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My tv has just packed up tonight
PAUL FISHER - 3/12/12 at 09:29 PM

My 50" plasma tv has just packed up tonight, the sound is still working but the picture has gone and just flickers, we have had it over 5 years so its not done too bad, but went to Currys tonight to look for a new one, and there was so much choice now, young lad there explaining to me smart tv's ? 800Hz? 3D? etc etc I could not decide, all a bit over my head now, do I need a smart tv? what tv has the best picture quality, so its over to the locost collective, what do you recommend, looking for a tv 42" to 55" and best picture quality for around £800 up to max £1200


steve m - 3/12/12 at 09:40 PM

Have you tried a new scart lead , as even a slightly bad fitted one could lose the pics

I would also let a tv repair guy look at it first before condeming it to the bin


years and years ago, my inlaws thle broke, and they chucked it out, i got it home and blew all the fluffy crud out of it, and it still works now (in my garage)


johnemms - 3/12/12 at 09:42 PM

I got one of these - but being plasma.. keeps the house nice n warm !Samsung Linky


Slimy38 - 3/12/12 at 09:43 PM

5 years is not too bad? I still have a black and white CRT from my childhood, thirty years on and the only reason why I don't use it is because it's black and white!

Anyhow, I rate LG LCD TV's, they seem a good quality for the price. I wouldn't go for 3d or smart or anything like that, it looks fantastic on the adverts and on the demo suites, but at home I doubt they'll make that much difference to the soaps!


mark chandler - 3/12/12 at 09:45 PM

My Samsung led smart TV is fantastic, it appears as a network device on my PC, can control it with my ipad or iPhone and stream video and audio to it.

I,m pretty sure if I stick a hard drive into the USB port it will also record program's as well.

Very clever and this one is 2 years old now, 8000 series.

Amazingly thin as well, my 42" plasma is just thrown under the bed although will stick it on the bedroom wall over Christmas, just looks old.


twybrow - 3/12/12 at 09:49 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
My Samsung led smart TV is fantastic, it appears as a network device on my PC, can control it with my ipad or iPhone and stream video and audio to it.

I,m pretty sure if I stick a hard drive into the USB port it will also record program's as well.

Very clever and this one is 2 years old now, 8000 series.

Amazingly thin as well, my 42" plasma is just thrown under the bed although will stick it on the bedroom wall over Christmas, just looks old.


Dotto - I have a Samsung 3D, Smart, HD, LED TV and it is great. It looks awesome, the picture is great etc. The only annoying bit is the menu/TV guide is really slow... But otherwise, I would thoroughly recommend one!


MK9R - 3/12/12 at 09:51 PM

could just be the capacitors, similiar thing happened to mine, repaired it for £1.50, and i'm poo at electronics. Do a search on youtube for the fix, its dead easy


daniel mason - 3/12/12 at 09:56 PM

i love plasmas and have a 50"pioneer kuro at home. but the power consumption compared to the more modern LED tvs is very high.


NigeEss - 3/12/12 at 09:58 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
my 42" plasma is just thrown under the bed although will stick it on the bedroom wall over Christmas, just looks old.



Don't be surprised if it either doesn't work or has areas of dead pixels, plasma tv's do not like being laid flat.


Barkalarr - 3/12/12 at 10:05 PM

I've just been through this exact thing trying to explain to my parents what TV's are available on the market and what they should buy with their £800... the conversation went something like this.

"Buy an LED (not LCD) Samsung TV. The picture will be amazing, but the sound will be sh1t so you'll need to buy an external sound system (either sound bar or amp + speakers). Samsung is priced similar to LG and they both have smart tv (I personally prefer Samsung as their kit looks sleeker) - make sure the one you get is wireless because the thing that connects you to the internet is that little box at the bottom of the stairs you keep tripping over and there isn't a wire running from it to the TV. This is also what connects your Smart TV to the internet so you can use iplayer.

Make sure you channel out the wall and mount the TV on the wall - why would you get a flat screen TV and not put it on the wall to save a load of space in the room???? (My mother insisted she didn't want it on the wall until she realised she actually had an extra 4 ft sq of room space she had not seen for the last 30 years)

If you see one you like in Curry's you won't be able to price match it because the TV manufacturers make models especially for Curry's, so you're better off looking at Amazon and reading the reviews.

The Smart TV will give you apps like iplayer, netflix etc. If you're just after this then you might be better off just getting a DVD player from Samsung and plugging this into the little box at the bottom of the stairs, it'll give you the same functionality.

Don't bother with 3D unless you want to feel sick every time you watch the football - this tech is a couple of years too early"



Personally, If I was going to buy a new TV this week, I'd get one with skype built into it - I'm guessing this is going to eventually be the norm and everyone will have a skype TV in their lounge so the family can stay in touch easier. I'd also make sure there was a USB connection in the side so I could watch movies from a stick.

[Edited on 3/12/12 by Barkalarr]


mark chandler - 3/12/12 at 10:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by NigeEss
quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
my 42" plasma is just thrown under the bed although will stick it on the bedroom wall over Christmas, just looks old.



Don't be surprised if it either doesn't work or has areas of dead pixels, plasma tv's do not like being laid flat.


Did not know that, six months now


bobthebuilder - 3/12/12 at 10:22 PM

another one here for samsung led smart tv.
great picture good sound, also have a samsung surround sound unit which is operated from the same remote.

my mate has the same but a 3d one and he loves that too.

both 42"


caber - 3/12/12 at 10:22 PM

Opportunity to forget the telly and spend more time on the kit car also £800 more to spend on bits :0 Family can watch you if you rig up a camera in the garage and your laptop

Caber


bigfoot4616 - 3/12/12 at 10:23 PM

customer of mine has just spent £1500 on a samsung led smart tv. while it is much better than other lcd's i've seen for picture quality i still don't think they are as good as a decent plasma.


ashg - 3/12/12 at 10:51 PM

i opted out of led too many issues with even back lighting and black ratios unless you can afford proper oled. i went for a top of the range panasonic 50 inch 3d plasma it wasn't cheep at £1800 but the image is just simply stunning. previously we had two lg's both broke in less than 2 years.


the lgs didnt have a bad picture nor does the 42 inch samsung that we have in the bedroom but the panasonic is just in its own ultra league mainly because all the development guys that used to work for pioneer before they pulled out of the tv market went over to panasonic. every time i switch the panasonic on i look at it and still think wow even when not watching 3d, it just deals with the images so effortlessly its a joy to watch, not to mention all the smart features where we can watch video files off the network from the computer, iplayer, plug a hdd into the usb on it and you can record, sd card slott, wireless networking, picture in picture, the list goes on.

annoyingly richer sounds has just dropped the price by £200 for christmas grrrrr.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/tv---all/panasonic/viera-txp50vt50b/pana-txp50vt50b


BangedupTiger - 3/12/12 at 11:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MK9R
could just be the capacitors, similiar thing happened to mine, repaired it for £1.50, and i'm poo at electronics. Do a search on youtube for the fix, its dead easy



+1

My 4 year old samsung has started to take a while to come on, capacitors have bulged, new ones off eBay ready to go in when I pluck up the courage.

Personallly I'd go for samsung as a decent tv at a good price, panasonic is meant to be awesome, pricy though.


Dale - 3/12/12 at 11:17 PM

We finally upgraded from our 29 inch crt just a year ago and I went through the whole thing you are. I wanted the samsung 55 inch plasma but doing alot of research found a lot of 3 month to a year power supply problems. These were evident on the lcd/led versions as well. I ended up with a smart lg 55 led and it works flawlessly. Well almost, sometimes it does not link to our server for the dnla (media server) and I have to cycle it to show up. That may be our network settings as well. IF you have a place to run you cables I would go wired ethernet over wireless as a high def movie will put a heavy load on your household wireless but 1 gig lan will not even notice it. I find I use netflix a lot and never use the dvd player anymore as we just stream from the computer or plug into the usb and watch.
Dale


skodaman - 4/12/12 at 12:01 AM

42" LG lcd gets my vote. My mates Sony plasma is noticeably sharper from about two feet away but cost three times as much.


jabs - 4/12/12 at 08:01 AM

Have you looked at finlux - only available from their web site. I got a 32" LED full HD with HD freeview, smart tv, PVR functionality plus a wifi dongle for only £279 inc next day delivery. Great picture. Just connected a £40 usb drive to it and have full pvr, only down side is it has only one tuner so cannot record and watch another channel also the smart bit is limited, but most are at the moment and is basically only good for BBC iplayer. Still it was the cheapest one I could find.

[Edited on 4/12/12 by jabs]


David Jenkins - 4/12/12 at 09:11 AM

I'm not going to worry about getting a new TV until there's something worth watching...


Hellfire - 4/12/12 at 12:05 PM

I was in a similar position about 12 months ago and after lots of reading and research, decided on plasma technology and purchased a Panasonic GT30. I like watching fast moving sport and couldn't live with the image blur of an LCD screen.......

My research suggested that plasma technology was far superior to LCD, for my viewing purposes.

Phil


RichardK - 4/12/12 at 12:51 PM

I wouldn't buy another lg

Bought mine as was advertised as Skype Ready on the box, took lg 4 months to provide firmware that enabled the Skype, now the 3d blue ray twin recorder thing won't play the latest movies because you guessed it, it needs new firmware! I had a very unhappy daughter after hiring the new ice age 3d movie

Cheers

Rich


PAUL FISHER - 4/12/12 at 06:50 PM

Lots of good information chaps to help me decide what to do, my tv that has broke is a LG plasma, the sound is still working ok, but the screen is just blank and flickering/flashing, I just thought it was the plasma screen had gone, might take it in for repair first, could be something simple as a few of you have said, cheers Paul

[Edited on 19/05/04 by PAUL FISHER]