sorry 1080p :P and the£70 hdmi cable made a noticeable difference over the free one that i got with the surround unit.mostly when upscaling to 1080p the colours were a lot crisper blacks seemed deeper and you notice slightly more definition in the background.

placebo affect? HDMI is digital, so you either get a picture or dont. There is no in between, if you have a picture then it will be the same no matter what cable.

I was recently looking at some big tvs in a shop, the best pic was on a Sony Bravia 40something" LCD as long as you looked at it in a straight line, it still suffered from quality and brightness loss at an angle. They also had a 42" Panasonic plasma running Freesat HD (as was the Bravia) and the picture wasn't as good as my 4 year old non hd 42" Pany Plasma. I'm pretty sure this was down to this particular, and most others, shops inability to set these things up correctly. There were probably 30 plus on show of which at least half had crap pix. Even John Lewis suffered from this, and it must be causing incorrect judgements on tv quality. Perhaps they are all the same and its just the one they need to sell that week that gets "tuned" in properly

Interesting point that, I went into a local Curry's and 99% of the TV's were simply connected via a normal antenna connection. Wonder if this is a ploy to steer you to a certain model at any one time.

I was recently looking at some big tvs in a shop, the best pic was on a Sony Bravia 40something" LCD as long as you looked at it in a straight line, it still suffered from quality and brightness loss at an angle. They also had a 42" Panasonic plasma running Freesat HD (as was the Bravia) and the picture wasn't as good as my 4 year old non hd 42" Pany Plasma. I'm pretty sure this was down to this particular, and most others, shops inability to set these things up correctly. There were probably 30 plus on show of which at least half had crap pix. Even John Lewis suffered from this, and it must be causing incorrect judgements on tv quality. Perhaps they are all the same and its just the one they need to sell that week that gets "tuned" in properly

Never base a buying decision on picture quality if the signal is being split over several TV's. Always demo one in a one TV setup; prefereably running similar sources to what you will be viewing. Also, the TV's are set from the factory to give a high colour, dynamically bright image just to get people looking - very few shops spend time calibrating them as you would (or should) for home viewing.

Lee

i've had a Panasonic TH42PX77U (North America model only i believe) for over a year now and am very happy with it. its a 720i model but IMHO produces a better picture with blue ray than a friends 1080p Sony LCD!

Mark

[Also, the TV's are set from the factory to give a high colour, dynamically bright image just to get people looking - very few shops spend time calibrating them as you would (or should) for home viewing.

Yes I'd forgotten about the dynamic, high contrast and warm colour options:eek: Also the over use of digitally animated films (Monster Inc etc). Trouble is your average Comet, Currys etc is not interested in b*ggering about setting up exactly the same inputs on several teles. Might have more luck in John Lewis maybe.

Plasma TVs will always be better at producing deep blacks, the LCD screen has to block out the enormous rear light source to produce dark colours

I'm afraid i have to disagree and so does every magazine and TV programme i have read/watched. LCD produces better displays and to overcome a poor display they put a high gloss screen on (similar trick done on laptops) to produce better image quality.

Also it may not be fair to compare a 37"LCD with a 50" Plasma but having looked at the latest TV's in shops (i am currently looking at buying a new TV myself) every time i see Plasma and LCD TV's of the same size the LCD always win's hands down for picture quality. It could of course be my eyesight but even with BluRay full HD source i haven't seen a plasma that matches the 46" Sony LCD TV i am currently thinking of buying. I'm not saying one doesn't exist i just haven't seen one.

Carl:thumbup:

Stu, if you're still uhming and ahhing over which bluray player, remember there's the 550 for under £160 That's a full 100 notes cheaper than the PS3. It also has multichannel analogue outputs and decodes all the latest high def codecs so if your home cinema amp doesn't have hdmi or the latest decoders, you can still benefit from the nice sound using the 5.1 input

Also, regarding demo material in shops, when they do have a decent high def signal going to the sets, how often is it a Pixar animated film? CG animation always looks good on TV, even if the panel itself isn't really setup

Stu, if you're still uhming and ahhing over which bluray player, remember there's the 550 for under £160 That's a full 100 notes cheaper than the PS3. It also has multichannel analogue outputs and decodes all the latest high def codecs so if your home cinema amp doesn't have hdmi or the latest decoders, you can still benefit from the nice sound using the 5.1 input

who does the 550 for under £160 the cheapest price i could find for the 2 i bought was £215 each i have only seen the 350 for under £160

Also, regarding demo material in shops, when they do have a decent high def signal going to the sets, how often is it a Pixar animated film? CG animation always looks good on TV, even if the panel itself isn't really setup

I've noticed that being on the decline a bit actually.

It was certainly the case a few years ago that flat panel tvs of both types were always demoed with a cartoon because the colours look eye catching and it hid the fact that the picture quality was in many ways inferior to a nice CRT.

Now that the TVs have improved a lot , more shops are showing "proper" material on there though it's still far too common to see the same picture on every screen fed from a crappy quality repeater , or a badly tuned analogue picture in the wrong aspect ratio stretched across the screen.

Independent stores seem to be the only ones that make an effort to give a proper demo though even they aren't perfect. My local independent store which does Bang & Olufsen as well as pansonic and sony (so not cheap) has three panasonic sets in one window and the 81 is *incredibly* badly set up with a truly abysmal picture yet the much cheaper 32" screen next to it looks great

Thanks Xavier, that is looking a very real possibility.

What do you make of the Sony Bravia KDL46W4500?

Stu

thats the TV i was looking at buying. I highly recommend it. Colours are amazing and the picture is stunning with a Full HD BluRay Source.

HTH

Carl:thumbup:

who does the 550 for under £160 the cheapest price i could find for the 2 i bought was £215 each i have only seen the 350 for under £160

I work for the company so have access to discounts

Thanks Xavier, that is looking a very real possibility.

What do you make of the Sony Bravia KDL46W4500?

I haven't seen one working in the flesh. But you might want to ask Alex / Dr Zoidberg as he recently took delivery of the KDL40W4500 and I think he's happy with his

Stu

thats the TV i was looking at buying. I highly recommend it. Colours are amazing and the picture is stunning with a Full HD BluRay Source.

HTH

Carl:thumbup:

Yep , full HD looks bloody brilliant , both on blu-ray and PS3.

Upscaled DVDs also look very good as well which is nice.

SD pictures can be a little variable and it really shows up the poor quality of some channels but that's going to happen on any large HD panel.

It's quite a time consuming process to get the picture set up just how you want it , and with the wrong settings they can look very unnatural and a bit disappointing. I found it easiest to sit it next to my CRT (which has an excellent picture) and run the same channel on both then adjust the new set to match the old as closely as possible before tweaking the settings to suit.

It's also handy having separate settings for each input so they can be tuned to match the source

LCDs don't have as wide a viewing angle as plasmas so if that's an issue because of the layout of your lounge I suggest that do some careful testing - when off-angle the LCD screen does smear the picture a bit on very dark scenes but as that's not my normal viewing position I'm not bothered by it.

Thanks Xavier, that is looking a very real possibility.

What do you make of the Sony Bravia KDL46W4500?

I've just got the 40W4500 and it's superb. It produces blacks as deep as any plasma I've seen and combines that with vibrant, natural colours.

It's now hooked up to a BDSP350 blu-ray player and 1080p films look stunning.

One of the problems with viewing them in the stores is that the shops are often brightly lit and so the TV's are all set to the brightest settings. It's not a comparable environment to how you'll watch it at home.

I have got the 40W4500 as well, and have to agree with everything that's being said by the other owners. I got a great price on mine from DigitalDirect - Home

This is doing my head in now, wasted another afternoon trying to decide today.

The Sony was well up the list and in fact I had 99% decided - Until I saw this Buy Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090 Plasma HD Ready 1080p Digital Television, 50 Inch online at JohnLewis.com

I know I said I wouldn't but 50 inches of sleek black plasma would look nice on my wall :eek:

I have seen the previous generation Pioneer fed with a HD signal and it was truly jaw dropping.

It is a big step up from the Panny 80/81's that you were looking at.

This is doing my head in now, wasted another afternoon trying to decide today.

The Sony was well up the list and in fact I had 99% decided - Until I saw this Buy Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090 Plasma HD Ready 1080p Digital Television, 50 Inch online at JohnLewis.com

I know I said I wouldn't but 50 inches of sleek black plasma would look nice on my wall :eek:

So it should for that price.

I'm sure it would be better than the W , but at pretty much three times the cost it's a ludicrous amount to spend on a TV

I have been offered a 'deal' on it but you are right it is a lot of money.

I have been offered a 'deal' on it but you are right it is a lot of money.

Don't think, just do. ;)

Can you get a discount for 2?

Edited 14 December, 200817 yr by Hedge

Sony Bravia KDL46W3000 is the TV we got about 9 months ago, and it is superb. When we compared all of the other LCD screens on the market at the time in several high street retailers and an indi store it was consistantly the screen we liked the most, so its the one we went for. Plasma never came close irc.

Plus its a sony, you cant go wrong with a sony! I would definatley go with the W series, while the X series might be a slightly better screen, its not that much better its worth the extra cost, where as the W is much much better than the V series.

must be a super special deal Stu, I just looked at JL and the TV I have is £175 more expensive than the deal I got at DD ...... yikes...

edit - The 50" Pioneer is £1700 in DD, and they will haggle

Can you get a discount for 2?

Now that may be possible

Basically I'm trying to get a refund from JL. They have indicated it would be possible but have not yet come up with a number. Will have to call them tomorrow.

Cheapest I have seen them 'on the shelf' is £1800 in Richer Sounds which JL would price match but they don't envisage stock until after xmas - they have 60 orders already in their system!! Well 61 now actually as I ordered one on the basis of no commitment today.

A local authorised dealer offered to match the RS price and because he is an authorised dealer it will have a 5yr wty provided by Pioneer.

Free 5 year warranty - Flat Screen TVs