Page 1 of Looking for a good 42" HD LCD TV

This is for my Dad as he wants it in time for the World Cup, It looks as if he is willing to go upto £1500 for it, so I have been looking around at these sets for him and trouble is I do not know anyone who owns a large LCD to comment on which is best !

I beleive the Samsung range is the way to go as they always seem to get good ratings and they do look nice....................Any views ! :/

This item was edited on Tuesday, 9th May 2006, 14:18

Helped set up a 40" Samsung LCD for a friend.
Seriously unimpressed with it`s picture using SKY.
Can`t comment on it`s HD picture,as he doesn`t have an HD box yet.
However,given that the vast majority of SKY`s channels are not HD,I couldn`t put up with the crappy picture myself.

I think 37" and up, Plasma is the way to go. If you read up about it, nearly all those Home Cinema mags etc. still prefer Plasma for larger screens.

I was reading "What Plasma and LCD TV" magazine recently - and they gave 7 reasons why Plasma is still "King of TV" (their words!). They also ran down the top screens for watching movies and sport on - and they were all Plasmas.

Another mag (forget which) was doing a similar thing for specifically watching football/the World Cup on - and again, they were all Plasmas. They said the best screen for a picture from a standard Sky Box and Hi-Def pictures was from the Panasonic TH42PX60. :)

This item was edited on Tuesday, 9th May 2006, 15:26

Beats me why people want that big though.
The bloke I set-up the Samsung 40 incher for has a way above average living room.
It must be a good 30 feet x 25 feet.

His TV still made me say "bleedin hell,it`s a bit big innit" :/

Perhaps that`s what part of the problem is with the picture.
Where he has it,in relation to his settee,you`re sitting too close to such a big screen.

I probably have a pretty standard size lounge and feel 32" is the optimum,in which case I will be going LCD.
I just don`t get this `the bigger the better` thing with TV`s.

In the gadget show about 6 months ago they did a test where the guy had no idea which type of flatscreen TV he was watching. The largest was an LCD (I think it was a 50") the two smaller ones were plasma. He chose the LCD as the best picture. About 6 or 8 weeks ago I was in one of the local showrooms & they had a Panasonic 60" or 70" LCD TV running on HD & the picture was awesome, far better than any CRT by miles. Pin sharp. The problem is when you put in a crap signal like a lot of the Sky etc channels in you get a crap picture out. A CRT will`mellow` it giving the impression it is better. Put a good signal into LCD & you get a good signal out, far better than any CRT.

I totally agree with that. Used to run my LCD (32" Samsung - swear by them for LCDs... they not only make the best, but supply Sony as well - another good name) via SCART from my DVD player. Recently upgraded my stuff and now run it via Component, and the picture quality while watching movies is breathtaking... no artefacts, and pin sharp...

Since you are looking at 42" I would recommend looking at both the LCD and Plasma markets. 37" or less, I would say LCD is the leader, but 42" and above, the technology can come at par, especially with good plasmas like the Panny viera.

T¦M3CH4S3R

"I am worst at what I do the best, for this gift I feel blessed. I found it hard... it was hard to find. Oh well, Whatever! NEVERMIND"

Quote:
His TV still made me say "bleedin hell,it`s a bit big innit" ...I think it depends on your point of view though - most people (or those with large screens) don`t see them as simply "TVs" anymore - they are more like "home cinemas". I mean, I hardly ever go to the cinema anymore and spend loads on dvds and movies - so I`d like a nice large screen to watch them on.

Quote:
Where he has it,in relation to his settee,you`re sitting too close to such a big screen.Well if it`s a decent screen, you can sit pretty close and it`s friggin awesome! I mean, when you go to the cinema, just look how close you are to an absolutely massive screen - comparatively, that screen is still MUCH bigger than when you are sitting a few feet away from a 42" Plasma....

Movies especially were (are) meant to be seen on a big screen - so for me, when watching movies and sport, bigger really is better. 8)


(...each to his own though - it`s just I`m getting my new 42" Plasma next week - can`t wait! :D )

This item was edited on Tuesday, 9th May 2006, 17:30

Thanks for your comments guys, I still think for the price I would go for a plasma as again it is mainly for his pleasure of football, I have just purchased a Humax HD satellite receiver and positioned it to a HD feed channel and picture was awesome and that was on my standard 32" 16.9 CRT TV via the RGB SCART.

I also connected it to my 3 year old panasonic projector and again brilliant pictures, Now I will be tracking down the BBC HD channel starting on the 15th of this month as it will be showing all World Cup matches in HD and others.

That Panasonic mentioned above does sound to be an excellent choice though :B

Took the plunge for me old Dad and gone for the 42" Panasonic Plasma TH42PX60, I will also be installing the Humax HDCI2000 hi-def satellite receiver with a motorised kit as I already have one and he will be well chuffed :D

What channels can you actually get with Humax at the minute?