my boss at work is selling his plasma tv, he's had it a few weeks but someones buying him a 50inch one.

I'm basically going to connect my macmini upto it and use it as a media server, and to watch FTA sky tv.

Is this TV going tobe suitable for my needs?

SAMSUNG's Digital World - Television | Q7 Series

The resolution is only 1024 x 768 which is pants.

Avoid like the plague

on paper it looks ok, but I have not seen the picture in flesh. I found some favourable reviews along with people having issues over on avforums.com

All 42" HD ready plasma TV's are 1024x768, as is my LG and HD sources display perfectly. True 1080P plasma displays currently start at 50" and are 6K plus.

But true 1080p LCD sets are a fraction of that price , and can be had in more modest sizes too.

The resolution is only 1024 x 768 which is pants.

Avoid like the plague

What resolution should you be looking for in a 42 inch LCD or Plasma?

Well with plasma you are stuck with 1024x768 at 42" for HD-Ready. As Alex has said you can get 1920x1080 LCD TVs starting at 40" upwards for ok'ish money but LCD also has its issues with fast motion blur and some have poor blacks. I went down the Plasma route and have a 42" running 1024x768 and think its superb.

1024x768 may be OK for TV viewing, but isn't it a bit lacking for computer use? Suppose it depends on how far you're going to be away

Steve

Yep , if you consider that 1024 x 768 is the same resolution that you had on a 14 inch CRT monitor it's pretty appalling for modern PC use

If you don't mind a little backlight bleed LCD's are far superior IMO.

I still think that nothing beats a good CRT for image quality in many respects.

Blacks are Black and colours are bright and clear as they should be , and a lot of people have bought flat panel TVs simply because of the size and now get an inferior picture.

The latest models are getting very close now but are still too pricey for my liking.

When I can get a 42" good quality 1080p panel for about 700 quid is when I'll consider paying for one

Im a big fan of CRT's for PC use, I keep two old 19" CRT's for gaming use,not huge but the dot pitch is amazing I can get 2048x1536 resolution in 18" of viewable screen, makes for amazingly sharp graphics and the brightness colour contrast and refresh rates are very good. In many ways a superior technology to LCD, but LCD panels sure look better on the desk top and take up less space, but for outright image quality at close viewing - eg PC use CRT's still take some beating.

Have you seen the prices of LCD panels that can give 2048x1536 resolution in under 20" of screen space, and so get similiar sized pixels? Somewhere around new small car price I will be keeping my dinosaur monitors for as long as they keep running .

I used to be a CRT man and still have two compaq P920 diamondtron monitors, but my NEC 20WGX2 converted me to the dark side.

If you go LCD, samsungs have the best blacks and colour ranges IMO.

Got an LE32N73BDX myself, and have to say the blacks are pretty good once youve set it up right.

I used to be a CRT man and still have two compaq P920 diamondtron monitors, but my NEC 20WGX2 converted me to the dark side.

I would like to see a LCD that could change my mind, but just on paper thats 30% bigger pixels than my CRT and so 30% less sharp, I game at 2048x1536 because it looks far better to me than 1600x1200, I dont see how a LCD would get over that hurdle :(. My graphics card though would love for me to move down to a lower resolution I would like to save deskspace and power, but I just havent yet seen the LCD screen to make me move over :(. Now for windows work I use LCD's you just cant beat having huge amounts of screen space when doing design work and I dont seem to need the smaller pixels for that if anything larger pixels are a bonus for pixel perfect placements .

I have to say though from the specs on compaq's I would probably have been tempted to make the same decision 0.24 dot pitch moving to 0.26 isnt as bad the samsung 957p ran at a 0.22 Thats double the difference. The odd thing is every spec sheet everywhere tells you this is a 1920x1440 monitor, but I run it at 2048x1536 in games all day long, far too high a resolution for windows use though, or else imjust getting old

My Samsung CRT's werent the bargain basement monitors of their day, as I used to use them for design work etc, so they gave better images than many of the home and office CRT's from the likes of AOC. I have to say that I wouldnt have hung on to low spec CRT's.

For big screen TV I am happy enough with the old dlp projector, not great resolution and a dot pitch measurable in CM But sat 8' back it just doesnt matter as much. Have to say though the majority of "big screen" TV's I see in electrical shops look appalling to me :(. Probably a result of being stood 2' away which isnt where you would be in the living room.

LCD TV's are better than Plasma TV's.

Oops double post, browser was stuck on posting for a long time so didnt look as if it had gone. should have checked before rehitting the post button .

My Samsung CRT's werent the bargain basement monitors of their day, as I used to use them for design work etc, so they gave better images than many of the home and office CRT's from the likes of AOC. I have to say that I wouldnt have hung on to low spec CRT's.

I'm not sure if you are suggesting the P920 was a bargain basement monitor? They were

For big screen TV I am happy enough with the old dlp projector, not great resolution and a dot pitch measurable in CM But sat 8' back it just doesnt matter as much. Have to say though the majority of "big screen" TV's I see in electrical shops look appalling to me :(. Probably a result of being stood 2' away which isnt where you would be in the living room.

friend of mine reckons the way to find the best viewing distance for a TV Screen, relating to its size, it to stretch your arm out towards the screen, and stretch out your pinky and thumb (in a "ROCK ON" stylee, but with thumb, not index finger - like you would to indicate a phone call). Best distance is when that pinky-thumb distance, at arm's length, stretches to fit the diagonal of the screen.

I'm not sure if you are suggesting the P920 was a bargain basement monitor? They were

friend of mine reckons the way to find the best viewing distance for a TV Screen, relating to its size, it to stretch your arm out towards the screen, and stretch out your pinky and thumb (in a "ROCK ON" stylee, but with thumb, not index finger - like you would to indicate a phone call). Best distance is when that pinky-thumb distance, at arm's length, stretches to fit the diagonal of the screen.

When Im sat 8' away from my screen the screens about 3x as big as your friend recommends :(, but I wouldnt want to sit further away I like the big screen effect for films It still looks good to me, but will ahve to try that distance some time to see if it corrects what I see as a quite horrible at times image from LVD or plasma Screens. If I can find a TV set up where I can get the required distance - aisle are normally quite narrow :(.

took my macmini over and tried it on the screen, looks amasing!

LCD TV's are better than Plasma TV's.

lcd's over 32" aren't

I've pretty much convinced myself to buy the PS50Q97HDX 50" Plasma.

Have seen it on display in a few places now and it looks good.

I know it's not 1080 but for me that's not an issue, no Blue Ray intentions, no PS3 or 360 interest at the moment and sky only transmit 720.

I've pretty much convinced myself to buy the PS50Q97HDX 50" Plasma.

Have seen it on display in a few places now and it looks good.

I know it's not 1080 but for me that's not an issue, no Blue Ray intentions, no PS3 or 360 interest at the moment and sky only transmit 720.

Err, Sky transmit at 1080i, Stu