Mrs Rusty has demanded that we join the 21st century and get a big flat screen TV in time for the Jubilee. Need to be able to plug the Sky box and DVD player into it, don’t really need HD, 3D or anything else but it’s been suggested we should get a Blueray player at some point.

I’m now hoplessly confused; there seem to be millions of different models from every manufacturer and I haven’t got a clue how to start choosing.

Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for and where to buy ?

There is a lot of personal preference in it. Some give better blacks if which is better for dark films, some are better at movement for sport, some are better at vivid colour for nature stuff. I like LED, but that’s me. The problem is they are oftem poorly set up in the shops so it’s hard to compare. I’d say any of the main brands are OK for picture unless you are a complete TV nut and the main differences are in the other features like 3D, smart TV, audio, EPG, etc. Of those smart TV is great for iPlayer and you can do stuff like skype on some. If you are using Sky most of the features won’t matter. Audio will depend if you are using the TV speakers an how much it matters to you.

I’m very happy with the Samsung LED tv I have. Blacks are much blacker than my old LCD. Get one with built-in HD freeview. There are only a few channels but the picture is better again.
They also use less power than LCD or Plasma screens.

John Lewis are pretty good for tv’s, they price match places like richer sounds but also give you a free 5 year warrenty.

By coincidence, I have exactly the same requirements as the OP.

The general direction our research has sent us seems to be a 42″ Samsung or Panasonic LED from John Lewis. Anyone see any issues with that / is there anything specific i/we need to look for / avoid?

Personally, I’m not interested in sound issues as I’m linking to a surround amp.

Samsung or Panasonic?

Samsung or Panasonic

Either will be great.

Does no-one else find that SD TV looks bloody horrible on a modern high def screen? I’m holding off getting an HD tv as loads of the TV I watch is non-HD and it looks bloody horrific. Even when you go to see £1000 42″ screens set up as a product demo the SD picture is brutally full of compression artifacts and it’s so damn obvious on a high def screen. Unlike CRT where you’re blisfully unaware of the garbage being sent your way.

A bit like watching a youtube video, looks great in a tiny window, rubbish at full screen.

The source makes a big difference. My new HD PVR does upscaling of SD channels. I was very sceptical of this but the SD channels look much better on my HD TV than they did from my old SD box and my old SD box on my SD tele look really poor. Its the same signal and they all theoretically have enough pixels for the image.

I’m going to have to go product-demoing of HD PVRs

Humax all the way then coffeeking!

PS – Panasonic plasma will give you the best picture and you’ll get a great deal as everyone wants LED now.

Ditto the above. My Humax (t2 HDR thingy) outputs SD TV sooooo much better than the native SD reception (and better than my old Thomson freeview box too).

Now that we’ve the ‘standard’ channels in Freeview HD, da da da da daaaa, I’m lovin’ it……

DrP

i’ve been fairly pleased with my humax 9150 non-HD doobry for a couple of years until they updated the software in a way that borked it – now it stops and rewinds whatever you were playing when any other channel recording comes to an end. Makes me wonder if they need avoiding but I tried a Sony one and the user interface was a mess.

I’ve just bought a Panasonic Plasma and it’s great. Built in HD Freeview and HD Freesat tuners, will (apparantly) record directly to a USB hard drive and has ethernet/wireless with a good range of online services – YouTube is very very good.
Picture is fab and it somehow upgrades SD images and they too look much better than on my previous Samsung (5 years old).

We just bought a 42″ Panasonic Plasma for £349. No 3D – a fad, and no Smart TV, but can add that via a smart Blu-ray at a later date for less than £100. Went for HD at 720 rather than 1080, as signals are not broadcast at 1080 anyway, and we very rarely watch DVDs, so 1080 Blu-rays are not really our thing. Can do smart stuff direct from the laptop I believe.

Has build in HD Freeview which looks great. The SD stuff (via Sky) still looks good. The move to 42″ from 32″ was scary at first.

as signals are not broadcast at 1080 anyway

Really?

Nah, a lot of Freeview here in Blighty is broadcast at 1080i or 1080p since last year.

Samsung 8000 series are absolutely stunning. I’m sitting here in awe of a 55″ example of the breed.

I’ve been misled then. Apologies.