Mitzyboy

Horses for courses!!!
LCD you can suffer from pixel loss
Plasma, you can suffer from burn in, but its not such a problem nowadays

Less electric for an LCD .... yes I believe so.
Better picture? Not really sure about that ..... the larger you go (at the time I bought) the better it was to go for plasma over LCD

Fred James

One difference between them is what they look like in a bright room. Plasma is great in a darkened room and poor in bright light.

LCD is better if you have a bright room. It doesn't make much difference in winter (unless you like daytime TV) but with the bright evenings it can be a problem.

It used to be that plasmas were cheaper for big sizes but the gap is closing now. At 42" there's not a lot of difference.

Plasmas use a lot of power - the eco freaks are trying to get them banned! LCDs use much less.

RONLIN

Hope that helps

ATB

Ron

The Guy

for light contrast figures look at the ratio in the specs.....
the ratio shows how many shades of grey (ie colours between white and black) a tv can show - the higher the numbers the better the shade of colours it will show.

yes LCDs can have pixel failure, and plasmas can have screen burn.

for huge TVs (ie above 37") i would go for a plasma....less than 37" LCD....but this may change in a weeks time as technology progresses....

maybe you could wait a few months (towards December) when the 3D TVs start to come onto the market....around 7000GOB at the mment for the only one commercially available - shames there is no real source of 3d programmes yet (see last nights gadget show on five for a look into 3d tv)

maybe it is worth leaving it for a couple of months as that is when the TV shops (not carrefour etc) wuill be able to do excellent deal on equipment and stands as the Crisisisis impacts ontheir sales and commissions and they will do any deal just to get the TV moving before any new stock makes it into the store....

and it may not be the best idea to go for the biggest...but what will look nice in the room...and consider that it is not a good idea to site it in a sunny corner of a room.

but if you like to spend pioneer plasmas are the bees-knees...pricey but the quality is unbeliveable.

Chiclanagir

Again thank you for all your posts. Especially interesting is the one advising to wait a couple of months as it is likely the credit crunch will give some good buys. It certainly doesn´t seem to have happened up to now. Very few real bargains around and if the pound drops back to under 1-1 it will make it a very expensive purchase. Ummmm, the usual you pays your money and takes your choice. Our present tv is working - just so could hold out for a few months if necessary to get a bargain but will we!!

RONLIN

Difficult to say wether panels will go down especially on the newuns coming out as manufacturers have to source components with exchange rates all over the place.......but as Satandpcguy said if you dont want the newest bells & whistles screen shops will want to shift old stock at knock down money.......around xmas time in the UK is best for those bargains dont know about Spain though.

Good luck in ya search anyways.......my preference is plasma as to my eyes its a more natural & CRT looking picture against LCD as to me they appear much harsher looking.......all in my opinion of course

Thing to do is if you see a bargain research research research then go for it......but as always if its to good to be true........ buyer beware!!!!!

ATB

Ron

Fred James

There is some useful info and many reviews of HDTVs here

http://www.hdtvorg.co.uk/guide/hddvd...uide_hddvd.htm

Chiclanagir

Fred that is really useful. One thing I would like to ask about is the Panasonic Viera has built in Freesat. Does that mean I wouldn´t need a Sky box?

The Guy

no...it means you wont need a seperate freesat box....

you will still need a sky box for the sky channels...

both systems use the same satellites and (almost) the same signals / frequencies. both have access to the same free tv (ie non pay / non viewing card) channels.

you will still need a sky box to access those channels that are only viewable with a sky card.

Fred James

Satandpcguy answered your question but remember that a Freesat box costs less than £50 so the price of the Panasonic box is quite high even allowing for this.

If you want Sky, get a Digibox, if you want Freesat only, buy a Freesat box, then choose the TV that you want. You will find that it is cheaper that way.

Chiclanagir

I have a skyplus box and a full sky package but thought this would enable me to get Spanish free tv too.

The Guy

i think you are getting the freesat and freeview mixed up....something which many pople do..

Freesat is the brand of boxes used for free UK TV channels via satellite.
You can also use a sky box to get the free UK TV channels via satellite
You can also use a sky box with a Freesatfromsky viewing card to get the free UK TV channels and the free to view TV channels (like Fiver and Five USA) via satellite

Freeview is the name of the UK ONLY digital TV services via a TV aerial. as spain is a bit of a distance from the nearest UK Freeview transmitter it is safe to say you cannot get Freeview in Spain.

There are common channels between Freesat and Freeview...such as bbc1,2,3,4 etc, but also freeview has other channels like Dave and UK History (or whatever they have changed the name to recently) that are PAY TV channels on satellite.

I think you mean TDT - the spanish digital TV service...via your TV aerial....ie the Spanish version of Freeview. Aorund 30 digital spansih tv channels are available depending on your location - see www.tdt.es - put in your postcode, confirm your location and see if you can receive TDT. There are NO UK channels on TDT, but there are channels that do transmit certain programmes in English.

in that case you want a TV with a digital TV tuner (most TVs these days have them inbuilt), or a seperate set top box.
Some TVs have a generic digital tuner built in, and some have a sticker with "TDT" on, both of which will work with the Spansih digital tv system ok.

a "Freeview" branded digital tv tuner MAY work, but not 100%...

Chiclanagir

Panasonic states it is Freesat and Freeview - no wonder I am confused!

The Guy

i have mentioned this before but worth repeating again here.

if you do go for a TV branded with the UK "Freeview" be ware that it may not work 100% in spain or other countries. Some will, but the majority will not.

UK Digital TV does no use channel 69...Spain TDT does..and many Freeview boxes will not allow you to scan channel 69

Freeview boxes normally only have the following language options: English, Gealic and Welsh. This causes a problem when Spain uses a whole variety of langauge "flags"...Esp, Dos, Qua, MUL, VO, etc..and therefore Freeview boxes will not recognise these other "flags" and therefore English language on Spanish TV may not be possible.