So basically for the past couple months i have been interested in picking up an LCD TV (or plasma i guess, though i can see the flickering), however everywhere i go i hear something different to what i have been told before. I am presently sitting at mydesk incredibly annoyed and wanting to resolve this :). So, my budget is around £500 quid, i'm not expecting a beauty for that money ofcourse. I walked into Richer Sounds today and they basically sell all LG TVs. I go into Currys Digital and they sell a wider range, but they tell me LG isn't that good and they have a regular non-hd analogue signal going into the TVs so you can't tell how good they are. I step into Sony Center and everything seems no better in quality and overpriced. Panasonic shops are the same. As per usual the dumb-ass sales clerks tell you whatever you need to hear. I read through alot of the AV forums and that is full of whining people complaining of faults or have largely bigger budgets. There you also get alot of people who pay attention to the kinda details i don't know or care about, so it's factually overwhelming. So my question to the ever intelligent but technologically scrupilous members of GameDev is, what would you go for? My primary usage will be PS3, so gaming and bluray and 37" is about the biggest i could fit in my room. Thanks!

The CNet site on Televisions is pretty comprehensive, will explain all the differences, and will point out where the AV heads are being way too picky about faults or features. They have a plethora of reviews and a very good ranking system, and never get bogged down in justifying minor features that double the cost of the TV.

That said, Panasonics are consistently rated higher than all of the other brands.

Panasonics are great, Sharps are great, Sonys are great. Beware that most of the big brands also carry lower end lines that are not at nearly the same quality level. For example, the Sharp AQUOS series are some of the best on the market, but Sharp has a whole line of non AQUOS TVs that still say Sharp on them.

Decide what matters to you most, first. For me, I was willing to sacrifice having the best possible image quality and fancy image processing in favor of a bigger TV. I also didn't mind refurb, and so I bought a refurb 37" Vizio LCD for $440, which I happen to think looks fabulous. It's not exactly Bravia or AQUOS quality, and it's only 720p, but I'm happy with the bigger size.

I suggest subscribing to ConsumerReports. They have tons of fantastic information on all kinds of electronics, appliances, and other items. They might not have information on the exact model you're looking at, but they have ratings for a wide variety of models and numerous informative articles.

Personally, I picked up a 47" Philips LCD TV that I got on woot.com and it's great except that its automatic aspect ratio adjustment really sucks, and a lot of the time it will cut off the top few and bottom few lines of an image to make it fit the wide screen. My parents have the same problem with a smaller philips lcd tv. It's only annoying though, as when it matters you can manually set the aspect ratio of the input (which varies regularly with HDTV cable since only a few channels are HD). I'm not sure whether other brands do better. The brightness, viewing angle, etc are all surprisingly good (considering we have it against a window with shades but no curtain so plenty of light leaks though - plan to get a blackout curtain for that window eventually).

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
The CNet site on Televisions is pretty comprehensive, will explain all the differences, and will point out where the AV heads are being way too picky about faults or features. They have a plethora of reviews and a very good ranking system, and never get bogged down in justifying minor features that double the cost of the TV.

I second cnet, lots of information.

Quote:
That said, Panasonics are consistently rated higher than all of the other brands.

Really? It seems that Sony and Samsung tend to dominate the LCD side, and Pioneer has the leading plasma, although Panasonic is right up there as well.
But maybe it's the class of TVs I've been looking at.

However, as I've said in the past, so long as you don't buy a really crappy TV, an HDTV is going to look fantastic once you get it home and replace your CRT.

Quote: Original post by Rixter

Quote: Original post by capn_midnight
The CNet site on Televisions is pretty comprehensive, will explain all the differences, and will point out where the AV heads are being way too picky about faults or features. They have a plethora of reviews and a very good ranking system, and never get bogged down in justifying minor features that double the cost of the TV.

I second cnet, lots of information.

Quote:
That said, Panasonics are consistently rated higher than all of the other brands.

Really? It seems that Sony and Samsung tend to dominate the LCD side, and Pioneer has the leading plasma, although Panasonic is right up there as well.
But maybe it's the class of TVs I've been looking at.

However, as I've said in the past, so long as you don't buy a really crappy TV, an HDTV is going to look fantastic once you get it home and replace your CRT.

That's generally what i've been wondering, whether the nitpicking between features is going to make that much difference to me.

I am hunting around for a TV as well. Currently looking at the KDL40W4000 but may be a little pricey for me.

Argos have a 40inch Full HD 5 Series Samsung for just under £540. Review and another one.

[Edited by - yaustar on February 28, 2009 1:06:47 PM]

I've got 2 46" Samsung lcds and I love them. I was originally going to go with Sony bravia, but I couldn't get passed the hideous panel.

The television you want roughly depends upon how much you're willing to spend. Being £500, I can't give a decent suggestion, as that is below my budget that I've used when picking out TV's. As other people have stated, go to the CNet side.

That being said, if you have an unlimited budget, go with the Sony Bravia XBR's. Price to performance, I'd recommend the Samsungs (650+). But both of the above are out of your budget.

Regardless of what you choose, make sure you go to an electronics store, and get to play around with the TV, and see how you like it yourself. People see differently, and what could be a great TV to one person could have massive motion blurring to another.

(As far as plasmas, I'd stay away from them. The technology is dieing, as Pioneer just ended their plasma line, and being that the Kuro was considered the cream of the crop for consumer TV's, I only see a demise of the other plasma brands).