Idiot's guide to latest TVs, please?

LizEstelle

As my 18 year old, surrounded-by-teak, gas-powered Ferguson is coming to the end of its natural, finally, I was wondering whether any kind soul here would fill me in on what all the latest stuff means.

I haven't the faintest what the difference is between LCD and plasma, widescreen and wide-eyed etc etc. All I can guess about 'HD' is that it'll probably need more aerials and, in all likelihood, a cosy little subscription, right..?

If anyone can give me the duffer's version of what it's all about, I'd be so grateful.

TheFlyingGerbil

If you just want to watch TV through an aerial - freeview or analogue, then you only really need an old fashioned 'fat tv'. You only need plasma/lcd if you subscribe to a HiDefinition service (eg Sky HD, this is dearer than 'normal' digital sky)or if you want to also use the screen as a monitor for your computer, or if yuo just want a slimmer TV, eg to hang on the wall and generally take up less space and be less ugly. Also budget play a big part. If you could tell us what yuo want to use it for and what your budget is I'm sure other people will be able to give more advice.

Joe

cobbingstones

LizEstelle wrote:

As my 18 year old, surrounded-by-teak, gas-powered Ferguson is coming to the end of its natural, finally, I was wondering whether any kind soul here would fill me in on what all the latest stuff means.

I haven't the faintest what the difference is between LCD and plasma, widescreen and wide-eyed etc etc. All I can guess about 'HD' is that it'll probably need more aerials and, in all likelihood, a cosy little subscription, right..?

If anyone can give me the duffer's version of what it's all about, I'd be so grateful.

Hi

The difference between LCD and Plasma is basically price. You can get Plasmas approx 30% cheaper than an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) due to the technology involved. The only other benefit in having a Plasma is you can obtain huge screens (60+"), whereas LCD's go up to a max 42" (if there are larger LCD's available, avoid them as their picture quality starts to deteriate due to technological limitations).

LCD's have clearer 'truer' pictures, last longer, are great to connect to a PC and are more efficient/do not run so hot.

Most flat screens come HD (High definition) ready these days, and although you may not want to fork out for Sky's £300 HD box + something like an extra £10 per month, :eek: one day in the near future, this will be as standard or at least much cheaper. Plus HD from Sky is not 'true' HD at the moment. True HD has over 1000 lines per picture whereas Sky's HD is only 7eral hundred at the moment.

Widescreen format is simply a representation of the picture dimension that you would see at the cinema (rather than more square on your conventional TV). In other words they chop a bit off the sides of films to view on normal 4/3 TV's.

Finally. Always go to retailers to check out the pictures yourself. Then when you've chosen, buy online (do a search on Kelkoo), you will always save at least 25% online (we did).:p

weemee

madsmum wrote:

Plus HD from Sky is not 'true' HD at the moment. True HD has over 1000 lines per picture whereas Sky's HD is only 7eral hundred at the moment.

Good overview madsmum, just one point on the above - That's not technically true. High Definition is defined ITU-R BT.709 as 1080 active interlaced or progressive lines, or 720 progressive lines, using a 16:9 aspect ratio. (Source: Wikipedia)

Sky HD is fantastic

Moneymaker

TFT (LCD) screens seem to run a lot cooler than plasma. I assume they use less energy. They are also not prone to "screen burn".

Rumman

go to https://www.avforums.com brillaint site for AV.


Basically dont go to comet, dixons, currys pcworlds to see the tv in work, they often have bad reception bad signal feeds into the tv and gives a bad misrepresentation of the image.

General trend is 37" above plasma 37"below lcd. Plasma offers better picture qualiy above 37" and generally most people like this techonology than lcd. Although each person is up to his own.

True HD will get a while to come, Sky is HD ready. There are only a few tvs on the market that are true HD which means they have 1080 lines, and they are all lcd tvs. HD ready tv have 720 lines. It will be this coming year where we will see more and more true hd tv's.

browolf

you can hardly seem to get normal tvs anymore. just had a look on the comet site and theres a few. 28" or 32" widescreen; what i thought was entry level is no longer it seems hardly any of those either.

* Plasma and LCD TVs (114)
* Widescreen TVs (9)
* Traditional TVs - 20 inch plus (5)

trouble is with LCD the sort of size 28" you'd want; the price is like double what it was before. ha you cant get 28 but 26" are like £450

By TV size (inches)

* 15 inches (6)
* 17 inches (1)
* 19 inches (4)
* 20 inches (8)
* 23 inches (3)
* 26 inches (8)
* 27 inches (1)
* 32 inches (21)
* 37 inches (9)
* 40 inches (8)
* 42 inches (15)
* 43 inches (1)
* 46 inches (5)
* 47 inches (1)
* 50 inches (7)
* 55 inches (1)
* 60 inches (1)
* 63 inches (1)


* £100 - £200 (7)
* £200 - £300 (9)
* £300 - £400 (3)
* £400 - £500 (7)
* £500 - £750 (19)
* £750 - £1000 (13)
* £1000 - £1500 (23)
* £1500 - £2000 (19)
* £2000 - £2500 (9)
* £2500 - £3000 (2)
* £4000 - £4500 (1)
* £4500 - £5000 (2)

chrispyphillips

Rumman wrote:

go to https://www.avforums.com brillaint site for AV.


Basically dont go to comet, dixons, currys pcworlds to see the tv in work, they often have bad reception bad signal feeds into the tv and gives a bad misrepresentation of the image.

General trend is 37" above plasma 37"below lcd. Plasma offers better picture qualiy above 37" and generally most people like this techonology than lcd. Although each person is up to his own.

True HD will get a while to come, Sky is HD ready. There are only a few tvs on the market that are true HD which means they have 1080 lines, and they are all lcd tvs. HD ready tv have 720 lines. It will be this coming year where we will see more and more true hd tv's.

I often wondered why he pictures on some TV's were terrible and some okay in those shops. t really is a bad representation on the televisions. I suppose they just plug the impressive ariels into the TV's they want to sell the most! So, will a HDTV, viewing normal analogue pictures, still be as decent as a normal tv does, or does it lose a bit of quality cos it wants to be watching HD?

And with regards to 37" below LCD, the only LCD's that do 1080 lines are 42" or over arent they, so what do you suggest if you want a 1080 screen? Basically i want an LCD, 1080i screen, preferebaly with a digital tuner built in, but then again, is this worth it if HD will only come in a box top version? It is all so confusing i must say!

What about HDMI? why are some cables more expensive than others, and do they all do the same job, or do you pay for the name etc?

LizEstelle

Thanks to all who replied.

Basically, to answer someone's question, I'd just be after something middle-of-the-range which hopefully incorporates a dvd player and vhs (some chance!) so that I don't have too much spaghetti soup lying around at the back of the box.

I take it that ALL these sets mentioned are now 'digital'..?

As for 'HD', I've never been prepared to pay over and above the Licence Fee for my viewing and this applies here. As a matter of interest, since I'm not prepared to pay extra for an 'HD' set otherwise, does anyone know whether standard terrestrial channels will eventually be broadcast with this feature?

f1charlie

browolf wrote:

you can hardly seem to get normal tvs anymore.

A few more here:

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/products/list~subdept~wide-screenctv~dt~Televisions~st~Widescreen+TVs.htm

ollyk

LizEstelle wrote:

Thanks to all who replied.

Basically, to answer someone's question, I'd just be after something middle-of-the-range which hopefully incorporates a dvd player and vhs (some chance!) so that I don't have too much spaghetti soup lying around at the back of the box.

I take it that ALL these sets mentioned are now 'digital'..?

As for 'HD', I've never been prepared to pay over and above the Licence Fee for my viewing and this applies here. As a matter of interest, since I'm not prepared to pay extra for an 'HD' set otherwise, does anyone know whether standard terrestrial channels will eventually be broadcast with this feature?

definately go for a normal CRT, unless space / looks are that important to you. You can also get HD CRT's which I would love to compare to HD plasm / LCD :cool:
If you do test a flat screen MAKE SURE YOU INSIST on seeing fast moving, high detailed material from the source you will usually watch from i.e. arial or VHS / DVD. DO NOT judge by what the store demonstrates.
I agree with the above I wouldn't make a decision based on pictures or advice you get in Dixons, curry's etc etc.