Plasma screens??

Villain

OK my ma has decided she would like a plasma screen in her new house because she wants to hang it over her fireplace (dummy one it has a gas fire in it) so she can view it from the conservatory come living room.

Now I have tried to explain that the Plasmas are VERY expensive but she wants me to investigate.

So guys whats the cheapest decent plasma I can get, and where in Ireland is a good place to purchase??

Thanks

NIBBS

As far as I know nowhere in Ireland is cheaper than having one shipped in from the UK, where prices have dropped a lot in the last year.........though this may have changed in relation to Ireland too, just that I haven't seen anywhere cheap/not-extortionate here at all...

Fallschirmjager

yep, you may have to travel. one other thing. they are heavy and i do mean heavy. you will need more then a plaster wall to hold them. you should look at a stand if you can convince her.

one final think -- try not to get one that is just cheap. the screen will burn with the logo images like sky news etc etc etc.

as far as a recall panasonic do good ones...not too sure of the prices tho

try

http://www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/

but i dont own one so cant give any personal recs..

hope this helps

daveg

If you take a trip to the UK Richersounds have some plasma TV's at probably the cheapest prices you'll find.

Hyzepher

I was looking into getting a plasma screen from the UK last month. However, I was told by the sales guy that Ireland uses a different Tuner band than the UK and that I may not be able to receive all of the channels.

He said that if I had Sky Digital or NTL Digital it might be OK but couldn't be certain.

You may need to check this out before ordering or if anyone has actually brought one in from the UK let us know how it worked out.

Hyzepher

ShaneOC

Originally posted by Hyzepher
I was looking into getting a plasma screen from the UK last month. However, I was told by the sales guy that Ireland uses a different Tuner band than the UK and that I may not be able to receive all of the channels.

He said that if I had Sky Digital or NTL Digital it might be OK but couldn't be certain.

You may need to check this out before ordering or if anyone has actually brought one in from the UK let us know how it worked out.

Hyzepher

The UK uses UHF only, in Ireland some places use UHF and VHF. Depending on where you are living you may be fine with a UK only tuner.

If your current TV uses channel numbers for tuning you can check this by seeing what you use at the moment. It is only RTÉ 1 and Net 2 that are on VHF. If they are tuned in on a number anywhere between 21 and 69 the you are OK and will have no tuning problems with a UK TV.

thegills

A lot of the Plasma TV's don't have onboard tuners so if you get Sky Digital or NTL you could use their Tuner Box. Otherwise you need a seperate tuner box. If you buy a UK Plasma TV with on-board tuner then you may still need a tuner box to view VHF channels.

I have seen Plasma TV's for e2500 in UK. You could drive up North and buy one.

byte

If the Plasma screen doesn't have a tuner module built in, you could just use a VCR (Nicam) as a tuner!

Korg

You should sit down in front of a plasma for a little while before handing over the cash, personally i don't think they're all they're cracked up to be. Grab a copy of the matrix, play the first scene & watch all the banding in the glow from all the flashlights etc that you don't get from normal tv's. It's like watching a movie in 16bit color (ok that's a bit extreme, maybe 18bit, 20...). Admittedly i've only tried this on a couple of sony models & a fujitsu.
This wont annoy everyone, but worth watching one for a while to be sure you like the picture.