Gingerdoughnuts

Cheapest plasma 42inch,anyone know

djuk

Probably one of the dixons/currys techwood range but to be fair its not something you want to go "cheap" on. If budget is limited I would go for a high quality 36" CRT for less money.

Cheers

David

Edited to say its £1,799

Chip

Why pay all that money for what is not a very good picture.

Buy a good quality 100hz 36".

Plasma will get better in time but at the mo its not as good a quality pic as a "traditional" TV.

Just my opinion of course.

Chip.

Xbox

Makro have one in their mail today 42" @ £1499+vat=£1762.49

djuk

IMO some of the higher end plasmas like the Panasonic PW6 or the Pioneer 434 aren't far off at all now but they come at a greater cost - £2500 for the panasonic and £3500 for the pioneer.

Its true that they arent quite as crisp as a decent 36" CRT like the Panasonic PD30 but the gap is closing.

David

logiclee

Richer Sounds have 42" Plasma's from £1499.

You need to be careful, some plasma's at the cheap end are awefull. Something like a football field will be one block of green, and fast moving objects become smears with the whole picture being over processed.
There is olso an issue with longevity, early and cheap plasma's have issues with losing contrast over a few years.

IMO you need to be looking at sets that retail at or above £3500 for a 42" Plasma to rival CRT or the best of the rear projection sets. Saying that you can pick up £3800 sets for £2800 on-line. Check out reviews on the home cinema sites.

If your looking to spend around the £2k mark I would look at smaller higher quality plasma's if space is all important. If space isn't such an issue I'd go for CRT or rear projection.

Lee

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

i got a Philips LCD to hang on the wall and its the best tv i have ever bought.I had a look at the plasma tvs and was not impreza

if your lounge is 40sq ft then fair enough, but for the normal bod the tv is too big to see it.

you also have to get them re-gassed after a while. the LCD might cost twice as much but if you like tv i think its much better to be able to watch a good picture.

my mate bought a Techwood Plasma 42" and its like watching tv in the snow whilst driving, dont listen to the ***** in currys, go for quality

remember its not the QUANTITY its the QUALITY that counts..........

imlach

Oops...someone HAS been listening to the ***** in currys!

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

do you beg to differ???

i didnt buy my tv from currys i got it for £1400 cheaper off the internet. the ***** at currys told me the plasma were ****e, but you dont need to be told, just look at the quality difference,

women know a good deal when they see one and dont argue

Scooby96

re-gassed

LMFAO

Scooby96

Watch out for screen burn, especially with tv logos / banners (ie sky sports) that stay in one particular area of the screen whilst watching that channel

djuk

Ahhhh yes re-gassing

Very true, a plasma will need re-gassing, not in mine or your lifetime tho I've heard the "ooo but it will need re-gassing" is a key part of the dixons/currys sales pitch to sell you a £600 extended warranty and this seems to have spread like a rash.

David

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

you may laugh, but its true,

i was told about screen burn if you have a clock or channel on the tv, but i think its the same for plasma or lcd,

i'm still slating plasma though cos they are pants

logiclee

They do however loose contrast with use.

The first plasma's lossed around 50% contrast over 3-5 years. Todays higher end sets will comfortably last 10+ years

Todays sets are nowhere near as bad but the picture quality on the cheaper sets is unwatchable to anyone with decent eyes IMO.

Cheers
Lee

imlach

No, nothing to do with that - you got sucked in by the regassing baloney.

djuk

Oh yes its true, but if you keep a screen long enough for it to need re-gassing it'll mean that you own your very own piece of audio visual history right there in your living room and it'll also mean you're very tight

Screen burn will get any screen eventually but LCD and Plasma are the worst because of the dynamic nature of the way the picture is made up. Keeping the brightness and contrast to a reasonable level helps avoid this.

I would disagree with the statement that plasma is pants, a lot of people dislike the way LCD struggles to reproduce true blacks and deep colours but theres valid arguments for both types of technology.

David

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

have i been told, then?

r32

I got a 37" Panasonic Plasma and its just great, no problems and the picture is truly amazing, motor sport and footy take on a whole new life.
But get a Sky plus box so you have digital much better picture than with the old ariel.

STEVE.................

IanT

Plasma has pros and cons like any display technology but I think there are a few myths floating around on here:

- Screen-burn ... yes it happens, I've read many accounts of it but use of the built-in screensaver (which most plasma sets now have) appears to cure the problem within hours

- Sharpness ... yes, CRT sets still have the edge BUT plasma/LCD are head-and-shoulders above CRT in terms of screen geometry, focus, lack-of-scan-lines. People often seem to judge the quality of plasma TVs based on what they see on display at their local Dixons. I wouldn't trust a Dixons employee to change the batteries in my remote control, let alone spend a bit of time setting up a plasma TV for best brightness/contrast/colour/sharpness etc.

- Contrast degredation ... general consensus everywhere seems to be that modern sets don't suffer from this problem. Any technology that uses phosphor to display an image (e.g. plasma/CRT) will suffer from it but it takes time.

Plasma has many other advantages over CRT including:

- Progressive Scan (not many CRTs offer this)
- Component Input (ditto)
- Packaging (how deep is that 36" CRT set???)

I went from a good quality 32" CRT set to a Panasonic PW5 plasma screen about 6 months ago and the difference is staggering once I'd spent a little time setting it up correctly

Ian.

Brendan Hughes

Watched a couple of Euro footie matches in a pub on an LG 42in plasma. Couldn't get a seat in front so watched it from an angle of about 20 degrees from the edge.

Really, really impressive.

Jye

I thought component was no better than RGB/SCART unless you're looking to use progressive scan. My 36" toshiba 36zd26 has both of the above anyway and to be blunt I havent seen a better picture on ANY other TV. I'd take CRT over plasma every time.

IanT

I thought component was no better than RGB/SCART unless you're looking to use progressive scan.

I think that's the point I was making. Unless you own a plasma or progressive/component equipped CRT you can't watch progressive scan pictures and/or view DVDs this way.

My 36" toshiba 36zd26 has both of the above anyway and to be blunt I havent seen a better picture on ANY other TV. I'd take CRT over plasma every time.

As I said in my first post, likelihood of viewing a well set-up plasma picture in a shop/mate's house is low. They're very sensitive to quality of input, sharpness, contrast etc. Out-of-the-box settings tend to be crap.

I could say exactly the same about my TV's picture-quality compared to everything else I've seen but that doesn't mean I think that my TV's picture must be better than everything else.

Ian.

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

something you forgot .....................i bought the Monster cabling (gold) and a Monster noise reduction home cinema plug system, they both cost around £100 each, and the cables have made a huge difference to the picture quality and the plugs stop the noise you get when the volume is higher, especially good for dvds and cds.

........and it really does work


if anybody is going to rush out and buy some Monster cables i have a spare pack i am selling which i opened, and COMET wont take it back cos the packaging is now damaged

ProperCharlie

ah....


cables.

Krade

Any Plasma Owners get a buzz when the Pic on screen consists of mainly White??

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

a BUZZ as in noise or a BUZZ as in getting off on it

you need some Monster Cables

Krade

LOL wish I did get a buzz of the tv be a dam sight cheaper

It's an audible buzz.
I don't think its down to cables as my SKY is going thru a HQ gold connector scart and the Xbox is thru the SVHS connector (HQ gold cables again) and the DVD is thru the Component inputs.

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

hope this info is not directed at me cos i dont know what i'm talking about

i know that my Monster gold plugs thing have a gold ariel thing, that might be where your nose is, if you havnt got one
HTH

Steve PPP

Krade

My Hitachi 42" used to buzz, it got louder the whiter or brighter the picture. Intensity changed with the scene being shown.
Called Richer Sounds under warranty scheme, great service, engineer came out said it was a transformer fault that Hitachi were aware of. Swapped whole transformer board inside panel. No improvement.

Came back with new transformer only (had to solder it in). Silence
Mentioned that Hitachi had sent old stock first time onder2:

HTH

PS Picture is great except for digital blurring on fast moving items, particularly skin tones.

Steve

Steve PPP

Sorry forgot to mention panel is fed by shielded component video only, Denon amp does all switching and converts all inputs to component.