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Common sense is not as common as you think.
Teeceezy: Hello all. First time poster here. I am hunting for a new TV, either Plasma or LCD, to upgrade from an old CRT TV. I am a young university student, so my budget is in the range of about $900-$1100, with a max of $1200. Ideally the two most important features are for the TV to be Full HD, and/or 40"+ in size. The two best candidates I have found so far are the Panasonic THP42U20Z and the Samsung LA40C550. I am wondering if the knowledgeable people here could help inform me about the benefits of these TVs, or any other TVs within my price range that are good for a starter HDTV, so I can make the best decision possible. Thanks in advance.
Ragnor:Teeceezy: Hello all. First time poster here. I am hunting for a new TV, either Plasma or LCD, to upgrade from an old CRT TV. I am a young university student, so my budget is in the range of about $900-$1100, with a max of $1200. Ideally the two most important features are for the TV to be Full HD, and/or 40"+ in size. The two best candidates I have found so far are the Panasonic THP42U20Z and the Samsung LA40C550. I am wondering if the knowledgeable people here could help inform me about the benefits of these TVs, or any other TVs within my price range that are good for a starter HDTV, so I can make the best decision possible. Thanks in advance.
With some haggling you should be able to get C650 (rather than 550) under $1200.
I'd be comparing these three models:
Panasonic THP42U20Z
Samsung LA40C650
Sony 40EX500
Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler
B1GGLZ: Firstly I would be wary about the size. 32" sets look tiny in the shop but when installeed at home look rather large. Anything over 40" would look massive in the average room.
polglase:
I spent a lot of time researching this a few months ago and settled on the Samsung UA40C5000. Consumer did a thorough test on a range of models including all models mentioned above and the UA40C5000 was a clear winner. It scored 8.4 for picture quality - the next closest was 6.8!
Dunnersfella: Okay - you'll get a lot of opinions and 'expertise' when buying a TV.
First step, ignore pretty much everything that Consumer tries to tell you about TV's.
The advice is almost cringe worthy... I don't know if they've even turned on the sets they're testing.
To allow us to help you more, here's a few questions.
1: What do you watch on TV? Sport? Doco's? Movies (BluRay's or DVD's)? Downloaded content?
2: What is your room like at the moment? Lots of windows / bright light?
Do you watch TV at night, during the day... with the room lights on or off?
3: What else are you plugging into your TV? DVD player? PC? BluRay player? Console? Camera?
4: Do you have a home theatre system? If so - what one, what type, how old?
5: How far do you sit from the TV?
6: Do you have Sky? Or will you be wanting to use Freeview? Are you in a Freeview area?
Once you give us that info, we can help. Until then it'll be a bunch of posters throwing up their fav. brands / type of TV.
Dunnersfella: Interesting that not so long ago, Consumer's survey rated Samsung as the single least reliable TV brand in NZ. While at the same time saying that Panasonic and Sony were the best.
If the review you've cited is the one I'm thinking of, it's comparing 10 tellies - ranging from just over 4k through to the cheapest of cheap Plasmas (that sell in the real world for around $600 - $699.
Paying $20 to get a 'generalist' magazines advice on what TV to buy doesn't ring true to me. If you want true expertise, look at AVForums.com, or maybe talk to Masterpiece. He calibrates TV's in NZ for a living - so knows them inside out.
1: The motion is poor - not only is it sub-par compared to most other sets in its category. Samsung of course offer a 100Hz series 6 for a bit more, and hey, 100Hz certainly isn't for everyone, heck it's not for me. But a plasma's motion performance certainly is.
2: The blacks, like all edge-lit LED's are poor. Turn off or dim the lights in your room and you'll see leakage that simply shouldn't be there. The uneven blacks are a weakness with most LED's though, not just the UA40C5000.
3: The sound, like a lot of the LED's (Panasonic aside) is poor. Take a look at the size of the speakers, then compare it side to side compared to a Panasonic LED (TH-L42D20z). HUGE difference. There's next to no bass and treble is certainly lacking. If you're running a home theatre system that is negated... unless of course it's an older h/theatre... as there are no analogue outputs on the Samsung LED's. Sony and Panasonic LED's offer these.
4: What happens if you want to plug in a non-HDMI DVD player and a black Sky box? Well, you have to reach around and unplug one every time you want to use it. After all, there's next to no analogue inputs (one composite, one component).
5: The reflection issues would drive a lot of users balmy. The high gloss screen is fantastic in dark or dimly lit rooms. But if you have an open plan room with a lot of light (most modern homes) - you're stuck with a very reflective panel with no contrast filter like that found on the V Series Panasonic plasmas. The reflective panels I've owned in the past were annoying for gaming (hard to spot detail in dark parts of first person shooters) and annoying for horrors etc, as all the details in the dark portions of the picture were difficult to make out.
YES - the power consumption is low. BUT, I'd be interested to compare the actual dollar savings when comparing it next to a similar sized NEOPDP set.
As a TV, it works well for someone with a dark room, devices that mostly connect via HDMI and who don't watch a lot of fast action movies / sport. Also, it's definitely cheap, probably the most affordable 40" LED on the market. But for me, it's a hard TV to recommend with its many shortfalls.
Dunnersfella:
To allow us to help you more, here's a few questions.
1: What do you watch on TV? Sport? Doco's? Movies (BluRay's or DVD's)? Downloaded content?
2: What is your room like at the moment? Lots of windows / bright light?
Do you watch TV at night, during the day... with the room lights on or off?
3: What else are you plugging into your TV? DVD player? PC? BluRay player? Console? Camera?
4: Do you have a home theatre system? If so - what one, what type, how old?
5: How far do you sit from the TV?
6: Do you have Sky? Or will you be wanting to use Freeview? Are you in a Freeview area?
polglase:Dunnersfella: Okay - you'll get a lot of opinions and 'expertise' when buying a TV.
First step, ignore pretty much everything that Consumer tries to tell you about TV's.
The advice is almost cringe worthy... I don't know if they've even turned on the sets they're testing.
To allow us to help you more, here's a few questions.
1: What do you watch on TV? Sport? Doco's? Movies (BluRay's or DVD's)? Downloaded content?
2: What is your room like at the moment? Lots of windows / bright light?
Do you watch TV at night, during the day... with the room lights on or off?
3: What else are you plugging into your TV? DVD player? PC? BluRay player? Console? Camera?
4: Do you have a home theatre system? If so - what one, what type, how old?
5: How far do you sit from the TV?
6: Do you have Sky? Or will you be wanting to use Freeview? Are you in a Freeview area?
Once you give us that info, we can help. Until then it'll be a bunch of posters throwing up their fav. brands / type of TV.
Interesting, can you give a specific criticism of consumer's coverage. Not many people get to take 10+ sets into a controlled environment and test them with different footage over a reasonable period of time and then give an unbiased opinion. Can you recommend any other on-line resources for group tests?
Quite frankly comparing a set you saw last month at a mates house to the one you're now looking at in Noel Leeming (or something to that effect) is ridiculously difficult assuming both sets are reasonably modern and comparable. There are a bewildering array of options and although many geekzoner's are extremely knowledgeable I doubt many have seriously spent time evaluating all of the available options.
Having spent a few months with the UA40C5000 I can say its an excellent set that is light, thin, hangs on the wall easily and is amongst the best in the class for energy consumption and heat output. With many years spent in the film and TV industry I can say I am very happy with the picture, night and day, lights on and off.
What I can't say is how it compares to every other option out there, which is where someone like consumer has a role to play. If you feel that their service is worthless I'd love to hear why... not that I want an argument, just genuinely interested in better critiquing their service in future
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