New TV time

Big Panasonic Viera, Sony or other?

LED or Plasma?

Circa 47″+

Panasonic or Sony?

Must have great sound and vision quality.

just picked up a Sony W8 series 50″. Best picture I could find for the price but part of me wishes I had got the Samsung 55″ that was the same price. To be honest I would need a 65″ TV or a projector screen for films in the room we have now and everytime an action scene comes on or a rolling landscape in HD I remember why I bought the Sony.

Smart stuff is too slow but at least it now has a Plex app. Not a huge concern as our YouView box is much better as a TV guide and has all the on demand channels which no TV has.

I like Panasonic TVs though, good image but avoid the super cheap ones that are not real Panasonics. If you have a spare sat dish then they often have proper Freesat (Sony can receive it but you dont get a Freesat EPG and have to use the sluggish Gracenote one). 520 series upwards (520 is exclusive to Currys and is cheap for 50″) have Freetime so you can go back in your EPG and it will retrieve on demand shows like Youview does which is very handy. 650 model upwards looks very nice.

(PS I was upgrading from an old 32″ Philips CRT so was very critical and finding most LED TVs had a terrible SD picture compared to it)

Not sure of its model number, but I was in Richer Sounds in Bath yesterday dropping off my old DVD99 for repair, and had a shufti at some of the kit they had. I was very impressed with a 49″ Bravia, 4G capable, it was running a 4G demo, and the picture was superb, crisp and lovely natural colour, they had it for £999.
I’d replace my 6 or 7 year-old Bravia, which cost me a discounted £899, in a flash, if I had the money right now.

Got to be UHDTV (4K) capable.

Our Sony has been great. Would have another, although at 22″ as our main TV and not really feeling the need for anything larger I do feel on reflection it would a bit inadequate in the size front for you. The picture quality and sound are very good.

Got to be UHDTV (4K) capable.

Depends on budget really. Cheap 4k wont be very good for 95% of what you will be watching.

Countzero – Sony UHDs do look fantastic, the 65″ blew me away in JL. Sadly it’s something like £2k.

Don’t think I’d have another Panasonic plasma. Though the picture is great and natural, the bright screen buzzing is unacceptable to me. This may have been addressed in new models though.
I almost only watch bluray films or game in a blacked-out room, so plasma was almost perfect 😕

Panasonic TX-58ax802b LCD here, picture is fantastic, catch up tv built in, my only gripe is i wish it was bigger.

Got a 55″ Samsung LED H6400 a few months ago. Did quite a bit of research at the time and I have been very happy with it thus far.

Got picture settings off a tv nerd website and it he quality is fantastic. Only downside is its crappy wifi reception but wired in it works fine.

I don’t think 4k is essential just yet. You’ll get just as good if not a better picture from a native HD vs an upscaled UHD. I bought a telly last year and faced this dilemma and arranged a back to back demo to compare a native HD and upscaled UHD. Both were fantastic pictures but for me the native HD picture was better, so for me the UHD price premium is not worth it until there is more native content available. Maybe another 5 to 8 years yet. Having said that the HD set was a Plasma so not quite a true back to back comparison. However the demo UHD picture on the UHD set was awesome – but that’s not what you’re going to see the majority of time for a while. Apparently picture resolution is about 5th down on the list of aspects that determine the quality of the picture, so it shouldn’t dominate your purchase decision.

I’m a Panasonic Plasma fanboy so can’t really see beyond those so my recommendation is pretty useless seeing though they’ve stopped making Plasma’s, However my brother has just bought a 55″ Panasonic LCD and is over the moon with it compared with his previous Sony set.

Unfortunately you won’t get good sound at any price. Better to factor in the cost of a half decent 2.1/sounbar&sub setup.

From what I gather ( and I may be misinformed) but you are better buying a decent 1080 HD set rather than a cheap 4k one.

I agree re the sound. Fitted a sound-bar at the same time. Connects via Bluetooth. It’s no 5.1 but it works for me.

Is this ‘good’? It has 1200hz motion processing http://m.richersounds.com/#!/product/PANA-TX47AS650B

I just got a sony bravia kdl32w706bsu which I’m really pleased with. Sound is better than I expected, I connect it to my Hi-Fi when we are watching a film but don’t bother otherwise. iPlayer and Amazon apps work well especially now we have got fibre. Got a TalkTalk youview box but hardly use it and will probably get an external hard drive for recording stuff direct from the TV. If the bigger versions are as good I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Or http://m.richersounds.com/#!/product/SAMS-UE48H6400

I’m a Samsung fanboi and they always seem to get good ratings.

The best investment you can make when getting a new TV, is spending some time on AV Forum and searching the model number and it’s associated ‘settings’ thread and learning how to set it up. It can be the difference between an awful and an amazing picture.

Out of the choices offered by the OP, Panasonic no question.

I’d also suggest looking at Toshiba and Samsung.

Got to be UHDTV (4K) capable.

We discussed this at length recently but the short answer is “no it doesn’t.”

Also,

Must have great sound and vision quality.

They all have shite sound. Budget for a sound bar or a surround system.

You sell UHDTV?

OK I’ll look at the Panasonic 650b (!) And the Samsung 6400. The 42″ Bravia looks good but it as half the processing speed(?) of its 50″ sibling? What does it mean? Is 400hz good or bad?!

I compared the 42″ and the 50″ W8 series Sonys side by side, panel on the 50″ is much nicer. (i did buy the 42″ from Costco for £420 but ended up with the 50″ for £540 from John Lewis). The 800 vs 400 Hz is nothing to worry about imo.

Screen refresh rates is another nonsense that you should dismiss and take no notice of. LCD’s don’t refresh and flicker like CRT’s did. They work in a completely different way and can hold a picture constantly rather than being energised by a beam with an immediate decay as soon as the beam has passed. The screen will refresh in line with the frame refresh rate of the content you’re looking at – which is much much slower than the hundreds of Hz the advertised screen refresh rates are for the actual screen.

You are not going to determine what TV gives you a better picture quality compared to another from the on-paper spec’s. Alot of it is subjective anyway. Either arrange for a demo if you’re that bothered or just stick with a decent brand to be sure you’re getting a decent quality picutre. Focus more on the quality of the signal that you’re feeting the TV to maximise picture quality.

^^ that.

Or http://m.richersounds.com/#!/product/SAMS-UE48H6400

I have this exact TV (via John Lewis as the price was better +5yr guarantee at the time i bought) and can only say the pic as taken from settings mentioned above is amazing, vety happy with it so far.

Kept the tv and got this… It is good; http://www.whathifi.com/cambridge-audio/tv2/review

Sorry to drag up old threads, but as the world of entertainment moves at a blistering pace, would a Sony KDL50W829 be a safe bet – currently going for £599 in a couple of outlets..

My trusty 8 year old Samsung went last night (i’m blaming the kids for mucking around with it), so need to replace fairly swiftly..

the hustler – Member

Or http://m.richersounds.com/#!/product/SAMS-UE48H6400

I have this exact TV (via John Lewis as the price was better +5yr guarantee at the time i bought) and can only say the pic as taken from settings mentioned above is amazing, vety happy with it so far.

ditto, after much trawling around on here. Also got a Samsung soundbar, which is great

Sui- yes! Thats one I really liked.

The Cambridge TV2 soundbase is a beast. I’m glad I stumbled on it (I was trying to find the cheaper Cambridge Minx TV soundbase but its sold out at richersounds.

Cheers Hora – i’m going to forego the sound bar for now and see how it sounds without, it certainly can’t be any worse than the current Samsung. + For those movie times, i’ve got a sound system next to it anyway, so will just plug that in.

Right reserved at JL Bluewater to pick up tonight on my way home!

TBH if you can marry it to your soundsystem that’d be even better (better speakers than most soundbars). I tried but I couldn’t make them work (my 1yr old TV doesn’t have optic yet my 15yr old Denon does…).

Within the next year or so 4K will be broadcast so may as well get one that can handle it. 🙂

Bargain was had at JL. Went into to pick up the reserved W8 and found an returned one on sale at 470 quid.. Tis bargain.

Aren’t LEDs poor after 50″ and vice versa plasma screens are not great under 40″?

Don’t know if this info is still valid from a few years ago.

Told you

😀

You waited 3 months to say told you 😯 4k is also dependant on how big the screen is and how far away from it you are sitting. Of the top of my head I think the extra detail becomes redundant on a 40 inch tv from over 6 foot. There is a graph that i couldnt be arsed finding that scales this up for larger tv’s.