So , which would you buy , and why?

Panasonic Viera TH42PZ81B Plasma HD 1080p Television, 42 Inch with Built-in freesat - John Lewis

or

https://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/product/SONY+KDL40W4500/566765/?int=hp-top5-ja1-SONY-KDL40W4500

Not necessarily from these shops though.

I would get the Panasonic as they make the best plasmas, they always seem to win the group TV tests in the magazines. I have got a Samsung by the way so I am not being biased.

Plasma every time for me. LCD if you do a lot of gaming though. As usual I would say look at the Pioneer Kuros if your budget will stretch that far, they really are the best big tellies in the world bar none. Don’t worry about some of them being 720 rather than 1080 either (the 1080 KUROs are very very expensive!!), You probably wont notice the difference between 720 KUROs and 1080 LCDs as you can see so much more detail in the shadows and blacks of the KURO. You might even think the KURO has higher definition than the LCD if you are sitting at a normal distance from the tv.

Edited 10 October, 200817 yr by Lady Elanore

I have the 46" version of the sony, and it is superb!

Trouble is I will want to connect a PC to it , so the 1080p is an important factor , and the Pioneers would be way out of my budget.

I'll also be using it with a ps3 for gaming as well as blu ray , plus more SD tv than HiDef for quite a while so I need something that will look ok for that as well......

Have the panasonic, and its an excellent TV. For pc connectivity use a DVI-HDMI cable, as that and component are the only inputs to accept 1920x1080. Panasonic in their infinate wisdom restrict the vga connection to 1366x768 across their whole tv range.

The panasonic looks good for all TV sources, both SD and HD.

Another vote for the Panasonic then:thumbup:. It is nearly as good as the Pioneer at a much more sensible price. I would think the Sony would look great with the PS though, but the Panny will give you that bit extra when you watch Blu Ray. It really will impress the hell out of you and plug it up to a decent 5.1 system and revel in the glorious HD sound. DTS HD audio is astonishing, makes films so much better.

Write the product numbers of each down, go to your local newsagent and flick to the back section of 'What HiFi Sound and Vision' or buy a copy so you can check out a few others too.

They review a lot of TV's out there on the market pretty fairly, mark each one out of 5 stars and give the RRP so you can see if the TV is any good and you can check if you're getting a good deal.

I bought a Panasonic 42" after it got a 5* review in there, was going to get it from Lewis' as it was the cheapest when shopping around. I printed the deal off their website and took it into my local electrical shop. They matched the price, free waranty and gave me 10months interest free, so shop around too.

Have the panasonic, and its an excellent TV. For pc connectivity use a DVI-HDMI cable, as that and component are the only inputs to accept 1920x1080. Panasonic in their infinate wisdom restrict the vga connection to 1366x768 across their whole tv range.

The panasonic looks good for all TV sources, both SD and HD.

Sony do the same on their VGA inputs as well - we have some older Bravias used as monitors and had to swap to DVI-HDMI to get full screen displays.

Not a major problem but a bit odd

Another vote for the Panasonic then:thumbup:. It is nearly as good as the Pioneer at a much more sensible price. I would think the Sony would look great with the PS though, but the Panny will give you that bit extra when you watch Blu Ray. It really will impress the hell out of you and plug it up to a decent 5.1 system and revel in the glorious HD sound. DTS HD audio is astonishing, makes films so much better.

Having the freesat decoder built in is one thing that's working in it's favour as well so I'll have some broadcast HiDef content.

I've seen the cheaper Sony W4000 in the flesh so I think I need to go for a look and see if I can compare the other two...

When you add HD Freesat to the mix, I think the Panny sells itself really. I am sure you won’t be disappointed with the picture, although if it is anything like the Pioneers, you will need to turn off nearly all the ‘Picture Enhancers’ to get the best from it. The Pioneer came with default everything turned on and the colours were awful, everything over saturated.

They all seem to do that to make them more eyecatching in a shop.

One thing that does count against the panasonic though is the third HDMI input being behind a flap on the front of the TV!

I'd be using one for a PS3 , another for a PVR and would probably want to use the third at some point but really don't want a wall mounted TV with cables hanging out the front.

On the Sony it's on the edge but still out of sight

They all seem to do that to make them more eyecatching in a shop.

One thing that does count against the panasonic though is the third HDMI input being behind a flap on the front of the TV!

I'd be using one for a PS3 , another for a PVR and would probably want to use the third at some point but really don't want a wall mounted TV with cables hanging out the front.

On the Sony it's on the edge but still out of sight

But with a telly of that quality, you will no doubt, one day buy an AV receiver with surround sound. Once you have this you will do all the switching in the receiver and only run one HDMI to your telly (bury the cable in the wall even). Most of the current range of receivers seem to have at least 3+ HDMI inputs and usually a couple of Component ones too.

I've got a decent enough Sony AV Receiver (STRDB930) that does the job for me just fine though being a few years old it only does S-Video switching and not HDMI.

It's an option to replace this , but not something I'd be planning on doing for a while.

I've just checked the power consumption figures.

Sony KDL40W4000 - 176w

Sony KDL40W4500 - 230w

Panasonic TH42Pz81B - 400w :eek:

That's about an extra 80 quid a year to run the Plasma over the more expensive Sony , or £100 over the w4000.

That 400w figure is peak, in otherwords full blast running a totally white picture. The mean figure is actually a lot less and lower than most LCD TV's.

LCD TV's rated power is constant because of the need to drive the backlight constantly.

Edited 11 October, 200817 yr by mannyo

Plus the heat isn’t really wasted for at least 6 months of the year.

I'd go for the Sony, and that is exactly what I intend to do as soon as a few clients cough up for their outstanding invoices.

Plasma is yesterdays technology, LCD is todays and LED (OLED) is tomorrows.

Sony use power saving technology and their tv's use less power than the plasmas plus there have been question marks over long-term plasma reliabilty.

Having viewed a couple of Pioneer plasma Kuro tv's recently I was left a little undewhelmed considering the reviews, but then I hadn't set them up so they may be better than the examples I saw. But then again Pioneer have introduced LCD tv's so even they may be thinking that the end for plasma might be coming.

In truth, I doubt you'd be disappointed whichever TV you choose.

Don't bother with a Toshiba LCD, some tend to show a dud vertical line of pixels up the screen after 6 months :(

Another vote for the Panasonic.. I bought one of those last week and I really can't fault it.

PS3 looks great on it and I've had no issue with watching sd grade avi's either

I was pretty impressed with the Panasonic LCD we had before it but the plasma is leaps and bounds infront, oh and Currys currently have it for £919.99.. So Comet owe me £30 cashback

I bought a Panasonic TX32 LXD 70 (lcd tv) from John Lewis last Christmas for £599 including delivery and 5yr warranty. Was the best deal I could get anywhere and all went smoothly. The size is ideal for my living room. Sound and picture on the tv is excellent.

So all in all I'd go Panasonic

Alex, I haven't forgotten your PM. I'm trying to get on the server to find out and will let you know

Another vote for plasma>Panasonic, as for the 81 series with a

built in free-sat decoder, I'd be cautious as Panasonic's track record

with freeview decoders (different technology I know) is questionable,

wouldn't want to have to return an excellant display because of a dodgy

tuner/decoder. Go seperate for Free-sat;)

get the panasonic, and get it from John Lewis as they give free 5year warranty - at least I think they still do - which is pricey to buy seperately

Alex, I haven't forgotten your PM. I'm trying to get on the server to find out and will let you know

Thanks.

If you can look at the w4000 and w4500 that would be handy.