Help choose a 40" flatscreen TV please

[orange71]

We may be getting a new TV - around 40". A couple of questions:

1: LCD or Plasma or what (?LED/OLED)?

2: Good brands are...?

3: Lookuing to spend no more than £400 (Ebay fine).

Got any suggestions?

 

[legrandefromage]

look for the highest contrast ratio = good screen.


watch tennis, if the ball stays fairly visible = good screen

most brands are rebadges so ignore unless Panasonic, toshiba, samsung. LG are so - so

 

[Kentphil]

I recently got a LG 32" tv for £399. Its 1080 spec and a 100 hz. Very nice i think. It can also link up to my pc hard drive via usb port.

 

[stewlewis]

I have a Pana 42" Plasma, TZ85 I think.
Looks great with the VM box via HDMI.
Looks greater in HD from the VM box.
Looks fantastic in HD via the PS3, espesh with BluRay.


Got it for about 450 from Empire Direct going bump about a year ago.

 

[GT-Steve]

I bought a Samsung a couple of years ago and it's pretty bloody good, still now.

Richersounds are always good on price and backup/service, in my experience, an like LGF says, most are just rebadges of the same product...

 

[clockworkgazz]

I have a Pana 42" Plasma, TZ85 I think.
Looks great with the VM box via HDMI.
Looks greater in HD from the VM box.
Looks fantastic in HD via the PS3, espesh with BluRay.


Got it for about 450 from Empire Direct going bump about a year ago.

love my pana to

 

[Pickle]

I've got a 37" Panasonic, HD and Freesat.

Does the job quite nicely.

 

[Jason802]

Okay it's only a 37" and a little over £400 but if you watch lots of downloaded stuff have a look at this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LE37C53 ... =1-3-fkmr0

I've just bought the 32" and the picture quality is excellent. I bought it mainly because of Samsung's "Connect Share Movie" feature. This seems to have been kept very quiet by Samsung but basically you just plug a hard-disk into the TV (or a camera, USB stick etc), and it plays everything in my 1Tb library up to 1080p .mkv files!

It seems they only ever made 4 TVs with this feature (the only bigger one is a 60" plasma), but it was a big point in my purchase.

It also automatically synchronised with my Sony home cinema, which is nice

 

[orange71]

ok - thanks for this, couple more questions then:

1 - what would constitute a good high contrast ratio - what numbers are we looking at here?

2 - are plasma to be avoided these days because of burnout or are they on top of that now?

3 - if others are rebadges and are cheaper why not buy them?

 

[legrandefromage]

my plasma is 6 years old and has no screen burn issues.

look contrast ratios of 2000:1 or higher.