Choosing an HDTV

I find those site a bit ott, like the hi-end audio sites where people droan on about cables and speakers, how gold this and that gives a 0.00000001% increase in sound quality, somthing I would never be able to tell the difference on.

I checked out avforums.com before I bought the samsung, and they pretty much slated it, I was advised to get a panasonic (sorry can't remember the model off the top of my head) but when I saw them side by side and played with the setting the samsung gave a much better picture, the contrast is way better, what appeared as just black on most other tv's the samsung actually had detail.

Each to there own, I spent months looking at tv's before I actually bought this one, and nothing in the same price bracket could touch it (imho)

When the two are properly calibrated, the Panasonic will always be superior. Samsung black levels are nowhere near the Panasonic NeoPDP panels, which are second only to Pioneer. That is not subjective, it's fact.

Seeing TV's in a shop is just about the worst possible environment to do so, as it represents completely unrealistic viewing conditions. It can make a good TV look bad, and a nad TV look good.

Hi Boxman - Your Samsung 8000 is LCD, right? Good reviews if I am looking at the right one, but pricier than the G10 I am looking at.

Regarding our room, our current 42" does not seem too big, and we have enough room for 50" as we view from about 3.5 meters. We watch TV probably the most often, which I assume is mostly SD. So looking for a TV that handles this well.

Am in the process of going completely Mac, with a beefy Mac Pro downstairs acting as a media center...so would like good connectivity via ethernet or wireless N. Will connect Apple TV (might hack it for Boxee). Would like to have wireless access for our laptops, too. I think there is a dongle for the Samsung.

So looking for tips from the savvy EFers out there!

fduvall

I have the samsung wireless dongle if anyone needs one, it came with the blueray player but I used ethernet cable instead, as my router is on the same shelf unit.

oohh.. I guess I shouldn't have relied on their review of the Pioneer then!

No seriously, I agree with you about what hifi. But I do not want to get too technical as you can spend months trying to find the bestest TV and when you decide to buy new series/generations of TVs are launched and you have to start all over again. What hifi keeps it simple. Sometimes they get it wrong like one year they said the Sony W series is the best TV of the year, but in general, it is a good guide.

btw, 2 of those websites above rate the samsung highly as well (can't figure out the american model no. for the third site), albeit the 40inch version, so what hifi is not that far off.

Fduvall, sounds like you got your sources sorted out, so you do need a good TV (as opposed to someone who watches only analog). I think that Panasonic is the best, if I ever need to replace my Pioneer, it would be the only one that is acceptable for me. But as I said, it is very difficult these days to see with your own eyes which is better. If I was watching cartoons and play games all the time, I might prefer the Samsung or Sony with their sharper and more striking colours. With SD and real people, I prefer the slightly softer and less vivid panasonics because it is just more realistic (yes, I prefer less sharpness and weaker colour!!) BUT, of course, soft/sharp/contrast/colour saturation can all be changed in the settings.... so I may be talking a lot of rubbish here.

Talking about the next best thing after pioneer:

http://hdtvorg.co.uk/news/articles/2010012101.htm

Looks to be beyond your budget though.

Thanks to Richdog for the original link.

Did anyone post this already?

Looks very nice...I would be willing to pay US$2400.00 in the US, as I know it is the best global price. In 'Der Schweiz' I am not willing to pay 2000+CHF for the Panny G10, when I could get it in the US for a lot less...

The Samsung and LG TVs that I see at Digitec have come down in price so closer to US pricing...but I may just bite the bullet and go for the G10. I just hate getting ripped off.

fduvall

PS - Hoping the Pixmania deal comes back!

I heard somewhere that it is not healthy for your eyesite, to sit less than 3 times the diagonal length away from the screen.

Anway, if you have subscription to the UK consumer publication, Which? , you can get great impartial advice on quality and reliability on a whole range of products and services.

Last year they tested 185 LCD, LED and Plasma models (32 Samsung, 27 LG, 26 Sony, 21 Panasonic, 20 Philips, 15 Toshiba, 13 Sharp, 7 JVC, 4 Hitachi, 20 Other).

For screen size choices the verdict was that LCD is better than plasma (Sony have stopped making plasmas).

For picture quality, LCD shaves it.

For power consumption, LCD wins hands down.

For versitility, LCD wins over plasma

Cost, a draw between LCD and plasma

Panasonic seem to be introducing a 3D TV next year!!!

To become a Recommended Buy, the score (40% picture quality, 20% sound, 20% to ease of use, 10% features and 10% power use) had to be over 65%. 30 models passed that standard (see below).

For LCD, LED and plasma TVs they say that :

of the top 10 models, 5 were Panasonic, 4 Sony, 1 LG

of the top 20, 8 Panasonic, 8 Sony, 2 LG, 2 Samsung

of the top 30, 10 Panasonic, 11 Sony, 5 Samsung, 3 LG, 1 Philips

Of the two top brands Panasonic marginally beat Sony on Owner Staisfaction 92% vs 89%. On Reliability Sony scored 98% and Panasonic scored 94% (LG 95% Samsung 96% so they're all pretty safe bets).

I heard Sony is best for picture quality but Panasonic is better than the others for sound. I would recommend Sony as you are a Porsche owner and so can probably afford it fduvall ( ) or Panasonic if you want to save a bit.

from 185 tested the 30 that passed (65%+ score) were:

1.Panasonic Viera TX-L32X10 - £398.00 -75%

2.Sony Bravia KDL-46X4500 - £1,499.95 - 74%

3.LG 42SL9000 - £918.44 - 73%

4.Sony Bravia KDL-40E5510 - £949.00 - 73%

5.Sony Bravia KDL-46Z5500 - £1,512.70 - 73%

6.Panasonic Viera TX-L37V10 - £699.00 - 73%

7.Panasonic Viera TX-L37G10 - £633.00 - 73%

8.Sony Bravia KDL-40Z5800 - £1,148.00 - 72%

9.Panasonic Viera TX-L32G10 - £546.00 - 72%

10.Panasonic Viera TX-L32S10 - £448.00- 71%

11.Panasonic Viera TX-L32X15 - £429.99 - 71%

12.Sony Bravia KDL-40Z4500 - £836.03 - 70%

13.Samsung UE55B7020 - £2,034.99 - 70%

14.Panasonic Viera TX-L26X10 - £346.70 - 69%

15.Sony Bravia KDL-40WE5 - £835.00 - 69%

16.Sony Bravia KDL-32V5500 - £446.84 - 69%

17.Panasonic Viera TX-L19X10 - £223.99 - 69%

18.LG 32SL8000 - £522.00 - 68%

19.Sony Bravia KDL-32W5810 - £599.75 - 68%

20.Samsung LE40B650 - £658.60 -68%

21.Sony Bravia KDL-40W5500 - £649.99 - 68%

22.Sony Bravia KDL-32W5710 - £699.00 - 66%

23.Panasonic Viera TX-P42V10 - £1,069.00 - 66%

24.Sony Bravia KDL-32W5500 - £528.75 - 66%

25.Samsung LE37B550 - £453.00 - 66%

26.Panasonic Viera TX-P46Z1B - £3,855.93 - 66%

27.Samsung LE32B650 - £529.57 - 65%

28.LG 32LG5000 - £378.35 - 65%

29.Philips 47PFL8404 Ambilight Spectra - £921.58 - 65%

30.Samsung LE40B550 - £493.00 - 65%

31.Samsung UE40B8000 - £1,267.90 - 65%

Looks like 3D TV is being rolled out by country, so Switzerland would have to wait, as I think it's being introduced in conjunction with Sky TV.

http://www.toppreise.ch/index.php?k3=1511&manu=&o=pa

Here's a list of 46-47 inch LCDs arranged by price. You can get a pretty decent one for 1100-1300 CHF.

Among the cheapest ones, I'd take a look at the SHARP Aquos LC-46DH77E and the LG ELECTRONICS 47LH4000 . They have slightly faster response time than the others (4ms and 3ms respectively, the other ones are 5ms). They contrast ratios aren't too shabby either, but of course nothing like you'd get with a plasma.

I got my brother the Aquos for Christmas and he's happy with it. It's got some nice Eco settings for lower energy consumption. The speakers aren't that great, though. Still, I think there's a big difference between paying 1100 and 2000 CHF for TV. I'd have a hard time justifying spending almost twice as more for a slight bump in quality.

Edit: The LG LH7020 looks pretty good, too. Wow, LG has come a long way.

Don't worry about response times on LCD's. It used to be a problem when you got 16ms and greater response times but anything sub 10ms will be fine.

Yeah, I'm probably splitting hairs. Still, a faster one doesn't hurt, especially for gaming.

slight flaw here. I see only 1 50 inch TV on this list. As I mentioned earlier, for the bigger TVs, plasma is better. So if we are looking at smaller TVs only, I agree with the above.

Sony stopped making plasmas because of production costs. Smaller TVs sell in bigger numbers compared to bigger TVs. So instead of having 2 production lines, they concentrate on LCDs and shut down the plasmas.

But Which says Sony and Panasonic's largest LCD screen is only 46" not 50".

Only Panasonic makes a 50" which is Plasma.

Which?'s summary of two best brands :

Panasonic

Panasonic makes plasma and LCD TVs – but which are best?

Panasonic has had some great success in Which? tests in the past few years, but falls short of a 100% record thanks to some patchy performances of late.

However, its TVs are always easy to use, have plenty of versatile features and the best models deliver cutting-edge picture quality.

Most recent review of a Panasonic 50" Plasma was September 2009

Panasonic Viera TX-P50G10

Score 60% (Plasma) best price £968.95

Pros: Freesat tuner, natural picture detail and colour, reasonable audio performance, ethernet port

Cons: Irritating screen flicker, green tint, very high power consumption unless power-save setting is selected

Most recent review of Panasonic LCD was December 2008

Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ80

Score 52% best price £770.00

Panasonic TVs are normally easy to use, but this 46-inch high resolution plasma is some way off its usual high standard. On top of that, picture and sound quality are both below-par and energy efficiency is poor.

Pros: Easy to use, some useful features

Cons: Dull picture, high power consumption, poor sound quality, noisy internal fan

Sony

Sony TVs lead the way with green technology

Japanese LCD TV manufacturer Sony produces well-featured televisions, with lots of good eco selling points.

Sony was one of the first brands to include power-saving light sensor technology and radio screen blanking, and some of its latest TVs include presence sensors, which turn the picture off if nobody’s in the room

Most recent review of a Sony 46" was October 2009

Sony Bravia KDL-46Z5500

Score 73% best price £1,512.70

If you're after a high-end, big screen TV with all the latest extras, a classy finish and top-drawer picture, it's hard to go wrong with the Best Buy 46-inch full HD Z5500. Reasonably solid and detailed sound quality help give it the edge on much of the big-screen competition

Pros: Solid picture performance and plenty of features, ranging from the exotic to the functional. Sound quality is a cut above most rivals

Cons: Picture can fade from an angle, the current internet TV widgets are a little disappointing

Others

Samsung

Bestselling TV brand Samsung

As with LG, we've seen some significant signs of improvement from Samsung over the past two years.

Its position as the biggest-selling TV manufacturer in the UK has often felt more down to brilliant marketing and the chic, glossy black (and now much imitated) finish of most of its LCD and plasma TVs.

However, Samsung has been making waves with its LED TV ranges.

LG

LG strives to join the best TV league

Korean electronics giant LG has made some major improvements to its LCD and plasma TV ranges over the past two years.

Wrap up technical improvements in the lavishly designed glossy LCD and plasma panel beloved by the LG designers, and things are definitely looking up in terms of future success.

LG has also been at the forefront of pushing down the price of LCD and plasma TVs, with many of its entry-level models undercutting rival brands.

Along with the competitive price tags come a host of innovations including models with built in Freesat tuners, such as the 37LF7700 and new LED ranges including the 42SL9000.

Just like all the other LED TVs on the market these are, in reality, LCD TVs, with the traditional bulky backlights replaced by hundreds of light-emitting diodes.

Philips

Innovative Philips televisions challenge the best TVs

Philips has been a bit hit-and-miss with its TVs over the past couple of years – but has recently started to land a few more hits than misses.

Most notably, it’s been turning out some decent top-of-the-range large-screen LCD TVs – far better than what we’ve come to expect for LCD in anything over the 37-inch screen category.

Toshiba

Does Toshiba measure up in the battle for the best TV brand?

In the past couple of years, Toshiba has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In the battle of high-definition DVD formats (Blu-ray, backed primarily by Sony, versus HD-DVD, supported by Toshiba among others), Toshiba threw in the towel and Blu-ray won the day.

In response, Toshiba launched itself at the ‘how to make standard-definition TV look as good as high definition’ problem and came up with Resolution+ processing software.

Implemented on some of its DVD players and Regza LCD TV ranges, Toshiba claims that Resolution+ displays SD images at near high-definition quality.

In that case Which is wrong as Sony does make 52 and 55" LCDs.

Panasonic decided a bit more than a year ago to drop Plasma in favour of LCDs for TVs which are smaller (they used to produce 37" plasmas as well). For bigger TVs, they decided Plasma is still better.

Oops, my bad. I should have written that they weren't tested rather than weren't produced. Well spotted, sorry about that.

I guess a review of a 46" is useful for 50" screens.

Giving a P50G10 60%... the same TV that averaged around 90%+ on the highest rated hardcore AV sites?

I am not defending my TV out of bias, i'm just shocked at the poor quality of information available out there to the unassuming consumer who doesn't know any better.

That's why assuming consumers tend to ignore Which. I feel that they cover too many consumer items, so they can hardly be considered the experts in any field.

I just PMed you the details of the Which? test and it does indeed look good from the results apart from Power Consumption. Maybe the 60% score is unfair.