I once tried to get one of the Amazon offers. A week after they took my money I got a mail saying they didn't have the set and couldn't get it at that price.
Unless you just want a CD/book sending to Auntie Ethel in Edinburgh, they are a useless set of useless people.
You can always ring your 'local' John Lewis store. I learned when I bought my Panasonic that the John lewis website and the John Lewis stores are completely separate, they have different stock, different warehousing, etc. JL Cheadle had stock of the TV I wanted, whereas the JL website was out of stock. JL Cheadle store took my order, arranged free delivery with the free 5-year Warranty. Exceptional service. Exceptional TV! Another very good source of information is http://www.avforums.com/ More information than you could possibly want from AV geeks, plus details of special offers, etc.
Bought my Sony 40inch 40V4000 from Richer sounds at bargain price of £599, cannot reccommend it highly enough , rigged up to home cinema, blu ray player, sony handycam, mac book and just waiting for sky + HD to take advantage of the excellent picture (LCD).
[quote]I have a 50" plasma however I'd never buy a plasma over an LCD, ever.
The new LCD panels are fantastic.
Pioneer who were the largest producer of plasma panels has just pulled out of the business meaning Panasonic who use their panels (and was arguably the best plasma TV manufacturer) will also 100% switch to LCD.
That's not strictly true, as I understand it (as told by my Pio' dealer) they are still going to produce the higher-end panels with a review somewhere around 2010.
This whole buying a new TV thing, it's a little like buying a bike. Would you buy a GT Avalanche 1.0 to race competitively on? no? why not? its got 20 odd gear, disc brakes, aluminium frame and some 'shimano' bits on it.
Well, its a bike, and has all the right bits.
OK, now go and ride a carbon Scott bike, its got the same amount of gears, similar branding of components and is a bike.
The difference is in what lies beneath all that advertising, in this analogy, its the frame design and quality of components bolted to it.
1080i is just silly unless you have a 50" TV - can anyone here notice the difference between 720p and 1080i on anything less than 50"? I doubt it - if you can, go to the ISF website and look at becoming a screen calibration engineer as you've got better eyes than most professionals.
LCD is inherently slower to respond to movement on the screen, poor contrast ratio's and lesser viewing angle.
Plasma, better contrast ratio, better viewing angle, faster response time (that jerky thing someone spoke about)
However - Have a look at Pioneer Kuro's - they are excellent panels. or the panasonic commercial range NOT the viera (its old technology now)
I know this is more than you want to spend, but its this range of Panny's: http://cyberselect.co.uk/product/916
the Pioneer Kuro being akin to the Scott race bike, the Panaonic being akin to a bike costing approx 2k. - these items are both 'up there' in terms of performance and picture quality.
I dont have a problem with TV's from other companies, but, the two P's are both highly regarded Plasma firms, and we don't install anything else, why? because they're flipping excellent TV's and look superb.
sorry to waffle on, its been a long, long day today.
jt
Blingbling - Panasonic do manufacture Plasma panels, they even have a manufacturing site in Europe (nr Prague) - for screen sizes upto 65". The 103" is manufactured in Japan.
IMO - Plasma everytime for video applications (ie home use). LCDS' have got better over the last few years but PDP's have the edge.
Purchase from John Lewis, they do price match any other bricks and mortar retailer.
Go with Panasonic...finest PDP's money can buy.
What constitutes a poor contrast ratio jontawn? 33,000:1?
Completely subjective and, I admit, from a layman but I just bought a Samsung Plasma and the picture quality is better than any LCD I've seen. Very impressed. Would buy Plasma again before LCD.
enough that I felt physically ill in the store and had to leave.
Your TV makes me wanna puke!
As for CRTs...well my 10 yr old 25" Panisonic started getting strange multicoloured lines going across the top but I got a 28" widescreen Philips from someone on Freecycle to replace it. I had a look for the model on Ebay and found them selling for around £30 but obviously you need to find one close to home. Gotta be the bargain way to watch TV these days.
Hi Molgrips
I'm not sure what panel it is you are using, but, using one of these: Datacolor will accurately measure the details of the screen, Fuji panels used to be pretty good and well within the tolerances stated too.
A lot of quoted figures are dynamic and not native to the panel, ergo, quoted figures are generally a bit of a 'my panel's CR is better than yours 
(if you've got a 'spyder' calibration unit, calibrating your tv makes a whole world of difference with a much more accurate colour reproduction) (spyder units are a load cheaper than the colorfacts package)
jt
You can buy very high quality CRTs off Ebay for peanuts these days.
Care to point me in the direction?
you know - Ebay?
Just put a search in for TVs within however many miles of your postcode that you're prepared to drive. There's usually plenty going.
mrmichaelwright - Memberthings to remember -
freeview is crap, digital terrestrial (and non HD satellite) broadcast in no way compares to the picture quality of analogue
Utter tosh! Freeview performance varies according to the receiver being used, the quality and type of connection to the display and the ability of the display to render the image.
My ageing Pace Puma Freeview PVR connected via RGB scart to my Hitachi Plasma screen produces a stunning image (Pre-HDMI hardware). The kit is old now, but I have seen so called HD broadcasts in shops and at a friend's that were simply no better (or worse). Several people have asked me if my setup is HD too, so i'm not having delusions!
The thing to remember is that it's the everyday source signal that sets the good TV's apart from the mediocre ones. All the HDMI sets i've seen are superb when a directly connected Blueray player is feeding them a signal. It's a very different story when you choose a different signal source and/or you are using some nasty interconnect. Plasma generally fares better than LCD on low res. inputs.
And another thing. Is it me, or has standard definition Sky not as sharp as it used to be?
I have recently seen Freesat HD and standard def. on a direct feed and it was pretty awful, but this was through a Samsung series four 32" LCD. I own one of these TV's and it's built in Freeview tuner produces a much better image.
TV confusion!
I'm sure the prices will go up with the weak pound so if you are thinking of upgrading, now's the time.
Got two 40" lcds in the house..Had plasmas and the pics not as good..
The blueray is amazin on them to.
Just picked up an LG 42PG6000 (google it) plasma for 550quid. its fantastic - particularly good at SD broadcasts compared with pannys and samsungs.
looks great with the plate glass screen bezelless design. 4 hdmi inputs and was recommended by local indy dealer as a secret bargain. getting even better as it runs in too.
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