I`ll be buying a Plasma/LCD TV at the end of the month, (finally ditching the 26" CRT beast). There`s so many variables and weird numbers in the feature descriptions, it`s hard to tell what`s better than others. (Frequency/contrast ratio/LCD Vs Plasma etc)
Anyone have any experience in these matters? I`m going for around 40" with a budget of around £300
TIA
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at that price range, i`d go for the technica 40" full HD @ £299 from tesco`s, (HD ready can be anything from 720p, full HD must be 1080p) i was gonna get one of these myself, but did a swap + some cash with my house mate, & got his 37" LG full HD, it wont make a huge difference for most movies on broadcast TV (sky hd etc) but you will notice the difference with blue rays, & especially if you connect a pc to it, the difference in resolution is very noticable, my 1080i would max out at 1360x768, but on the 1080p screen i get a res of 1920x1080, which makes a massive difference when browsing while running a video etc..
hope this helps.
EDIT= in my local store it`s actually £269.99 at the moment, don`t know if thats nation wide, this is the TV on the tesco website (still £299 there..) http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.215-5436.aspx
Forever
This item was edited on Sunday, 18th March 2012, 14:58
I have had me eye on the Technika for a while. Given the price the specs seem at least on a par with some of the more widely known brand names.
Also, I have a toshiba DVD/Divx player, which claims to be an upscaling model. I`d have to buy a composite/HDMI converter (no hdmi in the back of the player). Would this have enough capabilities to `fill out` the larger screen with a standard DVD? I use powerdvd 11 on my PC which uses truetheater (wether I like it or not) and sometimes the screen resolution is abysmal
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to be fair, i dont have any experience with upscaling, apart from my cyclone micro player, & i dont like the way it looks, & prefer to leave it at the native res, but that could just be the player,
99% of the time i`m watching via the pc connected via VGA (coreduo mac mini, hence no HDMI) & am generally very happy with the output, although, again to be fair, i do now generally download the smaller file size but higher res vids, rather than stock AVI`s
On a side note, i should mention that i have compared the outputs from my Zotac Zbox via HDMI & the mac minis vga, & i personally couldnt tell any difference in the quality, apart from the zbox was slightly brighter than the mini.
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Quote:
Viewtiful Mark says...
If there`s no HDMI port on the DVD player then I imagine it can`t be an upscaling player.
Soz, the actual definition is `Progressive Hi-Resolution`. And while there`s no HDMI, there is blue/red/green composite connections.
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Quote:
Pete-MK says...
Soz, the actual definition is `Progressive Hi-Resolution`. And while there`s no HDMI, there is blue/red/green composite connections.That`s Component, Pete. It gives you 576P output from a PAL sourced DVD or 480P output from an NTSC (Region 1) DVD.
To use that connection you need 5 plugs in total - the three for video - red/green/blue and 2 for stereo audio - red and white.
Without meaning to get too confusing, you don`t actually need a specialist component lead, so you don`t need to spend a fortune. If you have an existing composite lead and a stereo audio lead, you`re away. Just plug your colours into the same colour at both ends for a good picture.
It`s not HDTV, it`s EDTV, but it`s an improvement on the standard RGB SCART pic, for sure. 
Do you have a Richer Sounds near you?
I have a mate who used to work for Tesco & told me they got so many returns of Technika TV`s that the store had a Technika skip.
They never sent them back for repair, just binned them.
That was a couple of years ago, but it has always put me off the make.
Richer Sounds have a Sharp TV in the price range you stated.
Never seen the unit myself, not a recommendation, just a heads up. Details here. It is 1080p
For a extra £10 they have a nice looking 37" LG. I`ve seen that one in store, nice looking TV.
If it has to be a 40" TV, for £330, Richer Sounds also have a Samsung.
There is a 40" Toshiba for 301.95 at Amazon also.
This item was edited on Sunday, 18th March 2012, 20:47
Go for a known name. Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Sharp, Samsung, LG etc. There have been some offers at around your price bracket. It won`t have HD Freview. I would go for a Plasma as the Black is blacker. But if your gaming then an LCD would be better. Having said that I use my wii a lot & there is no screen burn on my plasma TV.
I completely agree with Pat, whilst the technika`a are good value for the money (i`ve had a couple, & they where "fine") for the extra tenner, i would deffo go for the branded LG, & if it`s anything like mine, it can be hacked to play HD .MKV`s & XVID`s ;)
In fact, i guess i allready put my money where my mouth is, since i had intended to get the 40" technika myself, but instead swapped my 32" LG + £100 for my mates newer 37" LG (37LG5000) & am very happy with the TV, & in fact, the one Pat linked to is quite a lot newer than mine..
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