Thetownend.com

Ok, for xmas i'm getting a new TV and have to decide on what model etc..

I've been told that LCD is the better option over Plasma these days? Why is this?

I'm looking at 37 - 40 '' screens and I love the new Samsung ones finished in gloss piano black.

Anyone here technically minded? Haven't a clue what to go for!

I've also noticed that for the best quality picture, 1080 hp is the optimum resolution. Can you really tell the difference??

http://www.lcdtvbuyingguide.com/lcdtv-plasmavslcd.shtml

Theres a small guide to what is done best by what mate.

Its just a guide and to be honest the only true way to see is go to a dealer and see which appeals to you picture wise and for what application you want it to serve you for...dvd/sky/ps3 or xbox as each is better on different screens.

The resolution will be noticable with a bigger screen

I have an LG. It took a little while to settle in. Was a little fuzzy particularly whilst watching football or fast sports at first and often gave me eyestrain. It's fine now though but some channels are often a little blurry. I'm sure a signal booster helps this but I'm not too sure if that's fact. When hd tv takes over terrestrial/digital etc. this won't be a problem I imagine. As for playing next gen consoles or blu ray/hddvd through them i have absolutely no quarms. Fucking special.

I have a humax its fucking ace. The 360 is something else on it too. Home cinema kits ace aswell.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/tans2007/003.jpg

don't fancy your dinner much.

Tans, are you one day ahead.

Id love a plasma, but I wont spend £500 on a TV

Is this from your parents? I get a jumper off my mum for christmas that I wont wear - same every year, dad will get me a memory stick or something to do with work. Every parents are different but I was chatting to a mate yesterday about this and I dont understand people in the 20s getting big presents now?!

this is my 42" Panasonic Viera plasma, had no problems so far, i think plasma's are better for films, we have an LCD downstairs and it is a bit bright during films for my liking, i prefer the contrast and colours i get off the plasma.

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z84/axs0/Rotationofhifi.jpg

just got a 37" samsung that you talk of. i love it, gotta be set a bit away from the screen tho. You'll pay a fair bit more for the old 1080 jobs atm not sure if the difference is justified but i guess as more and more hd content blu ray n all that takes off that will be the standard to have

What I don't get is people that splash out on a very expensive television and then get a very cheap surround sound system  :)

oi, mine's a fucking quality hi-fi set-up!

Um, that wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, just a general thing I've seen  :soapy tit wank:

BUMP

Been browsing today, i've seen a nice 37 " Samsung LCD HD with 1080p resolution.

Also seen a nice 42" Plasma.

I just don't know what to go for.

get a black and white telly with no remote control

The price difference between standard 768 resolution and 1080 is huge!

I can't really see that much difference in picture quality. The HD 768's are still awesome.

Apparently Panasonic lead the world when it comes to Plasma's though.

i have researched this quite alot lately.
i'm probably going to go for a panasonic lcd as they seem top of the tree at present.ditto their plasmas
this is a good forum for info
http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php

Cheers fella.

Panasonic top of the league with LCD too then?

I heard Samsung are good?

just go through the forums ralphy, or type in the model you fancty into google.i'm going for a panansonic tx-32lxd70. it has had some ace ratings off which and other tests.
apparantly samsung are ok but the panasonics kick their arses as do sony and toshiba's

I was looking at a Panasonic today, 1080p Plasma, really impressed.

I've been told Plasma's are at risk from burn out or something though?? :?

plasma's have a slightly better picture allegedly for viewing. but not for gaming

you will not be disappointed with a panny, trust me.

to be fair, i know a few people with samsungs and they are happy with them.just seems that panasonic have the edge over them

i'm led to believe panasonic are by far the best tellies around

(personally i'm a sony fanboi)

oh and ralphy you have far too much disposable income. adopt a child or something

i have one of each in my house, i just prefer the panny plasma over the samsung LCD, mainly because i only watch movies on it, i haven't tried gaming on it. xbox 360 looks pretty good on the samsung lcd though.

I was thinking about getting myself this to play my PS3 on:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129151/show_product_reviews
Its fairly cheap and has got some very good feedback.  Has anyone got anything similar?

I bought 1 a month back, great for 2 days then the menu fucked up and locked the TV. Ebuyer replaced it withing 4 days and the new one is perfect.

Picture quality is as good (when the settings have been set up right, they are shit settings out of the box) at least as good as most lcd's costing twice as much.

The 2 downfalls...

The sound quality is poor, no problem if you use a surround sound system as I do.

There is no SKY+ tv remote code available as yet for it despite what people may suggest to the contrary.

The picture quality makes up for these problems, when in HD or VGA mode it is truly exceptional for the money.

9/10 overall

I have the 46" Samsung LCD in the piano black - fooking ace TV

Sport is excellent with no "blur" - Xbox 360 and PS3 look amazing !

Only little issue is that the surround looks beautiful BUT gets dusty very very quickly - if that is not an issue then I cannot speak to highly of it.....

Mines in piano black and I have the same trouble.

i've ordered the panny.£549 online its £799 in the shops.

Got a linky arriba? I'm after an LCD as a crimbo pressie to myself.

That Panny is nice.

Can any technical boffs on here clear up all the jargon?

There are 3 resolutions in HD, 768p, 1080i and 1080p.

I also see some TV's are 100 MHz??

I don't understand all this jargon!

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin/displayreview.php?reviewid=7296

review of it

bought from here

www.laskys.com

  type in code PANN4 for £40 off. next cheapest is dixons at £588

just go to  www.avforums.com and look through the threads.its all there

Cheers, I'll have a look.

From Wikipedia:

sam, of the ones that take your fancy.google them and look up the reviews and info on them.
some i considered, i then disregarded after doing this.

Ralphy - if it's got a p after the resolution it's progressive scan. A 768p is probably going to be better than a 1080i

Oh and HD DVDs are likely to use the 1080p as the max resolution in the future, so I'd probably go for that for futureproofness.

I always thought that ones ending with i blagged it by alternately showing every other line?

Short answer - get a good demo of the TV(s) you are interested in from a  good shop and see which looks better for you. Remember to try both SD and HD source material as well as fast moving action (footy) before deciding.

Long answer:
768, 1080 are the number horizontal lines that make up the display. Both are High Definition . Standard definition is 576 lines (PAL) and 480 (NTSC).

In theory 1080 has more lines so should provide a more detailed picture when viewing a high definition source - i.e. HD-DVD/Blueray (1080i/p)/Sky HD (which is 1080i). But unless you sit really close to the TV, or have a really big TV (37/42"+ min IMHO) you are not that likely to notice it above the other factors that make a good picture (colour, sharpnesss,  smoothness, etc,).

New 768 displays take a 1080i (and  more commonly 1080p) signal, but because they only have 768 lines they 'lose' some before displaying on the screen (downscale).

Conversely both 1080 and 768 have to make up(interpolate) lines to display Standard Definition 576 line on a 768 or 1080 display (upscale). If the TV (or connected device e.g. Sky HD box)  does this well the results of watching SD on a HD TV will be pleasing, if not they will be terrible. Also a 1080 will have to interpolate more line than a 768 display, meaning that whilst HD should look better on a 1080 display, it may be the SD quality is worse than on a 768 display.

I = interlaced/P = progressive. This refers to how the picture on the screen is drawn when a picture moves from one frame (picture) to another. Progressive refreshes each line one after the other. Interlaced draws every other line one after the other, then goes back and does the ones it hasn't done. In theory 1080p should provide a smoother picture (less blur/judder) than 1080i. In reality, can you tell the difference?

I think the xbox uses progressive scan so you're best off sticking to that.

So in short, a 1080p is the one to go for.

Now i just have to decide Plasma or LCD.

In short do some research online, then get a good demo of whatever you narrow it down to. It's all subjective as to what is 'best'.

I still think the black and white telly is best

Is getting a big huge telly really going to make you happy? It doesn't make films or telly better. Are you getting this to watch or just to tell other people about?

Surely you'd be better off spending the money buying a goat for one of those 3rd world countries or whatever Oxfam are high on now.

Or just give it to me so I don't have to find a job for a few months.

I'm getting it cos i love film.  :D

I Like having a big plasma TV as Im very blind and I can watch it without having to keep my contact lenses in!

That will only make your eyesight worse JFW...

like wanking

Try wanking without your contacts in. That really fucks them up JFW!

ladies dont wank - we use nicer words - Im sure Birdy will know the correct term for lady-wanking!

Frapping?

A flap frap?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Frapping

Flicking the bean.

I think you'll find it's a scale depending on the mood of the lady.

It goes from the Solo Sex Tickle up to what can only be called Self-Ruination.

Playing games with a man in a boat.

Does that involve fisting at 1080p resolution?

Stroking the love slug...

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

That seems a bit tame. Bet that's only a 768p.

aint it like that song??

'strummin my bean with his finger....one time'

** BUMP **

Just bought mine  8)

http://www.letshave-it.co.uk/images/LE37R87.jpg

It's not 1080p, but it's cheap as chips and has brilliant reviews.

Now just need to pluck up the courage to mount it on the wall *gulp*

how much?

£539 with free delivery. Should turn up on Wednesday.

fair play, hope its a good un

i've got that one in my living room, nowt wrong with it. i'm assuming its the 32".

No, 37"  8)

I was going for the 40" but decided against the extra £100  :o

wheres that from Sam? they've got similar on play but not that cheap.

Sam, I have the 40 inch 1080p model and it's the absolute nuts. You will not be disappointed. good move.

I paid £899 in Comet.

Sticker price was £999.

www.beyondtelevision.co.uk

Very cheap and free next day delivery.

if anyone is buying anything like this and wants to know what Which magazine has to say about it, then let me know and I'll do the honours

I'm itching to get a PS3 linked up to mine.

Still haven't used HD.

do it ralphy.its facking awesome fella!!!!

I can't afford a PS3 until i get my bonus and backpay in 2 weeks!

I bet Blu Ray is awesome. 8)

Wahoo, my TV is finally being delivered on Saturday \:D/

Bought a wall bracket and some fuck-off huge 80mm long M8 Anchor bolts. There's no way the TV will be falling off my wall.

I read on AV Forums the other day that some bloke was so paranoid about his falling off he actually went right through his 3ft thick external wall with threaded bars and then capped them off outside. Lunacy.

I'm also trying to persuade the missus to get a new phone contract that comes with a free PS3  8)

I got no quarms. Expensive mind.

I have a PS3 now.  8)

Casino Royle on Blu Ray is immense.

So glad I got a 1080p tv now, my god does the PS3 look good.

my HD DVD player arrives tomorrow, can't wait, comes with 7 free films as well  :D

How much that lot setting you back if you don't mind me asking?

I'm imagining it's this Toshiba (http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3497129/Toshiba-HD-EP30-HD-DVD-Player/Product.html). Every man and his dog is on the AV Forums is talking about this offer at the moment.

what sort of DVDs can you have with it 8)

I'm getting the Toshiba EP35 in the new year.

I'll be set up and ready to play HD DVD and Blu Ray then 8)

why do you need both?

 :shrug:  more money than sense?

Because most films are only coming out on one format, Blu Ray or HD DVD.

How much do the 60GB PS3's retail for?

Not sure now Sam, Sony have stopped production on them.

40GB version is only one being made now.

might swap my xbox 360 and 10 games...

Someone at my work is selling a 60GB PS3 for £250.

i picked up one of the last 60gig ones.got the console with 2 games for £349.
this was compared to the 40 gig with one game for £300

think you can get a 40 gig for £279 now though online.

Worth it I reckon, as long as it's in good condition. The 60gb have backwards capability to play PS1/PS2 (with the downloadable update), and 4 usb inputs, whereas the 40gb doesn't have backwards capability and only 2 usb inputs. That extra 20gb is always handy too...

I picked our Wii up on Saturday !!

Oh its going to be a right giggle getting pissed up at home now

 :mrgreen:

Sweet. Think these are getting a bit hard to get hold of at the mo. Perfect xmas present.

the the package with the 4 games for 250 so quite a good deal really

you know that, ermmm, thing, that....i've got to pop round and return that..DVD.

fuck it, i'm gatecrashing your house.

quality

officially move in on the 4th of Jan so its open house all the way

Resident Evil looks quality

£180 from amazon, Toshiba Ep30, got it today and it's ace.

Bit of a bargain. i'm gonna see how the blu ray/hd dvd war pans outs over the coming years before I purchase one. My ps3 will suffice til then and with the prices being as they are (£20-30 for a blu ray), I'm not over fussed at present.

i can get HD DVD rentals from lovefilm which i subscribe to. the other good thing is that HD DVDs are region free so you can buy them cheap from abroad but Blu-Ray are regioned so you can't. I think both formats will be around for quite a while because they are both heavily backed by large institutions (Microsoft / Sony etc) and because universal players have been developed that play both.

I was using Lovefilm for awhile, it's a good service. May consider going back if they do blu rays. I just feel £20-30 for a film is alot at the moment, even though the quality is immense. A year or so and things will be different of course. The region thing on blu ray is shit although I purchased Terminator 1 & 2 from the US, £24 for the pair and they worked fine and they were classed as US/Canada Region.

lovefilm has nearly 300 blu-ray titles at the moment.

I've just off to the toilet :wanker:

Gaah! I got another email today saying my TV is out of stock again!

So I emailed them back and told them to go fuck themselves and give me my money back - but a bit more politely than that.

Had a quick look about to find somewhere else to buy one, and as luck would have it Comet knocked their price down by £100 today! Phoned at 6.30 to reserve it in store at the internet price, picked it up at 7.30. It's farking ace, I love it!

Your getting rid of the Xbox 360? What for?

why do you wanna buy it?  :wink:

Nah, I love the PS3 too much.

Only thing I wish the PS3 had was PGR 4.

But then again Gran Turismo 5 is out soon.

I might get this and put in my front room  :D


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/Ralphy-Boy/seat.jpg

BUMP


Sam, have you got your tv yet?

That seat/steering wheel job is surely just an over the top way of presenting what is essentially left, right, faster and slower. You would've thought in this day and age of technological progession they'd be able to get clutch/sequential gear stick involved?

P.S. let's have a go if you get one  8)

just for you Ralphy.  :roll:

Cool.

What model number is the TV Sam?

I have the LE40M87

LE37R87.

Ralphy, have you got the network play sorted for your ps3 yet?

i got the planet earth series on hddvd today, some awesome shots in that and its filmed with special super duper cameras with better frame rates or something.

I think he has spud, he said when i went round the other day

Tell that Slag to pm me his ps3 add.

My LCD is now sitting proudly on the wall  8)

Careful, Humpty Dumpty did that once too and the outcome wasn't too great.

I trust the huge anchor bolts I used.

Did any of you HD fanboys here that the HD-DVD v Blu Ray war may be over soon (Blu Ray winning)?

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9055658&taxonomyId=14&intsrc=kc_top

it changes weekly at the moment, one studio dropped blu-ray a few weeks ago to favour HD.

I didn't hear that. In fairness I'd be really surprised if it ended this soon.

The do-it-all players should put an end to the war, but I suppose as it's a marketing issue it could be finished before these are commonplace.

Think Sony scored a major goal with having Blu Ray in the PS3

yes, looked a bad one for short term sales because it made them pricey but longer term for Blu-ray it was a very good move. Universal players should hopefully come down in price soon so both formats can continue.

Can't see there being an out and out winner just yet.

In the long run I think Blu-Ray might edge out HD for mainstream use.

Microsoft being Microsoft keep constantly updating HD capabilities as they do with all their other technologies, but this means end users have to keep updating firmware on their players to keep up to date. Your average Joe Bloggs isn't going to know alot or care much about this to keep updating, so there's going to be a point where someone goes to play a HD DVD and their player just won't recognise it, so people will just give up on HD.

Blu-Ray firmware updates seem a lot less frequent, so Blu-Ray discs available at the moment are going to have a longer shelf-life than their HD counterparts.

It may be though that HD will continue to thrive amongst all those geeky technophiles (like me  :oops: ) because users will always be constantly up to date and using HD capabilities to their maximum.

On another note, I thought my TV was going to fall off of the wall!  :o

Got home last night to see a massive crack in the wall above the TV!

Turns out it was just the plaster (the skim layer rather than the board).

I'm not bothered cos I have a Blu Ray and a HD DVD player  :D

Some films are only on Blu Ray, some only on HD DVD so I covered both bases.

Terminator 2 is fucking ace on HD DVD.

It's not just the picture that is fantastic with Blu Ray/HD either, Dolby True HD sound is simply stunning with a good amp and speakers.

Can't wait for Star Wars to be released.

Um, don't you mean Toshiba???

Nope, HD is a Microsoft technology.

It's Toshiba technology although Intel and Microsoft support it as well (in some sort of committee/council). Anyway, what does it matter?  :D

I was right then, it's Toshiba technology.

Sam, I have the Toshiba EP30 HD DVD player, well impressed with it.

ditto

Has anybody got/seen sky HD? is it worth £200 and £10/month?

Sky HD shows in 720p resolution and no it's not worth £200 for the box and an extra £10 a month.

Pretty soon, more and more HD channels will start airing and prices will drop due to competition.

HD is a new technology at the moment so prices are high but they will fall.

I predict in 10 years time, standard definition (476i/576i) will no longer exist and all channels will show in 1080p or upwards.

Thats mental Ralphy.  :D

You're predicting that technology will improve over time  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

Spooky.

i call him mystic Ralphy

I can understand the cost of new box but cant see what the monthly cost is for, they show old films on sky movies HD how does that work?

Think ill spend my money elsewhere, HD DVD player perhaps?

if you have a 720p hd tv then you might deem sky hd worthwhile?
its a matter of choice.with regard to old footage i'm guessing the sky broadcast is upscaled(or maybe the box does this?)to 720p quality.much like an upscaling dvd player would do.therefore not getting top notch hd quality but as near as it can get it.

all guesswork so i may be wrong?

No, buy a Blu Ray player. HD DVD is dying a death.

Warner Bros, as said earlier, have just gone completely Blu Ray. Expect others such as Universal Studios to follow.

Blu Ray discs hold 25 gb as opposed to 15gb of HD DVD.

From my experience though, HD DVD picture quality is just as good as Blu Ray. Toshiba HD players will drop in price soon and it's an affordable way to get into HD viewing.

No you're not wrong fella and TBH, you can't really tell the difference between 720p and 1080p inless you have a big screen (46 inch plus).

TV is 720p 37inch mainly because its better with standard def (apparently!)
Think ill be leaving a Blue Ray for a while they are still quite expensive compared to cheaper HD DVD players.
Cant really afford it but am always looking to upgrade stuff that probably doesnt need upgrading!