Looking at buying a new telly soonish and wanted opinions what type I should go for. I will explain what I am going to be using it for and what price range and maybe people can sugest a screen.

I will be using it for mainly DVD and freeview. I want it to be HD ready and have the ability to plug my laptop into it. Not to sure about the benefits of having an SD card reader so if anyone can explain why some TV do and some don't that would be nice.

So looking at either a plasma or LCD and must be 37" or above really, am I wanting to much for a price range of about

Avoid LCD, especially at that size. Image qaulity not fantasitc, and if you're going to be watching DVD's and HD, well, something tells me the poor black reproduction, backlighting and level or artefacts you'd notice on a large LCD make it unsuitable.

Samsung 42" can be had for £1500, HD ready.

WE've got a 50" Pioneer at work, albeit over 18 months old, and the image is so fantastic. Used daily for "educational purposes" and "skill development" (Tekken 4 on the PS2) and it displays colours and motion very very well. From a distance of about 4 feet.......which probably waaay to near to get the best of it really..........lol

i have a 42" smasung plasma in front of me, like t ver much.

infact just had the laptop plugged into it playing Quake 3 :D:D:D

it has dvi, vga, composite and scart input so works with most stuff.

I have a 50" Pioneer plasma and the picture is out of this world, cant wait for HD.

Plasma for me

LCDs are stupidly expensive. Go for the Plasma, we've got two of them at home, somethin' like 50" or bigger, excellent stuff

I have a Viera 42" - it's fantastic.

Panasonic Viera or Pioneer plasmas are the best you can get and yes make sure you get a HD one. You should just be able to get one within your budget as they have come down quite a bit in recently!

Go to www.avforums.com for lots of useful help and advice (they also go group buys and have some great bargains on things like wall mounts for plasmas ).

25" "telly" for me. Good enough for PS2 and digital TV. Had it years and I won't be getting rid until it breaks. Panasonic is always a make I trust. Hope this general opinion of mine isn't invalid in todays world? Its just I seem to have bought Panasonic eveything back when I was 18, and now nearly 27, all of it still going well (TV, hi-fi, VCR, microwave oven, etc)

Looking at buying a new telly soonish I will be using it for mainly DVD and freeview. I want it to be HD ready

HD will NOT be available on Freeview for a good while, no bandwidth available.

Thus you need a panel which has the best scaler for a 720x576 50Hz interlaced signal in order to fit the panel's native resolution. It is this which determines how good (or bad) the LCD or plasma performs with Freeview and leads to the artifacts and other image problems mentioned in this thread.

Bare in mind no LCD panels are optimised for 50Hz, only 60Hz (the US and Japan standard) (yet).

You need HD to make a >28" screen worthwhile (especially LCD), you don't need HD for <=28".

I really would wait, there will be much better LCD models on sale later in the year and pricing will keep falling of both types.

While writing, HD, when done properly, is stunning based on the demos I saw from the BBC guys at the IEE lecture in Crawley beginning of the month. And some of that was trial footage from 1988!

Avoid LCD, especially at that size. Image qaulity not fantasitc, and if you're going to be watching DVD's and HD, well, something tells me the poor black reproduction, backlighting and level or artefacts you'd notice on a large LCD make it unsuitable.

Samsung 42" can be had for

Up until recently I would have said avoid LCD's but they are improving. Still not quite up to plasma standards which have also moved on. Plasmas are very good but you have to be careful running them in and in use to avoid screen burn. They are also power hungry. A 42" will draw up to twice the power of a 32" CRT.

The new DLP rear projection sets are fantastic. The ones iv'e seen blow similar sized LCD sets out of the water and are almost up to plasma standards for quality. The vertical viewing angle is slightly restricted (eg if you are standing right in front of them looking down) and they are physically deeper in their dimensions but great value and performance.

You thought about projectors? Or not practical for you?

Just a thought...

Steve

Steve not thought about projectors but as you have rightly said already they are not practical for us.

Thanks

if you have kids a LCD screen will damage very easily a plasma is a bit more robust, plasmas tend to get a bit hotter, i have a hitachi pd7200 which for the money 1500 quid pound for pound is awsome HD for the X-box 360 and sky HD plus you get a motorised stand which sounds gimmicky but is very usefull depending were you want to sit

Just seen the PD7200, it's a nice piece of kit !

Hitachi 42PD7200 42" Plasma here and it's amazing.

Looks fantastic when connected via DVI from my PC.

I saw a cheap (900 quid) plasma in Dixons yesterday and I thought it looked terrible.

You pays your money...

Bought a Sony Bravia 40" LCD for

Hitachi 42PD7200 42" Plasma here and it's amazing.

Looks fantastic when connected via DVI from my PC.

I saw a cheap (900 quid) plasma in Dixons yesterday and I thought it looked terrible.

You pays your money...

Last time i was in Currys they were doing repossessed Plasmas at knock down prices (