Yo.

I've £640 to spend on a new TV. I'm looking for 40", HD, LCD etc.
I know nothing about TVs and would like some of your assistance (stan!?)

bear in mind i'm no audio/visual masturbator, just want something that will look pretty damn good to most normal people.
I've got an Xbox 360 (old no HDMI grr) and will probably invest in a Blu-Ray player later this year.

Cheers folks

PS: this is what i'm currently thinking of click for a Samsung 40"

On Stan and others' recommendation I got a Panasonic Plasma, went for a 37" and I love it, picture quality of SD stuff is superb and HD is very, very good too.

YOu can get one of these - TH37PX80B for well under £600

If you're planning on selling your old one, let me know, I'm still working on my ollllld TV- with scart sockets...

It has to be said though, that Samsung will most likely be very nice too.

The Panasonic px80 will beat any lcd every single time, you just have to be careful with screen burn for the first 200 hours, but then I bet 90 percent of people don't even notice they have it.

The problem with lcds is they just cannot cope with low quality sources, or deep blacks, or fast movements or large amounts of details.

Ignore all this 1080p bs as it doesn't mean you will get a good picture as tbh except for the pioneer 1080p screens the best picture you can get is a 720p plasma.

If you really must have a lcd what hifi are loving the sony Sony KDL- 40W4000 - but be warned what hifi are VERY biased to who is putting adverts in their magazine and the last Sony lcd they said was the best lcd ever made is pretty average at best.

Try looking at the Panasonic TX-37LXD700 if you want a lcd as it has won lots of awards including best premium lcd, its rrp is 900 so you should find it under 800 easily.

That samsung gets 4 out of 5, but I will say it once again the Panasonic px80 as long as you are not a idiot and don't leave it on sky news for hours at a time, will blow any lcd away with any source. It will handle gaming well cost it does fast movement, it will handle freeview or other low quality sources MUCH better than a lcd.

What ever you do post here before you buy something, and be warned that default settings are a pile of shit, just designed to get you to notice the screen in the shop.

37 inch panasonic px80 at dixons at under 600

42 inch version of px80

I have not looked for the best price, these links are just to show you the tvs are cheap and what models to get.

If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

I'm wary about Plasma as i live in a house with 3 other people, 2 of whom have no idea about technology (girlz ) and am worried they might **** the screen over.

What's the point of 1080p if it's not noticeable? Is it really worthless, even on 360 gaming?

The stuff about plasma is all hype imo. I've read so many reviews now with people saying screenburn doesn't happen anymore. I have a plasma, as does my bro. His girlfriend played 360 on it from the day they got it (he was away on holiday after I told him not to do that as a precaution) Nothing at all happened. His TV is downstairs to mine as he's moved back here and there's no difference at all.

I've watched the same channel on sky with a logo for days on end (there's bugger all good on tv these days) and not had a single instance of any image being retained on my screen and YES I've looked as close as you can possibly get your face to the screen and there's bugger all there.

For a start component video cannot cope with 1080p so at best you will have 1080i, and **** vga its the worst connection ever. Not to mention its only gaming here not anything like bluray we are talking about so no real point.

There is a difference between 1080p and 720p but you need at LEAST 43 inch screen if not 50 inch or more to see the difference. But what I was trying to get across, that it being 1080p doesn't mean it will be good, as the 720p pioneer or Panasonic plasma's will beat 99.9 percent of 1080p screens. So basically just cos a screen says its 1080p doesn't mean it gives a good picture.

According to most people who have a panasonic px70 or px80, getting screen burn when you use the right settings is very hard, however I am positive its still possible if you leave it say on sky news all day. Especially during the first 200 hours of use, however most of the time its image retention not screen burn, which means you can remove it by using the right tools and software.

If you really want a lcd go for that Panasonic one I mentioned, as I am not really a fan of samsung lcds, and be warned they cannot cope with low quality sources, not even close. Also they take a hell of a lot of tweaking to get rid of all the digital break up and noise.

I am sure lots of people run a plasma in a house full of people who don't know how to look after them, are they likely to leave it on a channel with a logo all day every day, or leave it on a pause menu all day ?

I cannot in good faith recommend a lcd, as I am sure you will be disappointed and be like I am not watching that pile of shite, especially if you happen to run freeview. Sometimes however you have no choice.....

Ignore grant Screen burn is NOT HYPE, that is FACT. However as long as you use the right settings and are not a idiot its pretty hard to get on a panasonic screen. The simple truth is some of those people who say they have no screen burn do, they just don't notice it or don't know what to look for. The brighter the logo or onscreen item the more likely it is to cause screen burn, also the brighter you have your screen the more likely it is you will get screen burn.

However as I said with the right settings and as long as you don't leave it on pause or sky news for 12 hours at a time during the first 200 hours, I doubt you will get screen burn, 90 percent of the time its image retention that either slowly disappears over time or can be removed by running software or snow patterns.

Its up to you at the end of the day, but you have 30 days trial with most places, so get a plasma run the right settings and if you do notice screen burn then return it and swap it for a lcd. As you are a gamer a lcd just can't keep up with all the fast moving games imo, at least not like a plasma. Not to mention you find it VERY hard to pick out what is what in a dark game like resident evil or silent hill games.

So to sum up I still recommend getting a px80, just make sure you use the settings I recommend so the brightness is not overdone, as they always are by default. If you notice the screen burn and it does your head in, then you can always trade it for a lcd, but trust me when I say even the best lcds are not even close to a plasma. I tried playing some demo on the ps3 in my bedroom, now keep in mind this lcd was given the awards as the best lcd ever produced and I had set it up myself, I couldn't see shit in the game, I ended up walking into walls or missing items because it was just one big dark blur with no detail or definition in the shadows.

lol surely if they don't notice they have screen burn or you have to specifically sit there and concentrate to look for it then there's no point worrying about it ? They both amount to the same thing. I have not a hint of anything on my tv and it's on pretty much constantly as is my bro's on channels with logo's plastered all over the corner and nothing... nothing... nothing is stuck there or ever has been.

No it just mean's most people are idiots or simply don't know enough or care enough, most people listen to shitty quality 128kbs mp3and think its identical to cd but that doesn't mean its cd quality does it.

There was recently a survey and most people could not tell the difference between HD and DVD, does that mean its not there for those who know what to look for, hell no. It just means that the average person has no idea what the differences are, or what to look for or even a trained eye. But once pointed out they notice the difference most of the time. To most people with a properly setup and decent tv, there is a HUGE difference between HD and dvd, it just goes to show that the mass public are quite often wrong, as mythbusters will tell you !

If you are careful and own a Panasonic screen then I admit screen burn shouldn't be too much of a worry, but it can happen, and I am not going to recommend some one a tv without letting them know all the bad points as well as the good points, that's just common sense..

obviously... but I'm saying from my experience with 2 Plasma's used under the same conditions for 7 months that it's nowhere near as bad as most people make it out to be. I'll admit to being worried about it at first but I don't even give it a second thought now. It's not even something I think about.

Also most channel logos now take screen burn into account and have reduced their brightness. However there are still some channels where the logos and banners are still too bright and can cause screen burn if watched for long periods of time, sky news is one, some of the discovery channels are others. Sky one HD use to be the real killer, however sky had so many complaints that they have at last toned down the brightness.

Nine times out of ten its not screen burn you have but image retention, and that over the course of a few days the image will slowly disappear, screenburn happens when you watch that channel so much that the image retention has no chance of disappearing and it builds up. However even a lot of screen burn can be removed or reduced.

When it comes to getting screen burn, Panasonic are definitely one of the better makes, most people I know either have no screen burn on their Panasonic tv or don't notice it.

I feel the massively improved picture plasma gives over lcd, is worth the possible screen burn, or the little bit of effort it takes to remove it.

I've had zero issue with my PX70B, I'm still using the burn in settings you and Graham gave me and find the picture superb on most channels, tbh it's so good you can easily spot the channels that are shit, ITV1 and Virgin1 are abysmal for instance where as BBC and BBC HD are ****ing mint.

So in summary, I guess what we're saying is..

Get a Panasonic Plasma!!

Indeed

I really should get a percentage of sales from all the Panasonic screens I have sold to people, its a joke

set up an affiliate scheme with amazon and write some reviews somewhere and link to them... you get like 15% or something through amazon like that

I was thinking of getting one of those panasonic jobee's for my new house! (When i get a new house )

You cannot get better for the money mate, and to be fair to go better you have to go pioneer and they cost at least triple the amount.

This goes for any tv, DO NOT USE DEFAULT SETTINGS, they are a piece of crap.