£500 - £600 37" - LCD or Plasma?

hkrdan

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I've got somewhere between £500 and £600 to spend on a new 37" flatscreen. Viewing-wise, its mostly SD everyday stuff, but I watch a lot of rugby and football, will definitely get a blu-ray player and am considering sky hd.

I'm very tempted by the Panasonic TX-P37X10B plasma as reviews of the picture it provides seem favourable compared to similar priced lcd's, but should I be looking for a 1080p LCD to get the best from the blu-ray/sky hd??

Also whilst I appreciate its not 'top-end' money, considering most companies are dropping plasma's from their range, would I be buying into old technology likely to be obsolete in a years time?? Any help/info/suggestions appreciated.
 
Buy the plasma, much better for the money and no chance of it going obsolete in a years time.
 
So you wouldn't consider a 1080p lcd ...for the benefit of blu-ray, sky hd etc?

I'm in a similar position to you, watching mostly SD including quite a bit of sport. We settle down to watch a film about once or twice a week. For now this will be upscaled DVD but in future I'm sure we'll get a BR.

I've come to the conclusion that for me, the quality of the TV is more important than the absolute resolution and have decided on a P37X10. The way I see it, I may lose out a tiny bit on 'cuddle up with the wife and watch a film' night but everything else will be better including what really matters, the football.
 
I'm in a similar position to you, watching mostly SD including quite a bit of sport. We settle down to watch a film about once or twice a week. For now this will be upscaled DVD but in future I'm sure we'll get a BR.

I've come to the conclusion that for me, the quality of the TV is more important than the absolute resolution and have decided on a P37X10. The way I see it, I may lose out a tiny bit on 'cuddle up with the wife and watch a film' night but everything else will be better including what really matters, the football.

From my 'research' (and a lot of it) this matches my conclusions - in the price bracket and size panel - apparently the panasonic x10 cannot be matched?!?!?!
 
I have to say that I have just upgraded from a 42" HD ready Samsung to a 50" Panny G10 1080p set and I would definately go for the best HD ready set you can afford in your range rather than a 1080p set.

Watching SD I would say the smaller Samsung probably had a slightly better picture, which is I guess to be expected.

Sky HD is probably slightly in favour of the G10 but that is marginal and probably because the Panny is a better set, not the extra resolution.

PS3 favours the 1080p G10, but while it is good it is not the increased PQ I was expecting and this goes for BD through the PS3.

I view from between 10-14 feet depending on which sofa I sit on and you benefit from extra size rather than increased resolution in my opinion.
 
MORE PIXELS DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN BETTER PICTURE

...especially on a 37" screen - you would have to sit less than a foot away from the screen to get any benefit of the extra few pixels!

Go for a HD ready screen (768 line) Panasonic plasma and you will not be dissapointed!
 
Also whilst I appreciate its not 'top-end' money, considering most companies are dropping plasma's from their range, would I be buying into old technology likely to be obsolete in a years time?? Any help/info/suggestions appreciated.

If you ask a Sony sales man then yes...but no you're not, plasmas still hold the highest quality per pound in my opinion, you'll need to spend at least double on an LCD to get the same picture quality if you ask me, the X10 is the best TV for you. As mentioned already more pixels doesn't mean a better picture, it will actually disadvantage the TV when displaying SD and you wont be able to see the difference on blu-ray unless you're very close to the screen. You will benefit more from better blacks, colours, motion and general quality of TV
 
Go for a plasma, for your budget there won't be an lcd that comes close to a plasma at the same price

I've gone through so many lcds, and they've all been higher end ones and the negatives on lcds are far more annoying for me personally than plasma negatives.

With regards to resolution don't get caught up in 1080p, it really isn't needed at all, unless you watch a lot of blu-rays everything will just be upscaled anyway.

Even if the tv has a good scaler, the cleaner the image (less processing etc) the better.
 
Go for a bigger sized plasma if you can afford it. You will soon get used to a 37" display. :)

You might be able to pick up one of last years PX 42" or 50" Panasonic displays fairly cheap as it has been superseded with a newer model.
 
I was in exactly the same boat a few days ago. I had a 32" Samsung LCD and wanted to upgrade to a bigger screen.

I ended up getting a Panasonic S10 42" (I would have gone for the X10, but got the S10 for an obscene price courtesy of brother in law in Comet).

Anyway, picture is excellent - both SD and HD (and the same goes for the X10)

Personally I much prefer the picture on the plasma, but the key word here is 'personally'.

Go to a store and look at the sets and images for yourself and make your choice from there. You won't get a definitive answer on which technology is best - it's down to personal preference.

(But if I were in your shoes, for the money you have, I'd go for the X10....unless you know someone in a store ;))
 
Go for a bigger sized plasma if you can afford it. You will soon get used to a 37" display. :)

You might be able to pick up one of last years PX 42" or 50" Panasonic displays fairly cheap as it has been superseded with a newer model.
+1.
How about a LG 42PQ6000, only £519 at Laskys/Dixons.
 
Cheers for the info guys! So generally it's fair to assume that a 1080p lcd 'may' have a slightly better picture using blu-ray, but I assume from the replies that the plasma will be better for sport?

Is this purely down to it's 100hz 'double scanning', compared to the usual 50hz on an lcd? If so, would you generally consider the 'hz' rating more important than the 'hd' rating?

Bearing in mind, I'd be spending the same amount either way and whilst I'm very keen to utilise hd with blu-ray (and possibly sky hd), I'd say my absolute priority is sport.
 
Go for a bigger sized plasma if you can afford it. You will soon get used to a 37" display. :)

You might be able to pick up one of last years PX 42" or 50" Panasonic displays fairly cheap as it has been superseded with a newer model.

You can get the Panasonic P42X10 or the LG 42PQ6000 for around £600
 
Cheers for the info guys! So generally it's fair to assume that a 1080p lcd will have a slightly better picture using blu-ray, but I assume from the replies that the plasma will be better for sport?

Is this purely down to it's 100hz 'double scanning', compared to the usual 50hz on an lcd? If so, would you generally consider the 'hz' rating more important than the 'hd' rating?

Bearing in mind, I'd be spending the same amount either way and whilst I'm very keen to utilise hd with blu-ray (and possibly sky hd), I'd say my absolute priority is sport.

I'd say that a plasma would still produce a better blu-ray picture due to deeper blacks, greater shadow detail and better colours and contrast, motion will help too.

Plasma isn't better for motion due to it being 100Hz, this only reduces motion blurring on LCDs as there is no/negligible motion blurring to reduce on a plasma. Plasma TVs deffinitely have the upper hand at handling motion, even 100Hz LCDs don't do as well. You will find that 100Hz comes as standard on plasma, it reduces flicker as opposed to blurring
 
I'd say that a plasma would still produce a better blu-ray picture due to deeper blacks, greater shadow detail and better colours and contrast, motion will help too.

Plasma isn't better for motion due to it being 100Hz, this only reduces motion blurring on LCDs as there is no/negligible motion blurring to reduce on a plasma. Plasma TVs deffinitely have the upper hand at handling motion, even 100Hz LCDs don't do as well. You will find that 100Hz comes as standard on plasma, it reduces flicker as opposed to blurring

Right, gotcha:thumbsup:

I think the X10 is gonna be the one then. I'll find somewhere that stocks it and take a look at it in action. Thanks again!
 
Do keep in mind that plasma TVs lose contrast in bright light so it might look a bit dull so don't be drawn in by the over bright a colourful LCDs. To add to that an LCD might be better if the room is very bright when you do most of your viewing, it does need to be very bright though (like a shop)
 

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