new 42" tv advice needed, lcd or plasma

allan673

hi,
i am on the lookout for a new 42 inch tv. can you recommend one at all please.
should i get an lcd or plasma ? 100hz, 600hz etc?

budget is £500, the cheaper the better though.

just want a good quality picture and sound, i have sky hd, although i dont subscribe to the hd pack. i get a few free hd channels.

any advice is welcome and appreciated.

patman99

I would not hesitate to reccommend a Sony. However, with your budget, the only 42" set you are likely to get will be one of the cheap 'shops own brand' jobs.

How far are you going to sit from the set?. Less than 7 ft and you shouldn't consider anything over 37" anyway.

I wouldn't bother with 600Hz sets. All tv is broadcast at 50/60Hz, so there is no real improvement in picture quality.

To watch Sky HD, the set needs to support 1080i as this is what they broadcast in/

keith1950

Hi, unless you are going for an all singing, all dancing , completely up to date set costing a fortune, you could consider the current Currys offer of an LG 42PJ550 Plasma , its only 'HD Ready' but currently on offer at £479. If you have got an old tv of any kind they will knock off £100 if you give them it on delivery, that makes £379. If you enter code currys5 that will knock the price down to £360 and if you buy through Topcashback that will give £11 cashback making a net price of £349.I have Full hd and hd ready tvs and when fed with the same hd signal it is hard to tell the difference. Its free delivery as well even on a Saturday and Sunday.

allan673

how much would a full hd tv cost, and should i get lcd or plasma?
some of the seats are 10 or 12 foot from the tv.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

allan673 wrote: »

how much would a full hd tv cost, and should i get lcd or plasma?
some of the seats are 10 or 12 foot from the tv.

You can get a 40" Sony LCD Full HD for less than £500...

keith1950

Hi, when you mentioned ' the cheaper the better ' I thought of the 42" LG Plasma, if you want full HD then personally I would spend a bit more and go for a set with built in freeview HD tuner and/or built in freesat tuner. The choice of LCD or Plasmsa is more of a personal choice. Personally I prefer the plasma even though I also have two LCD'S.At present I would spent less as a short term spend to see what new technology comes along in the next couple of years. However for me and a lot of people I have talked to, the idea of 3-D is a non starter. Two possibilities would be the Panasonic TX-P42S20B or the Panasonic TXP42G20B.

woody01

allan673 wrote: »

how much would a full hd tv cost, and should i get lcd or plasma?
some of the seats are 10 or 12 foot from the tv.

Unless you are hooking up a games console aswell, there is no benefit at all to FULL HD over HD Ready.

Even with a games console, there is no noticeable difference.

I had a 42" Samsung Plasma downstairs (HD Ready) with SKY HD and a 32" Sony LCD (FULL HD) upstairs with a PS3.

The 42" is by far a better unit.

KillerWatt

http://www.richersounds.com/products/home-cinema/lcd-and-plasma/all-tvs

almillar

Woody - get your eyes tested. This depends on size of screen and distance from it. I can certainly see the difference between 720 and 1080 games. All HD broadcast in the UK is 1080i, so showing it on a 720 (or 768) TV will involve downscaling. Just because you can't tell the difference, doesn't mean no-one else can.
allan - you'll be missing out on a few things unless you get a really good deal at this price. I'd like to get a full HD ready set (1080p) and I'd also like it to have an HD tuner built in. This may be less important to you if you use Sky all the time. You'll be able to afford a bigger LG, or a smaller Panasonic.