliable than other display hardware and i sure as hell wouldnt get an extended from currys or any of the box shifters.

if SED panels come out or even these new HD crt`s take off then both lcd an plasma could be in trouble,SED panels offer the benefits of plasma and the pic quality of a crt and imho LCD has taken a long long time to get to a decent level of quality pic.

apart from a xbox 360 there is NO other HD source at the minute (unless you have a lot of expensive satellite equipment)and the next step will be sky HD and i dont fancy watching the same old crappy sky films on one movie channel 1 sports channel a handfull of other channels OH and arts world :rotfl: i wont be binning my SD panel untill 60% of broadcasts are HD.add to that have you seen the lists of SKY HD MOVIES ? stuff like king arthur,man on fire etc are fine but crap like "crazy canucks" which is made for tv rubbish and a few other films that look like they have been made for channel 5 on a £10 budget 9 years ago surely cant be HD.which makes me wonder how hd IS sky hd ?

carl_east

tjsmangina wrote:

i have yet to see ANY lcd HD OR NOT that can match the pic from sky on my pw7.LCD looks nice with top of the line HD signals being passed through it but put an SD signal like sky or an outdoor aerial and it looks horrific imho.360 does look lush on a HD screen hough cant argue there,shame it doesnt have a hdmi cable though.

apart from a xbox 360 there is NO other HD source at the minute (unless you have a lot of expensive satellite equipment)and the next step will be sky HD and i dont fancy watching the same old crappy sky films on one movie channel 1 sports channel a handfull of other channels OH and arts world :rotfl: i wont be binning my SD panel untill 60% of broadcasts are HD.add to that have you seen the lists of SKY HD MOVIES ? stuff like king arthur,man on fire etc are fine but crap like "crazy canucks" which is made for tv rubbish and a few other films that look like they have been made for channel 5 on a £10 budget 9 years ago surely cant be HD.which makes me wonder how hd IS sky hd ?

I think you're underestimating how quickly HD is going to take off. As an avid reader of T3, Stuff, and What Hi-fi, and a keen follower of the Cebit and Las Vegas technology shows I would have to say things are looking pretty imminent. Granted the initial flow of HD content will be limited but it depends what channels you watch the most. Sky Movies, Sky Sports, Sky One, and a selection of documentary channels (including BBC ones) will all have HD content. And although we may not see HD disc players until the end of the year that isn't that far away when you consider how long you'll keep this tv. Now although all of you claim that your pictures on your old TV is better than any LCD or Plasma (and you would be right) this will change with HD. I have had the pleasure of watch movie clips and other documentary clips in Hi-Def and it is out of this world. It completely changes the picture when compared with normal TV. Especially on large screens. Large screens suffer at the moment making them even less desirable than your old CRT tubed TV but when you change the pixel rate to HD. Well let's just say I would strongly suggest you guys do not spend £800 on a plasma without it. You'll just be disappointed when you see what you could have had.

And if you're a football lover. This years world cup will be broadcast in Hi-Def so get ready for the revolution! Although I think I'll be watching it on my mates Sony LCD.

As for the argument between Plasma and LCD. Well plasma screens are not only cheaper but have a bigger potential screen size at the moment. But LCDs are catching up fast. Most makers in the industry are starting to make LCD screens. Why? Well, plasmas don't last as long. The phosphors will eventually wear out in them where as the lifespan of LCD is about 20 years (60,000 hours). Plasmas also suffer from screen burn. But both are reliable I doubt this is why everyone is moving away from plasma. I think it's because plasma are heavier and use more power than LCD screens. If you assume that LCDs will eventually match plasmas in price, and they are catching up in picture quality fast (although we have to review things with new HD content), then it would make sense to build something that lasts longer, is lighter and uses less power.

What would I buy right now? Look through magazines like what hifi for great deals on HD ready plasmas and LCDs. They're not that much more than the £800 for this one.

tjsmangina

for starters the movie channel is only on for a few hours a day on sky HD you need a new box and you will be paying more for your subscription,NO THANKS.£800 for a GOOD 42 inch HD plasma screen ? i seriously doubt that.im also VERY sceptical of the bbc broadcasting in hd for the world cup(german tv should be broadcasting it but that doesnt mean the bbc will be using there feeds) are you sure they will be broadcasting it in hd ? the liverpool champ league final was taped in HD but itv never showed it in HD. my panasonic is quoted as 50,000 to 60,000 hours viewing so i dont know where you get lcd will last longer from.like i said you NEED HD to get a good picture out of a lcd opposed to a plasma,granted when you see a hd source being fed into a lcd it is lovely but i think it will be 2 years atleast before HD broadcasts are anywhere near 40% of all broadcast channels.

by that time SED panels will be out and the price of lcds will be even cheaper,so i will continue watching my big screen SD plasma and make the leap to HD when it is above the average of 50% broadcasting as opposed to an xbox 360 right now.

carl_east

While I think we both agree that the HD format is a winner we seem to be in some disagreement over how quickly HD will come to our screens. Technology is like a rolling stone. It can take a long time to get moving but once it does it's impossible to stop it. So what does that mean?

SED TV sounds very exciting indeed. But from what I hear (and there isn't a great deal) Canon and Toshiba will start production some time in Quarter 3 of 2007. Now going back to the getting the stone rolling analogy, it is doubtful they will actually meet their forecast for this. Recent history suggests that if a technology company predicts that a product will ship in Q3 then it is likely that they will only make Christmas sales at best. Not only that. This is when they will be available to Japanese consumers. So we are unlikely to see SED TV's in Europe until some time in 2008. What's worse is that they will be very expensive compared to LCD TVs to begin with. This leaves a lot of time for LCD to improve further and come down in price. But to be honest there are some very good deals out there right now. You can get the award winning Philips and Sony LCDs for about £1300 if you use quidco and comet discount codes. But you can also get good HD ready screens for around £1000. Granted they won't be too good for non HD content but that leads me to my next part.

The HD content began "rolling" a while ago and in the next few months things will really begin to gather speed. The world cup will be broadcast in HD and so will Wimbledon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4834322.stm). As will all Sky football matches from next year presume. When these Telewest/NTL and Sky HD boxes come out then we'll really begin to see a two pronged attack. At the moment the only reason for buying a plasma is to save space but over the next few months that will change. Plasma and LCD sales will increase over the summer months and that will cause the broadcasters (who all already film in HD) to provide more.

The revolution has started.

carl_east

Following up to my post above. I wouldn't buy a plasma or LCD until this summer. June if you want to watch the world cup and wimbledon (on a new telewest/NTL or Sky HD box) and maybe a month or two afterwards if you're not too bothered about them. Prices will be even cheaper for the top Philips, Sony and Panasonic screens.

coolio_2

Loads of stores near me had these at the wekend, I finally decide to get one and they have all gone.

tjsmangina

carl_east wrote:

While I think we both agree that the HD format is a winner we seem to be in some disagreement over how quickly HD will come to our screens. Technology is like a rolling stone. It can take a long time to get moving but once it does it's impossible to stop it. So what does that mean?

SED TV sounds very exciting indeed. But from what I hear (and there isn't a great deal) Canon and Toshiba will start production some time in Quarter 3 of 2007. Now going back to the getting the stone rolling analogy, it is doubtful they will actually meet their forecast for this. Recent history suggests that if a technology company predicts that a product will ship in Q3 then it is likely that they will only make Christmas sales at best. Not only that. This is when they will be available to Japanese consumers. So we are unlikely to see SED TV's in Europe until some time in 2008. What's worse is that they will be very expensive compared to LCD TVs to begin with. This leaves a lot of time for LCD to improve further and come down in price. But to be honest there are some very good deals out there right now. You can get the award winning Philips and Sony LCDs for about £1300 if you use quidco and comet discount codes. But you can also get good HD ready screens for around £1000. Granted they won't be too good for non HD content but that leads me to my next part.

The HD content began "rolling" a while ago and in the next few months things will really begin to gather speed. The world cup will be broadcast in HD and so will Wimbledon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4834322.stm). As will all Sky football matches from next year presume. When these Telewest/NTL and Sky HD boxes come out then we'll really begin to see a two pronged attack. At the moment the only reason for buying a plasma is to save space but over the next few months that will change. Plasma and LCD sales will increase over the summer months and that will cause the broadcasters (who all already film in HD) to provide more.

The revolution has started.

some good points there,the problem i see is the plasma HD resolution is something like 1080 by 756 which is awful compared to the res you get on lcd`s but like i said i prefer the pic on a plasma compared to any lcd i ever demo`ed im not talking about demo`s in currys either lol,im alking about taking a few dvds a sky signal and a few recorded dvds from sky and for my money lcd just cant handle sd signals to well.

secondly,sky will be the ones at the forefront of HD FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE and from previous experience with sky being the first to do anything its always dribs n drabs,can anyone else remember the "widescreen channel" basically one film channel that got half a nights viewing material and was all the same movies as normal sky,then there was 5.1 movies which was great but once they premiered they usually got the soundtrack dumbed down to standard stereo on the re run.

like i said before i wouldnt go out tomorrow and buy a high resolution lcd just so i can say its "future proof" because the pic just isnt up there with SD CHANNELS and you dont want to rely on 1 movie,one sport and artsworld to show off your new set and basically cringe when the 95% of the rest of your viewing will be SD.your right,the revolution has started but its not gonna be cheap and there isnt much of it about.