[Paragon]

The idiot is me

Looking at upgrading to a 28"/32" TV + 5.1 one-box package, and need some help:

- First of all I do not want a Toshiba if I can help it. My folks bought a 28" one and it broke out of warranty, and Toshiba refused to repair it, citing that it should be repaired through the people my parents decided to buy it from. Customer service was crap, but that's another matter!

- My budget for both a TV & 5.1 package is about £900. I like the look of a Panasonic 5.1 system with stands etc. for a shade under £300 on empire direct, so I was thinking about £600 on the TV. I can't see anything better than the Panasonic one-box solution for the money, unless someone else has something better they could recommend?

- This seems to encompass the big brands: Panasonic, Sony, Philips, JVC.

- I like Panasonic stuff generally, and there seems to be a few TVs floating about in the right price range (i.e. on Empire Direct and similar), but spec-wise they all look very similar, which leaves me a bit confused. Has anyone got a Panasonic from this price range? I was looking at this:

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten...N-TX32PM1C.htm

- JVC seem to be the dark horses of TVs at the moment, don't they? Seem to be getting good reviews everywhere. Something like this?

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/conten...C-HV32P37S.htm

- Not too much of a fan of Sony. Their TVs look good but they seem sparse on features? And the "legendary Sony build quality" tends to keep me away. Do Wegas have many problems or what?

- Philips I also like but from shop demos I haven't been really impressed with the image quality.. and I've seen far too many horrror stories of people having their TVs breaking etc.

OK, what I'll be using it for:

- DVD watching (obviously!). I'm not an absolutely vision/sound whore, so bear that in mind when considering my price range! But I would of course like something nice, displaying black blacks and vibrant colour etc.

- Games playing (through RGB). Bit of a games fan so something suitable for fast-moving images is required. Which brings me onto my next point!...

100Hz! I've seen so many conflicting opinions, but as far as I can tell it's basically fine for DVDs, but not for games etc. as it's just putting info onto the TV which isn't there. The models I've linked above are both regular (100Hz variants costing more). Am I right to not buy a 100Hz set?

Next up (phew, sorry about this!): prog scan. Now, I saw this Loewe set on Comet:

http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/453_179523.html

Which looks really great: large size, flat, Loewe quality (which I've been told is great), digital noise reduction and all that jazz... looks really great for the price. But having searched for that on this forum I can tell that it does NOT do progressive scan. So will this TV be worth forking out cash above my budget for (I don't want to but it does seem like a bargain!)? Are Loewe better than equivalent Philips, Panasonic, Sony etc.? Do those little things like Digital Noise Reduction actually make a large difference or do they just interfere?

I did kind of want progressive scan for games/DVDs etc., but I am aware that it tends to be a feature only on higher priced TVs. I remember seeing a cheap Toshiba with prog scan capability, but I don't like Toshibas. Do they still do cheaper ones with prog scan? Is there anything else I should be looking for?

I think that's about it!

Apologies for being such an idiot about all this, I lurk occasionally and would much rather trust the opinions of people who spend their money on this stuff rather than people in Dixons stores or that poxy What TV magazine!

Many thanks to anyone who can reply to any of the points above

[anna the dub]

I recently got a JVC hv32d40 television. I can tell you that this telly does have Pal progressive scan and you can get it for around £700. It is neither 50Hz nor 100Hz, JVC went for a compromise and opted for 75Hz. I have to say I am more than happy with this television (been using it now for 6 weeks). Oh and as an added bonus, it has a freeview tuner built in. If you can go up 100 quid or so, I would recommend it.

[Battlestar]

Well, I have said it before and Ill say it again, Get your self a decent demo of the sets you are looking at. TRy and narrow it down to a select few. Read allthe reviews you can. Get another round of demos in , then make your choice. No televison is perfect. Alot of the time all the picture procesing that is used can actually become a problem. Personaly I never use things like digital noise reduction and such. I ahve had a number of tvs recently so hear is a run down of my personal experince.

I bought a panasonic 36" televison A pl30 I think it was. It suffered from terible colour lage.
I then got a sony kv36fs76u. A good televison but it had trouble with RGB.
I had a thoshiba 36zp38 picture frame. Very good picture but suffered from poor gemoatry left to right and the dreaded dirty screen effect.
A panasonic pd30
A two Loewe nemos 32,s
Now I have a plasma

NOw I am not saying you will have any of my troubles. If I was not so fussy and picky then I would not be all that bothered.
All I can say is that when you do buy, buy from a place like john lewis whos customer service is very good. That way if you do have any problems you can send it back

[Paragon]

Aye, I've been looking at that nice (cheap!) JVC set with the prog scan now (28" one, though I could stretch to 32") and that seems to be a very good deal from Allders as it's £399 inc. 5 year warranty etc. Would make a lot of sense.

Cheers for the input!

Thanks.