So my new TV is here, all working. As per recommendation I went with a Panasonic Plasma, TH37PX70B I believe it is.

No HD source as yet to try it with, haven't quite decided whether to get Sky HD, stay with cable and get their HD box or get FreeSat HD later this month.

It handles SD stuff ok though for the most part.

I'm getting the 42" version of that, should arrive this week.

Sky HD is sooo tempting :/

I went with the 37 because our front room isn't huge and it would have looked daft. The 37 is big enough to be honest.

we had Sky Hd for free for a year at the Pub I work Craig - id love to have it at home with a nice TV to view it on. Sky + rocks anyway so Id go that way, as I personally think Cable TV, virgin menus are gash and have lack of Sky One

Yeah I have sky+ right now, if it wasn't for the £199 for the Sky HD box i'd have that now too. I'm hopeing they'll have some offers soon.

Ok well I hope you are using the settings me and graham [Obi] told you to use, and you are careful not to leave it on say sky news for hours at a time.

It is a fantastic tv, but if you want to see the best out of it, you have to partner it with HD. Sky HD is ok, but very very buggy and a hell of allot of repeat showings of the same program. However if you watch allot of tv then it is the way to go.

The playstation 3 is a good cheap bluray player, sure it won't come anywhere near a good dedicated pioneer bluray player but for the money you pay its superb value and gives a pretty good picture.

Also don't use freebie cables, I don't care what you think craig they do make a difference as you will soon find out when you get something decent hooked up to that tv.

Congrats on the order though and I hope you like it, but it will take take to break in before it gives you the best out of it. You will also need to change the default settings as they are a pile of donkey turd.

Regarding sky HD, don't make the mistake of thinking everything will be in HD, as only certain channels are, and even then only certain programs. Take channel 4 HD for instance, at the moment they show maybe one show or film a week in HD.

BBC HD only shows HD programs and is by far the highest quality HD channel out there, but normally only broadcasts shows in the evening.

Sky one HD, again most of the HD stuff is only shown in the evening, although its getting better with repeat showings of programs like sg1 showing in the daytime in HD.

Sky Movies HD, again these only start at about 12 in the afternoon and tend to repeat allot of the films.

Discovery HD- These channels tend to run 24 hours a day, but after about a month you will have seen almost all they have to offer.

Once you use sky plus you will never want to go back, it is without a doubt the best gadget ever. Sadly the HD version is a tad ****ing buggy, and you can have recordings fail for no reason what so ever. This is to do with the fact that thompson built the box not pace.

Don't think I'll be staying with Cable unless they surprise me when I tell then I'm leaving for Sky.

Apparently FreeSat HD 'could' possibly run from the same dish as Sky as is lookign likely to have as many as 8 HD channels at launch later this month, so, one dish, two STB's and LOADS of content. Pain in the arse switching AV channels every 5 minutes though.

remind me of those settings btw.

Yeah i'm gonna need them too Ryan

here they are.

Viewing Mode: Cinema
Contrast: No change
Brightness: 2 clicks left
Colour: No change
Sharpness: No Change
Colour Balance: Warm
Colour Management: Off
P-NR: Off

The following common sense tips (also from hdtvtest.co.uk) will suffice during the TV's first few weeks:

Avoid prolonged static images being displayed anywhere on the screen, including logos and menu bars, idle computer images...etc.

Avoid watching shows in pillar box or letterbox format. Use the zoom or change film aspect ratios to get rid of them.

Using grey side masks or panel can reduce screen burn risks in pillar boxed format, but try not to get in that situation in the first place.

Don't use excessive contrast level setting in the early days.

Image retention is temporary and can disappear quickly with uniform screen grey out or snow images.

I had to lower the Colour Balance to normal else it looked over colourful, otherwise those settings produce a nice picture.

They are not designed to give the best picture just to stop screen burn for the first 200 hours.

I doubt having lower colour intensity will be any worse though.

Freesat HD ... will have to investigate

Be cool if it can run from a sky dish too.

It says it can. All you need if you have sky is to pay £20 for a viewing card to slot into your sky box.

that's for the free channels that are transmitted on sky though grant, not freesat HD as far as I know. (it uses a different satellite)