Plasma 42" TV Which One Please?

x-spendthrift

I am after a plasma 42" TV, can anybody recommend one? With so many on the market I am not too sure where to start! I Have a maximum of about £900 but hopefully looking to get one a little cheaper. Thanks

Troubleatmill_2

How about £800 - and a brand that's renowned for quality HD televisons.
( BTW - I have 2 Hitachi plasmas - and they are very good ).

http://www.richersounds.co.uk/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=HITA-42PD6A10

edit: - Needs you to buy a freeview tuner - but if you have Sky or NTL you are all set.

Best
Troubleatmill

Moneymaker

Before you buy a 42" Hitachi plasma you should read this:
http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1167001021

You should also be aware that Freeview (and ordinary Sky) are not High Definition and may look poor on a HD TV. In general, a large HD screen will show up "artifacts" far worse than a smaller SD screen. I urge you to look at (and listen to) these things working with Freeview/Sky before splashing out. Choose one that you are personally happy with. In particular look at live sport because the fast movement tends to show the inherent poor quality better than anything. Don't look at the shop demos with DVD.

Tahiti

SD broadcasts were not designed for large Plasma and LCD TVs , but if you buy a good quality set straight off (and use half decent interconnects - don't worry, I'm not saying you need to spend 100s on cables!), it's not a problem unless you're sitting very close to the screen. Don't rely on the display you see in shops - they invariably use proper HD broadcasts and optimise the TVs.

I have been involved with installing two Plasmas and an LCD screen, and when all of them were first turned on, the picture was awful on SD broadcasts (DVDs were superb though). Having a fiddle with the settings in various lights got a good picture on all of them. And to this day, I still haven't seen HD run through any sets outside of shops.

I am no expert, but a display device has to have a minimum of 720 physical lines in wide aspect ratio to be classified as "HD". The best TVs currently have 1080 lines though. This is something to consider for picture quality now, but also in terms of future-proofing the TV.

I don't know much about TVs in your price range, but Hitachi has a good reputation, as do Sharp and Sony (the latter if you're looking at LCD).

In my experience, the quality of picture on cheap Plasma's is better than cheap LCDs. The more you spend though, the more things even out, and my preference goes towards LCDs (Sony Bravia in particular) as the budget increases.

From a money saving perspective, Richer Sounds offer a reasonably priced warranty (or throw it in in some cases), and John Lewis throw one in for free should you decide that warranty is important to you.