New TV suggestions?

Energizer

My families 29inch sony trinitron tv seems to be on the way out.

Could anyone recommend a good replacement for this tv. Not too expensive as my parents don't need the latest tech in it.

Is there any point in getting a Hd tv yet or should we leave that for a few years?

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Energizer

Anybody?

bonoman66

Hi Energizer,

I'm no expert & I apologize in advance for the long post, but I'll give you my 2 cents worth in case its helps. I guess the current TV you're referring to is a regular, bulky, heavy 4:3 CRT type unit. Most people if upgrading a TV now would probably lean towards some form of widescreen & flatscreen device, whether its LCD, or Plasma - both have pros/cons. To me it seems if you prefer 32" or smaller than LCD could be the better bet, but for the much larger screen sizes, plasma might be better suited. I'm not trying to say one is necessarily better than the other, it ultimately comes down to what you want in terms of size, what you want to spend, & what you think looks best to you after you've looked at a few different screens (Harvey Normans, Dixons, Peats - are the usual places in Dublin for a quick look but the screens are not necessarily setup properly so it may not be always safe to take what you see as the best picture available etc..)

The retailers that I've seen in Dublin do (in my humble opinion) charge more than I would expect to pay for their flatsceens - I'm making a generalisation here so you might come across individual bargains. If you're not afraid of purchasing on the web & don't mind taking the chance that the screen would need to be returned to the overseas vendor if it developed a fault, then the best bet is to purchase from an online retailer in Germany, as you can make large savings in cost (Save up to 30-40% in some cases). It won't matter what type of internal tuner comes with these units as long as you are not dependant on using it - eg if you have a SKy box or NTL, you'll most likely be using that so won't need to use the internal tuner in the screen. I'm just pointing that out as it could be the case if you did decide to purchase from overseas in another EU country, that the tuners may not be exactly the same as for the Iish country specific models (if they still exist!)

In my opinion, some of the better LCD TVs that I have recently seen have been models by Sony & Samsung (there's lots of others such as Sharp & Panasonic that are also highly regarded).

For plasma's if you wanted the better Plasma TV types (just my opinion) I'd recommend a Pioneer or Panasonic, but you will pay a bit more than average for these manfacturers.

Here's some models that you could start to at least look at:

40" LCD
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http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/television/tftlcd/le40m61bxxeu.asp

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProduct.action?product=KDL-V40A12U&site=odw_en_GB&pageType=Overview&category=TVP+LCD+TV

32" LCD
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http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/television/tftlcd/le32m51bxxeu.asp

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProduct.action?product=KDL-V32A12U&site=odw_en_GB&pageType=Overview&category=TVP+LCD+TV


42"-43" Plasma
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http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/product_detail.jsp?product_id=11144&taxonomy_id=62-63

http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/product_detail.jsp?product_id=11824&taxonomy_id=62-63

The next model is discontinued but will be replaced by a new model over the next few months -
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/plasma-tv/th42pv500ped/index.htm


Even though there is a lot of sales blurb & media hype about High Defintion TV at present, I would think it wise to try purchase a HD Ready Screen to try & give yourself a bit more longevity in your purchase. There will be many new models with better specs coming out over the next few months so hang on if you can. I'd encourage you to try get a screen with HDMI connections rather than DVI connections & if possible see if you can get a screen that has 2 HDMI connectors (or be prepared to purchase a HDMI switchbox to give you more connectivity).

Here's a list of some online retailers for you to look at prices:

Ireland
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http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/shop/db.cgi?view=1&id=4118&type=5&path=10x4117

http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/home.asp?ObjectID=938&Mode=0&categoryid=1

Germany
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http://www.katronics.de/

http://www.hificomponents.de/Versand_eng/preisliste_eng.asp?country=Irland&lang=eng&Submit=Choose+%2F+Ausw%E4hlen

http://www.audiovision-shop.de/Preise/preise_gb.html

http://www.technikdirekt.de/main/en/Page.html?validsession=2006-02-14-21-54-31

http://www.screenmaxx.com/

http://www.mindware-ag.de/angebote_bildschirme_plasma_bildschirme.php


Hope this helps & best of luck,

rgds,

bonoman66

blorg

Hi Energiser, it might be a good idea to post an idea of the price your parents are expecting to pay, as there is quite a range of prices. Personally I wouldn't worry too much re: HD at this point, I don't see it mass market in this country within the next five years. (And I have a HD projector.)

Energizer

Thanks for the great info lads (especially bonoman66, what a post).

I think we could be talking about a price up to 800 euro.

I know its not going to buy a brilliant tv but my parents don't need the top of the line.

Do plasma's still suffer from burn in images(e.g. sky one symbol never disappearing)?

bonoman66

Hi Energizer,

The most recent plasmas do seem to be better at avoiding screen burn & over the last few years the various manufacturers seem to have come up with their own way (technology wise) of trying to beat the screen burn issue with some level of success. In the old days when the first & second generation of plasmas first appeared, if you left a channel on the screen that had a static image/logo on it for any prologned period of time (usually a few hours), it was possible that the image would be permanently 'burn in' to the plasma. Now its more of an 'Image Retention' issue where it might still happen but the effects to don't seem to be permanent & usually disappear after a few hours of regular usage again - at least on the better models such as the Panasonics & Pioneers. Its a generalisation but you should be ok as long as you use the screen sensibly, don't have the brightness/contrast levels set too high & don't regularly leave static images onscreen for hours on end.

A budget of approx €800 probably won't get you a plasma (unless you see one in a really good sale somewhere), so if you do decicide to go with a flatscreen type TV rather than another regular CRT TV, you may probably be looking at the LCD market. I'd guess you may be in the price range for a widescreen LCD TV in the 23" to 27" screen size. If you decide to purchase from a regular shop in Ireland you may end up with a slightly cheaper, lower spec screen than if you were to purchase the screen onlline. If you did want to purchase online than you can get something like a Toshiba, Samsung, or Sharp among a few others in that approx price range & screen size.

Again - I'm no expert & this is just my 2 cents worth. I'm not affliated in any way with any of the manufacturers or websites I mention. Like yourself, I'm in the market for a screen upgrade, possibly this year so I've been doing some researching over the last 12 months

Energizer

Thanks for the help man! appreciated