Lum

My GF has decided that we must purchase a plasma screen. Since she is paying for it, I'm not really going to argue

She has these requirements for it..

Size: 50"
Vertical resolution: 1080 native
Contrast Ratio: minimum of 10000:1
also "good quality image processing, but none of this image enhancement bollocks unlesss it can be turned off
Price range: up to £1500
We don't need FreeView or DVD or HD recording or even speakers, in fact the less of that crap the better. We do need a decent scaler and good handling of "legacy" formats such as RGB, Component and Composite

We were looking at an LG one in Tesco which seemed to be the best of the bunch (compared to the Sonys and Panasonics they had) until we realised that it's vertical resolution was only 768. Tesco did not carry any ones with a native 1080 resolution.

Also, can you recommend a supplier in the South Wales area? We'd prefer to take the thing home ourselves and unload it in the dark where it's less likely to get noticed.

davegtt

Are you serious? You want to buy a 50" Plasma and you considered the one in Tescos?

Panasonic mate, no need to read any further posts in this thread

Panasonic UK - TH-50PZ700WALL Plasma

fitzscoob

Dave, does your rainbow flag fly on the side of the panny?

Lum

No, it was just a Tesco visit that prompted the purchase, we were wondering around the DVD section and it was like "ooooh! shiny thing"

Also the contrast ratio on that Panasonic doesn't meet with the minimum spec she has laid down.

pslewis

LG do have, by a long long way, the best Picture Quality ....... BUT, you need a 5 year warranty with an LG as you will need it.

Also get in writing what their pixel policy is/what class display it is ..... but as you have noticed, LG is far better PQ than Panasonic and Sony and the rest for that matter....

pslewis

OH, yes, VERY IMPORTANT .......

Do NOT buy from Currys, Dixons, PCWorld or Pixmania!!

John Lewis is where it's at!

davegtt

Good wind up again Pete

Contrast Ratio is a load of tosh IMO

Lum

We're both IT geeks, we know damn well not to buy from a Dixons Group company.
Edit: That said, I did quite well 7 years ago when I bought my ex-demo RPTV from Dixons, I managed to get an extended warranty that covered screen burn. The next day I had an engineer round to look at the screen burn (Sky Sports 3 logo, done in the shop) and two weeks later I had a brand new TV

Need to find somewhere that stocks these things and will let us have a watch, I guess. I'd just like to know which models I should ask them to have lined up for us.

Leslie

Its the same as when I buy a Ham radio. I go to a place where they have all the different models running on the same aerial and you can do a straight comparison in my case for the receiver abilities on a very weak signal, in your case for the best picture quality of course. Every time I have looked in a tv emporium just out of interest, the LG has always appeared to be best of the lot. Best to make sure they are running off air and not a DVD.

Les

Lum

Oh they were running off air, it was some BBC HD program about penguins.

Very good timing actually as the vertical edges of the snow against the sky showed off how crap image enhancement is (yay for too much sharpening) and how LCDs really are rubbish as subtle variations in colour.

I suppose the question really is, does the 1080 version of that LG panel match the image quality of it's cheaper 768 brother?

Oh and my GF has already managed to upset a Dixons salesman after visiting for a laugh, along comes some spotty tw@t expecting an easy sale and winds up being educated on how to calculate the native resolution of the screen when the manufacturer only quotes the number of pixels it has.

GazTheHat

Lock the thread.

Lum

Ok, from the Panasonic stable the 50PZ70 looks to be a better option than the 50PZ700 as the former has 10000:1 and is loaded with less digital processing bollocks and additional toys, just a pair of crappy 10W speakers and a freeview decoder.

LG don't make a 50" 1080p Plasma, only a 60" which is way beyond our price range / room size.

Any recommendations from other manufacturers that we should look at?


The biggest concern I have right now is the quality of the scaler and how well it deals with older crappier import formats. To that end I shall be bringing one of my LaserDiscs to the shop. NTSC letterboxed 16:9 FTL

davegtt

Pioneer is a good shout although theyre a little more pricey from what I remember

ScoobyDoo555

So by your reckoning, the LG isn't reliable.

My Panasonic however, hmmm, 14 months later, stil no issues. No wait, let me check. Hang on. Be right back.










Nope. Still no issues

Dan

(ps hope you get yours sorted soon bud!)

corradoboy

As already said, Pana PZ range. End of story.

Don't get suckered by contrast ratio arguments, it's like saying that a £90 Shinoiki compact digital camera from boots with a stated 10 megapixels is better than a Canon EOS350D with 6mp. We all know there's more to technology than impressive specs. Pioneer plasma's for many years had a CR much lower than the competition from Pana, LG and others, but they were by far the better set. Their KURO range now stand them slightly above yet again, but you can't afford them, so Pana PZ it is.

Lum

hmm, just spoke to some guy at Richer Sounds in Cardiff, apparently in a few weeks they're receiving an LG 50<something>66 which is full 1080, it's not even on their site yet, but may be worth waiting for.

Varboy

sounds obvious perhaps, but go and invest £3.50 in a magazine such as What Home Cinema and use their review tables to narrow down a few choices that fit within your desired specs and price range. Then post on here to obtain people's experiences of your shortlist (if you wish),
Once you have narrowed down a couple that you would be happy to live with (maybe seen the them in the flesh) then hunt around on the price comparision web sites for the best bargain.;

That's what I did a few years back when I bought mine and managed to get a superb set for about £800 less than advertised in certain shops.

Lum

Well that's pretty much what I've done, unfortunately the shortlist currently comes down to the Panny 50PZ70 and this mythical new LG that Richer Sounds couldn't actually give me an arrival time or price for, hence why I was after other people's recommendations.

There seems to be surprisingly little choice once you start excluding the non-1920x1080 models.

davegtt

Varboy, Believe it or not, alot of the magazines are paid by the manufacturers to give good write ups alot of the time. Hence always favouring certain brands week in week out. Although Id generally agree with what alot of what gets published anyway.

MrRA

Pioneer are the best you can buy, but, you pay for that extra performance. I recently bought a PDP-LX508D, which is from their new FULL 1080p Kuro range. Cost £3200 from Superfi but it was well worth it. Nothing else compares to it.

CupraT

I have the Panasonic 50" PZ70 and it is a great set. Not quite as good as the Pioneer but not far off. For the price don't think it can be beat.

corradoboy

Samsung were recently caught out when, unknown to the manufacturers, the magazine bought an identical set from a shop to review against the set supplied by Samsung for the review. When the sets were compared for performance, and then stripped down by an engineer to inspect the internal components, the item supplied specifically for the review by Samsung was vastly different to the retail item, containing much better components and thus a much better product than what the unknowing consumer would ultimately part with their cash for. Companies aren't averse to viral advertising either, posting reviews of their products on related forums, and even having staff pose as owners to raise their products profile amongst related communities.

As an aside, the OP says he has no need for HD and he'll be watching Laserdisc mostly. So why does he need 1080 I've done side-by-side comparison of 1080 vs 768 resolution sets when the 1080 were £5k+ and TBH I struggled to see much improvement, especially from any SD source. Even from an HD signal the difference was not worth anything like the £3.5k+ premium I'd have had to pay. If your source material is all going to be below 768 pixels then you don't need it, unless you want to future-proof and have HD plans in the pipeline.

I still say PZ70

GazTheHat

It's a shame things have come to this.

Lum

I never said that at all. My GF wants 1080, wants to get Sky HD and wants to get some form of HD optical media when all the fuss over that is over. OTOH I have a huge library of VHS, LD and DVD material that I'm not going to be getting rid of overnight, especially as a lot of it is unavailable on more modern formats, which is why I've always stuck with CRT and am worried about the scaler. I hear the Panasonic scaler is pretty crap and can't even deinterlace, confirm/deny?

Edit: Update, she's gone into some shop during her lunch break and had a look at the Panasonic PZ70 and says it looks great. I still plan to take one my LDs to test at a hi-fi shop, for the lulz, but it's looking like we're going to end up with that one since the Richer Sounds guy was setting off my bull**** meter for some reason.

Sosbanite

24 posts in and we have the obligatory mention of a Panasonic but nobody has pointed the OP to AVForums Home yet

Standards are slipping on s/net

sti-04!!

50PZ70

It does exactly what i says on the tin.

j4ckos mate

i have a viera.
one thing dont forget the lok if the tv, as well as the picture, when we were looking some of the actual tv looked awful
dont forget the golden rule,



upto 27" get an lcd

upto 42" get a plasma

42" and above get back on the ****in council estate where youbelong

T4YLOR 83

iTrader: (2)

never had a problem with samsung for value picture and reliability and would advise maybe play.com as they always have good prices on screens

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Weve been looking at a 50" Samsung recently, after looking around AV Forums we decided on the PS50C96HD at around £850.

Obviously your budget is higher so might be worth looking at the panny

corradoboy

I got mine from HERE. Great prices, nationwide FREE delivery, at the time Pana were doing a FREE 5yr warranty, and a free DVD. The fact that a 1080 set is now £300 cheaper than my slightly older PX60 irritates, but that's technology for ya !