HDTV- help please!

smiling_sophie

Hi Everyone!

On the lookout for a new TV and was hoping for some advice on the best places to buy and what brand. Rubbish when it comes to all that stuff! I definitely want an HD one and have about a grand to spare.

Any advice gladly recieved

S

penrhyn

Very few HD ready TVs have a high enough resolution to cope with the forthcoming HD broadcasts from Sky.
The ones that are available are still expensive, if I were you I'd wait 6months for the higher resolution panels to come down in price.
If I were in the market however I'd be looking at Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung.
There is another thread on this I'll try and reference it.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2323721&postcount=10

smiling_sophie

Thanksfor that! Where do you go to check you are getting the best prices on things? I can't believe the variations in price out there for tvs/dvd/etc- it's so time consuming looking around. Know any guaranteed low price places? Or the best place to check prices?

Mishy

Asda have a HD TV for about £399 not sure about the size but it looked quite big.

Astaroth

Panasonic and Pioneer are generally considered by most to have the best models out there at the moment.

There are many sites like https://www.pricerunner.co.uk and Kelkoo that allow you to compair prices across stores for a particular model of TV.

The current HD Ready TVs will all "cope" with 1080i which is one of the 2 main formats for "HD" but the picture will be scaled down to the screens native resolution and de interlaced - this is one of the requirements of HD Ready badge.

At the moment only the very large screens actually have a native resolution in the region of 1080 and only a few of them are capable of handling a 1080p signal which will not be available from Sky HD but will be when Blu-Ray hd dvds start coming out.

The "problem" with entertainment equipment is that the technology is currently moving so fast that when ever you are going to be looking to buy there will always be the next big thing just round the corner. If you end up waiting for them to be released you will end up never buying.

smiling_sophie

Astaroth wrote:

There are many sites like https://www.pricerunner.co.uk and Kelkoo that allow you to compair prices across stores for a particular model of TV.

Yeah I tried kelkoo but I've never been that impressed cause I've then found cheaper if I bother to dig- for convenience though you can't beat it. I used 118118 the other day when I was out and about looking for an Xbox for the little one- they check prices for you now too (who knew?)- saved me a few bob which went towards King Kong, so forementioned child was most happy!

Anyone else used it?

I was thinking Pioneer or Panasonic, just because I know of them to be good brands- Samsung has also been mentioned as a good one?

Astaroth

I guess it depends what you want - Panasonics 60 & 600 series plasma and the pioneer one (cant remember the model number off the top of my head) are the ones that are consistantly being scored as "the best" and as the 42" 60 series one can be got for around £1300 it does seem a great buy.

Personally I wouldnt put samsung in the same league but they possibly could be a better bang for your buck - ie a slightly lower performance but the price more than reflects this.

penrhyn

This is the sort of set I'd be looking at as it has a native 1920*1080 native resolution, and built in freeview.
http://www.home-entertainment.toshiba.co.uk/consumer/products.nsf/pages/lcdplasma-lcdfreeview-42wlt66?opendocument

Found it here on Pricerunner http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/sound-and-vision/vision/tv/581973/prices?q=42wlt66

I was salivating over one at Comet the other week, but !!!!!! don't buy one, or anything else from them!

howalsh

Dont forget you may need a new aerial too & there is expense there!!!