LCD telly or a traditional one?

[Hitcher]

Freeview? I don't want two set-top boxes and another remote control, thank you very much. I also don't want to have to invest in some sort of switching device to allow me to change from one box to the other, and all of the other faffing around that would be required for me to want to record anything. I also don't want to have to fanny around with an external aerial or a satellite dish.

"Free"view my arse.

But come the Olympics, I can see the State broadcaster playing silly buggers as they endeavour to exploit their position. Bugger them.

[ynot slow]

The Olympics,can't wait (serious),except for the adds we will endure.You think they will put a coke or visa add in during the 100mts?If they could they bloody would,imagine the fun of that.

[soundbeltfarm]

got one of those panasonic 42 inch plasma tv that are on special yesterday ,
it looked good in the shop compared to a couple of others.
still not set on which size i'll get because i was getting the 50 inch but it did seem pretty big so will try the 42 and if it seeems to small they'l bring out the 50 to try that.
also got a home theatre sound system thingymajiggy.
hope it sounds good,
dont know nothing about it except it was about 800 , it panasonic and has speakers with no wires for the back ones.
as you can see i no not much about this sort of stuff,
if i am happy once we get it all going, well thats all that i care about.
a couple shops said we wont get hd here for ages yet anyway, and it upscales blu ray pretty good. we put the one we bought and the true hd model side by side and ran that panasonic blu ray demo disc and could tell no difference, well i couldn't anyway.
do you think getting a ps3 is better than getting a proper blu ray player as i can kill 2 birds with one stone?
only thing i was told is that to play ps2 games i'll need the high spec model. is this correct?
karl

[ynot slow]

Hell aint the drying off of farming great hehe,mind you with the crap weather lately,after feeding out,drying yourself what better than sitting in front of the box with a fire and beer(coffee).

[Mikkel]

TV sucks!

Get cable broadband - download what you want to watch and beat the commercials (i.e. www.piratebay.org) - get a projector and you're set.

You can not buy sanity points...

[vifferman]

LCDis better than plasma over a long term. plasma being plasma like in blood, will degrade and the picture will become blurry over time.

That was true of earlier plasma TVs, but newer ones have similar lifetimes to good LCDs - about 60,000 hours.

LCD liquid crystal display will not degrade. it like a television is made up of dots like pixles. they however can stop working. you will start losing one dot at a time but resolution will not change.
so a slow blur or a dot at a time.

Also the backlighting can go, at a cost of up to $500 - very common.

Some other advantages of plasma:- better contrast, true blacks, no blurring of movement, wider viewing angle.

[NZsarge]

Mmm, go the LCD or Plasma but make sure it's HD "ready".

Pioneer plasma Tv's are mint! But you do pay for them!
If you go LCD I reckon Sony.

[ynot slow]

WTF put money towards a bike much better idea,can still see from a 21" as a 42"LCD,but the extra coin gets a good deposit.

[T.I.E]

That was true of earlier plasma TVs, but newer ones have similar lifetimes to good LCDs - about 60,000 hours..

they start degrading well before that. 60,000 hours is when they are almost non watchable. and yes they do have a better contrast not that many people notice that. and i totally agree with the blur on the movement, thats very annoying with LCD. espically with sports or motogp....
long gevity LCD will outlast plasma.

[Fub@r]

I did the whole LCD vs Plasma thing last year.

Decided who had the best deals on which was Harvey Norman at the time. Spent probably 2 hours looking at the various brands for both types.

Noticable thing for me was LCD's during a pan shot seemed to either have a blur or were jerky. Also it seemed like the LCD's appeared more "pixely".

The final crunch came (seeing I didn't have Sky etc) was to get them to switch the TV's off the HD stuff they were playing and flick it to normal TV tranmission........Plasma won hands down! The LCD's you might as well have been watching it in a hailstorm, the picture was grainy from the cheapest LCD right through to the 8k LCD's.

So I purchased a 42" Panasonic Viera Plasma, I've had the TV now for nearly 12 months and have had no change in the power bill. Also ditched the Freeview and got Sky Got tired of watching 30 yr old episodes of Country Calender

[vifferman]

So I purchased a 42" Panasonic Viera Plasma

Oooh... it's gonna go blurry / fadey / catch on fire / burn a hole in the ozone layer / blah blah blah.

We've got the 37" Viera, and a five-year warranty. Love it!
Have you tried watching summat hi-def, like a BluRay movie on it? It's gob-smackingly good!

The only 'issue' we have with ours (and it's probably summat simple like a setting) is that sound coming through the Viera link from the DVD/HDD is quieter than through the other DVD or the receiver.

[ManDownUnder]

Hi Steevie - just bought a Sony Bravia 32" flatscreen LCD. Had to go Freeview as the picture is pretty crap in Coromandel on a conventional aerial. Quality of the Bravia is very good indeed. Got it from 100% in Thames. Approx $2500 which included a Sony HD recorder/player. You get what you pay for in terms of spec and life.

Ditto! Good choice my man.

Waiting for the video DVD recorder thingy as we speak.

[bladerider97]

We have both. A 42" Panasonic Plasma & 32" Sony LCD.
The plasma is brighter and easier to watch in a sunny room, and seems better at fast moving things like sport & gaming.
The LCD is sharper, but does suffer a bit when you feed it a poor quality signal.
Other things to note, the LCD has a matt screen so you dont get any background reflection, but you do on the plasma.

As for plasma life the early ones did burn out rather quick. But now there is no difference than an LCD, they loose half there brightness after 60,000 hours thats 5 hours a day for 32 years (and I only have my brightness turned up to about 60%).

Make sure you buy a HD one this will future proof you, cause you never no what will happen in the next 32 Years.