lcd or plasma

[gucciman]

should i buy a lcd or a plasma tv?

i'm looking for a minimum of 40 inch screen for no more than a 1000 quid. i like the style of the samsungs and lg with their gloss black finish.

all reccomendations welcome

[Llamatron]

I can't stand LCD TVs. For standard definition I think they're awful but What HiFi thinks Sonys new one is great. Even Plasmas come a poor second to good old CRTs in my opinion.

I'd recommend going into a shop and having a look for yourself.

Bare in mind that LCDs use a lot less power than Plasmas and are not susceptible to screen burn.

Good luck.

[gucciman]

sony lcd's are very expensive though

[Llamatron]

Yes they are. Very.

I was just making the point that Sonys LCD tellies are supposed to be great but I don't like even them. So what chance do the cheaper ones have? But I'm picky and probably being overly critical.

My brother recently got the Samsung LCD TV. His 360 looks great on it but DVDs, ie standard definition, looked pants. Gladiator looked all washed out and grainy.

[gucciman]

when you look at the lcd's and plasma's in the showrooms they look amazing but i presume they are linked up to a hd broadcast.

i understand what you say about being picky. my old workmate spent over �30,000 on his hi-fi system. he said that the sound quality was so good that you could hear the violinists shirt rustling as they played. to me though it sounded exactly the same as my �500 mini system.

i know that crt's still give the best picture quality but the flat screen tv's are all the rage now. i still cant decide whether to go lcd or plasma.

[Llamatron]

My CRT finally packed up over the summer and as CRTs are pretty much dead I had little choice but to go with a flat panel. The TV had been playing up for a while so I knew it was coming and I'd been saving up for some time.

I was using my old portable TV so I was able to waste lots of time looking around. I went to Comet, Currys etc and played with their tellies. Not the ideal places to look at TVs because of the lighting and noise and they never have the TVs your interested in side by side.

In the end I opted for the Pioneer 4270XD plasma TV which is over your budget. I'm quite happy with it, DVDs look fab. What's odd is that new TV programmes look fine but old stuff looks grainy. Don't know why. Blacks are more grey but that's a problem with all Plasmas and LCDs.
I hate to switch it on because it so power hungry. My old portable used, according to the label, 60 watts. My new one uses 290 watts. Eeek.