Best TV under say £4k

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Crikey PB! We need Polarbears to be breading like mad! Are you not an endagered specie, as defined by the World Wild-life Fund?

Have fun getting a tele. I gave up years ago [with TVs], but I guess that there is still good stuff being broadcast...

ATB from George

I am very rare thanks George but I am very happy being single and have no desire to change.

As for viewing I spend most of my viewing time watching sport or movies, I very rarely watch normal TV.

regards

PB

quote:

Originally posted by andy c:
PB,
You know exactly what I am on about!

You will receive your 'advice' on monday!

Now who mentioned curry?

LOL - curry indeed.

We need to do some speculative drilling above your fireplace!

And if you were to put a set there, a Phillips of suitable size with ambilight would look spot on...

quote:

Originally posted by andy c:
And if you were to put a set there, a Phillips of suitable size with ambilight would look spot on...

JonR,
My set only has the ambilight on the sides, not the top and bottom. But on a dark night, watching a decent dvd/tv prog with the other lights in the living room turned down, Shelley and me think it adds to the viewing experience.

So are you thinking of an Aurea then, Andy? It looks stunning but not only is it pricey (£2,999 for the 42") but imagine how much electricity it must be using with the entire bezel glowing all over the place!

Shelley will virtually insist we get another ambilight equipped set, Jon. She watches far more tv than me, so who am I to argue with that.
Our current set is fine, tho, for the next year or two. We got it with a 5 year warranty 'free' so we are safe for another year at least.

Seems fair enough to me, Andy. Besides, I would imagine the Aurea range will be a little bit cheaper to buy in a year's time.

Well I had a good viewing of the 50" Vierra panasonic this morning against the 46 inch Sony and it was no contest the Vierra won hands down.

Te Vierra was much sharper and clearer and appeared almost 3D. However to me the colours on the Vierra were just not quite right and when I spotted a Pioneer in the corner and asked to see one, I have to say the Pioneer was much more realsistc.


Regards

PB

Have u looked at a Phillips?

quote:

However to me the colours on the Vierra were just not quite right and when I spotted a Pioneer in the corner and asked to see one, I have to say the Pioneer was much more realsistc.

Now this is exactly the OPPOSITE of my experience yesterday in John Lewis Reading.

I was looking at the 50" PX70 (768p at £1,399) side-by-side with the 50" Pioneer Kuro (also 768p but at £2,899)

First off, the Pioneer clearly and undoubtably had blacker blacks. But that was it!. I couldn't see ANY other "benefit" with the Pioneer. (when i say "see" I mean picture quality. The Pioneer might be more versatile?)

The colours on the Pioneer were wrong. Plain and simple. Cartoon orange rather than natural skin tones. Bright reds that were garish in a Walt Disney Snow White's lips sort of way. A definite loss of detail in things like necklaces, hair and landscape texture.

And finally, the credit roll showed the "artificially brilliant" white text to be "blocky", slightly "bulged" and with ill-defined edges that vaguely merged into the (admittedly) black screen.

The Panasonic, on the other hand, had beautifully natural colours, plenty of detail, no "mickey mouse" bright reds/greens/blues/yellows etc. And the white text on the credit roll was cristal clear with sharp, well-defined edges (admittedly) against a dark grey (as opposed to black) background.

The two screens were displaying the same film, fed from the same source.

Given the price difference, I can't imagine anybody giving the Pioneer a second look. In fact, I couldn't imagine anybody (other than me!!!) giving the Pioneer a second look even if IT had been half the price of the Panasonic (instead of the other way round!)

Inexplicable

Cheers

Don

don had the pioneer been set up properly , the pioneer has VERY customisable settings .

neil

I have found with each of my lcd tv's that the factory set colour etc were not to my liking. Avforums.com amongst other places gave some posters with good numbers to put in, which in turn yielded instant benefits. Don't reply on the shop settings to be correct...use a test disk if you must...

quote:

Originally posted by Polarbear:
Well I had a good viewing of the 50" Vierra panasonic this morning against the 46 inch Sony and it was no contest the Vierra won hands down.

Te Vierra was much sharper and clearer and appeared almost 3D. However to me the colours on the Vierra were just not quite right and when I spotted a Pioneer in the corner and asked to see one, I have to say the Pioneer was much more realsistc.


Regards

PB

there you go nigel . get your wallet out

neil

quote:

don had the pioneer been set up properly , the pioneer has VERY customisable settings .

Neil, Andy,

I'm not an expert, so I couldn't give you a guarantee.

Hoever, they had a man there wearing black shirt and trousers with the word "Pioneer" emblazened on his shirt (a bit like you see at hifi shows!!). He was giving customers answers to all their questions and seemed to be pretty pleased with what he was describing. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to talk to him to find out if he felt there was a problem with his screen or not.

To my eyes, the Pioneer set was badly set up. I've seen them elsewhere looking much, much better - almost indistinguishable from the Panasonics, possibly even better. I would like to compare the Pioneer/Panasonic/Fujitsu screens before making a choice.

However, I think its virtually impossible to make any meaningful comparison of these large screens in a shop (*) and I think this needs to be recognised when posting comments on this forum.

Cheers

Don

(*) in fact, I'm at a loss to know how to arrange such a comparison in any meaningful sort of way!

Don,
I've suggested a thx test disk to get em all set up the same (or similar test disck), then play a dvd of choice after...labourious but at least you'll know...

No doubt someone will suggest different...

quote:

I would like to compare the Pioneer/Panasonic/Fujitsu screens before making a choice.

Thats the problem Don, the first two no problem but very few stock all three.

Interesting how our similar experiences ended up with different results. I thought the pioneer was far more realistic. We were watching normal sky not dvd or blu ray. I thought the Panasonic was overstated, like someone had turned up the colour and brightness by a considerable margin.

I will go back and have at least another viewing, I am not going to decide on one viewing,

Regards

PB

Why Munch?

Regards

PB

quote:

Thats the problem Don, the first two no problem but very few stock all three.

Interesting how our similar experiences ended up with different results.

Nigel, I think we have both found similar problems.

-Nobody stocks all three (ok somebody might and i'd like to find them!)
-The high-street stores don't set their screens up properly
-Taking your test-disk (I made a joke about taking my techie with his ISF calibation kit) doesn't go down too well, even in Seven Oaks, (never mind John Lewis)

What we have both probably been looking at, are badly set up examples of particular screens.

But I doubt if even that's the full picture (so to speak)

The source probably makes a huge difference. ie terrestial/digital/dvd/blu-ray/HD-dvd as well as the make of source eg Sony/Panasonic/Samsung/Pioneer/Toshiba

Its possible that one screen looks better with a Panasonic/dvd and another looks better with a Toshiba/HD-dvd etc

Now, if Peter had the full range of all three screens, properly set up and calibrated, each fed to the best of its ability, with switching to the other formats also available (to avoid superb blu-ray/crap dvd v mediocre blu-ray/mediocre dvd type fears) then.............

plus projectors and screens, of course.........

Cheers

Don

Two months ago, I looked at Pioneer and Panasonic in the same branch of John Lewis. I compared the 42" Panasonic PZ70 (1080p and £1,299) with a 42" Pioneer Kuro (768p and £1,799) and prefered the Pioneer. (but they weren't fed from the same source)

When I saw a few screens in Seven Oaks a few weeks later, I prefered the 50" Pioneer (768p at £????) showing a movie, but couldn't quite compare it to the above two 42" models that they had next to each other elsewhere in the shop showing Newcastle United getting thrashed 3-1 by Manchester City.

As I say, comparisons, even in decent shops, are difficult.

Cheers

Don

The problem with the Fujitsu option is that Fujitsu only make monitors, as opposed to televisions, so I would have thought it unlikely that you'd ever find them in the same place as your average Panasonic, Sony or Pioneer, etc.

AV Sales in Kent stock Panasonic, Pioneer and Fujitsu plasma displays and are quite well regarded for putting together a decent demo. I'm sure they wouldn't mind you bringing along a setup disc and they even sell projectors.

http://www.av-sales.co.uk/Plasma-TVs-16/All-Plasmas-By-Price-392-16/

Allan

Allan

Thanks for the link - they look like a good place to go, and despite the distance, I do sometimes go over that way.

Did you point me that way because I mentioned Seven Oaks? When I mentioned Seven Oaks above, I meant the Hifi chain Seven Oaks Hifi Sound and Vision. (just in case I confused anybody)

But seriously, thanks for the link, I really do go over that way occasionally, and if they know their business and hold the stock, the trip would be well worthwhile

Cheers

Don

OK fair do's so that's one place where you can compare Fujitsu's with Panny's and Sony's etc. Not much good for me though, as it's only open 9-5.30 weekdays and even then by appointment only, plus Fujitsu don't seem to make anything below 42" screen size!

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
Did you point me that way because I mentioned Seven Oaks? When I mentioned Seven Oaks above, I meant the Hifi chain Seven Oaks Hifi Sound and Vision. (just in case I confused anybody)

Don,

No problem, I knew what you meant. I recommended AV Sales as I bought a plasma display from there myself (about 3 years ago) and they are always getting recommendations from the guys at AV Forums.

Allan