Any one into plasma tv's?
 

I am interested in getting a plasma tv, and after some brief research am considering the panasonic th42pe30b at around £2750 of tinternet or the pioneer pdp434hde at around £3300. My question is does anyone have any experience with these two, or are there any other makes/models I should consider as I am led to believe that these two are the pick of the bunch in this sort of price bracket.

Cheers in advance Simon.

yes my friend has the panasonic th42pe30b, and I have the pioneer pdp434hde.

They are both very good, it depends on what you are going for.

I am more into movies, and with the pioneer supporting HD, it is just amazing the quality you get from watching films, hence me going for it.

My friend on the other hand, will be using his more for computers, and with the panasonic supporting compressed resolution, it can handle a higher res.

I should be getting a 46" plasma in a week or two. Best thing is the price is £575....... thanks to my friend knowing the manufacture who has ex-demo units to get rid off .....woohooo :D

I've got the 37" Panasonic Plasma, cant remember the number, but its little short of fantastic, had it for about 6 months and no issues. Get a Sky + box so all your programmes are digital. It'll blow your mind, rallying and motorsport in general are just great......
STEVE..............

Cheers for the reply Christian, Mainly tv/movies so looks like the Pioneer may be the best bet.
Cheers Simon.

just be careful of the short shelflife and expensive re-gassing or whatever its called,my wife sells them at work and says they don't last very long and to get them re-gassed costs about the same as a new one:(

Webmaster, I've got the "Private Message" function on scoobynet - can we have a "Private Smack in the Gob out of Sheer Jealousy" function too please?

Sorry mate thats dixons Currys scare mongering to make you buy the supwercover extended gtee.:)


Regassing is required after about 15-17 years of use :) I work for sky and we have plasma tv's in most of the entrance and receptions which are on atleast 12 hours a day and I nver seen one go poof or need regassing :)


http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/p...matv-life.html

Krade, how about burn-in - say, the Sky logo?

Top right left logos are called bugs.

Most Plasma screens have a pixel shift function which should help to stop this happening.

I have to admit I get image burn more with Xbox games than I do with tv although it seems for me Bravo is the worst for bug burn, if I do get bug burn, I just switch off the source and leave a blank black screen up for a while and it disapears.

I tend to switch 4:3 to panorama wich moves the bug to the very top right/left or pushes it off scereen completly.


I h8 the bugs and can't understand why we have to put them on screen Its not as if you don't know what channel your watching after all the epg only takes up a qtr of the screen.


BTW with Sky tv on all channels (Sky Chnl 4 ITV BBC challenge discovery etc) did you know if you press back up you can get rid of the red interactive icon??

We've just bought a Pioneer PDP-503CMX 50" Plasma.
It's amazing, really is. Picture quality is brilliant.

It's only being used for Presentations at the moment (hooked up to PC)
But one of the concerns is now burn in, with MS Powerpoint being run all the time.

You'd better get an xbox plugged into it for a few hours a day then :D

Also consider some of the LCDs that are now arriving. Better picture (IMHO) and lighter, less power usage etc.

Cheers

Ian

Despite all the comments on the superiority of LCDs, the very few LCDs that I've seen are simply not as good as the Pioneer plasma IMHO. I wonder if I need my eyes tested. I'm talking about big screens, not the 30in jobbies.

git! ;)

It's been mentioned...but got a negative reply. :(

Maybe pop in over the weekend for some *cough* overtime *cough*

Anyways..it aint got any external speakers hooked up, so not worth it.
As there are no built in speakers. :(

Thats my thoughts on the matter too.Most reviews seem to think that in the next few years LCD will dominate the flat screen market but right now in the 42" size bracket plasma still seems to have the edge.

Pioneer 43" is the best screen available at the mo. Supports HDMI which is the best picture possible. On the subject of re-gassing screens it's a load of rubbish I've been selling plasmas scince they first came out and have never heard of one needing regassing or even any firm that would undertake such a task. It simply doesn't happen. LCD is good, but not as good as plasma, well not yet anyway. Burn-in can be an issue, but then is can for almost all types of screens.

Brendan H, Don't be to green eyed. The 46" panels are a far eastern thing, badged up by people like Revolution etc. The panel is cr@p only 852 x 480 pixels for a start. You would be better off buying a normal tv;)

Chaz, just cautious - if I spend my hard-earned on a massive screen, I want it to be the best (OK, good enough!) for years to come, I'm not some rich sod that can afford to renew every 5 yrs! I'm waiting for LCD as instructed, but when I saw the ?LG/Samsung 40in that was so hyped, I was really disappointed.

It's not,my wife sells them at work and has to sort out the numerous complaints from her customers when they go pop,they are all main brand plasma's and brand new (bloody curry's???? like anyone listens to them:D )

make sure that you buy a unit with HDMI input or at least HDMI compatible DVI.

this is the new "scart" (tsk) socket and will be the industry standard very soon.

it is by far the most commercially available and cleanest way to connect from source to display. It will become the audio standard too, but I don't think specs on this are finalised yet,

New generation dvd players will be using this standard too.

I know my projector and dvd player (sony hs20 and pioneer 868) both use this connector, though I a hard pushed to spot any improvement over a decent quality component arangement.

The pioneer 434HDE has this facility and apparently is quite a way ahead of the competition.

If its to big or crappy then I'm just gonna flog it. I'm sure I can make a profit ;)

TBH I would rather be getting a 32" LCD than the 46" plasma. The LCD's I've seen are awesome and very crisp

Arrghhh no not the regassing again make it stop :D

Forget plasma, go DLP

A little expensive at the moment, but I reckon this is the future :)

Chris

DLP is a projection technology. It can be found in TV's but these are the rear projection type. A sort of half way house between a projector and screen and a plasma. Bigger pictures than plasma, but they can be used in daylight. Downside is they are alot deeper than plasmas, typically 300mm+

I was thinking about projectors really - so no screen and no depth :) The really good ones are still seriously expensive - 3 chip models are at the £20K+ level but they are very impressive, with picture quality that blows plasma / LCD away.

Chris

Yes and no. Three chip projector blow plasmas into the weeds for really big pictures, but they don't work in a bright room. We get asked these questions all the time. What's better, plasma or LCD? Should I go for a projector or a plasma?

It all depends on what you want. You cannot buy a 9'plasma so you will have to go for a screen. If you want something to use during the day then your £20k projector simply isn't an option.

There was another useful thread on plasmas a couple of weeks ago.

Points I would make are that the picture source determines the picture quality far more often than the screen. Most broadcast TV that I watch on Freeview is below the capability of my screen, but you get the odd surprise that really looks great. Adverts can be good ( :D ) and DVDs are usually stunning.

Poor lip-synch is part of the deal with plasmas - picture lags behind the sound as the image takes a mo to process. It can be really annoying. Some high-end AV amps allow you to adjust this. (Info thanks to LogicLee.)

My telly is an LG 42in from John Lewis, which I've now seen at £1,950 in Oxford Street (was £2,800 earlier this year) which is an absolute snip. Get John Lewis to price match, who also give a five-year guarantee. Set has stacks of features, including a screen-burn zapper.

Plasma TVs are just like digital cameras, trick mobiles and other new tecky stuff - always getting better. Buy now and be happy, but there will always be a better/cheaper one in a few months.

Richard.

Even with 2,000+ lumens?