[TV4US]

Can you help us please? We are buying our first LCD TV and are limited in size to 37" max screen size. We do not watch much sport so TV mainly used to watch movies, currently don't have a blue ray player but I guess may do in the future. We do not want any extra service we have to pay for and therefore are interested in freeview/freesat as an option. Viewing distance from screen approx 2m max. Looking at Panasonic L37G10B and LG LF7700. Is it worth spending the extra £200 or more on the Panasonic?? Have you any other suggestions? Is Freesat going to be worth having and if so why have the other brands not got it?

[Andyuk200523]

I have got the TXL37G10 myself, but in the shop I work we do have the 37LF7700 so I have done some comparisons, in my personal opinion on SD footage, the Panasonic wins hands down, just seems more of a natural image, the LF7700 seems a bit "fake" and unrealistic, the HD channels on the 7700 however look just as good as the G10.

I sit about 2 1/2m from the screen and am thrilled with the picture.

Freesat is still fairly new technology, hence why other manufacturers are still getting on the bandwagon, Sony will be releasing freesat models as of next month, and I would imagine Sony and the like to follow with next years models.

Freesat as a system is excellent, It has all the benefits of running a sky system (theoretically thousands of channels, perfect picture quality, etc...) but none of the drawbacks (being tied into a contract)

The channel range of Freesat is expanding at a decent rate, when I first started selling Freesat at christmas there were only 138 channels, we are now at 149 and counting, Discovery apparently have shown interest in going to freesat, but want to see over 250000 subscribers to the system first, in these current times and an approximate cost of £30,000 to join freesat, they want to see increased viewing figures before crossing over.

Freesat is definatly the way forward for UK digital viewing, and in the forthcoming years, I think Sky will be getting worried.

Hope any of this has been useful to you.

Andrew

[TV4US]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, appreciate the info on freesat, do you think its worth waiting a bit to see what the Sony/other brands offer?