# TV Question again !



## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

Hi Folks,

First of all apologies for opening another TV thread but I know there's 1 or 2 AV hobbyists on here, so here goes.

Our Philips 32" CRT digital is on the way out, it's actually the in-built freeview tuner that's playing up. I started searching this week at the various local retail outlets and have narrowed it down to either Panasonic or Sony. The model we're favouring at the moment is SONY KDL40EX403U, we can't go bigger than a 40" unfortunately, so does anyone have any thoughts on this (good or bad)?

It's an absolute minefield out there LCD,LED,Plasma, HD, HD ready.

Also would we be better off getting a TV that was 100hz or above, in which case it wont be a Sony as they're out of our budget even with the trade-in scheme which Sony are running at the moment !

Help !!!!!!!!!!

Steve


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## Woody Alan (1 May 2010)

Steve,

This is a very difficult one, because there are very diverse opinions which will be strongly defended by individuals looking to reassure themselves that they spent their own money on the right thing so will tend to repeat manufacturers blurb.
The best advice is to view sets of a different type side by side...but depending on how they are set up to display (usually too intense) you'll still not be able to appreciate which one you prefer.
My personal preference was for a Panasonic plasma. I won't tell you it's best for you, I can only say why I picked it. When viewing SD pictures (which is the predominant media at the moment, plasma is a lot more like the old CRT it is a lot easier on the eye, with LCD I found there tends to be a lot of processing "noise" around the edges of moving images and when images fade in and out, I found this very annoying. The second thing that was very important to me was the extra detail that you get in the darker/black ares of a picture, lcd's tend to just make it black with no detail. Finally blacks are black and not "blue".
A lot of people will tell you that all these issues have been resolved so you'll have to judge for yourself whether that is true. Given all of the above I don't think you would be in the least disappointed if you bought the Sony or panasonic LCD.
I bought Panasonic and would buy Panasonic again. There are some good deals around on some of their plasmas at the moment. Get John Lewis to price match and get the free 5 year gaurantee.

Alan


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## matt (1 May 2010)

Perhaps not very helpful but (as someone not particularly enamoured with flat screens yet (other than their aesthetic/space saving appeal): £50 (and many for less  )


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

Thanks for the comments, 

I've just come back from yet another visit to Comet and I think we've settled on the next model up to the one I posted which has 100hz 'motionflow'.

For anyone interested they have a cracking offer on a Panasonic plasma, both the 42" and 50" both 400hz, are the same price at £599 just a pity I was limited to a 40" 

Cheers

Steve


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## woodbloke (1 May 2010)

Both Pete (Newt) and I went for Panasonic at the same time. Pete went for a 42" plasma which I believe he's very pleased with and we went for a slightly smaller LCD with a better sound system built in...muchly chuffed with it. Martin the Woodkateer also advised Panasonic...best thing to do would be to nip into your local showroom for a quick looksee :wink: - Rob


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

Thanks Rob 



> best thing to do would be to nip into your local showroom for a quick looksee



That's the problem I have several times and there's too many to choose from !
What I don't like when viewing TV's is that they're always showing the latest blue-ray etc etc instead of showing good old fashioned channels 1-5 TV. As stated above I think we've made our final decision. 

Thanks to all who posted

Steve


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## wizer (1 May 2010)

Panasonic - Good
Toshiba - Good
Samsung - Good
Sony - Never in a million years 


I take it you have checked your comet deal online to make sure it's as cheap as it seems? Three years ago when we bought our 42" Toshiba, it was £100 cheaper online than any of the gazillion shops we traipsed around trying to find a good deal. We probably spent that £100 driving to TV shops!! :roll:


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

> Sony - Never in a million years



Is there any particular reason or bad experience for that Tom ?

Checked the online deals to find that some retailers are more expensive.

Who'd have thought replacing a TV was so complicated :shock: 

Steve


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## Harbo (1 May 2010)

I have always found the AVForum to be quite useful though they tend towards the expensive stuff?

Rod


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## OLD (1 May 2010)

Are you sure your limited to 40'' as they are so thin i just set the tv stand more forward and the tv now 'overlaps the fire place but it looks ok.


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## NikNak (1 May 2010)

just my six 'peneth....


We were (like you) looking to replace our ageing Toshiba 32" CRT with built in Dolby 5.1

Was gonna wait till 2012, Olympics etc..... but decided "nahh.... let's do it..."

Again like you was favouring the Panasonic.

But in the end went for the Sharp 40" LED http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/sharp-aquo ... 7-pdt.html

SHARP...!?!?!? i hear you all shout..... i know..... there's now way i would have considered them a few years ago. But having read the reviews for this set.... that's what we went for.

Got it from John Lewis who also give a 5 years guarantee for free. More expensive?? nope.... same price as Currys, who weren't prepared to match the JL deal as they knew the gntee was a manufacturer backed one, not one that we had to buy 'in-case-of-accidents'


As for 50hz or 100hz or higher..... our old Toshiba was a 100hz, and i couldn't tell the difference...... maybe if you use it to play games you might.


Something else for you to chuck in the melting pot...??


Nick


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

> Are you sure your limited to 40''



That's what SWMBO (my Mom) says and she's the one who's done all the measuring. After returning from Comet this morning I tried everything to persuade her towards the Panasonic 50" but she was having none of it  

Nik,

I have actually looked at that model in Makro this week they have it on offer at £499+vat at the moment.

One of the main reasons I leaning towards the Sony is the wi-fi capabilities and also freeview HD, we don't have sky and I don't want it. I'm reading the reviews on the Sony on the AV forums at the moment, which up to now are quite promising.

Steve


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## NikNak (1 May 2010)

Steve...


The main reason (or one of them...) for going for the Sharp is.... we are on a 'reduce-our-energy-bills' thing at the mo, and the Sharp has a button that you can set to reduce the brightness of the pic (you only really notice it if you flick between the two quite fast), but it does say in the blurb that overall the tele saves around 60% of elec used. Cant be bad.

Marko @ £499+VAT..... Blimey..!!!! just goes to show just how fast these prices are falling. We got ours back when the Winter Olympics were on, cost us £659 from memory.



Nick


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## NikNak (1 May 2010)

oh.... we also found it very useful to get overall EXTERNAL dimensions and cut out large pieces of cardboard and put it/them where you intend the new set to stand.

The Sharp 40" was near as spit the same size as the old 32" Tosh, so fitted in where we wanted it quite nicely. Shame, cos for another £70 squidlings we could have opted for the 46" from Dixons (on-line)..... but it just looked a bit too big in the corner.




Nick


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## newt (1 May 2010)

Panasonic plasma from a Panasonic shop with 5 year guarantee. Not sure about on line purchase a bit of a pain if you have to send it back. I do buy lots of other stuff on line. Plasma has to be transported upright and unless you have the entire original packing it can be a bummer.Panasonic plasma from a Panasonic shop with 5 year guarantee.


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## Anonymous (1 May 2010)

wait till Best Buy opens in Merry Hill, you will save a fortune, and it looks amazing in there btw, i could talk you through 9 week process of fitting it out.


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## Argee (1 May 2010)

Steve Jones":10mxjjyp said:


> One of the main reasons I leaning towards the Sony is the wi-fi capabilities and also freeview HD, we don't have sky and I don't want it. I'm reading the reviews on the Sony on the AV forums at the moment, which up to now are quite promising.


I've always had Sony as I prefer their "harder" picture. My friend went for a Panasonic, had to get it replaced and when the replacement failed he bought a Pioneer (paid the difference). I'd prefer the Sharp over the Pioneer, but neither match the "X" engined Bravia that Sony now do.

Ray


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

> wait till Best Buy opens in Merry Hill



Any idea when it opens Mark ? I've been trying to find out but all I keep seeing is spring. I've seen in todays Sun newspaper the pictures of the one opening in Thurrock, it looked like mayhem but seems like there were some good deals.

Steve


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## Woody Alan (1 May 2010)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/663853/s ... v-1080p-39

Alan


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## Anonymous (1 May 2010)

Steve Jones":3o8t521o said:


> > wait till Best Buy opens in Merry Hill
> 
> 
> 
> ...



When i was there it was going to be june, however i have an inkling it will be earlier in time for the world cup. it will be well worth the wait. 

i have not had anything to do with it since hand over 6 weeks ago.

sorry i am being a little vague


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

Thanks for the info Alan & Mark, I've actually emailed best buy direct to ask when it's open.

Steve


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## Anonymous (1 May 2010)

Steve Jones":1a617qxa said:


> Thanks for the info Alan & Mark, I've actually emailed best buy direct to ask when it's open.
> 
> Steve



well when you go in ask to have a demonstration in their audio and visual rooms. they caused me no end of grief, note the doors to them 5 grands worth of doors and a crappy rail system which i really didn't want to fit!!!

Mark


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## yo_chuci (1 May 2010)

kdl-40ex403 

site link

this was were i got my dad to get his panny 37 plus 250gb hdd freeview dvd player recorder AND a tosh upscaler dvd player. delivered and 5yr warranty.

was 300quid cheaper than John Lewis (and anywhere else) and they didn;t have the upscaler dvd... think they wanted 1200 and we got it for 875 ish...

normally cheaper than most places.

what viewing do you do (sky virgin freeview SD or HD varieties?) cos in the shops most of the tv's look good when pumping out BD. the real test is the other 80%+ of the watching you will do which won't be Full HD and will more likely be SD or upscaled SD... and as posted before thats when some of the LCD screens are let down.[/url]


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## Steve Jones (1 May 2010)

Yo Chuci,

The '403' was our original choice but after going back to view it today and seeing the '503', it's the 503 we're most probably going to go for. Our main viewing at the moment is freeview SD and also dvd's etc, we only have Virgin basic TV which is almost the same as we watch on freeview. 

I've received an email back from best buy regarding the Merry Hill opening, they should be open within the next 6 weeks. I'll most probably hang on till then especially as Mark says they will have demo rooms etc.

Once again thanks for all the replies

Steve


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## yo_chuci (6 May 2010)

demo rooms.... remember that they are set up by pro's with calibrated screens and prefect lighting so can make it look better than when you get it home.
they are good tho for you to take in a few of you favorite dvd's and play bits of them on to get an idea. eg it may be showing Avatar on BD and the colours look amazing but how will it look when you put on Saving Private Ryan or The Matrix for example.
i would take in a few you watch and skip to bits that you know how it looks for you eyes now...
eg monsters inc to see how it handles Sully's Fur
The Fifth Element when they have the opera singer on stage infront of the earth.
The Matrix for some of the dark slow mo stuff.
Saving private ryan beach scene fast paced camera changes and natural colours.
something old that has been put on dvd but the film quality was never great to start with.

Also Digital Direct have the 503 listed. you just need to mail for the price.


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## lurker (6 May 2010)

This is only slightly relevant to this thread but you know I like to ramble on :roll: 

I used to work for Sanyo when they made quite decent tellys.
Dixons own brand was called Matsui ( I think they thought a jap sounding name inferred quality).
Our European telly factory was in lowestoft & the production line would make one version of telly at a time. The line had a y split near the end where the telly ended up badged & rating labelled & boxed.
One branch was Sanyo ( pricey in the shops) & the other branch was Matsui (cheap as chips).

The moral (if there is one!) Brands are a question of market perception (often).


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