Page 1 of Plasma Tvs - Would you or wouldn`t you?

I`ve been looking at the Plasma TVs and was wondering if it was if the 42" models you can pick up for £1500 are any good?

Does anyone own one and regret buying it now that they`ve used it for awhile? I don`t know whether to go for a 32" model which is the same price but a better brand then the budget 42" ones for the same price.

I`ve seen a Sony KE32TS2E + RDRGX3S DVD Video Recorder for £1739 and don`t know whether to go for this instead of a 42" Daewood for £1500.

ANY advice on Plasma TVs will be appreciated as I haven`t had much time to look into the technology in that much detail.

Thanks in advance

Ross

"Life is like oral sex, one slip of the tongue and you`re in the 5hit" - Roy Chubby Brown

I`m certainly no expert on the subject (there must be someone on here who knows about this stuff?) but I remember recently seeing a programme (might have been The Gadget Show on Ch5) that recommended not buying the cheap brand plasmas. One of the problems they pointed out was the lag between images and audio because of crap processing power. Also had really poor sharpness. Only the expensive brands were any good. Overall they weren`t too praise-worthy of plasmas stating that the best crt will still beat the best plasma for image quality.

Well I have just bought the Panasonic 37" TH-37PE30B plasma. It`s around £2190-00 inc Delivery at a few places but `BE` (Better Electricals) have an offer of the TH-37PE30B with a Panasonic E55 DVD recoderr for around £2286-00 inc delivery. I have been looking for a few months now & it really comes down to Panasonic. The Sony`s were good & also the Pioneer but both more to buy than the Panasonic. I have only had 2 days use but first conclusions are. On tuner (it has both freeview & analogue) it shows up the lesser quality programmes but is still much on a par with a CRTV. On DVD it is absolutly superb. Cheap Plasmas were poor. The Panasonic has a 4000-1 contrast ratio. ie Blacks are black & Whites are white. Most other makes, especially the cheap ones are 500-1 or 1000-1. The 37" screen is very much bigger than a 36" CRT. As 2" of a CRT 36" are missing so the reality is I have gained about 3 to 4 " bigger screen. The one I have has a `VGA` imput for direct link to computer (& movies on it). It also has a PCM CIA reader. Also a SD (Digital Camera) reader so you can make photo shows just by putting in the card. There are also 3 Scart sockets & a Component (Progressive Scan) imput. As I said before it has Analogue & Freeview built in & it has a CAM slot for the TUTV card if you wish. It also has a built in Stereo (with a half decent false surround sound on). The speakers are on the side but not protruding out like many others & the sound is fantastic. I am going to get a surround AMP but this is really great as it is.I know I`m gonna` miss out on some things but finally for now, am I glad I sold my 36" TV & bought a Plasma. YOU BET YOUR LIFE I AM.

I got my 42" panasonic plasma about 3 months ago and it`s great.
picture quality is fantastic i paid 3 grand for it so it will have to last me a few years.
one thing do not buy lcd tvs the picture quality is the worst i`ve seen really terrible.

Quote:
ANY advice on Plasma TVs will be appreciated as I haven`t had much time to look into the technology in that much detail.

Ross

Only thing I could add to the other replies would be this.
Register with Which and use the thirty day trial period to read as much information as they have on Plasma screen televisions. Print out the data and reviews on any models you like and take them with you when you go to see about buying one.

HTH

Choagy FFCUK The SPL :)

PS after twenty days remember to contact them and Un-subscribe to prevent your CC being debited.

To be honest, as tempted as I am by them, I`m not going to bite yet..The price will come down dramatically from where it is . They are already way down on where they were a year/18 months ago. Give it that same amount of time again, and for the same money you`ll spend on a `Budget` one now, you`ll get a much higher spec, plus the technology will be that much more `mature`.

Thanks for all the replies.

After looking around at a few models I was wondering how important the "Brightness" figure is which is in all the specifications? The model below is one I`m thinking about - the contrast ratio seems to be quite high for a budget model, although it`s still not as good as the 4000:1 ratio on Pauls Panny. Would this be noticable do you think?

Samsung PS42V4SX
Resolution: 852x480
3000:1 Contrast Ratio
1000cd/m2 Brightness

Are these figures the only thing you need to consider for image quality? Do the more expensive brands use better screens or processors which effect the picture quality?

Thanks again

Ps. I`ve also been looking at this model, Sony KE32TS2. It has a resolution of 1024x852 which seems to be quite high but I can`t find any info on the contrast ratio. Do you think this means it will have a better picture than the Samsung with it`s 852x480 res?

"Life is like oral sex, one slip of the tongue and you`re in the 5hit" - Roy Chubby Brown

A woman at my work bought a Plasma Hitachi a few weeks ago.
She bought it as it was the recent award winner is one of the specialist magazines.
Cost her around two grand.
I asked if I could see it working,so I went round.
Not overly impressed.
I thought the sound was poor (she`s using the TV`s speakers only) and the picture was very disappointing,in my book.
She thinks the picture is superb,but I think she`s confusing brightness with quality !
Yes,lovely bright picture,but actual quality wasn`t great.
She has her Toshiba DVD connected by component and,again,I was disappointed.
Perhaps some fiddling with the settings,which she won`t do,would improve things but I left thinking her two grand had got her a bit of `pose value` and little else.
I`d love to upgrade to something but I really can`t see anything worth going to ! :/

there`s the problem...

Quote:
A woman at my work bought a Plasma Hitachi a few weeks ago.

;)

I`m sure there must be women out there who know their stuff.......

I have yet to find one.


My DVD collection



Gamertag Database

This item was edited on Thursday, 29th July 2004, 12:49

LOL !
Said woman did,to be fair,buy it on the back of a `best buy` review in a mag.
Blame them ! :)