Plasma Screens - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[CRYSTmassurvivALTIPS]

Which ones would you reccommend ??? Please ??

Hope to buy in the sales

Have you had any nightmare stories ???

just a word of warning - they take 4-5 weeks for delivey n instalation

oh and they aren't availble stright from shop they have to come from the warehouse/manufactor

Check the quality of the RED colour on screen. The better (or more natural) the red in the picture the better the quality. A TV man in a store once told us that when we had a look.

They are all made in the same factory. You should be able to pick up a 42 inch one for around £2,600 -£2,800. Remember that they aren't as good or last as long as the top of the range phillips 36 inch T.V £1,600. Search down Tottenham Court Road.

We got ours in Alders and it came with a 5 year guarantee. The cheapest place I have seen good quality ones was in Richer SOunds, also online

www.richersounds.com/

They do quite a range from the usual makers, Sony, Hitachi, Philips etc.

Oh, I was going to post about Richer Sounds - are advertising atm for £1200 I think.

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I would also like to warn you that you MUST take out the extended warranty (generally around £1000+! for a £3k tv) as Plasma screens need 'regassing' every 18 months or so, without the warranty you are looking at a bill of around £1500 every time it needs doing ! The technology just isn't 'there' yet for Plasmas.

We bought a 42in LCD rear projection SONY one instead which set us back around £2300 from somewhere on the net, Currys/Comet wanted £3100 ! I have to say that the pic quality is fab and I have absolutely no complaints at all(despite massive protest when DH said he wanted to spend £3k on a bloody tv !). LCD are much less high maintenance and are almost as slim-line as the plasma.

Be very careful where you get it from. A lot of the shops in the Tottenham Court Rd, sell "Grey" imports and the warranties may not be valid in the UK or entitle you to service from the UK service centres if things go wrong.

dh only sells Sony and has very few problems with any of the plasmas he sells. Expensive but well worth the money.

wsm, the regassing was true on the earlier models but dh says it's a myth now.

see this link from Richer Sounds website (dh would kill me)!

RicherSoundsReview

I also thought that the plasmas seemed a little fragile. The LCD seemed more robust without being bulky IYSWIM.

we bought a 42" plasma earlier this year and sent it back after a couple of weeks - it was hopeless at rendering "smoky" images or subtle gradations of black and white (but brilliant at rendering animation or anything with clearly defined colours). Very disappointing - we ended up getting the largest CRT TV we could find instead (a 40" Loewe) and although it's not as aesthetically pleasing as the plasma it performs a hell of a lot better!

I suspect WSM is right about the technology not being quite there for plasmas yet. I would recommend taking a couple of DVDs with you so you can test before you buy - we found that the opening scene in Withnail and I was a particularly good test (lots of steam and dingy colours!).

just spoke to dh:

He says:

Buy a Plasma if your objective is size rather than sound quality;

Buy an LCD if you want better picture quality than on a plasma. Not currently widely available in the larger sizes that Plasmas are, but once they start to increase the size and range of LCD's, Plasmas will be a thing of the past;

Cheaper Plasmas will still have regassing issues;

If it was a choice between a 32" plasma and a 32" tube TV, he'd go for the latter every time;

For sound quality, buy good surround sound equipment to go with your TV;

(We have a 42" widescreen TV with 8 speakers surround sound and a big black box in the corner that makes the bass really boom - I don't know what it's called)!

All in all cost around £4000 and is just like being in the cinema for sound quality with the benefit of being able to pause the film and go to the loo

subwoofer

that's the one ! Wasn't going to hassle dh again to ask him... he's got the boss from hell and it's really busy today.

I think we'd please DH, we're the 'Sony Family', Sony TV, DVD, Sky digibox, VCR and surround sound home cinema system !

Sounds just perfect wsm! dh was apalled when I moved in and produced a "Bush" portable TV, a samsung vcr and Hinari clock radio. They've all been donated to ds now though...who also has Freeview box, Dh's old (Very good) computer and my old Playstation.

Technology...who needs it?

Oh yes, forgot our 2 PS2s too (one for each DS)! DH wanted a Sony tellyand the didgibox with an 'optical out' and of course everything else HAD to match ! Goodness only knows how he can complain abut my penchant for changing my pushchairs when I get bored with them.