TV: plasma? LCD? Anyone know anything?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Our old TV seems to have (finally) died. Given it was a £100 ex-rental purchase some 9 years ago, it's probably done for.

Do we want plama or LCD? There's some daylight near the TV, so that may be a factor ...

(I'm thinking about convincing DH we want a terribly expensive super-flash one, and then saying, oh, but we're spending so much on the renovations, how about we try living without a TV for 6 months. And then never actually buying one. But that's a whole other thing.)

OK I have this advice to impart.
I stood in front of a Sony flatscreen marvel the other day and thought "I have got to get one of these". I am actually working towards the same goal as you, am fed up of tv, but dh won't agree. So it was an odd thought for me to have. ANyway, it was £2300 so a bit out of my price range. But it was fecking great.

Ok, but was it a plasma flatscreen or an LCD?

I probably would miss telly, but it just seems like such a waste of time and energy.

LCDs are better than plasma in terms of quality as far as I know, but tend to be smaller and more expensive than plasma.

We have had a big plasma for a couple of years or so now. Dh loves it! He wants an LCD for the bedroom next.

we have a 42" plasma on the wall in the lounge, yeah it looks good but I worry the fecking wall's gonna fall down.!

Plasma is good but can be pricy, look around on the web as you CAN get a better deal than more stores. Remember though with Plasma..you need to watch if you pause tv or keep it on a still picture for too long (with sky+) as it can "burn" the image to the screen iykwim..thats what dh moans at me about anyway!

Must admit it's a good picture and does the job. We have lcd in the bedroom...don't ask me what the difference is though..! Techincal bits I leave to dh!

Funnily enough DH bought an LCD telly today. Old one gave up the ghost. Like the fact it has not got the big box bit on the back and takes up less space even although it has a slightly bigger screen.

However DH and I had agreed that we would never again spend a stupid amount of money on a telly as we have had two expensive TVs before and the TVs in question lasted 13 months (argued this with the manufacturer who eventually agreed to replace it under guarantee) and 18 months (for the replacement). Our last TV, £189 from Aldi, lasted three years. DH today spent over £900 on this telly so I hope it bloomin' lasts! To be as economical as the Aldi one we need to keep it 10 years!

I don't know much about them or the differences but we were under the impression that LCD was more durable, would last longer.

Oh, should add picture quality is amazing!

DH says LCD as its life will be longer than a plasma. He's hankering after one at the moment but given that he spent a stupid amount of money on a big telly only 3 years ago, he can hanker away.

We've got a 30" LCD. I wasn't too bothered about having one but DP had always wanted one, we've had it about 18 months. Have to say I wouldn't be without it now, and we've got the surround sound too which makes it even better

Cost about £1,700 for the two but worth it IMO

My problem isn't between LCD & plasma. I need to know what brand. We rent our tv because a) we can't afford to spend that much money all at once on a tv and b) there are so many changes so fast that we prefer the freedom of being able to trade up. Our current one is a Sharp LCD HDTV "ready"... Ready makes me nervous.

I've also read somewhere recently that our current DVDs will be replaced by some new kind of super-duper DVD which will be higher definition. Please tell me it's not true!

Sansouci, ours is LG but I don't know whether it is any better or worse than any other, it is also something or other ready?!?!?

I've yet to see one showing a terrestrial or freeview TV image which I find visually adequate. They all seem to look so horribly pixelated and mushy to me, with loads of digital artifacts, motion bluring, crap colour rendition etc.

Saw a back-projection set that looked nice though.

Sky have just launched a high def set of broadcast channels and a high def receiver which, if allied to a high def TV should look very nice.

I wouldn't mind if our TV went tomorrow, tbh. Don't have Sky and don't have freeview. A waste of valuable MN time.

We have a Panasonic LCD that is "HDTV ready", and has a built-in digital tuner. It does very well in the reviews, just can't remember the model no? DH picked it after extensive research and "hands-on" viewing and it does have a good picture (compared to our previous 14" one!). It is near a window and seems fine in the sunlight.

Oh, I do think DVDs are changing, yes.

I ended up buying a TV for £100 on ebay last night, so that sorts that. Sony, 6 years old, 32" I think. We'll get it on Tuesday.

DH turned out not to want to buy a top-of-the-line one, which is good, as we would rather not spend the ££ on something that expensive right now, with all the building works going on.

We have a LCD wall mounted TV -cost around £600and its great! Amazing quality compared to our old bog-standard one.

I would advise you to go and look at some and make a point of viewing them from different angles as I seem to remember that the plasma(?) ones can't be viewed too well from certain angles

oooops just realised that you've already bought one