Help me buy a 50" + TV

[Brad]

I'd use it for (in order of importance)

Blu-Ray movies
PS3/360 Games
Freeview TV (PS3's PLayTV System)
Gamecube and Saturnd through RGB Scart

I'd be willing to sacrifice a bit of picture quality in order to gain a bigger screen.

[Geoff D]

What's your budget?

[Brad]

Well, I was hoping to keep it at a grand or under. Is that possible?

[Geoff D]

Definitely possible for under a grand (or thereabouts) - do you have a preference for LCD or plasma?

Couple more questions - what's your viewing distance & are you looking for a 1080p screen?

I'm a plasma fan myself, so I'll make a couple of suggestions that have been getting good reviews - worth doing a bit of reading up on though -

Panasonic TXP50X10 - 720p plasma, can be had for around the £700 mark
Panasonic TXP50G10 - 1080p plasma, just breaches the top end of your budget by about £60

The new LG's are meant to be pretty good too, but I don't know anything about them.

[Brad]

Thanks Geoff,

Well, our ideal viewing distance is now quite a way! I'd guess it must be 25 feet. because of this and the fact that the current TV is a 32" we find ourselves sitting in other places and when I'm gaming I swing a sofa round and sit in the middle of the room. What I want is for the TV to be big enough that we can sit on the sofa at the far end for tv viewing or as and when we watch a Blu-Ray we get a really nice cinema experience when we pull the sofa closer.

LCD or Plasma? All the guys at work say get a plasma! I'd like a 1080p set to really appreciate the blu-rays and Gran Turismo 5, Wipeout HD etc.

That second Panny might fit the bill. I'll check it out. Thanks again.

[buster_broon]

seems that people believe that a plasma is better for the movie enthusiast and LCD is better for the gamer

[Geoff D]

Thanks Geoff,

Well, our ideal viewing distance is now quite a way! I'd guess it must be 25 feet. because of this and the fact that the current TV is a 32" we find ourselves sitting in other places and when I'm gaming I swing a sofa round and sit in the middle of the room. What I want is for the TV to be big enough that we can sit on the sofa at the far end for tv viewing or as and when we watch a Blu-Ray we get a really nice cinema experience when we pull the sofa closer.

LCD or Plasma? All the guys at work say get a plasma! I'd like a 1080p set to really appreciate the blu-rays and Gran Turismo 5, Wipeout HD etc.

That second Panny might fit the bill. I'll check it out. Thanks again.

25 feet!!!!?? At that distance I'd be getting a projector with a 100" screen - your 32" must look like a portable at that distance

This chart is just a guideline, but it gives an idea on how much benefit you'll get from resolution at various distances.

[Brad]

I'll measure the distance tonight.

[Skull Commander]

Do you live in a mansion or something?

[Womble9]

Have you maybe considered getting a Projector? Your room is certainly long enough to get a 100"+ picture out of one .

[Womble9]

Have you maybe considered getting a Projector? Your room is certainly long enough to get a 100"+ picture out of one .

Ooops sorry Geoff D .

Anyway I should add I'm lucky enough to have both a Plasma (Panny TH50PZ70) and a Projector (Panny PT AE2000) and whilst I use the telly for day to day viewing as and when I do put the P.J on it never ceases to stun me as to how good the picture (with a good feed, no snes / megadrive gaming here!!) is .

[Brad]

Do you live in a mansion or something?

Not at all. We converted the garage to make an extra area about the same size as the existing living room. We then put the 32" tv on one wall and had the sofa opposite it. This was fine. We then decided to put the TV on the back wall and have the big sofa at the other end of the original living room so now there's like the lenght of 2 average living rooms between the TV and the sofa! When i play games or watch a movie I swing a small sofa out that sits midway between the TV and the back wall. this works pretty good as the surround sound is optimally setup to have the same distance between me and the speakers bot front and back. The problem is that for occasional viewing of trashy TV the 32" tv seems tiny at such a big distance.

I'm wondering whether it's worth getting a 1080p set in fact. Even sat at the midway point I must be 10 feet from the screen. Will I even detect the difference between 720p and 1080p?

[Geoff D]

Will I even detect the difference between 720p and 1080p?

Perhaps the most contentious question of the HDTV age...

The 'science' would say that at 25 feet away, watching a 50" screen, you won't be able to detect a difference. Some people will swear blind you can, others will say it's all marketing bile. It's uncomfortable, but I remain on the fence - my eyesight isn't all that brilliant, so I don't feel I can make much of a worthwhile judgement.

The other thing to remember (& it often gets forgotten) is that there's more to a great TV than just resolution - black level, motion handling, viewing angle etc etc.

Need to get Lyris into this thread - he knows all sorts of stuff about displays

[Brad]

The more I read, the more confused I get :S

My kids have a tendency to leave the TV switched on with the static PLayTV menu up for extended periods. I'm trying to break this habit but assuming I can't will this be a problem for plasma TVs? Or even thigns like health gauges in games? Will it burn in on a plasma set? Should I look for an LCD instead?

[Geoff D]

The more I read, the more confused I get :S

My kids have a tendency to leave the TV switched on with the static PLayTV menu up for extended periods. I'm trying to break this habit but assuming I can't will this be a problem for plasma TVs? Or even thigns like health gauges in games? Will it burn in on a plasma set? Should I look for an LCD instead?

It can be a problem for plasma, but the technology has moved on quite a bit - Panasonics seem to be a bit better at handling image retention, & in theory you shouldn't get any burn if you follow a few simple procedures - turning all display settings down to 50% or less for the first couple of hundred hours is a good start. That said, leaving static images up for hours & hours on end isn't going to do it any good.

I'd say that plasmas probably do need more tlc than LCDs, but for me the pros outweigh the cons - that's no diss to LCD though, as my old Sammy LCD served me very well for a long time, & there are plenty of top notch LCDs out there.

One other thing to consider with LCD is that some suffer from input lag - not a huge deal for most games, but could be an issue if you play 'twitch' games - review sites like http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/ usually measure the input lag of any set they review.