Well it looks like my LCD that i bought 2 years ago has got some sort of image retention or other panel related problem.

Tried several "screen washers" but still no joy.

So it looks like i may be in the market for a new telly.

I would like to get a 37" if possible.

What would you guys advise for around the £650 mark?

I have seen a Panasonic Plasma for just a bit more than this but i am concerned about image retention and/or burn in even more so with a plasma.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Cheers

I'd have a Toshiba or a Phillips mate, they seem to be among the best??

You can get some decent ones for that price nowadays.

Make sure you have a good resolution with it too, I'd go no less than 5000:1, probably 8000:1 is better.

HTH,

Ben

We're just in the process of returning our second Hitachi mid-range 42" plasma (can't remember model, I'm afraid ); both of which had dead pixels The Sony Bravia 40W2000 we've now got (one below top-of-range, but last year's model) took an awful lot of fettling too get the picture anywhere near as good as the Hitachi, and even after hours playing with the user and service settings, it still can't quite match up to the picture on the Hitachis (on Freeview and conventional DVDs at least), primarily because of the 'vignetting' that occurs because of the size of the LCD :( (but won't on plasmas because of the differences in how they work).

I gather this is less of a problem for smaller LCDs (certainly the cheapo 15" in our kitchen doesn't do it), so you might get away with it at 37"

As regards screen burn, the Hitachis suffered from it quite badly when showing stuff like BBCi and DAB stations, although it did seem to go away after a couple of hours of normal viewing. As we only used the plasmas for a couple of months each, I can't tell you if prolonged use would cause permanent damage, but it was enough for me to choose LCD as a replacement, despite the slightly poorer picture... (I don't care what anyone says - big plasmas still have better pictures than big LCDs )

Anyway, enough of my subjective ramblings, take a look at HDTV - Guide and/or HDTV Reviews – Plasma & LCD Screen Flat Panel TV Test - they told me everything I wanted to know before plumping for the Sony...

LG make the screens for most LCD tv manufacturers so may be worth a look?

I just got a 46" sony W series.. love it!

I have a Samsung 42'' plasma in the my front room and i can not fault it 1 bit never let me down the pic is fantastic had it about 2 years now.

I won a 37'' goodmans LCD pic not as good (yes its a cheap one but it won it) but i do think you get what you pay fro and i dont think i would have lcd as i think plasma offers a better pic anyway

this is just my 2p worth

Well it looks like my LCD that i bought 2 years ago has got some sort of image retention or other panel related problem.

Tried several "screen washers" but still no joy.

So it looks like i may be in the market for a new telly.

I would like to get a 37" if possible.

What would you guys advise for around the £650 mark?

I have seen a Panasonic Plasma for just a bit more than this but i am concerned about image retention and/or burn in even more so with a plasma.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Cheers

Plasma offers better, more natural picture, especially on standard def. As for image retention, yes if you watch a dvd with black bars top and bottom these will be retained but only temporarily, screen burn (permanent) is, provided you respect running in period with sensible contrast settings, a thing of the past. Unless you displayed a static image for many, many hours. If still available the (panasonic) 37"px70 is a good buy, or for similar money the 42".. Panasonic sporadicly offer free 5yr warranties and are recommended on plasma...absolutely essential on lcd. If you go for lcd be wary of sony w2000, good performer, but many were plagued with 'clouding' issues (get a warranty) Just my opinion but I wouldn't touch tosh' or sammy's, forget the argument about all coming from the same factories etc, its what manufacturers do with them, ie picture processing technology, that counts.

You may as well gget a 42" with the prices steadily plummetting.

Samsung rocks. excellent value for money.