[shutchinson9]

Hi i have 600 to buy a tv and been to currys and comet and they say anything but there prays, could anyone help me nominate a tele and tell me the difference between lcd and plasma and 50hz and 100hz
the tv i was thinking of buying is
LG 37LH4000

[Monarch]

welcome to the forums

LCD and plasma are the main two TV technologies as I'm sure you're aware. To sum it up briefly plasma TVs generally have better contrast/black levels, more natural colours/images, better motion handling and perform better in dimmer lighting. They also often produce better SD pictures and have wider viewing angles.

LCDs are brighter and perform better in bright lighting (which is why they look good in shops!), have sharper pictures, lower power consumption and higher resolutions in smaller sizes.

50Hz is the frequency regular TV is broadcasted in, and has previously been the frequency that TVs refresh at, but 100Hz has recently been brought in on a big scale. 100Hz means different things on LCD and plasma though, on plasma it simply doubles up the frames to reduce the flicker. LCDs don't flicker, but they do struggle to display fast moving images, so LCDs use frame interpolation techniques to effectively 'add in frames' between the existing frames to try and smooth motion out, but you get a slightly artificial look with this, and the motion still isn't as good as plasma.

If you let us know what you're using it for and what your viewing environment (lighting, viewing angles etc...) and we'll try and work out which is best for you.

[shutchinson9]

hi i am using it for watching sports and films and to plug my x box 360, its pretty light in the room i am using it in and i sit about 7 to 8ft away from it

[Monarch]

I'd probably say that a plasma would be better, but it depends on how light it is, do you watch it a lot during the day and is it very bright or just 'light'? Plasmas are perfectly watchable in all lighting really (and so are LCDs) it's just that their contrast washes out in the kind of lighting you get in Currys etc...

I would personally say that a plasma is better suited to your uses though, the motion handling will be a benefit with sports, the good contrast and natural picture would be a benefit with the movies and both of those add up with the gaming as well, the Panasonics in particular also have very little input lag. I'd recommend looking at the Panasonic P37X10, or if the sports and/or films are in HD then the P42X10 or the LG 42PQ6000. If you spend a lot of time gaming in one session (3-4 hours or more) then I would avoid the LG plasma due to image retention and the potential of burn in, but the Panasonic would be fine unless you had 20 hour gaming sessions!

[nickfrog]

Amusingly, the 50pq6000 is around £600 at Dixons with the 5% discount code...

[shutchinson9]

Hi Whats the discount code m8, i am new to this lol, even though maybe a 50 would be too big!!!

[vickster]

There was a code last weekend, now expired. Not aware of any others, but there may be (some of the cashback sites offer on Dixons e.g. Top cash)

[Monarch]

Dixons always have codes floating around, there was a website which searched for prices with existing codes but I never made a note of what it was, you might not be able to get it for the same price, or it may only apply to different TVs (maybe another one you're considering) but it's worth looking